August 03, 2020
Ever since indoor plants was legalized in Canada and other countries, several people are looking for studies about its benefits. Some are also growing their indoor plants supply legally. Things may be complicated as they were for someone new, and many may think that growing indoor plants is complex and challenging. But no, it only takes seven easy steps to grow indoor plants.
What does a indoor plants need to thrive?
In order to thrive and grow, every indoor plants needs:
When growing plants indoors or outdoors, you will need to ensure that it gets the proper amount of these 6 resources.
7 STEPS TO GROW indoor plants
Step 1: Choosing Your Seeds
What strain do you prefer? It is easy to obtain one if you already know a grower. But you can still purchase seeds and clones from trusted dispensaries. However, it may be challenging to obtain the seeds since they tend to be less generous. They may provide you plant clones instead. You should be careful in choosing where to get them. Order only in trusted sources so that you can also trust the plant genetics you will be receiving.
Step 2: Setting Up a Location
Indoor Growing
If you are planning to grow only a few plants, then this is the option for you. It is cheap, private, and it is easy to start and maintain. You can also have more control over your plants’ growth, and they carefully rely on you. You can start with a spare room, your garage, Indoor Grow tents and even in a closet. Just don’t forget to cater to your plants’ needs regularly.
You should take note of the temperatures and the lights you are going to use. When your plants are still young, they will grow fast in the 70-85 F range. When they get older and are in the flowering stage, the temperature must be slightly cooler of about 65-80 F.
Outdoor Growing
If you have extra space in your yard, then you should consider outdoor growing. It is cheaper than indoor growing since you will rely on sunlight instead of using grow lights. Although with this kind of growth, it may be hard to keep it private, and there are environmental factors to worry about. If it is too hot, you will need to water your plants more.
If it is rainy, you have to protect your plants from being overwatered. You might want to set up a small greenhouse to protect your plants from the weather and other factors such as insects and bugs.
Step3: Choosing Your Grow Light
The Sun
When you’re growing with the sun, you need to make sure that your plants are getting at least 8+ hours of direct sunlight each day for the best results.
It’s best that your plants get direct sunlight from at least 10am-4pm, and more light is better. Because of the high light needs of the indoor plants (it needs more light than many other types of plants), it is not well suited to growing in a window (though I’ve seen plenty of growers start their seeds in sunny windows before moving their plants to a more suitable final location).
LED grow lights
LEDs are much more powerful than CFLs or any other fluorescent lighting. They are top-tier grow lights on par with HID lighting (HPS, LEC) when it comes to how much bud they can produce. They’re visually attractive and tend to be more appealing to growers because they’re not as ‘old-fashioned’ (though they tend to cost more). In fact, LEDs are the only grow lights that have seen major technological research and development in the past 10 years.
LED grow lights work great for growing indoor plants and some companies have been refining their models for years (the combination of parts is almost like a company’s recipe). Each LED model is different and needs to be kept a different distance away from your plants. It can sometimes be hard to find any “standard” advice about growing with LEDs, yet these days there are quite a few brands which are well-tested and trusted by indoor plants growers and these brands tend to have good support for questions. When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to just ask the manufacturer about how far away the lights should be kept, as that’s where new growers are most likely to mess up.
Metal Halide (MH) & High-Pressure Sodium (HPS)
MH/HPS grow lights (like the light pictured here) are a type of “HID” light like LECs. A combination of MH/HPS is what most commercial growers use when growing plants indoors. They are surprisingly cheap to buy and set up, especially considering how incredibly powerful they are.
HID lights work very well for growing indoor plants and produce consistently good results indoors. However, the higher wattage HID lights tend to run hot and can leave a big mark on your electricity bill. You definitely want to make sure you’re getting the exact right lights for your space so you don’t pay for more light than you really need. HID lighting (HPS in particular) has another problem in that it’s been less popular over the last few years. This has made it increasingly difficult to find quality models if you’re not looking for a huge 1000W.
That being said, the smaller MH/HPS grow lights are actually really well suited to a small grow and don’t produce nearly as much heat as their bigger cousins.
Step 4: Choosing a grow medium and nutrients
There are several growing medium that you can use. Each has its differences in how you will care about your plant.
Soil
When planting comes to mind, the soil may be the first thing to go in mind. To have remarkable results, it is best to compose your soil or buy organic composted super soil. The Fox Farms ocean Forest Soil is one of those pre-made mixes and is very popular amongst growers. It will surely give your plant plenty of nutrients.
Soilless Mix
Since there is no soil, it is considered as hydroponic (water-based plant growing). This soilless mix includes perlite, coco coir, vermiculite, etc.
Completely Hydroponic
The plants are directly placed in water. It is proven that hydroponic produces the fastest growth and biggest yields.
And the nutrients your plant will need varies on what growing medium you are using. When you grow indoor plants in soil, you will need to add more nutrients when your plant reaches the flowering stage since it may already use up the nutrients in the land. When the plants are grown hydroponic, there are specific nutrients available depending on how you grow your plants.
Some nutrients can be found in the water you will use. You may think that tap water will be the one you will use. It is safe to use tap water if their PPM is about 200 to 300. In big cities, the PPM level of tap water is very high, and growers tend to use purified water instead.
It is also important to maintain pH levels of the root to avoid complications and have a successful grow. You can ignore this if you are using organic composted super soil since the microbial properties take care of the pH level. However, if you are not using this, it is a must to test and maintain the pH level. If the levels are too high or too low, the plants may not be able to absorb the nutrients properly, especially in the flowering stage. There are pH test kits available, and you can do it in less than 3 minutes every time you water your plants. The pH levels should be maintained at:
Soil: 6.0 to 7.0
Hydroponic: 5.5 to 6.5
Step 5:Germinating Seeds
There are many methods for seed germination.Personally, I think one of the easiest ways to germinate a seed is to place it directly in a specialized starter cube like a Rapid Rooter.Just keep the Rapid Rooters moist (but not soaking) and warm. It can help to put your tray on a seedling heat mat. Seedlings should pop in a few days to a week.
So far Rapid Rooters with a heat mat have given me the best germination rates of any method. They work with any growing medium, too – once the seedling has emerged, you can stick the cube directly into your growing medium or hydroponic system.
Step 6: Growing the Plant Bigger
Once a set of leaves started to appear, your plant is on the vegetative stage. It is essential to take note that the plant’s goal in this stage is to get bigger and more reliable. Flowering only comes next to it. You should carefully diagnose your plant if it is lacking nutrients or receiving too much. Be wary of the nitrogen deficiency- when the leaves turn yellow and fall off, it may be a sign of the plant not getting enough nutrients.
The light needs of your plant also increase. If growing indoors, they should be placed in a grow light for at least 18 hours a day. If growing outdoors, stronger, direct sunlight is needed.
Step 7: Harvesting
There is no set way to harvest. Be rakish and learn by doing.Some will wet trim which is removing all the leaves while the plant is still standing then break the plant down further. Hanging branches to dry or laying individual buds on a drying rack. Some will remove the large sugar leaves only then harvest and hang the whole plant.
There are no set rules except be careful when handling. You want to disturb the delicate trichomes as little as possible.
We hope that this article has made the basics of growing indoor plants a bit clearer. Most growers will start using more complicated techniques and feeding regimes as they become more experience, but growing can be very simple if you’re not going for maximum efficiency.