If you have decided you want to cultivate your own weed at home, then congratulations. Everybody starts off as a beginner on their journey to becoming an expert and cannabis connoisseur. If you need a beginner’s guide to growing weed, then you have come to the right place!
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In this article, I will break down everything you need to know about weed for beginners, covering how to grow weed, what you will need, and the best weed strains for beginners. Also, I will explain cannabis plant training for beginners, from topping your plants to pruning cannabis for beginners. By the end of this article, you will be well versed in how to grow weed for beginners and be well on your journey as an indoor cultivator.
How To Grow Weed for Beginners - A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Weed
There is nothing more exciting than knowing you are about to start the path of a home grower. All you need is sufficient funds to purchase the right equipment, select the best genetics, and have a basic understanding of the optimal growing environment. Below is a breakdown of all the necessary equipment.
Weed Growing for Beginners - What Do You Need?
Grow Space
Your grow space can be either a room in your house, or you can make life easier with a grow tent. The growing space that you choose will need to have good ventilation, allowing fresh air to enter and exit the room.
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- A converted cellar space provides a private and discreet indoor grow space
- An attic space is also another great location, and well hidden
- Spare rooms can be converted into an easy-to-access grow room
- Grow tents are easy to set up and take down, and are available in different sizes
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Grow Lights
Choosing the right grow light will depend on the size of your grow space and the amount of electricity you plan to use. There is a wide range of grow lights available for beginners who want to grow weed. Below is a list of the different options and what you should consider
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- High-pressure sodium lights are available from 400W to 1000W
- Metal Halide lights (400w – 1000w) are best suited for the vegetation period
- LED lights are highly efficient and provide the optimal spectrum for both vegetative and bloom stages
- Compact fluorescent lights are ideal for the seedling and rooting of cannabis clones
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The Growing Medium
Your growing medium is what you fill your pots with. We recommend using an organic soil or coco coir-based medium as the best cannabis grow medium for beginners. Below is a list of the Atami products that you can choose for the best results and the tastiest weed buds possible, when combined with our organic nutrient range.
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Coco Substrate – Lightly fertilised, ripened, washed & buffered coco fibres
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Pots
Pots are available in different sizes, and for the early seedling stage, it is best to use pots ranging from 1L to 3.5L. For the vegetation stage, repotting into larger pots, ranging from 7L to 10L, is ideal. For the flowering stage, using a 20L – 30L final pot is advised.
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Nutrients
Cannabis plants require nutrients during their lifecycle to grow into robust and healthy plants. There are many different types of nutrients and packs available for beginners growing weed.
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Highly Concentrated Nutrients & Additives
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Highly Concentrated Additives for Root, Bloom & Ripening Phase.
Extractor and Carbon Filter
The extractor is responsible for removing air from the grow space. It is connected to a carbon filter using aluminium ducting. Ensuring that the ventilation inside your grow space is optimal plays a significant role in maintaining optimal temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. The carbon filter will clean the air and remove any unwanted pungent smells during the grow.
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Fans
Creating fresh air currents inside the grow room is an essential part of producing a healthy crop, whilst helping to maintain the correct temperature and humidity levels. We recommend using oscillating fans that can be placed on the floor or attached to the walls or poles of the grow tent.
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Grow Timer
The grow timer is what you will connect your grow lights to, allowing you to set the lights for either the vegetation or flowering stage. The timer is automatically set, so you don’t need to manually turn the lights on and off, ensuring a consistent light cycle for the plants.
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- 18/6 = This is the light cycle for seedlings and the vegetation stage
- 12/12 = This is the light cycle for the flowering period, when the plants produce buds
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Digital Hygrometer
Cannabis plants require different temperature and humidity levels for optimal growth. The best way to monitor those is by using a digital hygrometer.
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- Vegetation stage = 24 degrees Celsius and 70% relative humidity
- Flowering stage = 22 – 24 degrees Celsius and 45-50% relative humidity
The Best Weed Strains for Beginners
I remember when I first started growing weed, and I did not have much of an idea about the best weed strains for beginners. There are different types of cannabis plants, ranging from photoperiod cannabis strains to autoflowering cannabis strains, as explained below.
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1. Feminized Photoperiod Cannabis Strains
Photoperiod cannabis seeds mean that the plants will grow in a vegetative state during 18 hours of light and 6 hours of dark. When the timer is set to 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, photoperiodic plants will begin flowering until they are ready to be harvested.
Female seeds are best for weed growing for beginners, as they will produce only female plants. Regular cannabis seeds require sexing from male to female. Knowing how to sex male and female cannabis plants can be pretty tricky when growing weed for beginners.
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2. Feminized Autoflowering Cannabis Strains
Autoflowering weed plants differ from photoperiods in that they will begin to flower after 4 weeks of lighting. Autos can be grown under 18/6 or 20/4 for the best results.
Autoflowering plants are known for being compact, easy to grow, and tough, making them a great starting point for beginners as a weed strain. Autoseeds advises that the larger root space allows for more significant root development, which in turn supports greater overall plant growth.
Cannabis Plant Training for Beginners
One of the most effective ways to produce the highest yields and the most compact plants is by using cannabis plant training. It is essential to understand that when training your weed plants, techniques should be applied during the vegetative stage.
This refers to the stage when your plants are growing under 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness, and are between 4 and 5 nodes tall. Below is a list of various training techniques to alter the plant’s shape and structure, significantly improving yields, which are particularly suitable for beginners growing cannabis.
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L.S.T
Low-stress training is a form of plant training that involves tying cannabis plants down using gardening wire. LST is an excellent way to produce a bushy and lateral dominant growth structure, and 420seeds recommends that Low stress training is ideal for first-time growers and is straightforward to do!
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Topping
If you want to reduce plant height and increase the number of top shoots, then topping is the solution. The way topping works is by removing the apical crown shoot, allowing the two smaller axillary shoots to take over and produce two crown shoots. Topping can be performed multiple times in a row and is an excellent method for stopping sativa and tall plants from becoming too lanky during flowering.
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Pruning Cannabis for Beginners
Pruning is one of my favourite ways to help plants focus their energy on the upper part of the plant, while eliminating small buds and increasing airflow. All you need to prune is a sharp scalpel and to carefully remove the leaves and small-sized branches beneath the top two internodes. Pruning large-sized fan leaves can improve light penetration and is particularly useful for indica-dominant cannabis plants.
Atami’s Conclusion for a Beginner Growing Weed
Setting up your first grow room doesn’t need to be expensive, and I strongly recommend using a grow tent, starting with 4-6 plants. Working with feminized seeds is the easiest way to learn about how a weed plant grows during vegetation, flowers during bloom, and you don’t need to worry about male plants. As far as nutrients are concerned, we offer a wide range of growing substrates and nutrients, and we strongly advise following the grow guide chart for the best results.
