Growing cannabis at home is a hugely rewarding experience, especially if you're aiming for high-quality marijuana products for personal use. Whether you're a medical patient or a recreational cannabis enthusiast, understanding the basics of cannabis cultivation is key. This basic starter guide will focus on three critical aspects: Genetics, Environment, and Growing Mediums.
Genetics: Choosing the Right Seeds for Quality Cannabis Plants
When it comes to growing top-shelf marijuana plants, selecting the right genetics is crucial. You have two options when it comes to choosing the best cannabis seeds for your grow. You can dive down the rabbit hole or you can turn to a trusted source. At The High End, we love the hunt. We're in the forums, we're on instagram and discord and we're digging deep into the crates for unique and powerful strains. For the uninitiated It can be overwhelming when your new...where do you even start and how do you know what seeds to buy? Seed banks are the most obvious starting point but be careful. Truly high end genetics are not plentiful and finding the right seed bank is important if your going that route.
Option 1: Do Your Own Research
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Forums: Start searching out and visiting online forums and head for the breeder sections. Look for breeders with the longest threads and recent activity. If a breeder has a long history over several years, it's likely the are doing good work. Our personal favorite is the bean basement (here). It's run by Capulator, one of our breeders, and is truly a place for the heads. You'll have to prove yourself a bit though as to gain full entrance you'll need to finish a put up or shut up grow log. Once you've demonstrated you can complete a grow, your in and it is a tremendous resource for growers of all skill levels.
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Reputation: Once you've identified a breeder your interested in, take your research a step further. Follow them on Instagram, conduct Google searches, and look out for any interviews or articles. A good breeder can articulate just exactly what they are trying to accomplish.
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Feedback: This is where the magic happens. Pay attention to what other growers are saying about these breeders. Feedback is incredibly valuable. If your going to spend 3-4 months growing this plant you should know what your in for and that the final result is going to be killer. Forum threads are invaluable as you'll find pictures many finished plants with smoke reports.
Goat Gas by Capulator
Option 2: Let Us Do the Work for You
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Browse Our Curated Selection: If diving deep into forums and social media isn't your thing, we've got you covered. Our website features a handpicked selection of cannabis seeds from world-class breeders.
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Quality and Variety: We've selected the breeders we work with because we've grown their plants and we know the quality is world class. Unique and diverse genetics are what make this plant so special.
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Trust and Expertise: We understand how hard it can be to find high quality genetics and how important they are in successful cannabis cultivation. By choosing seeds from our selection you are setting yourself up for a successful harvest.
Check out our current selection of genetics here
Environment & Lighting: Creating the Ideal Growing Environment
Your indoor grow room or outdoor growing space's environment significantly impacts your weed plants' health and yield. The most important thing is to provide your marijuana plants with the right conditions throughout the vegetative stage and flowering stage. The way to happy and healthy plants is to provide them as close to ideal conditions as possible. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to do with a bit of automation. First, do yourself a favor and get yourself a high quality tent. Yes you can get a cheap one on amazon and yes it will probably work just fine, however investing in a heavy duty well made tent is worth it. Cheap tents have zipper issues and small light leaks. There is nothing worse than a messed up zipper or seeing pinholes of light coming thru the tent. Most importantly though, a well made tent will be easier to control your environment. The same is also true for grow lights. Yes, you can find a cheap LED on amazon, but trust us...when you go from a cheap LED to a well made powerful light, the difference is wild. At The High End, we're all about quality and buying a top of the line light is worth the investment.
Climate Control and Lighting
- Use automated systems for maintaining room temperature and humidity levels at the sweet spot.
- Invest in a high-quality grow light. Hours of light and the light cycle are crucial for plant growth, especially during the vegetative cycle and flowering cycle.
- Ensure proper air flow with an exhaust fan and intake fan. Consider adding carbon filters to control odor.
- For indoor cannabis cultivation, carbon dioxide levels should be monitored for optimal growth.
Our happy and healthy garden
Growing Medium: Choosing the Right Foundation
This is definitely a topic of its own and we'll get into this more in depth in a future article. When your new to growing, we are huge fans of keeping it simple. For this reason, we recommend using a peat moss/perlite mix for your growing medium. We love the idea of organic growing and if you want to go that route you absolutely should. For beginners though, a mix of coco and peat moss is a better choice as it's simpler than organic soil growing and offers complete control over the growing process. Diagnosing any issues you might run into such as nutrient deficiencies is much easier to pinpoint when you are responsible for providing the nutrients. In organic soil, you really need quite a bit of experience to properly understand any issues you might run in to.
Why Coco and Peat Moss?
- They provide an ideal environment for root development and nutrient absorption.
- Suitable for small plants and small spaces, making them perfect for personal cultivation.
- Easier to manage water and nutrients compared to loamy soil or hydroponic systems.
Conclusion
Growing cannabis is extremely fulfilling when done right. It is also a very nuanced endeavor. Our goal here is to get you set up for success by giving you everything you need to form the structural foundation for growing great weed at home. Having a never ending supply of top shelf weed is a dream come true and we firmly believe that investing in yourself and your set up is worth the extra money and you just might be the envy of all your friends.
One last shot of Goat Gas by Capulator. One of our favorites that is always in rotation. Cookie dough and petrol.