How To Grow Cannabis

Growing your own Cannabis can be a relaxing and rewarding hobby. Many states have legalized the use and cultivation of Marijuana and Cannabis, allowing residents to grow a limited number of plants for personal use. Learn how to grow Cannabis from seed with our collection of tips and techniques, helping you produce the best plants, buds and harvests possible.

Our previous article, Tips For Germinating Cannabis Seeds, explained the correct method used to ensure the highest germination ratio. By following the steps, your young seedlings should now be ready to transplant into larger pots, ready to begin their growing phase and vegetative cycle. This stage of the plants life focuses on development. Given the right conditions, the young seedlings will grow quickly, producing new shoots, leaves and branches. There are a variety of growing techniques and methods, some better suited to certain strains and conditions than others.

After a few weeks of growth, your plants should be ready to send to flower. If you're growing indoors, maximizing growth during the early stages of the plants life, should have produced a thick, even canopy. Outdoor plants will flower naturally, as the daylight hours decrease. Learn more about the vegetative cycle with our Tips For Growing Cannabis. When the plant receives twelve hours of uninterrupted darkness per day, it will begin to flower. At first, small white hairs will begin to appear. During the coming weeks, more of these small flowers will be produced, bunching together and swelling, to form buds. Over an average of 8 - 9 weeks, the buds will mature, ready for harvesting.

Harvesting Cannabis like any plant, Cannabis has a life-cycle, undergoing several changes before finally dying. Similar to fruit and flowers, Cannabis buds will reach peak maturity and then slowly deteriorate. Helping your plants achieve peak ripeness and knowing when that is, can be crucial in timing your harvests. Learn more about how you can affect the potency, flavor and aroma of your buds with these tips for harvesting Cannabis.

Autoflowering seeds are an entirely separate category of the Cannabis and Marijuana family, originally created using a Ruderalis male. Found growing naturally in northern Siberia, Ruderalis is a form of Hemp and member of the Cannabis family. Used as cheap, easy-to-grow cattle and animal feed, it has the capacity to automatically flower under any number of light-hours. Cross-breeding began during the late 1970's, aiming to create Cannabis strains that would automatically flower, without the need for long hours of undisturbed darkness. Although successful, these plants tended to produce poor yields, small buds and low-levels of THC. Subsequent gene development, isolated the specific autoflowering gene, allowing it to be introduced into existing strains, with no loss of appearance, flavor or quality. Find out more...