How To Grow Medical Marijuana In A Safe And Effective Way
Growing medical marijuana has great upside. The benefits of growing medical marijuana include control over the product, which can allow for quick growth and yields of tremendous potency. However, to produce quality cannabis, great care must be taken.
How To Grow Medical Marijuana
Starting with the preparation and ending with the harvest, let’s go through the entire growing process one step at a time.
Step 1: Setting Up Camp
When learning how to become a medical marijuana grower, deciding where you want to grow medical marijuana is an important first step. You have two options: indoors and outdoors.
Indoor is more practical given discretion and less risk of potential theft, although outdoor growth provides natural sunlight and leaves less of a carbon footprint. We will talk in terms of indoor growth to avoid being exclusive to those in harsher climates.
Step 2: Choose Your Grow Light
There are plenty of options when choosing your desired light such as fluorescent, or light emitting ceramic. Both are cheap and good for the shallow end of medical marijuana growth, but if you want the most effective we recommend LED grow lights.
Their ability to provide great yields while using less energy and staying cool during the growing process has made them extremely popular over the last few years.
Step 3: Soil & Nutrients
Nutrients are mandatory for your medical marijuana plant to grow. Thankfully, almost all soils you can purchase already contain them. If you’re using store bought potting mixes, these are already appropriately prepared.
Step 4: Seed Germination
A brief introduction on germination is keeping your seed in a moist environment allowing it to sprout. There are many viable options but the most simplistic choice is the paper towel germination method.
- In a container, place the seed on a paper towel and spray with room temperature water.
- Every couple hours open the container and replenish water until the seed opens.
- When the root is visible, place the seed in a container of soil.
Step 5: Vegetative State
About 3-4 weeks after the germination process you will notice leaves, therefore, you can confirm your plant is undergoing the vegetative phase. This is a crucial part of the growing process which will take about 4-8 weeks.
A few degrees warmer than room temperature (between 70°F and 85°F) is optimal for young medical marijuana plants. Also, the plant requires about 18 hours of light daily in order to grow fastest.
Step 6: Flowering State
In order to transition your plant into the flowering stage, you must change the light schedule to 12 hours on and 12 hours off daily.
This process will take about 6 weeks – 5 months depending on how much you want to harvest
Step 7: Harvest
If your buds continue to grow white hairs, don’t harvest until they stop growing. The buds should smell pungent and be fully developed at this point.
Now remove the bud from the plant in the most convenient way possible i.e. scissors or trimmers.
Step 8: Dry & Cure
Hang buds in a cool dark environment until dry. Take care not to overdry – thick stems should still be bendy.
Then transfer to an air-sealed container for a couple of weeks while letting fresh air in once per day.
We hope the above steps have provided insight on how to become a medical marijuana grower.
How To Become A Medical Marijuana Grower Legally
Anybody can grow marijuana, but not everybody knows how to grow medical marijuana legally.
Every state has different laws and regulations, so today our focus will be Colorado.
Medical marijuana plants may be grown by adults 21 and older for recreational and medicinal purposes, but only three of those plants may mature at a given time. The patient may request that there be more marijuana grown for medical purposes. If you need to grow, consider booking an appointment with one of our doctors .
