How To Grow Your First Marijuana Plant [Complete Guide]

Last Updated on February, 2024 by Rob Wilson

When you are growing your very own marijuana plant for the first time, there are a number of questions and confusions that you might have about that. Growing your weed by yourself might seem like quite a difficult and daunting task when you first start off with it, but once you reach a certain point you realize it’s the easiest thing to do! The plant grows by itself, you just need to take care of some basic things in its surroundings. Over the course of this article, we intend to provide you with each and every detail relating to how to grow your first marijuana plant on your own.

This is a complete guide on growing weed indoors. We shall be focusing on indoor growth mainly because this is the hottest trend, especially for growers who want to grow small quantities or are just starting out. However, more on this later. For your reference, we shall also be putting out a quick note on how to grow your first marijuana plant outdoors but won’t be detailing it out that much.

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In addition to these notes, we will be giving you a detailed look at all the equipment that you need while you will be growing your own weed. Towards the end, we have answered some frequently asked questions about growing weed indoors before concluding. We hope that this article helps you grow your marijuana plant really well. 

How To Grow Your First Marijuana Plant [Complete Guide]

Believe us when we say that, while there’s a lot of joy in smoking weed, the kind of feeling that you get when you smoke a marijuana plant that you’ve grown yourself, it’s really magical. Especially the first time that you grow it. 

Step 1: Selecting the Seed, Soil, and Nutrients

• Seed: When you want to grow a plant, you start at the seed. This is the most basic unit from which the plant emerges. Seeds are to be carefully selected based on their texture and their colour. A good seed is usually dark in colour and is hard. Getting a soft or a green/yellow seed might not be good for the growth of your plant as they have lesser chances of survival. You also need to know where this seed comes from and which are the strains from which it has been produced. This seed then needs to be germinated by keeping in a warm and slightly damp place. Once it germinates, move it to a small pot for it to mature to a seedling – and then move it to a larger pot. These are the top feminized marijuana seeds:

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• Soil: Soil is also very important. Growers can grow marijuana in non-soil mediums such as Rockwool cubes or Pete moss or coco coir, but that is something that we do not recommend for first-time growers as maintaining them might be quite difficult for many. Soil needs to be chosen which is rich in nutrients, has a good texture – is not too sandy or too clay-filled and can retain a large amount of water but not get waterlogged. All of this needs to be carefully considered before you buy your soil. 

• Nutrients: Nutrients are not something you have to worry about so early into the growth cycle but something that you will be needing later. We suggest you first get a basic beginner’s pack (an all-phase nutrient which is good for vegetative as well as flowering growth). Nutrients add to the soil what might be missing otherwise. The basic elements needed in a soil are the NPK elements – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium without which the plants might have a hard time growing. 

Step 2: Procuring all the Equipment

Now that you’re done with the basics, it is now the time to get the advanced setup right. You will need a lot of equipment to grow weed. For those wondering how to grow your first marijuana plant, you will need the following equipment –

• Pots: 

These are important because pots are what you will be growing your weed in when you grow it indoors. When you are getting pots, you need to make sure of two things – firstly, these pots are lightweight but durable, and secondly, these are the right size. If your pots are larger than what they need to be, this might cause a problem. Similarly, they can’t even be too small so make sure you’re getting pots of the right size.

• Grow Tent: 

Now we come to the most important parts – grow tents. When you grow your marijuana plant indoors, your grow tent becomes the entire ecosystem inside which the plant will grow. It will have its own water and light and is extremely important for the plant’s growth. Your grow tent needs to be of the right size to accommodate all your plants and it should neither be too small nor too big and should have sufficient space for your plants to grow. There should also be a sufficient amount of height that they should be able to grow to. 

Many marijuana plants grow over 5ft tall. Grow tents are reflected from the inside and are lined with Mylar (or other reflective layers) which helps ensure that the light that comes out of the grow light is maximized and helps benefit your plants greatly. This way they also help you get the most out of your grow light and ensure that all the light is absorbed by the plants. Another major benefit that the grow tent offers to the growers is that it makes sure that all the insects and the pests stay away.

• Grow Lights: 

Grow lights are important because when you are growing your marijuana plants indoors, they are basically growing in the absence of sunlight which is critical for their growth. Grow lights help the growers replace the natural light of the sun in an indoors environment. Sunlight is important for the plants because plants grow in the direction of the sun and they also provide them with the light that they convert into energy via the process of photosynthesis. 

While choosing the best grow light for your plants, you need to know exactly how much area your plants are covering and which is a good grow light that covers all your plants. Most growers use multiple grow lights to cover the entire area. While there are a number of different types of grow lights, LED grow lights are generally considered the best out of them, especially the full spectrum grow lights. They are energy efficient as well as long-lasting when compared with other forms of grow lights. 

A full spectrum grow light offers lights of different wavelengths which is quite similar to the natural light of the sun as they are rich in the reds and the blues, as well as the infrared and ultraviolet lighting. This ensures that plants get the right kind of lighting all through the different phases of their growth. 

• Ventilation Kit

When we say you need a ‘ventilation kit’ to grow your marijuana plant indoors, we mean that you need a combination of inline fans, ducting and carbon filters. These are the three things that are essential for the growth of your marijuana plant. When you grow the plant outdoors, you get a lot of fresh air. However, most indoor growers do not have access to fresh air and hence it is important for them to get ventilation with the help of these equipment. A ventilation kit makes sure that fresh air from the room enters inside the tent and the stale air inside it is moved out.

Getting a good ventilation kit also makes sure that no heat is being accumulated inside the grow tent and that the temperatures inside it remain normal. Excess heat is damaging for both, the plants, as well as the equipment inside the, grow tent, and getting a fan with a high CFM ensures that circulation is faster. 

Another important element of a ventilation kit is a carbon filter. Now, this is a device that helps make sure that all the smell that comes from the marijuana plants is trapped inside it! It is very useful for indoor growers as weed has a very strong and very distinct smell which is usually a ‘tell’ that someone is growing or smoking weed. However, using a carbon filter makes sure that the smell is contained and does not leak out. You can usually get the fan and the ducting along with the carbon filter as a combo kit.

• Dehumidifiers/Humidifiers

All the elements mentioned above are extremely critical for your indoor growing. However, getting a dehumidifier or a humidifier is kinda optional for those who live in a place where the climate is optimal or for those who are growing like a really small number of plants (1-2 plants). However, for those growers who live in too humid or too dry countries or for those who are growing large numbers of plants, you need to get dehumidifiers or humidifiers in order to balance things up. 

Humidifiers are needed during the early stage of the plant’s growth cycle – the vegetative stage to be precise. These devices increase the humidity in the grow room or the grow tent. This means that plants are able to absorb the water present in the air directly via the leaves and do not have to strain their roots for the same. However, when you move to the flowering phase you will need to decrease the humidity. If you live in a place which is naturally very humid you might need a dehumidifier – which will reduce the humidity from the air. This is important because flowering is the time that plants need more nutrients – which are provided to them by mixing them with the water. Hence, the roots need to work harder here.

Getting humidifiers and dehumidifiers, especially good-quality ones, might be a costly affair at times. Hence, it is not recommended for the beginners unless they want to grow really large quantities of weed. This is one of the biggest benefits of growing your weed indoors – you get just the perfect climatic control and can tweak everything to perfection!

• Nutrients and Water

Two more important things that you need to take care of when you are planning to grow your first marijuana plant. These are so important that they perhaps don’t even need to be told to you! Water is critical for the growth of any plant and practically everyone knows that. However, nutrients are also very important and are almost always mixed in water and provided to the plants via soil. It is important to get the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) balance right during different stages of the plant’s growth cycle. Giving your plant the right kind of nutrients makes sure that they are growing healthy and are giving you the maximum possible yield. Nutrients also play a major role in determining the flavour and the aroma and in some cases the potency of the ‘high’ that you get out of smoking the weed! 

Step 3: Setting up the Tent

Once you have gathered everything that you need to grow your first marijuana plant, you will need to set up the grow tent inside which the weed will grow. The grow tent is made up of metal poles upon which the canvas is wrapped around. These metal poles are designed to carry quite a bit of weight as you need to hang the grow lights and the carbon filter there. In addition to that, there might be other things such as a clip-on fan, etc. There are slots in the grow tent for the ducting to pass through and for the fans to be fit in as well. 

Once all the setup is done make sure your grow tent does not have any light leaks and is clean enough. Place the plants and the pots after everything is ready. Try to keep the spillage to the minimum and keep cleaning it regularly. 

Step 4: The Phases of Growth

Ok so basically you need to have a seedling ready before you start with step 3. Followed by that comes this step where you need to know the different phases of growth – there are broadly two: Veg and Bloom phase. The ‘veg’ or the ‘vegetative’ phase of growth is the one where your marijuana plant starts sprouting leaves and starts growing into a plant from being a seedling. In this phase, you see it eventually mature into a full-sized plant with a thick and sturdy stem and with multiple branches. During this phase, you need to keep trimming out certain portions to make sure there’s no blockage of light to the lower portions. 

Then there’s the bloom phase which is basically pre-flowering and flowering stages. Here, you need to make sure that the plants are getting all the proper nutrients. Interestingly, if you are not using an auto-flowering plant, you will need to manually push the plant into the flowering phase. This can be achieved by reducing the light during the pre-flowering phase from 16 hours to 12 hours and the plants will eventually start flowering. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Growing Marijuana

1. How to grow your first marijuana plant outdoors?

Growing weed outdoors vs growing weed indoors is the big debate between growers. While you now know how to grow it indoors, growing weed outdoors is a different beast altogether. There, you have sunlight and groundwater and fresh air and natural humidity. However, you need to make sure that the plants are getting enough nutrients and timely water. Another big challenge you face is weather control – what if it rains or snows too much? You’ll need some kind of a greenhouse-like setup for that. You will also need to keep insects and pests away. These are some challenges that you face while growing outdoors. Pretty much everything else is the same. Some people even use a mix of indoor+outdoor techniques by adding lights and other equipment to the greenhouses!

2. Do I have to use all the equipment mentioned above?

Well, you need a grow tent, a grow light, a ventilation kit, and nutrients to grow indoors. These are absolutely non-negotiable. Humidifiers, dehumidifiers, air conditioners, and heaters are something which you might skip out on to either save the cost or simply because you are growing a small amount of weed. However, if you are growing in bulk you’re strongly recommended to get all good quality equipment so that it lasts you long.

3. Where can I buy seeds to grow my marijuana plants?

As we mentioned above, you start at the seed! You can buy the seeds of your choice at ‘seed banks’ where you can get marijuana seeds which have been handpicked by people who have ‘bred’ these plants to produce the seeds. Some seeds might be a result of two different strains which provide a great taste as well as a good ‘high’. When buying seeds from seed banks, always check what the parent plants are, what the THC and CBD percentages are, and what kind of a seed they are (auto-flowering/non-auto-flowering). 

Conclusion

We hope that this article on how to grow your first marijuana plant has helped you gain a good idea into everything that goes into growing weed on your own! Remember, growing weed is quite simple and an easy process – you just need to get hold of some good equipment and you just need to have a basic sense of what you are doing and why you are doing what you are doing. If you think we’ve missed out on something, or if you want to know something more, drop us a comment below or send us an email and we shall surely get back to you. In addition to that, do check out more articles from our website to know how to grow weed in a more efficient way! Till then…

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…Happy Growing! 🙂