Did you know you can grow 4 plants at home? Prior to legalization we were a seedbank, so seeds are our area of expertise!
Growing cannabis is a super fun, wholesome labour of love. It is rewarding in so many ways. It’s legal, you have nothing to lose and maybe even pounds to gain! Grow your own!
Like most things in nature cannabis has both male and female plants. Male plants product pollen and seeds while female plants produce buds. If male pollen comes into contact with a female plant, the plant will then produce seeds. This is how new breeds and genetics are made (or how you can ruin a neighboring crop if you aren’t careful in removing the male plants as soon as male tendencies show).
Here are the different stages of growth:
Germination: 2-7 days. We recommend just germinating in a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag with the germination date and variety written on the bag. Seeds usually crack in the first 24-48 hours and a tap root will emerge (if nothing cracks after 3 days the seed is probably a dud). When the tap root is 1.5-2″ long move to the next stage.
Seedling: 2-3 weeks: Once the root is transplanted into soil (I use Pro-MixHP in regular solo cups, labelled with the germination date). You can keep these seedlings in a window or under some T5 lights. In the first couple days of the seedling phase the seed will get pushed off and the first green leaflets, called cotyledons are revealed. The cotyledons act like solar panels and create energy to establish the root system. During this period it is important to be extra careful with watering. Seedlings need a few drops of water everyday, Once the plant has rooted the first set of true leaves will appear. These will just have a single point. Once you have your first set of true leaves, you can move into the vegetative state.
Vegetative State: 2 weeks to unlimited: The veg period is for creating a network of roots. If you are keeping a mother, cannabis can be kept in a vegetative state forever! If you plan on flowering the plant how long you choose to veg is dependent on either daylight hours (outside) or grow method indoors (because you control the lights inside). Cannabis will remain vegetative as long as it has over 16 hours of daylight. When you are growing outside your daylight hours remaining in the season will choose how long your veg is (but 8-10 weeks is common). I grow inside and like using a Screen of Green method (SCROG) where I stretch the plant branches outwards in a net to develop more central colas. I have to fill the grow space with growth before changing the light cycle to trigger flowering. I’ve vegged for as much as 24 weeks before (which is a lot). In this sense I’m growing for yield. Other methods, like Sea of Green (SOG) relies on putting a bunch of plants into a small area. The goal is to turn over the plants as quickly as possible and harvest a bunch of small plants (as opposed to one big plant). They only need to veg for 3 weeks.
Flowering: Flowering is triggered outside by days getting shorter, and inside when you change your lights so they are on for 12 hours and off for 12 hours. Total flowering time is dependent on the variety, and can take anywhere from 6 to 15 or more weeks. Equatorial varieties tend to have a longer finishing time (10+ weeks) and varieties that are from colder climates usually flower in 8 or 9 weeks or less. If you are an outdoor grower selecting a variety with an appropriate flower time for your region is key. Here in Ontario we would recommend choosing varieties with around 8 weeks of flowering so you can harvest around Thanksgiving, If you go more than 10 weeks you may not be able to finish, the buds won’t form properly and there will be no trichome development.
Harvest: When to harvest your cannabis is best determined by looking through a microscope and seeing the various colours of trichomes. I like to harvest when the trichomes are 70% amber, 20% milky and 10% clear.
Regular seeds are cannabis seeds as they are found in nature. They are made when male pollen reaches a female plant. Growing out regular seeds will result in male (producing pollen) and female (producing buds) plants. In a pack of regular seeds 67% on average are female. Regular seeds are great for breeding purposes and if you don’t have space or plant count constraints (if growing for flower you will need to overseed by about 33% to account for the male plants you would get). Some believe that regular plants make the best mothers with the most genetic stability.
Feminized seeds were discovered by letting a flowering female go so far past harvest that she began to produce female pollen as a means of self preservation. Nowadays, feminized seeds are made a couple different ways, but commonly, the plant is sprayed with silver thiosulfate (STS) to block the action of ethylene (which is what makes a female plant bud) creating seeds that have no male genetics.
Feminized seeds are ideal for hobby growers (and in fact have become the standard) who don’t intend to breed or keep a mother plant or those who have limited plant counts (like 4 plants per household). If you are just looking to grow out weed for buds, then feminized is for you.
Cannabis has seasonality, whether grown indoors or outdoors. In the spring new life starts, in the summer it grows and in the fall it flowers. The photoperiod refers to the amount of time in a 24 hour cycle where light is available.
Full-Photoperiod means that the seed will be going through the full life cycle but will require a light change in order to begin flowering. This is the most traditional style meaning we have a defined difference between veg and flower. Full-photoperiod seeds are available as both regular and feminized and are the more common standard.
Autoflower means the plant automatically flowers without a light cycle change. Autoflower varieties combine feminized (rarely regular) with ruderalis. Autoflowering varieties go from seed to harvest in 10-12 weeks regardless of light cycle change. Outdoors you can start as late as June or July, and grow a couple seasons in one summer. Indoors you could keep the lights on for 24 hours (although we usually do 20 hours) and the plants will still flower. Plants tend to be smaller than full-photo counterparts. You also can’t really train or prune them too much (because there just isn’t enough time). Autos are great for growing in small spaces, for new growers to gain experience or to enjoy early or multiple harvests in a year.
Outdoor growers usually start their seeds in March or April indoors and then transplant outside after last frost (typically May 24 long weekend). The plant will grow big and bushy over the next couple months. Once the days start to get shorter (end of July or beginning of August) the flower period will start. Flowering will continue until the end of September or beginning of October for most varieties, at which point you would harvest. Outdoor plants in southern Ontario do best when they have 6-9 weeks of flower (longer is at risk of rotting). The cost of getting going is really just the seeds and patience (the sun is free), and the yields from planting directly inground are HUGE. While you can’t grow outside in Canada year round, you’ll be busy trimming and smoking all winter!
Indoors, where you control the light cycle you can keep a plant in the vegetative state for as long as you want (usually long enough to fill up a tent or screen 70-80% of the way) with the lights on 16-24 hours of the day (we recommend 20 ramping down to 16 to prepare for flower). Instead of waiting for the sun to decide when flowering starts, you would trigger flowering by changing the light cycle to 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Because you control the amount of vegetation and when you start flower, you can do almost any plant indoors (unless they are identified as outdoor only). The cost of setting up an indoor grow is a lot more than outdoor. Lights, nutrients, tents, even having a suitable grow space can be costly. But this is a hobby you can do year round and really get good at.
Post legalization the seed market has changed considerably, and because regulated cannabis products have to be produced by licensed producers, there are far fewer legal options than there used to be. Having tested most of the seeds on the regulated market we can say what is available is high quality. There are even some collaborations with pre-legal companies now available, like Dutch Passion and House of the Great Gardener.
Avoid disappointment, and just give them what they want!
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