Indoor Growth: What To Know?

[MoreLife7193]

Greetings to everyone on the forums. I hope you're having a beautiful day and your growth ventures are continuing smoothly.
Down to business.
I want to know all the ins and outs a beginner to indoor growing should know. Every advice ranging from the equipment and soil that should be used to the different traits of each strain (and which are suggested/could yield better) or the watering and nutrient applying schedules is appreciated. I have some experience with outdoor growth, so I have some knowledge which applies to universal growing enviroments, such as germinating and planting the seeds, the difference between autoflowers and feminised seeds, and some general experience with watering but I don't know if the outdoor schedules of the seeds I had are the same with indoor growing. For the time being, research is my main concern so every piece of information provided is valuable, not only regarding the plants themselves but also the kind of indoor space and the specifications it should have that benefit growing. I also want to know about the curing and drying processes, but it isn't my focus at the moment. Moreover, I know this post is basically questions covering every aspect of the process so I would appreciate if more experienced forum users could redirect me to other, more specific posts about each topic.
My starting inquiry is, what is the first thing I should know and focus on when considering indoor growth?

Thanks to all who reply in advance.

 

[Phytoplankton]

First and foremost, welcome to the Forum! There's a lot a great people here who want to help you be sucessful.

You've asked for a lot of information, and I'll start the ball rolling. First you need to decide where you're going to grow, basement, attic, closet, each has a unique set of variables. How big is your grow area? Are you going to grow in a tent or a "room"? Is there adequate power available (lights, heating, cooling, if applicable, fans, etc.)? Is there a way to draw in fresh air and exhaust air? Then there's lights, these days most people opt for LED's, while they have a more expensive buy in, they are more economical to run and last longer, I'd suggest looking at the 420 Sponsors page as many offer discounts to 420 members. As far as soils go there are lots of very good commercial soils, I personally use Fox Farms Ocean Forest, it's a good soil (and it doesn't hurt that I get is "dirt" cheap), but you can build your own soil too, Coots Mix is a very good recipe. It also depends on whether you plan on running synthetic or organic nutrients. Watering is key to a good grow, I'd suggest reading the primer by @Emilya Green The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant
I'm gonna let others chime in regarding strains and yields (Photos or Autos), but some of my favorites, and good ones for a first indoor grow, are Northern Lights, Gorilla glue, most of the Girl Scout cookie strains, Mimosa, Amnesia. The list goes on. This should give you a few things to ponder!

 

[013]

not an expert by any stretch

Coco coir and soil are not the same thing, coco is passive hydro and has unique feeding requirements like they must be fed nutes every day, set ph to 5.8 and the media can never be allowed to dry out. Plain water does nothing to help a plant grow in coco. Coco is great and faster growth than soil but not to be confused or interchanged with soil

SIPs (sub irrigated planter) are the latest gig around here and there’s a whole crew of us jumping in. Really impressive growth and you don’t have to constantly chase the wet dry cycle that is required for most soil types. it’s a fast moving thread but don’t worry about that, get the foundation starting on page 1 to see what an amazing job Azimuth has done putting it all together! BRB with link Azimuths SIP club

four plants is about the max you can do in a 4 X 4 tent *… disclaimer sure you can cram 16 or 32 plants in there via sea of green style but 4 plants is more than enough to fill a standard 4X4 tent.

avoid bezos-mart van delivery to your door and definitely buy your lights from 1 of our sponsors. Most of us start with 1 tent and slowly move up to 2 or 3 separate grow spaces. 12 darks means 12 dark, check your gear and black out any lights on power strips etc with layers of duct tape.

you will have more support available here by using one of the better known nutrient companies. Geoflora is a sponsor so there’s plenty of growers here familiar with their products.

imho photoperiods are easier to grow than autos. One mistake with an auto and it can be stunted, with photos you can screw up and the plants just keep on trucking. But to be fair some peeps here are killing it consistently with autos.

welcome aboard, it’s a great community- you will fit right in!

 

[SmokingWings]

My starting inquiry is, what is the first thing I should know and focus on when considering indoor growth?

Welcome aboard.

As to your very important question my answer is that you have to know that growing indoors means that you are in charge of everything. You are the sun, the rain and the soil. And you can consider yourself to be the plant since you will be forcing it to grow in unnatural conditions.

You will be the one buying the lights to replace the sunlight. Look at all the options and look back with a bit of researching at various light systems. LED technology is the latest and greatest and it certainly is both of those. And, it is getting better by the day with improvements in the tech. If you pick up a little bit of knowledge of other lighting methods it can help when using LEDs which is probably what you will end up using.

You will be the water. Learn about the basics of good watering. If growing with one of the various hydroponic methods some of the basics will be different than if you end up growing in soil. Try to avoid the trap of blending both methods of water from the git-go which will end up adding to a sense of confusion. Another way to look at the water situation is that there are benefits of learning the methods. As in, learning some of the basics of hydroponics even if growing in soil. And the other way around in that it helps to know the basics of water for soil growing even if you settle on hydro methods.

You will be the soil whether in hydro or in a natural or mineral soil. Hydro opportunities have increased so much over the past few decades and that method is now a lot more than just growing a plant suspended in a bucket of water. And, soil growing has increased tremendously over the decades. Things that farmers and gardeners knew 50 years ago are now able to be explained in detail which allows for better growing opportunities.

I have some experience with outdoor growth, so I have some knowledge which applies to universal growing enviroments,

Which is helpful. But, in the beginning having this experience might get in the way. There will be no sunlight to help with the photosynthesis. There will be no rains to help take care of any of the watering. And if the indoor growing will be in a soil then there will not be the large areas of soil for the plant roots to grow into to get water and nutrients since we are often growing in 2 or 3 or 5 or 7 gallon pots.

After awhile every thing should fall into place and your indoor growing opportunities will be successes.

Then you can take the indoor experiences and apply them to your outdoor growing projects even if the crop is a different plant. And new outdoor growing experiences can be applied to your indoor growing project.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Hey @MoreLife7193, and welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place.

I'm an outdoor greenhouse grower here in Hawaii, and I've never grown cannabis indoors. I recommend getting a good reference book, namely Ed Rosenthal's Cannabis Grower's Handbook (2021) or Marijuana Grower's Handbook (2010). I also recommend starting your adventure using potting soil in fabric smart pots – that's the simplest, most forgiving method. After you master that, you could go on to other methods, such as SIP. Regarding soil, if you want to buy a ready-made potting soil, probably the best, most easily obtained is Fox Farm Happy Frog (it has a bit more good stuff than Ocean Forest). You would also need to use Fox Farm's liquid nutrients with that, as per instructions. I make my own organic, living soil which is full of nutrients – you can check out the details by following the link in my signature. Regarding autos vs. photos – I only grow photos. Photos are great because you can easily make clones.

happy growing!

 

[MoreLife7193]

My thanks to everyone who took their time to reply. The information each of you provided is invaluable and will be put to good use.

First you need to decide where you're going to grow, basement, attic, closet, each has a unique set of variables. How big is your grow area? Are you going to grow in a tent or a "room"? Is there adequate power available (lights, heating, cooling, if applicable, fans, etc.)? Is there a way to draw in fresh air and exhaust air?

I have not yet found a suitable interior grow space, that's why I said that I'm still in the research phase. What would you suggest as a good beginner option? Preferably, the space would be a bit remote and not very close to other buildings or apartments.

As far as soils go there are lots of very good commercial soils, I personally use Fox Farms Ocean Forest, it's a good soil (and it doesn't hurt that I get is "dirt" cheap), but you can build your own soil too, Coots Mix is a very good recipe. It also depends on whether you plan on running synthetic or organic nutrients.

I have heard about that particular soil before. Thing is, I don't live in America so I don't know how easily procurable it would be. Last time I tried searching it on the net, I couldn't find a site that shipped it out of the Americas, but I will try again. What is the difference between synthetic and organic nutrients and do you know the pros and cons of each?

Then there's lights, these days most people opt for LED's, while they have a more expensive buy in, they are more economical to run and last longer, I'd suggest looking at the 420 Sponsors page as many offer discounts to 420 members.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'm not knowledgeable about lights at all, so I'll do my research. Does the quality of the LED lightning play a significant role in the quality and quantity of the yield? I also hope that page can ship outside of America.

You will be the water. Learn about the basics of good watering. If growing with one of the various hydroponic methods some of the basics will be different than if you end up growing in soil. Try to avoid the trap of blending both methods of water from the git-go which will end up adding to a sense of confusion. Another way to look at the water situation is that there are benefits of learning the methods. As in, learning some of the basics of hydroponics even if growing in soil. And the other way around in that it helps to know the basics of water for soil growing even if you settle on hydro methods.

I think I will opt for soil growing since I don't currently have the resources to support hydroponics, but I will certainly look into it, thank you for the advice! Do you think that a quality soil watering schedule can subside for hydroponic watering?

four plants is about the max you can do in a 4 X 4 tent *… disclaimer sure you can cram 16 or 32 plants in there via sea of green style but 4 plants is more than enough to fill a standard 4X4 tent.

avoid bezos-mart van delivery to your door and definitely buy your lights from 1 of our sponsors. Most of us start with 1 tent and slowly move up to 2 or 3 separate grow spaces.

I don't think I'll have to worry about Bezos delivering the equipment to me So, separated tents is the optimal way to grow multiple plants indoors? How do the tents help with successful air conditioning and aeration?

 

[013]

Yeah we like our sponsors but cool on the no grey smiley vans!!

one of the main functions of a tent is light proofing for indoor gardens, without this we would all stress hermie our plants and never make good flowers. Another tent function is… it’s easier to control enviro in a tent than dialing an entire room in. My garden is in an unfinished basement so my enviro is way different plus I don’t run extraction either so yeah theres no comparison.

You can use the larger room itself as a lung for your tent but need to be able to not only monitor the enviro but you just be able to control it, lights, rh, temp, air flow

the perfect trifecta of growing: lights, genetics and environment.

edit to add: I don’t grow outdoors but it’s a whole different beast, the scent carries so it needs to be very remote

 

[Phytoplankton]

I have not yet found a suitable interior grow space, that's why I said that I'm still in the research phase. What would you suggest as a good beginner option? Preferably, the space would be a bit remote and not very close to other buildings or apartments.

Can't really help with guerilla grows, hoven't done one of those in 40+ years, when I did Ifound it very stressful, and only got to harvest about 50% of the time (grow discovered). SOunds like you're in a fairly urban area, which is going to be harder to find a place where your grow won't be discovered. Also, don't know what the legality of growing is where you are, and how much jeopardy an outdoor grow could put you in.

I have heard about that particular soil before. Thing is, I don't live in America so I don't know how easily procurable it would be. Last time I tried searching it on the net, I couldn't find a site that shipped it out of the Americas, but I will try again. What is the difference between synthetic and organic nutrients and do you know the pros and cons of each?

Not being in the US, you can scratch FFOF off the list, it would be prohibitively expensive, if you could even get it. Your options are to find a suitable commercial soil, or build your own (coots mix or something similar). Synthetic nutes are nutrients that are bound to a carrier, usually a salt (not table salt), when mixed with water the salt dissasociates from the nute and the nutes are immediately available to the plant, down side is that the salts can build up and the soil needs to be flushed occassionally. Organic nutes are broken down into a form usuable by the plants through the action of soil microbes.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'm not knowledgeable about lights at all, so I'll do my research. Does the quality of the LED lightning play a significant role in the quality and quantity of the yield? I also hope that page can ship outside of America.

Yes, light quality greatly affects yield, get the best lights you can afford. Avoid cheap Chinese knockoffs. Also, remember that you want to look at the actual amount of watts that the light DRAWS from the wall plug, not the equivalent. In other words, many lights will be advertised as, say 2000 watts equivalent, but only draw 100 watts of power. On an indoor grow with LED's you want between 30-40 watts (actual draw) per square foot of grow area, as I recall the sweet spot is around 35 watts/sq/ft.

Best of luck, as you think of stuff just ask.

 

[hoonsince89]

Its not that much different really. Just gotta make sure your temprture is good, and you have suffient airflow. Its much easier to get pest issues indoors so dont work in the garden the go into your tent in the same clothes. Mars leds are pretty good to start with. Gotta catch your water run off indoors so having a good watering method/routine makes life easier.

 

[SmokingWings]

I think I will opt for soil growing since I don't currently have the resources to support hydroponics, but I will certainly look into it, thank you for the advice! Do you think that a quality soil watering schedule can subside for hydroponic watering?

Oh ya, it can be done. And, it probably is easier to do in soil than if trying to grow with the usual hydro methods.

Helps to understand some of the basics of water roots and soil roots. Roots grown in water tend to be thicker and because of the water are white. Roots growing in soil tend to be thinner and often pick up a brown color.

If the small thin roots growing in soil do not get enough water they will all turn brown and some of the thinner ones will die off. Being in soil the micro-organisms can start to eat & decompose those dead roots whenever the soil moisture returns even if it is only for a day or two. But when roots in water die off they do not seem to decompose like in soil but will start to rot instead. Warm water and it seems like the rotting happens sooner.

Letting a soil dry out too often or for too long can slow down the plant's growth rate and eventually the size of the plant and the harvest.

There is a thread started and maintained by @Emilya Green that covers the topic of 'How to water a potted plant' when it is growing in soil. The link will take you to the first msg in the rather long thread. It is definitely worth the time and effort to read or skim through the whole thread at least once. A lot of people jump to the end and will miss most of the points, tips, and tricks that were discussed over the last 6-7 years.

It is not that there is anything new in the thread since all the points discussed have been part of potted plant growing since before any of us were born but it is condensed into one source. Bonus is some of the back and forth questions and answers. Plus there are tips that turn up and are mentioned for a message or two which do not get a lot of exposure.

For years I read about the advantages of hydro over soil. And, I read that soil grows, especially with organic methods and sources for fertilizers and nutrients produced better buds. Growing plants using the watering schedule and tips found in that thread along with a supplemental feeding/fertilizing schedules found here on this message board and in general gardening articles and I think that it is easy to come close to matching the speed and quantity of a properly done hydroponic style grow.