Just because you have a busy schedule doesn’t mean that you can’t grow cannabis in your free time. It does mean, however, that you need to find ways to be super-efficient with your indoor weed grow. Here are a few tips on how to save some time while you’re growing.
Prepare in Advance
The biggest factor that affects how much time you’ll have to spend with your plants is how well-prepared you are when you first plant them.
Choose fast-growing, hardy strains. This allows you to minimize both the time to harvest and the likelihood that you’ll face plant diseases.
Choose a growing medium that takes care of your plants for you. If you don’t want to deal with regular fertilization and testing levels, then you have a few options.
First, you can simply use high-quality potting soil mixes that have been amended with fertilizers made for cannabis plants. Plants are healthier and simpler to grow if their growth medium is full of nutrients in the right quantities.
If you want to spend a little more, or if you like working with technology, you can use a hydroponic setup. These setups often have timers and automatic valves that do most of the work for you. You will need to check up on the plants regularly and refill the water and fertilizers when things get low, as well as clean out the tubes between grows. However, you have complete control over how your plants are doing without having to do a lot of daily work.
Get Automated
The more work your system does for you, the less time you’ll have to spend with it. By spending a little money and some time upfront to get automated systems in place, you can save yourself most of the time you would spend working with your plants from day-to-day.
For example, getting an automated light system set up so that you don’t have to turn your lights on and off every day is one of the most basic methods of automating your grow. You can automate your lights with anything from a simple timer attached to the outlet to a full built-in lighting rig with a control panel (and many grow lights these days come with controllers). How complex it gets is up to you.
You can also get automated watering systems, ventilation fans, and humidity controls. These take more effort up front, so for a short or one-time grow, it may not be worth investing funds to get a fully automated setup. However, if you’re growing weed regularly, having digital humidity readers and a good automatic watering system can save you hours for every crop.
Stay Organized
It’s impossible to grow weed without working with your plants at all. However, you can make the time you spend more efficient by staying organized. Keep your grow room neat, and store bottles and tools next to where you use them. For example, don’t store your fertilizers outside the grow tent; store them next to where you add them to your water.
Also, keep things simple. It’s unlikely that you need to supplement your plants with three or more individual micronutrients at the same time. Start with an all-purpose cannabis fertilizer and regularly test your pH, and it’s likely you’ll resolve most issues without needing a dozen small bottles every time.
Growing weed takes time, but if you prepare well you can take out most of the work. By choosing the right strains, the right growth medium, and the right setup, you can get your personal involvement with your crop down to minutes a day. Your cannabis plants will grow in the background of your life. Before you know it, you’ll have a great harvest. Happy growing!