Today, time-management is the key to life it seems. And if you’re looking to start your own cannabis garden, spending the least amount of time while doing so is worth exploring. Starting your own indoor weed grow will take some effort to set up, but if you do it right, you can grow indoors without having to feel like you’re living in your grow room. Here are a few ways to grow indoors when you have no time.
Seeds versus Seedlings
If you want to save a couple of weeks of growing time, you can start by purchasing seedlings instead of seeds. If you start from seeds, the germination phase is 1-10 days and the seedling phase (before transplantation) is 2-3 weeks. Once you know what strain you want, you can either purchase the seedlings online, or you can find a local seedbank or head shop that offers seedlings for sale.
Automate Your Lighting
Lighting is crucial for cannabis plants to grow and flower. And setting up an automated light system 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).
Automate Your Water Delivery Systems
Clearly, if you are looking to save time, hand watering is not an option for your indoor weed grow. If you are looking for a time-saving device for this part of the farming, it is best to choose a drip irrigation system. This option will provide your indoor weed grow with regular water delivery to ensure healthy growth.
A drip irrigation system can be set up inexpensively, and if you are looking for time-saving options, this is one of the best. The set up requires a tank, air pump, air stone, piping or tubing, and water pump. The piping or tubing runs from the tank (also called a reservoir) along the sides of your growing space.
Then, the tubes or pipes run up the side and are bent over the growth medium of the plant. An automatic timer will send enough water to your plants for an entire day in one run. However, you can set the timer for multiple feedings per day to help with humidity control.
The only thing you have to do is clean the tank out once per week and refill with fresh water.
Nutrients and PH
Rather than feeding your plants nutrients directly, they can be mixed in with the water delivery system. This will require some math on your part to determine what ratio of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus should be included per parts of water. Once you have a good ratio, you can feed and water your plants at the same time.
The last thing you should consider is how often you are checking the pH balance in the water. Optimal pH for healthy growth is between 6.0 – 6.5. You can use a pH monitoring kit to measure the pH of your water and make adjustments as needed to maintain the right balance.
Growing weed indoors doesn’t have to be as time-consuming as one may expect. By planning ahead and automating some of your daily tasks you can absolutely grow successful plants on a part-time basis.