Where is the best place to get cannabis seeds? We recommend these cannabis seed source as of late January 2026…

• ILGM (I Love Growing Marijuana) – California, United States
• MSNL (Marijuana Seeds Netherlands) – Amsterdam seed bank now ships from US, Canada & UK
• North Atlantic Seed Co. – Maine, United States
• Seed Supreme – Florida, United States
• Seedsman – Ships from US & Europe
• Other – Did we miss anyone you like? Let us know.

Check out my recent grow journal featuring seeds from Seedsman, NASC & Seed Supreme.

Seeds of different strains grow different buds.

Are you looking for yields (like Blue Dream) or beauty (like Candy Games #38)?

Maybe density & potency are most important. Then go with a strain like Purple Ghost Candy.

Note: Purple Ghost Candy is an oversized stretchy plant that always makes potent, dense buds, but not always purple. See the full strain review.

Or perhaps the key to your heart is a pungent, memorable smell (like Mandarin Cookies V2).

Check out the new cannabis strain library for reviews of strains GrowWeedEasy.com recommends for home growers.

Note: Here’s how to store your seeds so they last for years.

Where to get cannabis seeds? Here’s our note to marijuana growers looking for good seeds going into a turbulent 2026…

Updates on the 2026 Farm Bill

“How will the new Farm bill for 2026 affect home growers? Is there a specific deadline for growers? I have seen many opinions, but have yet to find a straightforward answer to this question.” ~ Bob

Laws and regulations seem to be evolving every day. The reason no one can give you a straight answer is because no one knows for sure what will happen.

If you want my personal opinion, I suspect it will have a small effect in the short term, and a long-term dampening effect.

Seed companies may try to work with lawmakers to find ways to ship seeds in compliance with the law. But unless the law is changed, fewer small breeders will participate. Some people are concerned that only the biggest companies with deep pockets for a legal team might be able to easily sell seeds and take payments.

That’s why home growers need to value cannabis genetics.

In other words, don’t panic. However, do take on a general preparedness mindset.

Learn more about the new U.S. cannabis seed law that goes into effect November 12, 2026.

Nebula Haze
GrowWeedEasy.com

Hey growers,

Looking for good cannabis genetics? We got you! We have run our recommended cannabis seed source page on GrowWeedEasy.com since we started the website in 2010.

GrowWeedEasy.com’s trusted seed sources list has helped home growers find seeds since 2010.

If you don’t have cannabis seeds in hand, it can feel like it’s going to be hard to get them. Luckily, these days, you can get viable seeds of good strains sent to you almost anywhere. Today, we want to hear about your experiences ordering seeds online.

Marijuana seeds are so tiny…

But within each seed is a tiny living thing, longing to be released…

Did you know? A cannabis seedling embryo is already fully-formed inside each seed, just waiting to germinate and grow weed for you!

Germination lets the seedling inside escape its shell prison!

Never touch newly germinated seedlings like this, I only did it for the picture!

Leaves are yellow inside the shell, and turn green once the leaves start getting exposed to light.

Less than a day after being planted into a Rapid Rooter, the seedling is green and already growing new leaves!

Learn how to germinate seeds here.

Back in 2010 when we started GWE, we’d only had good experiences with a single seedbank so far (the others had been mediocre-to-bad). So back then, the seed source list had only one option…

Bonus: Check out the October 2010 version of the seeds page on the Wayback Machine! You can even click around to see the original version of the site 🙂

Our seeds page is not meant to be a comprehensive list of seed sources. Sirius and I are just a two-person team and can’t try every seed company. There are many, many outstanding cannabis seed sources not listed on our seeds page.

But what the page is, is the list of the seed banks we actually use ourselves to grow weed at home and document on the website.

Check out our recent autoflowering grow journal! The OG Kush Auto produced smooth, potent buds.

When we stop using a seed company ourselves, for whatever reason, we take it off the seed source page. Usually, they haven’t done anything wrong, just simply no longer carry strains we’re looking to grow with.

We believe it’s crucial to ensure every seed bank on the list is legit, and only stay if we continue to use it for our home grows.

Our seed bank testing is led by you: If we hear about a really great new company that everyone loves, we will test it out ourselves. Our goal isn’t just to grow great weed (though we do a lot of that too!), but also help home growers find exactly what they’re looking for.

GrowWeedEasy.com testing process for seed banks

• Community feedback – If we keep hearing good things about a particular seed source, we know it’s time to give it a try.
• Order seeds anonymously – We never tell them it’s us. I always order the seeds myself as if I were a regular customer. I feel like that’s way more likely to give the “authentic” experience.
• Grow the seeds – Next, we actually grow the seeds from germination to harvest in a home grow environment.
• Document the results – We take pictures and notes about each plant, including where we got the seeds, and share that information on GrowWeedEasy.com and through our newsletter.
• Lab testing – When funding is available, we get the buds lab-tested, especially for side-by-side grow experiments with clones (like testing super soil vs coco or plant training methods like defoliation vs natural)

We also love, love, LOVE when you send us grow pictures, or tell about your experience with seed banks and their strains/seeds.

Our current cannabis seed source recommendations, as of January 2026.

• ILGM (I Love Growing Marijuana) – California, United States
• MSNL (Marijuana Seeds Netherlands) – Amsterdam seed bank with shipping centers in the US, Canada, and UK.
• North Atlantic Seed Co. – Maine, United States
• Seed Supreme – Florida, United States
• Seedsman – Ships from US & Europe
• Other – Did we miss anyone you like?

We encourage you to write us any time with specific cannabis seed bank feedback, including anecdotes, or just your overall thoughts or experiences buying cannabis seeds online where you live.

We’ll be considering everyone’s feedback as we go through 2026. And make sure to sign up to our newsletter to ensure you get insider information and updates about seed sources that we can’t post on the website. You can email GrowWeedEasy.com directly by responding to our weekly newsletter.

Harvest great smelling, dense, potent buds with proven home harvest techniques. By Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside, authors of GrowWeedEasy.com.

Get total guidance next harvest.

Find the Best Marijuana Seeds for You

Every cannabis strain listed here is personally recommended by GrowWeedEasy.com for home growers. Check out our notes and the pictures to see why we chose each strain. Our goal is to make it easier for you to find the perfect cannabis seeds for you. More strains added every week!

The post The Seed Banks WE Use to Grow Weed (2026 Update) appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

A beginner grower recently asked, “How do I grow cannabis in a grow cube like that?”

Cannabis plants in a 2’x2’x3′ grow tent under a Spider Farmer SF1000 LED grow light.

I realized this grow setup really is like a “grow cube” for marijuana plants. It’s a tiny “microgrowery” without any DIY aspects like a space bucket. It contains smells and nurtures small cannabis plants from when they’re seedlings to a productive harvest. Just follow the instructions on this tutorial to achieve similar results yourself at home.

A “Cannabis Grow Cube” with a good LED grow light can produce a ton of weed in a small space. For this size tent, I recommend an LED that uses about 100W of electricity. A bigger size tends to get a bit too hot for this small space. All of the pictures on this tutorial page feature either the HLG 100 V2 4000k or Spider Farmer SF1000 (which are both 100W LED grow lights) and those models get excellent yields and bud quality. However, any high-quality cannabis LED grow light  in the 100W size range should work.

When set up right, you can produce a surprising amount of weed in a tiny space!

What is a cannabis “Grow Cube”? It’s just a cool way to refer to a small, versatile grow tent well-suited to growing weed.

When it’s all closed up, it looks like a big black cube.

This is a remarkably easy way to grow weed and fits in the corner of your bedroom.

A Pineapple Chunk plant I grew in one of these cannabis Grow Cubes.

That cannabis plant above was only 18″ (45 cm) tall at harvest, and produced several ounces of weed!

Follow the step-by-step instructions below to copy these results.

My partner Sirius took a picture of me holding it just before harvest. All the buds started falling over from their own weight.

I will show you exactly how to grow 1-4 plants successfully in this cannabis grow cube so you also make a ton of high-quality buds in one quick harvest, even in a really small space. Make sure to start with good genetics and follow the directions below to ensure you produce a top-shelf weed (and lots of it!).

Here’s an example of bud quality grown in this setup.

Supplies for a Cannabis Grow Cube Setup

Here’s a complete supplies list to make your own cannabis grow cube.

2’x2’x3′ Grow Tent

A small grow tent that is 2’x2′ and 3-4′ tall. Most pictures on this page use the 2’x2’x3′ Grow Tent by CoolGrows, and a few use the slightly taller 2’x2’x4′ grow tent. I have had good experiences with the CoolGrows, Vivosun, and Melonfarm brands for small grow tents. But any similarly sized grow tent will be perfect for this cannabis grow style.

Cost: $50

A 2’x2’x3′ Grow Tent is tiny but can produce several ounces of weed when used correctly. Get a slightly taller 2’x2’x4′ grow tent if you want to grow bigger plants.

Here’s my CoolGrows 2x2x3′ grow tent with cannabis plants inside. CoolGrows is a good brand, but any similar 2’x2′ grow tent should work with this tutorial. Vivosun’s version of this size grow tent is the most popular on Amazon.

100W LED Grow Light

Cannabis plants grow fast and healthy under the Spider Farmer SF1000 LED grow light, which costs only $90 and comes with a handy dimmer to adjust the brightness.

Cost: $90

The Spider Farmer SF1000 LED grow light in action. (Can be surprisingly close to plants without light stress)

Alternative light: I also have had great results with the $150 HLG 100 Quantum Board (100W LED grow light) in this setup. However, it costs $50 more and doesn’t have a dimmer. Cannabis plants seem to respond really well to both, and both produce excellent bud quality/yields. I still need to do a side-by-side experiment to see if one outperforms the other when it comes to potency or yields.

HLG 100 LED grow light in action in this setup.

Exhaust Fan + Smell Filtering

Cannabis plants can create a lot of humidity in the tent (at least if your grow cube is filled with cannabis plants like in the pictures) and cannabis buds don’t form well in high humidity. You need a good exhaust fan to ensure that the humidity from all the plants doesn’t build up too much. An exhaust fan can also be hooked up to a carbon filter in order to filter smells from leaking out of the tent.

Option 1: Loud, But Cheap

This iPower 4 Inch 200 CFM Exhaust Inline Fan with Speed Controller and Air Carbon Filter costs $80 and includes a loud but effective exhaust fan and a matching carbon filter to scrub smells.

Cost: $80

The iPower 4 Inch kit is effective but the fan is kind of loud.

Option 2: Much Quieter, But Costs More

Mars Hydro 4″ Quiet Exhaust fan and Short Carbon Filter kit ($130 high-end alternative). If you want a fan that runs almost silently, you need to invest a bit more money and get a quiet fan like the AC Infinity version or this just-as-effective-but-cheaper Mars Hydro knockoff. The Mars Hydro 4″ kit includes the fan and a matching carbon filter. The reason I like this kit is it includes a small yet effective carbon filter. This is the kind of carbon filter I use, and I have a hard time finding them in this size anymore.

Cost: $130

The Mars Hydro 4″ kit is quieter but costs more. I use this in my bedroom.

Do I need a carbon filter to prevent weed smell?

Although a carbon filter is not necessary for cannabis plants to grow, if you don’t hook up a carbon filter to an exhaust fan, your tent may fill the surrounding area with a pungent weed smell as buds start forming. Normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal with such a small grow space, but you are going to be growing a surprising amount of weed in here!

Use a carbon filter for a smell-free cannabis garden!

Grow Medium + Pots

A cannabis grow cube can accommodate just about grow medium. I’ve grown in these with cannabis in soil, coco, or hydro (in a mini DWC kit). If you’re not sure what to use, here’s my recommendation:

• One $40 big bag of Coco Loco, a coco-based soil with perlite. This 2 cu ft bag should be enough to fill 14 gallons worth of pots (for example seven 2-gallon pots). You’ll have enough to last a few grows if you’re growing small, and any extra can be used later.
• 2-gallon fabric pots (here’s an example of a 5-pack for $14) – Just about any brand of fabric pot works great.

Cost: ~$55

Coco Loco is a coco-based soil that makes thriving cannabis plants.

 Example of a 5-pack of 2-gallon fabric pots (any brand works great).

Containers: I like 2-gallon for this size. You can go bigger, but I recommend sticking to 3 gallons in size or less, to keep plants a bit smaller. Plant tend to get much bigger in a big pot then if kept in a small pot. Plus it’s more difficult to overwater plants in smaller pots.

My experience with each size pot in this setup.

• 1-gallon pots help keep plants small by restricting their root size. This is a great size if you want to grow multiple plants in a small grow tent. If you go with the 1-gallon size, make sure to get a hard-sided plant pot (like a plastic or clay pot). This helps hold in water so the soil is slower to dry out. I’ve found that 1-gallon fabric pots need to be watered all the time because the grow medium dries from the sides extremely quickly.
• 2-gallon fabric pots give the benefits of fabric (faster growth by getting more air to the roots) but are big enough they can be watered much less often than 1-gallon fabric pots. This is my preferred size for this setup.
• 3-gallon pots were the easiest to water, but the plant really wanted to grow big. I had to do a lot of bending to keep the branches from growing into the light. Best if you’re only going to grow one plant in the grow tent.

Nutrients

The soil recommended above, Coco Loco, contains some nutrients already, but cannabis plants will use it up by the time they get to the flowering stage. Growers should give extra nutrients while buds are forming to ensure the best yields, density, and overall potency. There are lots of awesome cannabis nutrient options, but if you’re not sure, the following option is cheap, effective, and easy to use.

Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom

• Grow bottle: Give about 1 tsp per gallon of “Grow” during the vegetative stage
• Bloom bottle: Give 1 tsp/gallon of “Bloom” during the flowering stage

Cost: $15

Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom is my recommended nutrient system for newbies. One bottle for veg, one for bloom. 1 tsp/gallon. Super simple and effective!

Professional Nutrients: My favorite nutrients for growing cannabis is the $40 General Hydroponics Flora trio. This is what I keep coming back to when I’m not testing out new nutrients. Unlike the 1-part Dyna-Gro bottles, it requires 3 bottles and you have to measure different amounts of each bottle depending on the stage of life. How to Use: Follow the instructions on the side of the bottles at half-strength. You typically don’t need to go up to full-strength nutrients under a smaller grow light like the 100W LED size in this tutorial.

My personal favorite cannabis nutrient system is the General Hydroponics Flora trio. Use at 1/2 strength what the bottles say.

Other Supplementary Items

• Get your seeds – $10-20/seed on average, but can be more or less depending on the breeder. Make sure to get “feminized” seeds to ensure every plant is female and makes buds. I personally like autoflowering strains for this setup because they are usually ready to harvest in 2-3 months from germination and tend to stay small. NASC is the seed vendor I’ve been using lately, and they have an excellent selection of autoflowering seeds.
• 24-Hour Timer – Growers put a grow light on a timer so the plants get a day and night period on a schedule – $9
• Water containers – You may have something already around the house. I personally use a 3-gallon or 5-gallon water jug to mix up nutrients, but anything can work. If you need to buy one, it’s much cheaper to buy these at Wal-Mart or a water container store ($5-15) than online.
• Thermometer/Humidity Monitor with a probe so you can keep track of the temperature inside the tent (unless you got the really fancy Cloudline exhaust fan with a temperature and humidity probe built-in). It’s nice to have more than one so you can measure the air in different parts of the grow space. – $15
• PH Test Kit – Prevent potential nutrient deficiencies by testing the water pH – $18
• Clip-On Fan – You can get a basic clip-on-fan for $13, but they’re a pain to clip onto the poles of a grow tent. I recommend spending a little extra for a small fan that is made to clip directly on the poles of your grow tent, like this $36 Vivosun Aerowave grow tent fan.
• Measuring spoons for measuring out your nutrients (many people already have these) – $10
• (Optional) Zip ties – the hanging apparatus that comes with many grow lights add several inches of height for no real reason. They just aren’t designed for height-limited growing. In a mini tent like this, height is at a premium and a few inches can make a big difference. When you need to get your light all the way to the top of your tent, nothing seems to work better than industrial zip ties! Once you start using zip ties you end up using them for everything. They’re weirdly permanent and strong for something so disposable – $10

Total: ~$80 plus seeds

Estimated Cost for Basic Setup: $370

How to Set Up a Cannabis Grow Cube

1.) Assemble the grow tent according to the instructions (similar to setting up a camping tent)

Here’s a quick idea of what that looks like.

A typical grow tent comes with these pieces, including the directions.

First set up the structure by clicking all the poles together.

Then put the “tent” part over the outside, like you’re giving it clothes. Last, put the flexible waterproof tray in the bottom. You’re done!

Unlike most grow tents, this one is so little it’s easy to just pick it up and bring it anywhere in the house.

2.) Set up the carbon filter and exhaust fan in a bottom port

This step is needed to cool the grow cube, remove humidity, and stop smells from leaking out. This setup doesn’t have a whole lot of extra room inside. If you’ve got the smaller 3′ tall version, you have two main options to setup the fan and filter.

Option 1: Carbon filter inside tent in bottom port, connected to exhaust fan outside tent (with air pointing out).

Here’s what that looks like (lower right) The downside to this configuration is it causes you to lose a little room inside the tent. This pulls the air through the filter so the smells have already been filtered before leaving the tent.

Option 2: Carbon filter and fan are outside of the tent.

This allows you to have the full inside of the space for your plants. To do this you have the fan in a port pointed out, and connect that to the filter. This pushes the air through the filter before it is released into the room. With this option, you can either have the fan and filter in a bottom port, and they’ll be laying on the floor. Or you could put them in a top port and have them both sitting on top of the tent.

This is what I ended up settling with, since I can easily hide these behind the tent it lets me keep the clean look of the grow cube and have full space for the plants inside. Note: this is using the small filter included in the Mars Hydro 4″ kit. If you got the cheaper kit, your carbon filter is likely several inches longer.

Don’t forget to install your small clip-on grow tent fan to blow over the tops of your plants.

3.) Plug in the timer to an electrical outlet.

Plug in your electrical timer. I put my on a power strip for extra protection. Set it to the correct time, and then have it turn off the lights for 6 hours a day (so they’re on for 18 hours every day). This is known as an 18/6 time schedule. Whatever strain of cannabis you’re growing, 18/6 is a great light schedule to start plants on.

4.) Hang the LED from the top using the included hanging hardware and then plug it into the timer.

On the Spider Farmer SF1000, there is a dial to adjust the intensity of the light, and also a switch that lets you easily turn it on and off without having to unplug it.

5.) Turn everything on and let run for 24 hours before adding plants.

Let everything run for 24 hours, just to make sure everything works, and you’re ready for plants.

It’s cannabis time!

How to Grow a Ton of Weed in a Cannabis Grow Cube

Now it’s time to grow some cannabis. Follow the directions to achieve results like this:

1.) Germinate Your Seeds

Easiest method is to just put the seeds directly in soil.

Dampen your soil then get your cannabis seed.

Poke a little hole and add your cannabis seed, then cover it up.

Put it in your cannabis grow cube with the lights on, make sure it doesn’t dry out, and you should see a seedling in a few days.

The key to watering cannabis seedlings is to give just a little water at a time, and wait a few days between waterings. Once the seedling grows bigger, it drinks more and can be watered normally.

We have a complete “how to water” tutorial but check out this example schedule for watering seedlings.

Day 1 – Give 1 cup (250ml) water per seedling
Day 3 – Give 2 cups (500ml) water per seedling
Day 6 – Give 2 cups (500ml) water per seedling
Day 8 – Give 2 cups (750ml) water per seedling
Day 10 – Give 3 cups (750ml) water per seedling

This is just a general starting guide. You need to watch your plants to see if they need more or less water at a time.

2.) Vegetative Stage

Main goals in the cannabis vegetative stage:

• Keep plants healthy – Keep watering plant regularly and giving nutrients. If using Dyna-Gro, give them 1 tsp of Grow per gallon of water. Check the pH if you notice any nutrient deficiencies. In soil, the water should be between 6-7 pH or you’ll see deficiencies (spots or markings on your leaves).
• Train plants to grow wide and flat like a table  – Full instructions below
• Wait until they have reached half the final desired size – Once plants have reached half their final desired size, it’s time to move to the next stage. They double in size (on average) after they start the flowering stage.

Overview of how to train plants to grow flat and wide like a table

• Cut off the top of young plants – Cut off the top of young plants in the vegetative stage. Cutting off the top of a plant is often called “topping” in the cannabis growing world. Topping splits any stem into two, and a plant with two tops is easier to spread out to create flat plants than a plant with one main top
  • Beginner tip: Wait until the seedling has grown 6 sets of leaves. Cut off the top through the main stem above the 5th set of leaves (pictures below). Easy and simple, yet won’t stress plants. After being topped, your plant is easier to spread out and naturally grows more bushy and wide.
• Tall stems should also be “topped” – Cut off the ends of any stem that’s growing much faster than the rest. Each new pair of stems grows slower than the original one. Topping is a great tool to curb fast-growing stems in the vegetative stage.
• Spread out – As the plant grows, spread out the stems by bending them down and away from the center of the plant. Don’t forget to tie branches down with something like plant twist tie or they’ll spring right back up the next day!
• Supercrop (if necessary) – Cannabis stems get hard and woody as time goes on. If you find you need to bend a stem that’s already stiff, use the supercropping technique to bend even the toughest stems at any angle. This is a bit advanced because you can accidentally split stems. But don’t worry if you do. Simply tape broken stems back together like a cast and the plant can heal. One of the things I love about cannabis plants is it can recover if you make big mistakes in the vegetative stage.

The main goal is to bend over tall steps to create flat plants…

…with full plant coverage from above.

Why? Later, this shape leads to a cannabis plant with tons of buds sites filling the mini tent.

Auto-flowering training guide

If you’re growing an autoflowering strain, follow this autoflowering-specific plant training guide. The following guide also works for autoflowering plants, but there are a few things you should watch out for and the full autoflowering training guide breaks it all down so you know exactly what to do.

Click here: How to Train Auto-Flowering Plants

I’ve fit up to 4 autoflowering cannabis plants in one of these mini tents!

Main Idea: Bend over tall branches as they grow, so they fill up the whole space.

Your Goal: Total plant coverage in the grow tent.

Example of training a photoperiod plant in a cannabis grow cube:

Cut off the top of a young plant right above the 5th set of leaves (“top” the seedling above the 5th node).

When cutting through a stem, be careful not to damage the growing tips at the base of each leaf. These will become your two new stems.

Topping splits the main stem into two. You can see the two new “main stems” on each side of the cut.

Since you waited until the plant had several sets of leaves before cutting a small piece off the top, it will continue growing as if nothing happened.

As the plant grows, spread out the branches and cut off the top of any stem that’s getting bigger than the others. You don’t want your plant putting too much energy into any one branch.

The plant was given a week to grow after being topped. Now it’s training time!

Bend over all the stems down and away from the center until it looks flat from the side.

I used plant twist tie to hook on to each branch and tie it down where I wanted. I attached the other end to the fabric pot.

How to attach to the pot? You can use safety pins or binder clips but I think this is easier. Poke holes in the fabric using sharp pointy Fiskars pruning scissors and thread the twist tie through.

Back to training. Here’s a top view. We’re trying to fill the entire tent with this cannabis plant. If you’ve got multiple plants, then you’re trying to fill the whole space with them, too.

A few days later the plant has filled in nicely.

Repeat the steps until you’ve filled your entire grow space from above.

Regardless of the number of cannabis plants, just focus on achieving the a wide tabletop canopy. This makes it so that all your buds will be about the same distance from the grow light in the flowering stage.

When to go to the flowering stage:

• Auto-flowering strains – If you’re growing an autoflowering strain, the plant will automatically start making flowers/buds 4-6 weeks after germination. At that point, regardless of the plant size, you have to move to the next stage.
• Photoperiod strains – If you’re growing a photoperiod plant, then it will stay in the vegetative stage until you “tell” it to start flowering/making buds by giving it a 12/12 light schedule. The long nights simulate the late summer sun and cause the plant to “think” winter is coming so it starts its second stage of life.

3.) Flowering Stage

Main goals in the flowering stage:

• Initiate flowering by putting the lights on a 12/12 light schedule – Get plants to start making buds/flowers (this step is unnecessary if you’re growing autoflowering strains because they automatically start flowering after a few weeks regardless of the light schedule)
• Expose bud sites to light and air – Use strategic defoliation and/or tuck away extra leaves to make sure that your bud sites get access to a ton of direct light and gentle air circulation. Maximizing light to your buds will greatly increase both yields and THC levels/ potency.

Initiate 12/12 when plants have complete coverage at the height you want. Look at all the bud sites on this 1 plant right as it starts flowering.

Here’s a side view. At this point, the only thing to do is water the plant and give it nutrients until harvest.

At harvest, this plant was just over 18″ (46 cm) tall, yet yielded several ounces because it was trained to grow wide and flat. Talk about making the most out of one small plant.

Here’s a cannabis grow cube with multiple plants at harvest.

4.) Harvest, Dry & Cure

Buds are ready to harvest when nearly all the white hairs have darkened and curled in.

This picture shows examples of ready-to-harvest cannabis buds. Buds should appear solid and the hairs should be curled in.

Read the tutorial on how to dry and cure your newly harvested buds!

5.) Enjoy your weed!

You’ve worked so hard. Now it’s time to enjoy your weed!

This was my first harvest out of the mini tent.

About the Author: Nebula Haze

Nebula Haze is an experienced cannabis cultivator and co-founder of GrowWeedEasy.com, the web’s most comprehensive online resource for growing marijuana indoors at home. Since creating the website in 2010, Nebula has dedicated her life to understanding the cannabis plant and teaching fellow growers how to produce huge yields and captivating bud quality at home. Stop paying other people a ton of money for sub-par weed and start growing better weed for a fraction of the cost today!

Check out my easy 10-step guide to growing cannabis.

The post How to Use a “Grow Cube” to Grow Cannabis appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Male cannabis plants don’t make buds, only female cannabis plants make buds. Yet naturally, with regular cannabis seeds, about 50% of cannabis plants end up being male.

Cannabis Sex Matters: Female Buds vs Male Pollen Sacs (click for closeup). Male plants don’t make buds!

Only female cannabis plants make buds. Male plants produce pollen sacs that are low in THC, not good to smoke, and cause nearby female buds to grow seeds.

Unfortunately, male pollen sacs are not useful to most home cannabis growers unless you’re a breeder. Identify and remove male cannabis plants ASAP.

When pollen sacs open up, they look like white, yellow, green, or purple flowers (pretty!), but they spread pollen everywhere, which pollinates your female plants. They can also accidentally pollinate any nearby female plants in the area. This is not good for bud quality for you and any of your neighbors who grows. Additionally, male pollen sacs are harsh to smoke and don’t contain high levels of THC or other cannabinoids.

Male pollen also causes female plants to produce small yields of lower-potency, seedy buds. Most home growers should try to get male plants out of the grow room as soon as possible.

How to tell if a cannabis plant is male or female before flowering?

Visually, you usually can’t tell the difference between male and female plants until they start flowering (making either male flowers/pollen sacs or female flowers/buds), especially when it comes to younger plants.

There are 3 main ways to tell a marijuana plant’s sex while it is still in the vegetative stage.

As a result, most cannabis growers identify and toss male plants as soon as possible. That means for a home cannabis grower starting with regular seeds (for example, seeds you find in your weed), about half of your plants won’t make buds and will need to be tossed. Those are terrible odds, and as a grower, you deserve better.

Luckily, there are 3 different ways to determine cannabis plant sex before the flowering stage, but only one way to ensure that all your plants are female. It’s important to get rid of any male plants as soon as possible, because not only do they take up room that could be filled with bud-making plants, the pollen released by male cannabis plants will pollinate all your female plants and cause seedy buds.

3 ways to tell if a plant is male or female before initiating the marijuana flowering stage

1. Start with feminized seeds (or female clones) – Best for most home cannabis growers. Starting with feminized seeds or female clones from a trustworthy source guarantees that 99.9% of cannabis plants end up being bud-making female plants.
2. Genetic testing – Send a piece of a leaf from your young plant to a lab to test for the sex. This can be expensive and is often not 100% accurate.
3. Examine the “pre-flowers” – Look at the cannabis pre-flowers (little versions of male or female flowers that sometimes appear in the vegetative stage at the joints where the fan leaf meets the stem). This technique works better for some cannabis strains than others, as some plants start growing pre-flowers within 3 weeks of germination, while others may not grow any pre-flowers until 6+ weeks after germination. Pictures below.

1.) Start with feminized cannabis seeds (or female clones)

This is the best option for most home cannabis growers. Starting with feminized seeds or female clones guarantees  that nearly 100% of cannabis plants are bud-making female plants. The good news is that feminized cannabis seeds are widely available almost anywhere in the world. Learn more about feminized cannabis seeds.

Learn where to safely buy cannabis seeds online.

2.) Genetic testing

You can send a piece of a leaf from a 3-week old cannabis seedling and get them to do a genetic test to determine if it’s male or female. The downside of this technique is cannabis genetics are a bit odd. Plants don’t always have neatly separated male and female chromosomes, which means lab testing can occasionally produce false positives and negatives. In other words, some plants marked as “female” may be male, and some plants marked as “male” may actually be female. Some plants may end up being hermaphrodites. However, lab testing is used by some commercial growers as it does greatly increase the chance that all plants end up being female.

You usually can’t look at a cannabis plant this young and tell if it’s male or female, but a genetic test from the lab can sometimes give you a clue…

3.) Examine the “pre-flowers”

The usefulness of this last method depends heavily on your genetics, as some strains show pre-flowers at a very young age, while others may take weeks or months before they reveal their sex via pre-flowers in the vegetative stage. Male plants tend to show their pre-flowers before female plants.

Essentially, the goal with this method is to examine the vegetative cannabis plant at future bud sites, where pre-flowers can grow, and look for early signs of male or female plants. Pre-flowers are small buds/pollen sacs that develop at the nodes (the junction where the stems and leaves meet) while the plant is still in the vegetative stage.

The base of a leaf is the best place to look for pre-flowers. Pre-flowers appear as soon as 3 weeks from germination for some strains. However, some strains may take 6+ weeks before they produce pre-flowers.

Look for pre-flowers at the base of the leaf. Typically males show before females.

This is what male vs female cannabis preflowers look like.

Female pre-flowers will also produce wispy white “hairs” that emerge. These are technically called stigmas, and commonly mistakenly called “pistils” by cannabis growers.

If you see these white hairs, that means you’re looking at female pre-flowers.

If you see bunches of balls, you know for sure you’re looking at male pre-flowers. However, it’s extremely rare to see more than 1-2 pollen sacs per joint when the plant is still in the vegetative stage.

Hint: Male cannabis pre-flowers tend to be shaped somewhat like a spade from a deck of cards.

Here is a diagram to help you know exactly what you’re looking for. White hairs (aka “stigmas” or sometimes called “pistils”) means female flowers.

Note: If you see green hairs, those are “stipules” and not pre-flowers. Ignore the stipules.

Read the complete tutorial on how to check male vs female preflowers.

Hermies, bananas, and random pollen sacs

Note: Some cannabis plants produce both male and female flowers. These hermaphrodite plants (affectionately called hermies) should be tossed just like male plants because their pollen sacs also can cause all the buds in your grow room to get seedy if the pollen gets released. Starting with good genetics and taking good care of cannabis plants is the best way to prevent them from “herming”.

If you see a mix of pollen sacs and buds (or little pale or yellow “bananas” growing among the buds), you have a “hermie” which should be treated like a male plant and tossed to prevent pollination.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

How can I make a male plant female?

• You can’t – There is no safe or reliable way to consistently turn a male cannabis plant into a female cannabis plant. It is a better idea to try to start with all-female plants, or identify and remove male cannabis plants as soon as possible. Oddly enough, it is possible to make a female plant grow sacs like a male for the purposes of making feminized seeds.

What are the early signs of a male plant?

• Spade-shaped “balls” at the joints – Look where leaves meet the stem. If you see “balls” (pictured above) then it is not a female plant.

When can you tell if your plant is male or female?

• 3 weeks at the soonest – 3 weeks from germination is typically the earliest a lab will take a leaf sample from a plant to test for sex. Visually, some cannabis plants reveal their sex as early as 3 weeks from germination via pre-flowers. These appear even in the vegetative stage for many strains. However, some strains may take 6+ weeks before they grow pre-flowers, so this isn’t the most reliable method. Your best bet is to start with all-female plants!

When you know every single plant is female, you can fill your grow space like this and know every plant will make buds.

Summary: How to tell if a cannabis plant is male or female before flowering?

There are three main ways to identify the sex of marijuana plants before they start flowering:

1. Start with feminized seeds or clones. This is the best option since it guarantees 100% female plants (as long as you start with a good breeder). Feminized seeds can be purchased from reputable seed banks (currently, I’m using Seed Supreme, though there are many excellent cannabis seed banks).
2. Genetic testing can identify sex early on, but results aren’t always accurate. It also tends to be expensive.
3. Examine preflowers once they emerge. This works better for fast-showing strains. Check for female wispy white hairs or male spade-shaped flowers at the joints where leaves meet the stem.

While genetic testing and preflowers can help, the ideal solution is to start with feminized seeds or all-female clones. This avoids wasting time and space on male plants that don’t produce buds. Be sure to get feminized seeds from a trusted source and confirm the seller has a solid reputation.

Remove male plants to prevent pollination so you end up with sinsemilla (seedless buds), which are more potent and considered higher quality than seedy buds. Growing only female plants is the best way to guarantee heavy, potent, seed-free yields from your cannabis garden.

About the Author: Nebula Haze

Nebula Haze is an experienced cannabis cultivator and co-founder of GrowWeedEasy.com, the web’s most comprehensive online resource for growing marijuana indoors at home. Since creating the website in 2010, Nebula has dedicated her life to understanding the cannabis plant and teaching fellow growers how to produce huge yields and captivating bud quality at home. Stop paying other people a ton of money for sub-par weed and start growing better weed for a fraction of the cost today!

Check out my easy 10-step guide to growing cannabis.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Sexing Cannabis Plants Before the Flowering Stage appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Calling all cannabis growers! Do you also seek to improve your cannabis yields, potency, and overall bud quality based on the latest knowledge as of 2026?

As a passionate and curious home grower, I embarked on a series of side-by-side experiments to confirm or deny long-standing theories and controversies in the cannabis home cultivation community.

The result? Prepare to get your notions questioned.

Not only did some of my findings surprise me, I sought out experienced commercial growers and learned their personal tests confirmed my surprising results, too.

Together, we’ve unlocked a wealth of new knowledge and growing skills for all growers to benefit from. Some of these tips you may already know, but some go against common knowledge.

Get ready to revolutionize your cannabis cultivation game (bigger yields, tighter buds, more terpenes, and higher THC levels) with the top 7 lessons I’ve learned about cannabis cultivation.

1.) More Light = More THC (Up to a Point)

Get More THC with Increased Light Intensity: It’s a well-known fact among growers that more light typically boosts cannabis yields, or the total amount of bud produced. However, our recent experiments and lab testing reveal another fascinating correlation: the intensity of light a cannabis bud receives directly influences its THC content. For example, even on the same plant and the same branch, the buds which receive higher light intensity tested with higher THC at the lab than their fellow buds that were hidden under a leaf during development, or located further from the grow light. For home cannabis growers who aim to elevate their bud potency, prioritizing strong direct light exposure to buds is key.

Focus on providing high light levels directly to cannabis buds during the flowering stage to maximize THC production.

Evolution of a Theory: Since my early days of growing in 2008, a hotly debated theory suggested that increasing light levels during the flowering stage could boost THC percentages in buds. Some growers speculated that THC served as a defense mechanism for the plant against sunlight, while others doubted its impact. Regardless of why the cannabis reacts to strong light with more THC, this once controversial theory is now pretty well proven to be true.

2026 Insight: There’s a clear correlation between light intensity and THC production. Our lab tests confirmed it, and several commercial growers showed us that their tests also echoed this finding. Even within the same plant, buds that receive less light exhibit lower THC levels compared to plants that develop under more intense light. Make sure all buds on a cannabis plant are exposed to strong, direct light in order to maximize THC levels at harvest.

5 Practical Tips for Home Growers to Increase THC:

• Maximize Light Exposure: Keep your grow lights as close as possible to the plants without causing light stress (which may bleach leaves or cause brown spots). Discover examples of excellent grow light setups here.
• Choose Powerful Grow Lighting: Use the most powerful light your grow space can accommodate. For most cannabis growers, LED grow lights are your best choice to maximize light to your buds. The only exception is if you’re growing in a cool grow space that regularly stays under 73°F/23°C (for example a cellar), because cannabis plants grow poorly in a cool space with LEDs. If it’s chilly, you will get better yields and higher THC buds using an HPS grow light because HPS lights keep plants warm.
• Maintain Optimal Nutrients and Environment: A healthy plant is more resilient and can handle higher light levels.
  • Be mindful of giving the right amount of nutrients, maintaining proper pH levels at the roots to prevent nutrient deficiencies, and environmental factors like temperature and humidity. These can influence your plant’s response to light and overall THC production.
  • Healthy, happy plants can thrive under higher light levels. That means that proper care and environmental management are crucial to maximize light and therefore THC yield.
• Train Plant Shape for Even Light Distribution: Bend and tie down branches to shape your cannabis plants flat and wide during the vegetative stage. This ensures uniform distance from the light for all buds during flowering.
• Expose Buds in the Flowering Stage: After cannabis buds start forming, make sure they are exposed to direct light. If buds are being covered by a leaf, tuck the leaf away, or remove if it can’t be tucked. This free and easy technique helps get the most light to buds as possible.

2.) The Surprising Effects of Red on THC and Yields

This lesson is somewhat related to the last one: Spectrum of light affects THC percentage and yields. More red is often associated with higher THC, though too much red reduces overall yields.

In the world of cannabis cultivation, the impact of light spectrum on THC percentage and yields is a fascinating topic. My own side-by-side experiments, backed by insights from a commercial grower at a recent cannabis conference, have highlighted a noteworthy pattern: more red in the light spectrum often correlates with higher THC levels. However, this comes with a caveat; an excess of red can actually decrease overall bud production and yields.

Optimizing red light in the spectrum when growing cannabis can increase the amount of THC in buds.

Evolution of a Theory: It’s well established that red-heavy light increases yields in the flowering stage compared to blue-heavy light, but it is much less well known that the presence of extra red could also increase THC production to a point. However, there is a tradeoff. Too much red begins reducing yields (though THC levels stay high). So for example, if you try to grow cannabis under just red light, the buds will stay undersized and underdeveloped. Balance is key.

2026 Insight: For max THC, always use a red spectrum light, but don’t use lights that go crazy with red spectrum. Modern “red spectrum” LED grow lights (or for growers in colder climates, the red-heavy bulb lights like HPS) typically contain more than enough red for excellent bud production. However, if you grow with “vegetative” or blue-tinted grow lights during the crucial flowering stage, you may be unintentionally sabotaging not just your yields but also your THC production.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• Use a red-spectrum light in the flowering stage (or at least, avoid blue-heavy spectrum lights in the flowering stage).
  • Note: A spectrum with a lot of blue light is better in the vegetative stage because it tends to keep plants short and squat. Red light in the vegetative stage makes plants tend to grow tall and stretchy, which is not a desirable shape most of the time because it’s harder to get the same amount of light to all buds. But if I had to choose one or the other, I’d rather grow with a red light the whole way through.
  • In other words, most home growers will get the best growth patterns by using a light with more blue in the vegetative stage, and a light with more red in the flowering/budding stage.
  • “All-purpose” grow lights typically are somewhere in between. They give you the advantages of both types of light, but don’t give plants max red in the flowering stage.
• Don’t go overboard adding red or it will reduce yields and plants may start to grow strangely with unusual growth patterns. Plenty of red is good, but there is too much of a good thing.
• Recommended grow light:  HLG 350R “Diablo” LED – This is what I’m growing with right now. Check out the grow journal! This LED offers a lot of red combined with incredible brightness, resulting in maximum yields and THC per watt. This light was developed over several years of testing on cannabis plants to find the optimal configuration.
  • very powerful 350W LED grow light, best for advanced growers as it pushes plants to their full potential (i.e. works plants hard).
  • can be used in a 2’x4′ space, but also produces excellent results in a bigger 4’x4′ grow space.
  • harvest up to 1 lb of potent buds when cannabis plants are properly cared for.
  • Note: This is an extremely powerful light that can be hard on young plants at full power. For seedlings, keep this LED the top of the grow space and dim the power down to half. Don’t worry, they’re still getting plenty of light! Only after plants get bigger should you turn it up to full power or lower it.

3.) Strategic Defoliation Can Increase Yields, Bud Density, and THC Levels

Defoliation works to increase yields, bud density, and THC percentage of cannabis buds when used strategically in the flowering stage. Yes, simply using this free, easy technique can increase both the amount and quality of your weed at harvest.

Strategic defoliation in the flowering stage increases cannabis yields, bud density, and THC levels.

Evolution of a Theory: I learned about cannabis flowering stage defoliation as a way to increase yields in the early 2010s through a random forum post. I gave it a try according to his directions and was pretty blown away how it increased my cannabis yields and overall bud quality/density compared to no defoliation. When my partner Sirius and I reported our results on GrowWeedEasy.com, many growers literally told us we were lying because “that doesn’t make any sense”. More light to the leaves should equal more yields, right? We didn’t understand why it worked, but we knew it worked. By the mid-2015s enough growers had tried it that it became pretty common knowledge, with a lot less controversy.

2026 Insight: A few years ago, I started doing side-by-side grow experiments to test various theories about home growing. I finally got around to doing a few experiments on defoliation and even I was surprised by the results. I expected it to increase yields and bud quality/density, which it did, but when we sent the buds to the lab, we found that the defoliated plants consistently produced buds with higher THC too! Perhaps due to more direct light getting directly onto the buds, but even the top buds on the non-defoliated plants were less potent than the top buds on the defoliated plants. That makes me think the increase in THC could possibly be the results of a stress response. Then I went a cannabis business conference in Las Vegas, and was able to confirm this finding with multiple commercial growers, including a head grower that doubted defoliation but found it worked in tests. These days, just about every commercial cannabis grow operation uses defoliation just like we do. As we enter 2026, defoliation has been well-established as being a positive for your results at harvest as long as you don’t go overboard (which reduces yields). The theory has gone a long way from a controversial theory to accepted knowledge.

Check out the full cannabis grow journal of our most recent defoliation side-by-side experiment.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• Choose to use strategic defoliation in the flowering stage to increase yields, bud density, bud appearance, and overall THC levels. When done properly, strategic defoliation hacks the plant’s natural response and causes it to grow more and better quality buds.
• Choose a defoliation schedule. There are multiple schedules that cannabis growers commonly use, but they pretty much all involve defoliating plants at the beginning of the flowering stage, and then again several weeks later. So essentially, two spaced out defoliations during the flowering stage.
• Here’s the defoliation schedule that most commercial cannabis growers use:
  • Defoliate 3 weeks after 12/12 begins. Remove all the biggest fan leaves after buds have started forming in the flowering stage (typically 3 weeks after initiating 12/12, or at 5-6 weeks from seed for autoflowering plants). Also remove any leaves covering bud sites from the light. Make sure to keep several leaves on each branch (don’t strip branches bare). Be careful not to hurt developing buds.
  • Defoliate again 3 weeks later. Repeat the exact process 3 weeks later. Again, remove the biggest fan leaves and reveal bud sites, but let some leaves remain on each branch.
  • Continue to remove or tuck leaves covering bud sites until harvest. No more big defoliations after that, but remove (or tuck away) any leaves covering bud sites so all buds are exposed to direct light. You should also remove leaves in the middle and bottom of the plant if you notice the plant is getting so bushy that no light reaches the floor.
  • Harvest bigger yields and denser, more potent buds!

Read the full strategic defoliation tutorial.

4.) The Critical Role of Temperature Management in Bud Quality

Growers need to optimize heat conditions because heat can hurt bud quality during the last few weeks of the flowering stage. Many cannabis growers subject their plants to constant heat, which is fine for most of the plant’s life, and can even help plants grow faster to a point. However, heat control during late bud formation is one of the best ways to increase cannabis bud quality, including yields, color, pristine appearance, and high density. Buds hate the heat once they’re in the ripening phase. We already suspected this but got it confirmed through lab testing and extensive discussions with commercial cannabis growers.

Heat during the last few weeks before harvest reduces cannabis bud quality.

Evolution of a Theory: Many growers, accustomed to the benefits of a warm grow environment for rapid vegetative growth, often overlook the significance of temperature during the flowering stage. A nice warm grow space causes young cannabis plants to grow faster, and even an overly hot grow space doesn’t stop many plants from growing fast and healthy. This lulls many cannabis growers into a false sense of complacency. They might think heat doesn’t matter and they can just ignore it, because for the first part of your plant’s life, that’s mostly true. However, it’s not good for buds to complete their development in a hot grow environment. It’s crucial to shift your focus as the buds enter their final development phase. Keep buds cool, if possible, as they approach harvest. Heat during the last 3-4 weeks of the flowering stage reduces yields, potency, density, burns off smells, and makes it more likely buds will become discolored. Those last few weeks matter a lot! Try to baby your plants during their “home stretch” to the finish line.

Pay close attention to the environment in the late flowering stage to maximize bud quality and get sparkly, tight, potent cannabis nugs like this.

2026 Insight: Pay close attention to the environment in the late flowering stage, and aim for the temperature sweet spot. The last several weeks of flowering are the most crucial stage of bud development. Aim for a grow room temperature of around 75°F (24°C) during the day and a cooler 65°F (18°C) at night. These temperatures, in the late flowering stage, have been correlated with higher quality buds. This is more than just growers’ lore; it has been substantiated through rigorous lab testing and corroborated by experienced commercial growers.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• Set up your grow space properly from the beginning with a strong exhaust fan to vent heat from the grow space, so the temperature is under your control.
• Monitor and Adjust: Regularly check your temperature levels and adjust them as needed, especially as you enter the final weeks of flowering.
• If you have an AC, the last 3 weeks (and during air drying) may be the most important time to use it. If it’s too expensive to run, you can skip it during the vegetative stage and early parts of the flowering stage as long and plants are growing fast and healthy without signs of heat stress.
• Can’t control heat during the day? Set your “day period” to happen during the night when the grow room tends to be cooler and heat is most easy to deal with. For example, set your lights to turn on late in the evening and turn off in the morning. However, avoid switching your day and night period during the flowering stage if possible as uneven light schedules can trigger herms. But if you have to do it once to control heat, that will likely be okay. Just avoid giving it a “short” night. It’s better to give it a long day to the new schedule to ensure plants never get less than a 12-hour dark period in the flowering stage. Plants in the flowering stage are more likely to herm from short nights than long days.

Even if you don’t have an AC, simply venting out hot air with a fan can dramatically increase bud quality compared to letting buds cook in the heat.

5.) The Unmatched Quality of Home-Grown Cannabis

Home cultivation of cannabis is not just a hobby. It’s an art that, when mastered, can surpass the quality of commercially available weed.

Home grow can produce better weed than many growers can buy.

Commercial growers acknowledge the superiority of a meticulously nurtured home cannabis garden.

However, a lot of home growers get stuck in a grow pattern where they’re not getting the bud quality they want and think that’s just not possible in the home environment. This misconception is often due to growers making common mistakes in the flowering stage.

Simply avoiding these pitfalls allows home growers to achieve, and often exceed, the quality of commercial weed.

Home grow reigns supreme. Growing at home can produce consistent, high-quality and personalized weed.

When you treat buds right, they reward you with incredible quality!

Evolution of a Theory: Too many cannabis growers think it’s not possible to grow amazing weed at home. This is usually because they’re making some sort of flowering stage goof that’s reducing their bud quality or yields. This has led to a persistent myth that home-grown cannabis can’t compete with commercial weed. Lucky for us, the truth is quite the opposite.

2026 Insight: You can and should leverage the home grow advantage. Commercial growers’ main advantage is just that they often have access to a strong AC and dehumidifier to keep their garden cool and not overly humid.

However, a home grower with good genetics that controls the environment can beat the quality of commercially grown buds every time.

I’ve noticed at every grow conference when I talk to commercial growers about home growing, they lament how lucky we are as home growers, because we have so much creative freedom to cater to our personal preferences. Home growers get to pay more attention to bud quality over profitability. It’s especially interesting to see this dynamic because many home growers are jealous of commercial growers.

It’s a case of “the grass is always greener on the other side” except we’re actually on the greener side.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• Adhere to proven cultivation practices. A good place to start is to follow all the suggestions on this page to avoid the 7 most common flowering goofs. You’ll end up with better buds than the dispensary and all your friends will wonder where you’re getting all this dank weed.
• Pay attention to your plants and react quickly when you notice issues. The amount of personal attention you can give each plant is a huge advantage of home growing.
• Get good genetics as you can never grow great weed with mediocre genetics. Looking for quality American genetics? Can’t go wrong with an Ethos Genetics strain. Or check out our list of recommended cannabis seed sources. What’s most important is to get a strain that will produce the results and effects you want.

How to beat the cannabis grower’s mid-flower curse.

6.) The Enduring Tradition of Smoking Cannabis

The most common way to enjoy cannabis is still simply smoking it. In an era brimming with innovative cannabis consumption methods like edibles, tinctures, dabbing, etc, it can seem like no one wants to smoke weed anymore.

Me smoking weed in 2008. Still my favorite way to enjoy weed.

I know at least I’d gotten the impression from the media that no one was smoking flower anymore. I prefer to smoke weed, but I thought I was in the minority.

2026 Insight: Contrary to these impressions, recent evidence reveals a different reality.

According to statistics, most growers smoke their weed as their main form of enjoying it.

Smoking the straight buds is still the most popular way people use weed (though vaporizers, edibles, hash, and concentrates are certainly becoming more popular). This enduring preference highlights the timeless appeal of the traditional smoking experience.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• You Know Yourself Better Than Anyone: Enjoy weed however you want and don’t worry what other people think. Whether you enjoy the classic experience of smoking buds, or prefer to explore newer forms like vaporizers, edibles, tinctures, and concentrates, the best way to enjoy cannabis is the way that suits you. Learn how to smoke weed without the smell (a Sploofy alone cuts down 80% of smoke smell).
• Stay Informed and Open-Minded: As cannabis culture evolves, keep abreast of new trends and methods. An open mind can lead to discovering new favorites. I strongly believe in celebrating cannabis and its versatility, as well as the freedom we have as growers to enjoy cannabis how we want.

7.) The Art of Bud Placement

The location of buds on the cannabis plant plays a crucial role in determining their THC content. Buds located higher on the plant measure at higher THC than lower buds, even if they get the same amount of light.

Buds located at the top of the plant produce the most THC, so make as many buds as possible be at the top.

Evolution of a Theory: Most growers already know the buds at the top of the plant tend to be the best buds. Many growers attribute the superior quality of top buds solely to increased light exposure. However, our experiments seem to indicate otherwise. Even if you provide supplemental side lighting to increase light levels from the sides so it matches the light levels at the top, the top buds will still be more potent. The actual position of the buds on the plant matters even if everything else is equal. That’s why it’s so crucially important to prune your plants so they grow in a way where all the main buds are located on top. This also highlights why it’s helpful to get rid of buds that start developing too low down on the plant. These lower buds not only stay small and airy, but lack the same potency of buds higher up on the plant.

Avoid having just one main bud on each cannabis plant (the “Christmas tree” shape), because the lower buds won’t be as high quality as they could be.

Aim for a sea of top buds on your cannabis plants, like this. That helps ensure all buds reach the highest possible potency, density, and size.

2026 Insight: Keep Buds High (on the plant). Buds at the plant’s apex are not just physically higher, but they’re also higher in THC concentration on average. This isn’t solely due to light exposure; there’s something inherently beneficial about their elevated position. Position matters more than just light levels alone. Even with the introduction of supplemental side lighting aiming to equalize light distribution, the top-positioned buds consistently outperform in THC potency. This revelation underscores the importance of strategic plant training to ensure that a majority of the buds can enjoy this ‘top spot’ advantage.

Practical Tips for Home Cannabis Growers:

• Prioritize Top Bud Sites from the Start: Use plant training techniques starting in the vegetative stage to ensure most of your bud sites are located at the top of the plant. These techniques all focus on training plants to grow wide and flat like a table, and especially to avoid the natural “Christmas Tree” shape with only one bud at the top. If you focus on pruning plants throughout the vegetative stage, by the time you reach the flowering stage you will have created a wide flat “sea” of buds directly under the grow light that are all the same height as each other.
• Use “Lollipopping” on Tall Cannabis Plants: Lollipopping means removing all lower bud sites. This is typically done in the cannabis flowering stage after buds have already started forming. The goal is to remove lower buds that are unlikely to achieve full development, so the plant’s energy is all directed only to the top buds. Rough rule of thumb: Remove buds that are growing more than a foot from the top of the plant, especially if they seem airy and wispy, as these buds steal energy from the plant and will likely never develop properly.
• Rethink Side Lighting: In many cases, an investment in side lighting may not yield the expected benefits. Focus instead on upgrading or optimizing top lighting (and on training plants to grow only top buds).

Understanding and applying these insights about bud positioning can significantly impact the THC levels in your cannabis harvest.

Even if you give tons of side lighting, the top buds will still always be the best.

Grow Experiments Coming to GrowWeedEasy.com in 2026 and Beyond

3-day dark period

• What we know: We’ve done some informal experiments on whether giving cannabis plants a “3-day dark period” before harvest will increase THC percentage. Surprisingly (to me) the initial results actually seem pretty promising. In the two plants we tried in an informal (not well-controlled) experiment, both plants’ buds tested at higher THC levels when harvested after the 3-day dark period vs before.
• The test: We’ll be doing a formal side-by-side experiment with clones to test this in a controlled environment.

Soil: Nutrients vs no nutrients

• What we know: My experience using nutrients vs “just add water” style grows is that cannabis plants grow faster and produce bigger yields when given nutrients in their water. Even when using a “hot” soil that prevents any nutrient deficiencies, giving nutrients in the water (officially known as “fertigation”) seems to give plants exactly what they need in the most easily absorbable form. We previously did an experiment in growing with “just add water” super soil vs coco, and the coco plants had faster growth and bigger buds. However, we have not conducted any formal experiments on growing in plain soil (like what you buy from the store) vs plain soil with nutrients. This is the most common choice a new soil grower will make (is it worth it to get nutrients?) and I want to show just how important I believe it is to your results. I anticipate that the soil plants grown with nutrients will have bigger yields, faster growth, and overall higher levels of THC.
• The test: Two sets of clones grown in identical conditions. One set will be grown in regular “hot” soil (Fox Farm Ocean Forest) with no nutrients from seed to harvest. The other will be grown in the same soil but I’ll be adding General Hydroponics Flora nutrient trio in the water (my favorite nutrient system or growing cannabis that can be used in any grow medium). Let’s see how big a difference it makes!

Test new LED grow light models

• What we know: HLG and Mars Hydro have released new LED grow lights that seem to be beating the results of even their previous ones (which were already industry leaders). Spider Farmer also has some interesting new developments. We’d also like to run our first tests on the new 2026 versions of LEDs from ViparSpectra, Vivosun, BLOOM Plus, and Phlizon.
• The test: Grow two sets of clones in identical conditions, where the only difference is what LED grow light is used. Contact us and let us know if there’s a particular LED grow light (or any grow light) you’d like to see us run a test on.

Hydroponics

• What we know: Sirius and I were hydroponic growers for years but moved to growing with soil and coco for our website GrowWeedEasy.com because they’re more popular for most growers. Coco and soil are awesome, and we wanted to make the tutorials that you requested the most. However, we both miss hydro and it’s time to revamp our hydroponics tutorial so this year we’ll be doing at least 1 fully hydroponic grow with everything we’ve learned and also to get more clear pictures of every step of the process for new hydro growers. We’ll likely also test a few different types of pre-made tubs and buckets that can be purchased as most growers don’t want to make their own hydroponic system.
• The test: Test a few different hydro systems against each other.

Big plants vs little plants (and plant pot size)

• What we know: This year showed that when it comes to bud quality, some surprising things are important including position on the plant, temperature, light spectrum, and overall light levels. Based on all this, and my personal experience, I suspect that perhaps the overall size of the plant has an effect on bud quality and THC percentage. I’ve never heard anyone else talk about this, but it’s a pet theory based on all the experiments from the last few years.
• The test: Grow clones in the same grow tent but have them grow in different size plant pots so that some plants naturally get bigger than the others, then get all the buds tested at the lab to see if the bigger plants with bigger pots produce higher levels of THC.

Exciting stuff! Let us know what you think about today’s tutorial, and share what you want to see us test next! I’m always looking for a reason to grow more plants. ~Nebula

Wrapping It Up: The Cannabis Home Grower’s Edge in 2026

Alright, fellow cannabis enthusiasts, we’ve navigated through some game-changing insights together, and I hope you’re feeling as pumped as I am about the future of home growing. What we’ve covered isn’t just another cannabis grow guide; it’s about the essence of pushing boundaries and outgrowing the old myths.

You’ve now got the inside scoop on some of the latest breakthroughs in home growing, from cranking up those lumens for more THC, to the art of defoliation, and mastering temps for quality buds. It’s like we’ve been given a new set of superpowers for our grow rooms. And for those who’ve always thought that homegrown can’t compete with the commercial stuff, well, we’ve busted that myth big time.

We’re on this journey together, and it’s about more than just growing plants. It’s about growing our skills, our knowledge, and sharing the highs (pun intended!) of each successful harvest. I’m stoked to see how these insights will transform your grows, and I bet you’ll soon be the envy of your grower friends.

As we look towards the horizon, with new experiments and adventures in growing waiting for us, remember this: You’re now armed with knowledge that many growers would kill for. You’re not just a grower; you’re a cultivator of bud excellence.

Keep experimenting, keep questioning, and keep those cannabis plants thriving. Here’s to all the sticky, aromatic, potent harvests in your future. Let’s show 2026 what we’ve got – it’s grow time!

Looking for some awesome new cannabis strains to grow? Wondering where to buy marijuana seeds? There are lots of choices, but learn about the marijuana seed banks we recommend here: https://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds

Want free cannabis grow tips delivered to your inbox every Sunday? Join our weekly newsletter!

About the Author: Nebula Haze

Nebula Haze founded GrowWeedEasy.com with her husband Sirius Fourside in 2010. Our mission has always been to demystify the world of indoor marijuana cultivation. Over the years, we’ve shared our passion and knowledge through a wealth of articles, both in print and in digital realms, and guided numerous students through comprehensive online courses. For us, it’s not just about growing cannabis; it’s about empowering each of you to discover the simplicity and joy of nurturing your own plants. Here’s to your success in the grow room!

Happy growing!
Nebula Haze

The post Unlock Bigger Yields & More THC: 7 Game-Changing Insights for Cannabis Growers appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

What’s covered in this article:

• Introduction – Can cannabis plants be cultured?
• Basic Overview of Process – Gain a general understanding of how plant tissue culture works
• Tissue Culture Supplies – What type of equipment do you need to get started?
• Further Resources – Where to learn more about making cannabis plants in test tubes

Example of cannabis explants in vials. Picture by MicroClone using a plant tissue culture kit.

What is plant tissue culture and can it be used to grow cannabis plants in a test tube? Is micropropagation feasible to do at home?

Introduction: What is Plant Tissue Culture?

Have you ever heard of cloning cannabis plants? Essentially you cut off a piece of the plant and force it to grow roots. That gives you a brand new mini plant that’s an exact genetic copy of the “mother” plant.

But could you make clones with an even smaller piece of plant? That’s what plant tissue culture does. It takes a tiny piece of a plant and gets it to grow. Once it starts growing and a little plant has formed, you get the little piece of plant to grow roots using the same techniques as regular cloning. Voila! A new copy of your plant grown from just a tiny piece of plant tissue.

Plant tissue culture is the process of taking living tissue from a plant (for example a piece of a leaf, stem, flower, or even a cracked seed) and growing that “explant” into a full plant in sterile conditions. Although the process is more difficult with cannabis or hemp than some other plant species, it can be done.[1] [2] [3]

Closeup of cannabis explants propagating with new shoots. Pictures by Dr. Hope Jones.

The above cannabis explants were cultured in sterile conditions until they had grown into little plants. They are then transferred to a rooting medium to grow roots. Just like coaxing a cutting to grow roots when cloning!

Terms often used interchangeably with plant tissue culture:

• Micropropagation – Taking tiny pieces of plants and making them grow
• Growing in vitro – Growing plants in a test tube or other similar environment (“in vitro” means “in glass”)
• De Novo – growing full new plants out of something that normally wouldn’t grow on its own, such as leaves (“de novo” means “anew”)

How Does Plant Tissue Culture Work?

How does it work?  Plant tissue culture is similar to how many growers take a cutting from a cannabis plant and coax it to make roots. This creates a genetically identical plant known as a “clone”. Cloning a cannabis plant can be as easy as cutting off a stem and putting it in a glass of water for a few weeks. However, plant tissue culture lets you grow out much smaller pieces of living tissue. It can also be used to increase germination rates of older seeds,[4] allow for polyploidization,[5] eliminate disease from prized cultivars,[6] “reset” a sick mother plant, reset an autoflowering plant’s internal clock, and more.

You can force a piece of a cannabis plant to make roots to get a genetic clone of the original plant. Here’s a picture of cannabis cuttings that were cloned in a cup of water using traditional methods.

Plant tissue culture is similar to regular cloning methods except you start with a smaller piece of plant and get it to grow first before you start growing roots. This first step is where all the work goes in because the piece of plant must be treated to remove all pathogens, and grown out in test tubes under ultra-clean conditions.

How does plant tissue culture differ from typical germination and cloning methods?

Everything is sterilized – Tissue culture creates an ideal environment for plants to grow because it hand-delivers everything a plant needs in the most easily absorbable form. Yet that environment is even better for bacteria and other unwanted microorganisms. That’s why you must sterilize everything to kill all unwanted fungi, bacteria, or other microorganisms before starting the culture. Otherwise, they will take over your cultures and kill/outcompete your sensitive plants. It may seem excessive, but a huge aspect of success in tissue culture is proper sterilization. This includes not just the tools, vials, and transfer equipment, but also the living plant tissue (known as the “explant”). Each item is sterilized with its own steps. For example, tools are usually sterilized with heat or pressure while the piece of the plant (explant) is typically treated with something more gentle like a bleach or detergent solution. Sterilization takes more time than any other step of tissue culture and, honestly, is the part of the culture process that scares most people away from getting started.

The tissue culture environment is great for plants but even better for microorganisms. They must be destroyed at the beginning or they will take over your culture. Yuck! Picture by BlueRidgeKitties.

Aseptic conditions – At every step of the process, you need to take steps to ensure totally sterile conditions. In a lab, a special transfer chamber is created for touching tools or pieces of the plant that are already sterile. At home this can be accomplished with a glass aquarium or plastic storage tub turned on its side, cleaned with a bleach or alcohol solution, and sealed with clean plastic. Holes are cut through the plastic to put your gloved hands through. To be extra sure about sterility, you can take a spray bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol and spray the inside, which will kill any microorganisms in the air and any that remain on surfaces.

This sterile environment is used every time you transfer plant material or otherwise must expose sterile substances or tools to the air. You may even leave your growing plants inside until they’re ready to go into soil, to minimize the chance of contamination. The more steps you skip as far as sterile conditions, the greater the chance you’ll run into problems with unwanted stuff growing and killing your plants.

Aseptic conditions are key to successful plant tissue culture. Picture by THC Design.

Special grow medium – With plant tissue culture, a sterile grow medium is created that provides plants with nutrients, sugar, water, and a place to grow. Basically the grow medium provides your little explant everything it needs to survive and turn into a whole plant of its own. The most common medium is based on the Murashige & Skoog formula (“MS Medium”), which can be made at home according to a recipe or bought as a pre-made powder. The MS formula is combined with distilled water and sugar, then adjusted to 5.8 pH. It’s possible to grow plants directly in this liquid medium, but it is often heated together with a thickening substance from red seaweed known as “agar”, which turns the liquid grow medium into a gel. The resulting grow medium is sterile and provides explants a place to grow. Additionally, plant hormones can be included in the grow medium to cause the explant to grow the way you want. For example, a cytokinin such as BAP (benzylaminopurine) will promote the formation of new shoots/stems/growing tips, while an auxin rooting hormone like NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) can be mixed to encourage rooting. Cannabis plants seem to respond best to the cytokinin TDZ (Thidiazuron) and auxins IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) for cannabis rooting and NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) plus TDZ for callus growth.[1] [2] [3] For many plant species including cannabis, you need to get your explant to grow shoots first using a grow medium with a cytokinin. Once your plant has formed shoots, you would carefully transfer it to your rooting grow medium so it grows roots. Once you’ve got a fully formed plant, you can transfer it to soil or other more traditional grow medium. This is just the beginning of what can be accomplished. Tissue culture gives you the ability to use a wide range of known plant hormones to produce a variety of different results.

In plant tissue culture, the Murashige & Skoog formula (“MS medium”) is the basis of most grow media. The MS medium provides explants everything they need to grow.

Requires less starting plant matter – With traditional cloning methods for cannabis, you need to cut off growing tips with stems that are at least a few inches long. That means each mature plant can only make a certain number of clones before it needs to be grown out more. Tissue culture lets you create hundreds of identical plants from a small piece of a plant, or even single plant cells.

The pieces of plant used in tissue culture are tiny compared to the stems needed for traditional cloning methods. Picture by u/Cannomics.

Plant hormones – By manually adding different plant hormones to your grow medium, you can encourage your explant to produce different types of tissue (roots, stems, etc.). That gives you control over almost every aspect of plant growth.

Plant hormones such as TDZ (Thidiazuron) are added to the grow media to help encourage cannabis explants to grow the way you want. Although it’s expensive to buy TDZ in bulk, tissue culture kits that are designed for cannabis typically provide smaller amounts.

Important Compounds for Cannabis Culture

• Cytokinin – Cannabis plants respond to the cytokinin TDZ (Thidiazuron) [1] [2] [3]
• Auxin – Cannabis plants respond best to auxin IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) for cannabis rooting[3]
• Callus growth – Can be produced and maintained on cannabis plants with a combination of auxin NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) plus cytokinin TDZ (at concentration 0.5 µM NAA plus 1.0 µM TDZ) [3]
• Rooting – cannabis explants have been rooted successfully on an MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg·L^-1 IBA and 0.05 mg·L^-1 NAA [7]

Tissue culture creates clones out of a small piece of plant such as a stem or leaf. The same general process (sterile conditions plus a sterile grow medium) can also increase germination rates for old seeds by preventing all contaminants while providing ideal growing conditions. This is an arabidopsis seed germination by BlueRidgeKitties in agar.

Explant cuttings from a mother cannabis plant. These cuttings will then be separated into smaller stem pieces that each have a single node. Picture by Dr. Hope Jones.

The first known example of plant tissue culture was by Gottlieb Haberlandt in 1898, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that it became more widespread as part of the orchid industry. Since then, the process has become popular with all kinds of plants all over the world. Interestingly, the technique has really not changed a lot since then, though now the information and supplies are available to more people than ever!

Tissue culture can be used for…

• propagating clones from a piece of the plant
• rejuvenate a “tired” or sickly mother plant by inducing what’s essentially a “reboot”
• remove epigenetic modifications that have built up over time in the plant tissue
• eliminate disease while keeping genetics
• sexual or asexual hybridization via protoplast isolation
• germinating old seeds
• produce botanical substances
• cell mutation and selection
• plant biotechnology
• somatic embryogenesis
• synthetic seed production

Did you know? Normally there is no way to clone an autoflowering plant once it’s close to harvest (and very difficult to do at any stage of life). You can preserve the genetics of auto-flowering cannabis plants by using a piece of one of their flowers to start your tissue culture. This “reverts” the tissue back to making stems and roots so the plant can be grown out again.[1]

It’s difficult to preserve genetics from auto-flowering plants with regular cloning techniques. Plant tissue culture lets you take “clones” of auto-flowering plants even after buds have fully formed. I wish I could have kept the genetics of this auto-flowering Creme de la Chem plant!

Overview of Cannabis Culture Process – 5 Stages of Micropropagation

Here’s a general overview of the entire plant tissue culture process. This section will help you understand whether micropropagation is right for you.

Note: A tissue culture with cannabis plants typically takes 10-14 weeks before you have plants ready to put in soil.

1. Identify the plant you want to use
2. Put living tissue into a sterile environment*
   1. Remove a piece of the plant (this sample is known as an “explant”)
   2. Trim explant
   3. Clean explant (start here if using seeds)
   4. Put explant in a disinfected test tube with suitable grow medium (typically a gel or liquid that includes nutrients and specific plant hormones)
3. Let tissue multiply (grow into actual plants)
   1. Ensure proper temperature, humidity, light, and nutrients
4. Force plants to make roots (known as “in vitro rooting”)
5. Transplant to final home and let plants acclimate to the outside world

*unwanted microbes can kill your new plant so it’s important to create a totally sterile environment (also known as “aseptic culture”)

The following plant tissue culture pictures are from Dr. Hope Jones. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the cannabis tissue culture community!

Remove a piece of the starting plant (harvest your explants) and sterilize them

After sterilization, the explants must be separated into smaller stem pieces with only a single node each

Closeup of trimmed explants propagating with new shoots in a grow medium

Continue culturing the cannabis explants until they produce significant new shoots

After the explants have grown the “top part” of the plant, it’s time to move them to a rooting grow media (to induce them to grow roots)

Important terms

• Agar – Substance from red seaweed that is commonly used to thicken a liquid grow medium into a gel
• Aseptic – sterile conditions that are free from any living contaminants or microorganisms including bugs, fungi, and bacteria
• Explant – The starting piece of plant matter. This is a piece of the original plant that will be propagated (leaf, seed, roots, stems, flowers, etc.)
• Murashige & Skoog formula (“MS Medium”) – Most common medium used for tissue culture. Contains everything a plant needs to grow
• Sterile technique – #1 most important factor to success with plant tissue culture (boring but true)
• Totipotency – a plant cell’s ability to divide and differentiate, which leads to the regeneration into a whole new organism

Terms often used interchangeably with “plant tissue culture”

• De Novo – growing plants out of something that normally wouldn’t grow  such as leaves (“de novo” means “anew”)
• Growing in vitro – Growing plants in a test tube or other similar environment (“in vitro” means “in glass”)
• Micropropagation – Taking tiny pieces of plants and making them grow

Basically, this is a method for multiplying plants by getting them to grow vegetatively.

Types of culture

• anther culture (for haploid plants)
• embryo culture – starting with the embryo inside a seed
• callus and cell culture – more likely to be genetically unstable
• flower culture – a viable way to culture cannabis plants [1]
• meristem culture – propagating with virus-free meristem cells from the tips of a shoot

These cannabis explants have been cultured and grown into little plants. They will now be transferred to a rooting medium to grow roots. Picture by Skunk Pharm Research.

Basic Tissue Culture Supplies

• Plant tissue – cannabis seed or a piece of cannabis plant
• Grow medium – typically a variation of Murashige and Skoog’s medium formula, sometimes combined with compounds like plant hormones or agar
• Test tubes or Jars – a place for plants to grow
• Sterilization equipment – A totally sterile environment is the #1 most important factor to success with plant tissue culture (boring but true)
  • Pressure cooker or microwave
  • Autoclave for high-pressure heat sterilization
  • Household bleach or alcohol (typically mixed with water)
• Forceps or tweezers – For grabbing and moving pieces of plants
• Lighted area – a bright place or shelf for your new plants to grow
  • Cool white or warm white fluorescent lamps – T8 grow lights work well
  • Gentle LED grow lights
• Heat source (stove or hot plate) – For preparing medium
• PH Test Kit – Test pH with either strips or a pH Pen, and adjust with PH Up or PH Down
• Pure water – either water purification equipment or an extremely clean source of water
  • bottled distilled water
  • deionized water
  • reverse osmosis water

Cannabis explants being cultured under a fluorescent grow light. Picture by Skunk Pharm Research.

Other Helpful Supplies

• PPM/EC meter to measure purity of water
• A precision balance or triple bean balance- accurately measure small amounts of chemicals
  • Alternative – use dilution method (if you need to measure 10 mg, mix 100mg into a solution and take 1/10)
• Hot plate/stirrer
  • can stir by hand but may not work as well, better with a double boiler
  • combo hot plate with automatic stirrer is best
• Media dispenser
  • 10-ml polypropylene pipet
  • heat resistant pyrex pitcher to pour hot medium into test tubes or jars
  • coffee urn can be used in a pinch
• Explant cleaning equipment
  • Usually hot plate/stirrer is enough
  • Can also use a tightly closed jar
  • mechanical shaker or rotator
• Sterilizing equipment for transfer tools
  • dip in (pure) alcohol and then burn it with a flame
  • Touch-O-Matic
  • Bleach solutions – household bleach containing 5.4% sodium hypoclorite. 1:10 bleach-to-water solution to soak instruments. 1:100 to rinse.

You want to sterilize all equipment before it touches your explants. Picture by MicroClone.

Where to make your “laboratory” for tissue culture

In order for tissue culture to work, you need to control the growing environment. You’ll get the best results if you ensure proper temperature, humidity, light intensity, light period/photoperiod, and nutrients. Aim for…

• Low foot traffic
• Stable temperature and the ability for temperature control around 21C/70F
• Access to water and a drain
• Easy to keep clean
• Good air quality free from dust, smoke, mold, spores or chemicals

Design Your Space – 3 different rooms to keep everything separate maximizes cleanliness but most hobbyists keep everything all in one room out of necessity

• A place to prepare media – for example, your kitchen table
• A place to transfer cultures – for example, a glass aquarium turned on its side and sealed with a piece of plastic sheeting. Sterilize with a bleach or alcohol solution and cut holes in the plastic so you can reach through with gloved hands.
• An area to grow out the cultures (sometimes called a “primary growth room”)
  • 75-85F (24-29C)
  • typically 16/8 light cycle
  • air circulation to reduce hot spots from lights
  • bookshelf with T8 fluorescent light works great!

Example of a plant tissue culture laboratory. Picture by Skunk Pharm Research.

“Quick and Easy” Guide to Making Grow Media

All these ingredients can be found at the grocery store, pharmacy, and/or health food store. Perfect for beginners or those just getting involved with plant tissue culture. This recipe comes from Plants from Test Tubes: An Introduction to Micropropagation on page 77.

What you Need

• 1/8 cup table sugar
• 1 cup tap water*
• 1/2 cup nutrient solution (1/4 tsp all-purpose 10-10-10 fertilizer dissolved in 1 gallon of water)
• 125-mg tablet of inosital (1/2 of a 250-mg tablet)
• 1/3 vitamin tablet with thiamine
• 2 tablespoons agar flakes

*Coconut milk can be substituted for tap water but growth will be somewhat different (could be good or bad depending on the type of plant, it’s unknown what effect it has on cannabis)

1. Combine ingredients in flask or beaker
2. Boil while stirring until agar has melted
3. Dispense medium into pint canning jars (or baby food jars)
4. Cover and process in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes at 15 pounds pressure
   1. Sterilize tweezers and razor blades in the cooker at the same time (wrap in aluminum foil before putting in cooker)
   2. Also sterilize pint jars of water (for explant cleaning)

Further Resources

Learn more about how to get started making cannabis plants in test tubes.

Articles

• Skunk Pharm Research: Tissue Culture – check the comments for additional interesting information
• Plant Tissue Culture: Classroom Activities in Plant Biotechnology – This is aimed at college students but it contains easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions for how to do basic tissue culture. Introduce yourself to the basic process without having to read an entire book!

Books

• Plants from Test Tubes: An Introduction to Micropropagation

Videos

• Cannabis Micropropagation, Cost Analysis and Viruses by Dr. Hope Jones, Chief Scientific Officer of C4 laboratories
• Cannabis Micropropagation by Cannabis Tech (accompanying article)
• Cannabis Tissue Culture and Germplasm Storage by Medicinal Genomics
• Cannabis Plant Tissue Culture by THC Design – focus on using tissue culture to remove viruses or diseases from sick cannabis plants

Sources

1 – Regeneration of shoots from immature and mature inflorescences of Cannabis sativa (https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/CJPS-2018-0308#.Xyo5QihKiUm)

2 – A rapid shoot regeneration protocol from the cotyledons of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669015306245)

3 – High Frequency Plant Regeneration from Leaf Derived Callus of High Δ 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Yielding Cannabis sativa L. (https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0030-1249773)

4 – Plants from Test Tubes: An Introduction to Micropropagation. Page 13.

5 – Polyploidization for the Genetic Improvement of Cannabis sativa (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00476/full)

6 – Recent Advances in Plant in Vitro Culture (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Recent_Advances_in_Plant_in_vitro_Cultur/yfugDwAAQBAJ?hl=en)

7 – A Micropropagation System for Cloning of Hemp (Cannabis Sativa l.) by Shoot Tip Culture – (http://www.pakbs.org/pjbot/PDFs/41(2)/PJB41(2)603.pdf)

The post Cannabis Tissue Culture: Grow Plants in a Test Tube appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Bud density isn’t everything… but it sure is nice! If your cannabis buds keep coming out light and fluffy and you’re not sure why, this tutorial will break it down for you. Learn exactly how to grow dense, rock-hard cannabis buds at home.

Example of dense marijuana buds. Looks and feels solid.

This cannabis density grow tutorial shows you how to prevent airy “popcorn” buds!

Why do cannabis growers want dense buds?

Growing dense buds has some key advantages:

• Potency – Dense buds tend to have higher levels of THC than looser buds from the same plant. This isn’t always the case, but the same principles that make buds dense (being located at the top of the plant, bright light, good growing environment, vigorous plants, etc.) also tend to raise THC levels. As a result, on average, the densest buds on a particular plant tend to be some of the most potent buds on that plant.
• Weight – If all your buds are dense, that will greatly increase the overall yield weights at harvest. This means each harvest gives you more weed, so it either lasts longer or leads to higher profits/savings. As another advantage, you can fit much more weed in less space when the buds are dense.
• Looks great – Beautiful aesthetics aren’t necessary, but it does put a smile on your face to see your homegrown weed looks amazing. In general, dense buds are seen as more visually appealing than looser buds. That may be because dense buds are often some of the best ones to smoke.
• Smoking experience – Dense buds tend to make a smoother and more longer-lasting smoke compared to loose or airy buds. Note: If cannabis buds get too dense they can be difficult to work with or grind up. It’s not the case that more density is always better.

Would you like to start growing denser cannabis buds? If so, you’ve come to the right tutorial. There are some extremely common reasons your cannabis buds aren’t growing as compact or dense as they could be, and I’m going to reveal exactly how to fix that today!

1. ) Genetics – The Foundation of Bud Density

You can’t overcome a cannabis plant’s genetics. Some strains only grow loose or airy buds, even in perfect growing conditions. If the genetics simply don’t make high bud density, it’s not your fault if buds come out fluffy. When genetics tend to grow loose buds, there’s not much you can do to change that. That being said, some of my absolute favorite strains have buds that tend to come out with a lower density. Low density doesn’t necessarily mean buds are bad. It’s common with sativa and haze-leaning strains, as well as certain hybrids.

Once you’re smoking the buds, you don’t notice the difference!

Not all good cannabis strains are dense. I personally love Liberty Haze for the captivating bud effects and excellent yields, yet the buds aren’t necessarily the most dense.

Choosing a strain that’s known to grow dense buds greatly increases the chance of producing dense buds. Indica-leaning strains tend to develop the densest buds, though these days, just about every strain is a hybrid that includes a mix of Indica and other genetics.

Grape Ape is a hardy strain that stays short and tends to grow solid buds even in poor conditions (plus the yields and effects are fantastic)

Grape Ape cannabis plants consistently produces rock-hard buds!

Moby Dick is another popular cannabis strain that produces dense buds with splendid effects.

If you’re looking for the highest THC possible, then check out Kushberry Moonrocks, which produces very dense, very potent buds.

Here are more dense strain recommendations:

Photoperiod strains

• Bananacane (Limited Edition) – Tight buds that grow in dark purple, giving a spectacular visual result. Limited edition, so get seeds before they’re gone!
• Bubba Kush – This may be the densest version of the classic strain, with outstanding effects.
• Grape Ape – A fruity “Purps” strain with a dense bud structure and up to 24% THC.
• Jelly Breath S1 – Easy to grow strain with great effects and tight, frosty buds.
• Purple Ghost Candy – An easy-to-grow strain with enormous yields, rock-hard buds, and insane potency. (Check out our full Purple Ghost Candy review)
• Somango – Although the buds have strong, psychoactive Sativa-like effects, the plant grows dense buds and has a relatively short flowering period just like an Indica-leaning strain.

Auto-flowering strains

• Cinderella Jack Autoflower – Most dense autoflowering strain I’ve grown so far!

What’s your favorite dense cannabis strain? Let us know and we may feature it in this list!

The Purple Ghost Candy we grew produced ultra-dense buds.

2.) Feed Me! (Proper Nutrition for Rock Hard Buds)

Cannabis plants tend to be relatively forgiving in the vegetative stage, and the exact nutrients provided don’t matter much as long as plants are growing green and healthy. Yet once you’re in the flowering stage and buds are forming, nutrients begin to have a direct effect on your bud quality, density, and yields.

Don’t Let Cannabis Plants Run Out of Nutrients While Buds Form

Don’t rely on regular potting soil for nutrients in the flowering stage. Plants that are grown in the same soil from seed to harvest often use up a lot of the nutrients by the time buds start forming. Proper nutrition is crucial for a plant to produce the biggest, densest buds.

Don’t rely on regular potting soil to provide nutrients while buds are forming. Plants need a boost of extra in the flowering stage to grow dense buds.

If you’re already adding cannabis-friendly nutrients in the water, this likely doesn’t apply to you.

However, if you’re not using nutrients, It’s a good idea to supplement your plant with flowering stage nutrients (high in P and K). The exception is when you’re either regularly transplanting into fresh soil, or using a composted, amended soil (which slowly releases organic nutrients throughout the plant’s life). The specific brand of nutrients isn’t nearly as critical as making sure you’re giving the plant what it needs. Learn more about the best cannabis nutrients.

Get quality nutrients to make sure your plants get enough nutrients in the flowering stage

Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom is a cheap nutrient option that works great for cannabis plants. Just give at 1 tsp/gallon of Grow in the Vegetative Stage, and 1 tsp/gallon of Bloom in the flowering stage.

Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom nutrients

The General Hydroponics Flora trio gives professional results in the flowering stage, whether growing in soil, coco, or hydro. This is what I personally use. Just follow the nutrient recommendation on the side of the bottle at 1/2 strength and you’re good to go.

General Hydroponics Flora trio nutrients (what I use)

Fox Farm Trio is an excellent cannabis nutrient that is formulated especially for growing in soil. It contains mostly organic sources of nutrients, and buds come out dense and frosty. I’ve had good results following their nutrient schedule at 1/2 or strength with “hot” soil (contains lots of nutrients), or 3/4 strength with regular potting soil.

Fox Farm Trio nutrients for soil

Avoid Too Much Nitrogen in the Flowering Stage

On the flip side, you can give plants too high levels of nutrients, especially certain nutrients. Providing high levels of nutrients overall causes nutrient burn, which is cosmetic and doesn’t have a massive effect on cannabis bud density. However, if you’re giving plants too high levels of nitrogen (N) in the flowering stage, it can reduce proper bud development.

Too much nitrogen in the flowering stage can suppress bud development

Luckily it’s effortless to tell if your plant has too much nitrogen. The main symptom of a nitrogen toxicity is dark green leaves, and possibly also clawed tips.

Are you giving too much nitrogen? Too much nitrogen (N) causes dark green leaves. Sometimes they appear almost shiny.

A nitrogen toxicity sometimes causes the tips of leaves to claw down

A nitrogen toxicity is super easy to fix. Just reduce the amount of nitrogen your plants are getting. Don’t stop giving nitrogen altogether though, pull it back.

If you’re using all-purpose or vegetative nutrients (which are high in nitrogen), you need to find different nutrients for once buds start forming. Suitable nutrients for the flowering stage are typically labeled as “Bloom” nutrients and contain low levels of Nitrogen. You don’t need to worry if you’re using nutrients made for flowering (like the Bloom bottle from Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom), or when using nutrients with multiple bottles that you combine according to a nutrient schedule (like the General Hydroponics Flora trio or the Fox Farm trio). Follow the instruction to automatically decrease the amount of Nitrogen during the flowering stage to the proper levels.

Buds don’t develop as well as they could when a plant is getting too much nitrogen

What if you’re using Bloom nutrients with low nitrogen, but plants still look dark?

In this case, reduce the nutrient levels overall. Don’t change the ratio. You can use fractions to figure out how much nutrients to add (for example trying to cut the nutrients by a 1/3), but I don’t like doing fractions. It’s too easy for me to mess up! Instead, I add extra water after mixing nutrients to dilute the overall levels without messing with the proportions.

When treating a Nitrogen Toxicity, make sure that you give enough water to get some runoff. Runoff water helps flush out any nutrient buildup in the grow medium.

Learn more about nitrogen toxicity.

Don’t Ignore Nutrient Deficiencies

Now you know that flowering cannabis plants need plenty of Phosphorus and Potassium (P&K), but not much Nitrogen (N). The next most common nutrient challenge in the flowering stage is the appearance of nutrient deficiencies. If you’re not adding nutrients in the water, there’s a chance that the plant needs higher levels of nutrients overall, and supplementing with a suitable Bloom nutrient will solve the problem.

Not sure which bloom nutrient to get? Dyna-Gro Bloom is an affordable and effective bloom nutrient for cannabis in any grow medium that will provide your plant with complete flowering stage nutrition in any grow medium. An easy way to prevent flowering stage deficiencies!

However, if you’re already using nutrients and still see a nutrient deficiency, it’s likely caused by incorrect pH at the roots.

Don’t ignore nutrient problems like this potassium deficiency! Keep plant leaves as healthy as possible in the flowering stage for the best bud development.

Why should you care about nutrient deficiencies?

Although P&K are most important to bud development, your plants need a variety of nutrients to complete normal plant processes. Any time you ignore a plant that’s getting sick, you’re lowering the overall growth rates and potentially reducing bud size and density.

Diagnose my nutrient deficiency! (Free Plant Doctor)

Is my cannabis nutrient deficiency caused by pH problems? (Picture Guide)

What About Supplements?

What about cannabis supplements? How important are they to bud density?

The truth is, you can achieve incredible bud quality and density using just base nutrients. They contain everything your plant needs for healthy growth, and so you don’t need any supplements to grow great buds. When I first started growing, I felt confused because it seemed like you need supplements to produce brag-worthy buds and yields. I’ve learned over the years that nutrient companies want you to believe that because that helps them sell more bottles of supplements.

I’m not saying that supplements don’t provide benefits, I just want to assure you that they’re not necessary. They can sometimes make things more complicated by interacting with your nutrients or each other. Many supplements can be useful in small doses but may harm your plants at higher doses, so give sparingly at first to see what effect they have.

Some supplements claim to increase the density of buds, but it’s hard to pin down exactly which ones work. Unfortunately, there are not many side-by-side experiments showing the difference that each supplement makes. Here are some popular choices.

These supplements claim to increase yields and density with extra Phosphorus (P) & Potassium (K)

• Liquid Koolbloom (by General Hydroponics)
• Hydroplex (by Botanicare)
• Beastie Bloomz (by Fox Farms)

Tips for using supplements in the flowering stage

• Only add one new supplement at a time. You’re most likely to have unexpected results if you add several new things at once.
• Adding just one supplement at a time also helps you pinpoint which supplement is causing the effects you see.
• Always use supplements made by the same company as your base nutrients. Sticking with one company reduces the chance of unwanted interactions. Each company designs its nutrients and supplements to be used together.
• Use any supplement sparingly. A little usually goes a long way! Too much of certain supplements can harm plants, burn the leaves, or stunt bud growth. Always start at the lowest recommended dose (or less) and only increase if plants seem to be responding well.

We all want magic in a bottle, but it’s important to remember that the environment and overall plant care are much more critical to achieving excellent bud quality and yields than any particular supplement. You can’t overcome a bad growing environment no matter what you give your plants (more on that next).

Learn more about cannabis plant supplements.

3.) Intense Light Makes Dense Buds

Since intense light is key to growing dense buds, the grow light you choose is key to improving density.

Unfortunately, some cannabis grow lights struggle to grow dense buds no matter what you do as a grower.

Grow lights that are excellent at producing high bud density:

• My list of the current best LED grow lights for growing cannabis – Most cannabis growers would be happiest with an LED grow light.
• HPS grow lights – These are good lights but they get extremely hot, so they’re best suited for growers with a cold grow room.
• LEC/CMH grow lights – Overall similar to HPS.

Fluorescent lights like T5s can produce dense buds when you keep the lights close. However, the lower buds on plants grown under fluorescents are typically on the fluffier side because the light doesn’t penetrate far into the plant. If density is most important to you, fluorescent lights are not be the best choice.

Fluorescent lights like T5s tend to make fluffy buds. Not the best choice for the best cannabis bud density.

If density is the most crucial factor for you, generally, you’ll get the best results in the flowering stage with powerful modern LEDs or HID (“big bulb”) lights like HPS. However, the technology for LEDs has improved dramatically in the last few years, and there are many modern models of LEDs that consistently produce long, dense buds.

However, some LEDs (especially the no-name ones) have low penetration down into the plant and buds simply don’t harden up. These low-quality LEDs often produce airy buds. For example, the following buds were grown under cheap LEDs. Buds stayed small and larfy even though plants looked happy and healthy. If the LED light looks “blurple” colored, it is typically not well suited to growing cannabis plants.

Avoid “blurple” colored LEDs for growing cannabis.

Good LEDs for growing cannabis in the flowering stage typically produce white light with a pink or yellow tinge.

Good flowering LEDs make light that looks mostly white, often with a pink or yellow tinge.

High-quality LEDs tend to cost a bit more, but the results can be worth it. For example, you can achieve impressive density and yields from LED models like the HLG Quantum Boards (HLG 100 3000k version, HLG Blackbird, etc.) as well as Spider Farmer and Mars Hydro LED grow lights. Learn more about the best LED grow lights for cannabis.

Certain LEDs produce high density. The HLG 100 (3000k version) uses only 100W and made these extremely dense buds for me.

I’m currently flowering several plants under the HLG 350R, and so far, I’m even more impressed.

If you’re not sure which LED to get, you can’t go wrong with a Spider Farmer LED.

Spider Farmer LEDs like the G4500 model produce super tight, potent buds at a much cheaper cost than most other LEDs of similar size and quality.

HPS grow lights consistently produce dense buds as long as plants are healthy and kept from being hot. However, HPS grow lights produce a lot of heat, and hot air makes fluffy buds. That means HPS grow lights are best suited for a cold grow room. If you’re battling heat, HPS don’t perform nearly as well as LEDs.

This bud was grown under HPS. As long as the temperature doesn’t go much over 80°F/27°C, HPS usually produces very dense buds.

LEC/CMH grow lights also tend to produce dense buds. One of my favorite aspects of growing with an LEC is buds come out extremely sparkly and stinky compared to other grow lights.

These sticky, dense buds were grown under a 315 Ceramic Metal Halide.

4.) Vegetative Stage – Prepare Plants to Make Dense Buds

During the vegetative stage, you have total control over a cannabis plant’s final shape and size. As a grower, you can use this to your advantage. Set your plants up correctly now so they naturally tend to grow dense buds once they enter the flowering stage.

Grow More Than Just One Main Bud

You can increase your overall yields by training your plant in the vegetative stage (with techniques like LST or manifolding), so it grows multiple primary buds instead of one.

Cannabis plants naturally tend to grow one main bud.

However, growers can use simple techniques in the vegetative stage. often called “plant training” or “plant pruning” that will force the plant to grow many buds in the flowering stage.

Plant training increases yields by forcing plants to grow multiple main buds instead of just one.

Avoid Too Many Bud Sites

However, if you grow a plant with tons and tons of buds sites, it may not be able to fatten them all up before harvest. This is most likely to happen on smaller plants, younger plants, and when using smaller grow lights. If you’ve got a relatively small plant, try to force the plant to focus on just a few main buds instead of dozens. A general rule of thumb is that plants under 2 feet tall should have 4-10 primary buds. Big or wide plants can support more.

Don’t spread the plant’s energy too thin or you may end up with tons of baby “popcorn” buds.

This plant has too many bud sites for its size. Although it may get good yields, none of the buds will grow particularly big or dense.

Bigger plants, older plants, and manifolded plants can support more big, dense buds. Especially when combined with a powerful cannabis grow light.

Don’t Switch to Flowering Stage Too Early

This is sort of related to the last point. Bigger plants can support bigger buds, and switching to 12/12 early means that your plant might not get big enough to make dense, thick colas/buds.

Try to switch to the flowering stage when your plant has reached about half the final desired size. Since plants about double in size after they start getting 12/12, this should give you the biggest plants possible for your grow space.

Switch to 12/12 when plants are half the final desired height. This helps ensure they’re big enough to support dense buds

5.) Flower Power – Create the Perfect Bud-Building Environment

The flowering stage is the most essential part of your plant’s life when it comes to bud quality, density, and yields. The way buds form is a direct reflection of their growing conditions. A common cause of airy buds is poor care or environment while the buds are forming. Here are several factors that can affect whether you get the best bud density in the flowering stage.

Avoid Ultra-leafy Plants While Buds are Forming

Problem: Plants are so leafy that air and light can’t get through the plant. Buds are covered by leaves so they aren’t getting direct light.

Result of Too Many Leaves: The buds don’t get as dense as they could.

These plants are too leafy for the flowering stage. Buds won’t fatten far into the plant, and won’t be as dense as they could be.

Air and light should be able to travel through the plant in the flowering stage. Every bud should get strong direct light. For some plants, you won’t have to do anything to achieve this. But with some plants, you may need to remove leaves to achieve the optimal amount of leafiness.

You may need to remove leaves if cannabis plants get too leafy in the flowering stage.

Not sure if your plants are too leafy?

This 3-step defoliation tutorial ensures your plants have the perfect amount of leaves.

Don’t ignore pests or disease

I mentioned nutrient deficiencies already, but it’s also vital that you react immediately to any other issues that may come up. Don’t ignore a problem until it gets out of control.

Typically a sick cannabis plant is simple to treat when it’s just starting to experience problems, but the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. An unhealthy plant won’t grow buds as well as a healthy one, so stay on top of your plant’s health.

Don’t ignore problems like pests or disease.

Avoid extreme temperatures (especially heat)

A lot of growers ignore issues with the plant’s flowering stage environment. Growers often don’t realize how much this can hurt their bud density, potency, and yields. It’s easy to ignore environmental problems like heat because typically, your plants and buds will still be growing.

If plants look okay, the heat should be fine, right? Unfortunately, no.

When the air is too warm (above 80°F/26°C) in the flowering stage, buds tend to grow more light and airy. Sometimes buds even grow unsightly foxtails as a result of heat.

Buds get less dense when it’s too hot. Look at the loose structure of this bud grown in extreme heat.

Too-cold air can also cause buds to grow small, airy, and loose.

Another thing about temperature: cannabis plants in the flowering stage like it to be a little warm in the day, but cool at night. Warm nights are also associated with airy buds. Try to keep the temperature consistently between 65-80°F (18-27°C) for the best bud development in the flowering stage.

Check out our complete cannabis temperature tutorial.

High humidity makes buds grow loose

Humidity in the flowering stage is another factor that’s often ignored. Each plant leaf is constantly adding moisture in the air, which means that the humidity tends to rise in the grow space as plants get bigger. What’s ironic is that cannabis plants like high humidity when they’re young/small, but it causes problems in the flowering stage after buds start forming.

High humidity can trigger bud rot and powdery white mildew, which is plenty enough reason to control humidity. But there’s more. Buds don’t get as sparkly as they could in high humidity, and buds overall tend to grow more loose and airy when the air is humid.

Keep humidity under 50% RH while buds are forming for the best results.

Check out our full cannabis humidity tutorial.

Keep humidity under 50% RH while buds are forming, or they may not get as dense as they could

Give lots of fresh, moving air

Buds seem to fatten the best when they get plenty of light and fresh air. You’ve already taken care of light, but you should also ensure your plants get excellent airflow. Air circulation helps control humidity, prevent wet spots, and moves air through the plant and around the buds.

Check out the full Air-Circulation and Exhaust Tutorial.

Make sure cannabis plants get fresh air and good airflow.

Avoid major stress or deficiencies

If your cannabis plant doesn’t “look good” or seems sickly in the flowering stage, that’s the first thing you should focus on to improve the bud density at harvest.

If plants look generally unhealthy, you should focus on fixing that before trying anything else. These plants are suffering from heat stress. Look how loose the buds are.

Buds tend to stay small and fluffy on an unhealthy plant.

Diagnose your sick cannabis plant here!

6.) Don’t Rush the Finish – Proper Harvesting and Curing

Don’t harvest too early

Buds gain a lot of size, weight, and density during the last few weeks before harvest time. That means if you harvest your cannabis plants a few weeks early, the buds will be significantly smaller and less dense than they could be. Early-harvested buds also aren’t as potent and may give some people a headache. There are lots of great reasons to harvest your plants at the right time.

Learn the exact right time to harvest your cannabis plants.

Don’t harvest until cannabis plants are ready. These buds are dense and ready to harvest!

Always dry and “cure” your cannabis buds

Drying and curing buds makes them smoke better, smell better, feel more potent. Don’t skip this step!

As a bonus, drying and curing can help tighten buds up for that “California dispensary” look.

How to dry and cure your cannabis buds.

Buds tend to look more “tight” and feel denser after being dried and cured.

I’ve found that waiting to trim buds until after drying can also help them feel and appear more dense (compared to trimming before drying)

If you avoid these mistakes, you will produce cannabis buds as dense as you’ve always dreamed!

The post Why can’t I grow dense buds? [Bud Density Tutorial] appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

What is “DLI” (daily light integral) and how can you increase it for bigger yields?

Definition: DLI stands for daily light integral. It describes how much light in the PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) range is delivered within a 24-hour period to an area. “Daily” because it’s how much in a 24-hour period, “Light” because it measures photons, and “Integral” because scientists need to use an integral (calculus term) to calculate the DLI.

DLI is a measure of the total number of photons in the PAR range received in a day for a specific space. Imagine a bucket that catches photons. DLI measures how full the bucket is after 24 hours.

What does that actually mean? Light is made of many photons, but scientists have found plants can only use photons in a certain range on the spectrum, which they’ve named the PAR range. That’s why DLI is such a useful measurement for growing cannabis. If you imagine photons raining down on your plant like rain, DLI is like if you took a container and captured only PAR photons for a day, then counted the number of photons in the bucket. Essentially, it tells you how many usable photons land on your plant in a day.

Why is DLI important to you as a marijuana grower?

Because increasing your DLI (properly) is an effective way to increase yields. A higher DLI increases total photosynthesis and drives cannabis plants to produce big buds in the flowering stage. To a point, of course, too much light can harm yields.

The right DLI results in faster growth and bigger buds. These cannabis plants were grown under a Mars Hydro TSL 2000 LED (here’s the full grow journal) and given excellent DLI to produce over 10 ounces at harvest.

What is the optimal DLI for cannabis plants?

Unit of measurement: DLI is measured by scientists in moles of light per square meter per day or mol·m^2·d^1 (moles per day). However, I’ve noticed most growers will just say a number and DLI, like “40 DLI” instead of saying “40 mol·m^2·d^1”. That’s much simpler so I will be doing that for the rest of the article.

Healthy mature cannabis plants typically thrive in 35-45 DLI

Why a range and not a number? The exact answer is hard to pin down because…

• Spectrum, light intensity, and type of grow light affect the optimal DLI for cannabis plants (for example, good cannabis LEDs can deliver more DLI and produce overall greater photosynthesis without harming your plants)
• Optimal DLI changes throughout a plant’s life because mature plants can handle higher DLI
• Plants can utilize a higher DLI if it’s spread over more hours
• Plants can handle higher or lower DLI at different temperature and humidity ranges
• Health matters – happy plants thrive with high DLI, but sick plants get sicker under high DLI
• Each strain is different. Genetics from the equator can often handle higher DLI than genetics from cold climates.

How to understand DLI in your head: Light intensity x hours of light per day

How to officially calculate DLI: 3.6 · 10^-3 · PPFD (umol/(m^2·s)) · light-hours/day (search Google for a free DLI calculator)

It seems a little confusing with all the numbers and calculus equations, but don’t worry, keep reading and I’ll teach you how to give your cannabis the optimal DLI for your grow light and environment so you get the fastest growth and biggest yields without making plants sick or sacrificing bud quality.

Most important point to remember about DLI: Giving plants optimal DLI helps them grow faster without negative consequences. Give a lot of light, but not too much!

Keep reading and learn how to give optimal DLI without any calculations whatsoever

How to Increase DLI

DLI is how much light a plant gets on a daily basis, but only counting the light that a plant can use for photosynthesis. To increase DLI you need either…

1. More intense light
   1. Stronger grow light
   2. Move light closer
2. More hours of light a day

Now you know that DLI describes how much light your plant receives each day, but that’s not the end of the story. There’s more to DLI than just making sure your plant gets the right number of photons each day. The intensity of the light (number of photons hitting the plant at a time) and spectrum (wavelength of the photons) change the DLI your plant can handle each day. On top of that, the optimal DLI changes depending on the specific light source, growing environment, and overall health of the plant. A great environment and happy plants allow you to increase DLI (either by increasing light intensity or increasing the number of hours of light each day) and the cannabis plant will grow more because you’ve increased the total amount of photosynthesis each day. But increasing the DLI above the max won’t make plants grow faster and may even harm them. A plant receiving more intense light can typically handle fewer hours of light a day because its DLI gets maxed out faster.

Optimizing DLI helps you get the most from your grow lights, but having good equipment matters, too. This Spider Farmer SF-2000 produced over 10 oz of weed with just 200W of electricity (check out the full grow journal).

Optimal Cannabis DLI in the Vegetative Stage

In the vegetative stage, I personally think looking at your plants is the best way to determine how to give light to your plants. The cannabis plant’s light needs differ greatly from week to week, especially over the first few weeks after germination.

Remember, as far as you’re concerned, DLI = light intensity x hours of light per day. So what you focus on as a grower regarding DLI is only the light intensity and the hours of light a day.

 Best light intensity in the vegetative stage

• Most grow lights come with a recommended vegetative stage distance. That’s the best place to start because the distance is suggested by the people who actually made the light. But if you’re not sure, cannabis grow lights in the 200-400 watt range typically have an optimal light distance somewhere in the 18-24″ range (except 250W HPS which is 12-13″ and 400W HPS is 13-15″ away)
• If you notice light stress, you should move the grow lights further away.
• If plants look green and healthy without any signs of stress, you may be able to move the light closer.
• Seedlings can’t handle much light, but mature healthy cannabis plants in the vegetative stage can handle extremely high amounts of DLI (sometimes as much as 50 DLI)

I keep a 300W LED grow light about 2-3 feet away from seedlings and then about 24″ away once plants are 3-4 weeks old.

Best number of hours of light per day

18-24 hours of light per day recommended in the vegetative stage.

• 18 hours (pros and cons)
  • plants can handle more intense light since fewer hours of light lowers your overall DLI
  • this schedule can help control heat by setting 6-hour dark period to hottest part of the day
  • plants less sensitive to problems since for any light intensity there is a lower overall DLI
  • less likely to see nutrient deficiencies
  • plants seem to gain hardiness benefits from having a dark period
• 24 hours (pros and cons)
  • healthy cannabis plants grow faster under 24 hours of light due to the higher DLI
  • plants are more sensitive to problems and nutrient deficiencies
  • more likely to see light burn or yellow leaf tips on plants
  • great choice in a cold grow room since grow lights never turn off and can keep plants warm 24 hours/day

Anything between 18-24 hours is great in the vegetative stage (or autoflowering strains from seed to harvest). I recommend choosing on the lower end if you’re dealing with heat, plants seem sensitive, or you just want to reduce the overall chance of running into growing problems. I recommend 24 hours of light a day if you want to push your plants to max growth. 24 hours is also a great choice if you have a cold grow space and want to prevent the plants from getting cold when the light turns off.

DLI trick: If you want the same ease of growth as 18-hour days but prefer to keep lights on 24 hours a day for temperature reasons, move your grow lights a little further to reduce the overall DLI and you’ll get the best of both worlds.

Optimal Cannabis DLI in the Flowering Stage

In the cannabis flowering stage, your plants start growing buds. For photoperiod plants, this is initiated by reducing the number of light hours each day and giving plants a 12/12 light schedule with a 12-hour dark period daily. For autoflowering plants, you don’t change the light schedule. Autoflowering plants will naturally start making buds around 4 weeks from germination so you give them 18-24 hours of light a day from seed to harvest.

Keep reading to learn how to maximize DLI in the flowering stage for the best growth, bud quality, and marijuana yields

How should you increase DLI in the cannabis flowering stage?

Either by giving plants more intense light, or giving them more hours of light a day. Just remember that you don’t have a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to light hours for photoperiod plants in the flowering stage, so the main thing you can change to affect DLI is the light distance.

Best light intensity in the flowering stage

• Most grow lights come with a recommended flowering stage distance, which is typically closer than what was recommended in the vegetative stage. You can understand why now since the reduced hours of the flowering stage lowers the overall DLI (so your plants can handle more intense light)
• Autoflowering plants typically need a somewhat further light distance than photoperiod plants in the flowering stage because the extra hours of light a day increases the DLI. With autoflowering plants you may end up giving about the same intensity as during the vegetative stage.
• If you are noticing light stress, move grow lights further away.
• If plants look green and healthy without any signs of stress, you may be able to move the light closer, but watch plants closely and make any changes slowly over several days. I personally feel it’s better to keep lights a little too far than too close because bud quality suffers under too-intense light while yields usually are still good even if the light is a bit further away. But to maximize yields you want to keep lights as close as possible without harming plants.

Most 300W LED grow lights perform excellently about 24″ away in the flowering stage (check out the full grow journal)

Best number of hours of light per day in the flowering stage

Most growers know all about increasing light levels, but what about hours of light a day in the flowering stage?

Photoperiod strains: 12 hours of light per day (average)

This is where cannabis strain can make a difference. Some strains can readily flower in up to 14 hours a day, but some will stay vegetating on that schedule. Nearly all strains will flower normally with a 12/12 light schedule so that is typically what’s recommended for indoor growers to reduce the chance of flowering problems that can result from long days like revegging or hermies.

Autoflowering strains: 18-24 hours of light per day (no change from the vegetative stage)

Since an autoflowering strain is able to flower under 18-24 hours of light a day, it’s hard to beat how fast autoflowering buds grow. The increased DLI from those extra hours allows some autoflowering strains to yield as well as photoperiod strains in less time.

How to calculate DLI for the flowering stage

• Determine light intensity (find the PPFD measurement for your grow light at its current distance from plants)
  • Many LED grow lights list PPFD measurements for a specific distance in the product specifications
  • Measure light intensity where your plants are with a lux meter and convert to PPFD (not totally accurate, but can give a good estimate, check google for lux to PPFD calculators)
  • A professional PAR light meter like the Apogee MQ-500 ($550) is better at measuring how much light is in the PAR range. Lux meters were made for human eyes, PAR meters were made for plants. PAR light meters will give you the most accurate measurement to calculate DLI but they cost a ton of money. People were always telling me that you need a PAR meter so I actually bought an Apogee MQ-500 and compared the readings to various lux meters. In the end, they all give you an excellent idea of how much light is getting to any particular part of the tent.
• Determine light hours per day
• Take those two numbers and plug them into a DLI calculator (many on Google) – or calculate yourself with DLI = 3.6 · 10^-3 · PPFD (umol/(m^2·s)) · light-hours/day

Optimal DLI in Flowering Stage = ~40. But always pay more attention to how your plants look than this number. If you see light stress, move the grow light further away (at least for a few days) even if the DLI number is exactly 40. If plants are growing green and healthy without any sign of light stress, you may be able to move lights closer and increase the DLI over 40. Since plants need a different DLI throughout the flowering stage, and each strain is different, pay attention to what your plants are telling you. And remember, the healthier the plants and better the environment, the more DLI they can handle and still thrive.

Professional PAR meters like the Apogee MQ-500 (~$550) give the most accurate results but are probably unnecessary for most home growers

I got an Apogee MQ-500 and it was fun to play with, but in the end, the results didn’t offer a whole lot of value for a home grower compared to a much cheaper lux meter combined with a free lux to PPFD calculator.

Now that you have a good idea of what DLI means to you as a cannabis grower, you may be interested in one of our other growing articles:

• (2025) 5 best LED grow lights for cannabis 
• 7 environment hacks to increase bud quality
• Check out my side-by-side grow journals (featuring many different grow lights from HPS to LECs to LEDs – see grow lights in action!)
• 10 Step Beginner Weed Grow Guide 

The post How to Increase “DLI” for Bigger Yields (Daily Light Integral Tips) appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

This tutorial is a condensed version of the classic “How to Keep a Bonsai Mum” article written by the legendary Oldtimer1. Although the original article was published in 2000, this bonsai training method recently resurfaced and has become popular for hobbyist cannabis growers without a lot of space. With so many people growing at home these days, this technique is more useful now than ever.

Free Clones Forever! (How do I make clones?) These 8-month-old marijuana bonsai mother plants are based on this tutorial. In addition to the sunny window, a bright lightbulb shines nearby for 14+ hours a day to keep them in the vegetative stage. An easy and fun way to hold onto genetics! ~Nebula Haze

This tutorial will teach you how to turn a cannabis plant into a bonsai mother (giving you access to unlimited free clones!)

But what is a mother plant? A “mother” is a plant you keep alive so you can take clones whenever you want (the clones are the “children” which is where the term “mother” comes from). Learn how to clone cannabis plants in a cup of water (easiest but slow), with seedling plugs (almost as easy but faster), or in an aerocloner (fastest). One common reason growers keep mothers is to save money by producing new cannabis plants for free (or at least basically free). The other is to hold onto good genetics. If you have a plant that grows beautifully and produces good yields of high-quality bud, you may want to save the genetics so you can grow the plant again in a future grow. A clone will grow the same as the mother plant.

Instead of having to pay for each seed from a seed bank, a mother plant can be used to create almost unlimited new clones of itself. In addition to not costing anything, new clones are more predictable than seeds from random crosses. Seeds carry a mix of traits from both parent plants, some of which may be recessive attributes, while each clone consistently grows just like the mother.

Taking clones can save a ton of money versus buying seeds because each new plant is simply cut off the mother and grown into a full plant

Cloning can be a big money saver over buying individual seeds, but frugality isn’t the only reason to keep mother plants. Sometimes it’s about saving great genetics. Certain cannabis plants are so special they beg to be cloned so more people can enjoy them. If you ever identify a particularly great plant, you can actually take clones of it and turn them into mother plants. You can even take clones in the flowering stage if you just can’t let a certain plant go. 

Clones are made by cutting off the ends of branches and planting those pieces so they grow roots. These “cuttings” grow into full plants that are a genetic clone of the mother. When you grow and harvest them, the characteristics will be basically identical to the mother plant.

Why would you want a bonsai mother?

Unlike a commercial grower, most home growers don’t have a lot of grow space to dedicate purely to housing mother plants. Keeping each mother small, like a bonsai tree, lets you maintain a huge selection of genetics in a small grow space without very much electricity. 

The bonsai mother technique has become a staple for indoor growers who want to keep a huge variety of genetics in a small cannabis garden. This version of the tutorial cuts out extra discussion and leaves just the instructions with pictures. This way you can get straight to bonsai-ing. But if you ever have a little extra time for some fun and interesting discussion, I highly recommend reading the original article in its entirety by Oldtimer1.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create and maintain many small mother plants in a tiny grow space. Each mother plant can produce hundreds of new clones over time, so you basically gain the power to produce unlimited new plants for free! 

Example of a bonsai plant by Don de Marco

Part 1: How to Create a Bonsai Mother Plant

This tutorial will show you how to create a fully established bonsai mother plant.

This bonsai mother, if well-fed, will be able to produce 10 to 30 good cuttings every 14 days under an HID grow light, or every 20 days under a fluorescent grow light. This means a 4 ft x 2 ft shop light with 18 mother plants could produce an output of over 9500 cuttings a year.

Typical Bonsai Mum

That’s not intensive production, but it allows the connoisseur to keep a good selection of strain varieties in a relatively small space.

1.) Put Chosen Mother in a Square Pot

Let’s start by turning a rooted cutting into a mother plant. This is simple. With every batch of clones, there are always a few that stand out because they generally appear sturdier and better looking overall. Pick one or two of these to make your mother plant. Remember this mother plant will provide you with cuttings 4 to 18 times a year for the next 3 to 15 years, so only the best will do.

Note: I find square pots are much easier to deal with when it comes to root pruning, as you will see later.

Pick a fully rooted through cutting and put it in a 2.5-inch square pot.

2.) Cut the plant short so it only has 3-4 growing tips left

Once you’ve chosen your cutting, trim its top back to leave 3 or 4 side shoots.
Top view

3.) Manipulate the plant into an “open cup” shape (open up the middle as the plant grows)

The little branches you left from before will become the main framework of your mother plant. The goal is to try to get them to form an open cup shape as they grow. The top 2 branches usually grow the fastest unless you take steps to even everything out. The following sequence helps you create a more symmetrical plant.

• “Top” the two tallest branches when they get to about 5 inches long (pinch or snip off the growing tip just above a leaf node).
• Once the remaining branches catch up to the same height as the ones you just topped, top/pinch the growing tips off them as well.
• This process of topping multiple branches will encourage side shoots to form.
• Remove any branches that grow into the central cup shape.

4.) Take first set of clones

After completing the last step, you should have 6 to 8 leading branches coming up. When they reach 4 to 6 inches long, they can be taken as your first set of clones.

• Cut them back to just above the first leaf node of the new growth

Note: Check out Part 3 of this tutorial (below) for more details and pictures of taking clones

After the cuttings have been taken, the mum is only a tiny bit larger than the last time she was cut back but the main branches will be starting to get thicker.

5.) Move mother plant to bigger pot

After you’ve taken the first set of cuttings, it’s time to move up to the next pot size. A 3-inch sq pot is ideal.

6.) You’ve got a bonsai mother!

You should now have 12 to 16 leading shoots, as well as others coming up from lower nodes. In total, there may be 30 potential clones or more. Any really thin ones or any growing into the center, either cut back to one node or remove altogether instead of taking cuttings.

Here are bonsai mothers at different stages

In the picture:

1. The trimmed cutting from above.
2. Has had 2 sets of cuttings taken off and is more than ready to move to a 3-inch pot. As you can see it is a little short of Nitrogen, which is why it’s better to transplant to fresh soil after the first set of cuttings.
3. This mother plant is in a 3-inch pot. 12 cuttings have been taken with 2 left on to show where to cut back to.
4. This is a five-year-old Mum that has just had 32 cuttings taken off and could do with some more small twiggy bits removed. She is in a 1-liter pot and has been since she was 3 months old.

Note how all have an open center; this allows light to both the center and the outside. It will fill in between taking cuttings but if pruned back to this form, makes better and more even growth giving more good cuttings each time.

General Care and Maintenance

The mother plants need just enough nutrients to keep them healthy. Feed nutrients at half-strength twice a month. This keeps them in good general health but doesn’t overfeed them. If you want faster production at any point change to a full-strength feed once or twice. Every 2 to 4 weeks a new batch of cuttings are taken even if they are not needed and just put in the worm bin. You can think of it as being like having to mow the lawn and keeps the mum the same size and form for years. Because so much is taken away they can get short of macronutrients so every month or so give them a foliar spray or light dose of nutrients. Judge this by how the plants are looking not by a timetable.

One of the main things that all growers need to learn is regular close observation to know when they are healthy and notice the first signs of deficiencies appearing.

Part 2: Root Pruning (Renovation and Maintenance)

Bonsai mother plants will need root pruning once or twice a year to stay healthy. The frequency depends on how intensively they are fed and how good your water quality is.

Note: The root pruning method stays the same whether it’s being used for routine maintenance or renovation of a sick plant.

Here we are dealing with a 7-year-old mother plant that hasn’t been root trimmed for nearly a year and was deliberately neglected for the last 10 weeks so you could see the recovery.
First, trim back nearly all the top growth back to the main framework of branches. Leave one or two tiny shoots at the tip of each branch to draw sap and keep the branch alive.

Don’t remove all the shoots and buds because this often causes “die back”. Once that starts the whole plant usually dies within a month or two. But you’re good as long as you leave a few small shoots, even if they’re yellow from lacking Nitrogen. They will soon start to grow and green up as the new roots start forming!

Next, the rootball should have 3/4 of an inch cut off each side and an inch off the bottom.

This reduces the 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inch rootball to 3 x 3 x 3.5 inches high after the loose soil is scraped from the top.

This means that two-thirds of the soil is being replaced. A good full strength organic compost is used when repotting and it only takes a day or two for the roots to really start growing into the new compost.  It is very important to make sure there are no voids or air gaps left when packing the sides, use a pencil or small dibber, fill slowly and firm lightly.

Set the bottom of the rootball on about 3/4 of an inch of compost then pack out the sides and finally cover the top with a 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. This means the mother is planted 1/4 inch deeper every time root pruning is done about 1/2 an inch a year. In a couple of years from now I will cut down vertically and split the plant in two as the side branch will have a root system of its own. Using this method the roots are constantly being replaced and as well the main trunk replaced slowly. This seems to keep the bonsai mother plants healthy for many years.

The last picture is 12 days under an HPS light after the root and top pruning. It tells its own story! Already there are enough nice leaders to make 10 good cuttings.

The second mother of our selected “ES” line lasted for just over 15 years using this method. I have also kept prized males for breeding (bonsai father plants) in this pot size and some are over 5 years old.

That’s it. You should have all the info you need to make and root cuttings in compost and make and maintain bonsai mother plants. It’s easy, give it a go!

Part 3: How to Take Clones from Bonsai Mother Plants

This section covers my cloning system in detail, along with a brief outline about our mother plants. Every grower can get the same results by imitating this easy organic system.

Mother plants are kept so their roots are restricted using standard bonsai methodology and techniques. It is an excellent method for keeping mother plants long-term and has proved a very reliable system since we developed this method 24 years ago (editor: from the year 2000, so around 1976). The longest I’ve kept a mother like this without having to be replaced is just over 15 years.

On average….

• Replace pure indicas every 3 years
• Replace hybrids every 4 to 5 years
• Replace pure sativas every 6 to 7 years.

Of course, it depends on the care they are given, and every strain is different. These days most plants are hybrids and you don’t find much “pure” anything, but this can be a helpful guide. Male plants can be kept in the same way and in fact will stand more abuse than mother plants.

My Clone, Mother and Father box

It’s a double deck with two 4ft x 2 ft lights each with 4 x 40w cool white fluorescent lights.

Clone, Mother and Father box

270 rooted cuttings, in plugs ready to go into pots. Close-up of top tray right

One of the big advantages of using bonsai mother plants is that each only needs a maximum of 8 x 8 inches. So a 2 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft high box with a 4-tube fluorescent shop light can hold 9 mothers. We call the plants we keep Mums and Dads; not to be confused with chrysanthemums 🙂

I once read a quote in High Times that said you get genetic degeneration by keeping mother plants long term – this is total rubbish!

Degeneration can certainly occur if a mother plant gets infected with a reversion virus, but the buds produced today from our mother plants is just as potent and good-smelling as when it was first grown out from seed many years ago. In fact, it is better now. We have better lighting and superior growing techniques, allowing the clones to express their potential more fully.

This is our largest mother plant in a 1-liter pot (the largest size used). With all the top growth pictured she is about 13 inches tall and ready to take cuttings. Inset is a cutting being clipped out see below.

I use fine-point scissors for trimming the plants, they are fast and easy to use. Quick enough to do 2 to 3 cuttings a minute. Forget the stories that they bruise the stem and cause rot, it’s rubbish! They do need to be sharp, so buy a new pair and keep them just for this task. As far as hygiene is concerned, providing all your mother plants are free of virus, simply put them through the dishwasher after every session to get rid of the sap build up. This keeps them free and easy to use.

How to prepare the cuttings (refer to picture below)

1. This tip is ready to get prepared for rooting
2. Snip off the side shoot and leaf the node you want to root.
3. Cut just below the node you want to root.
4. Dip the trimmed node in rooting hormone.

How to Insert the Cuttings

1. Use a 3.5-inch square pot to root in
2. Fill with half perlite and half universal compost or rich potting soil
3. The mix is pre-soaked with water dosed with 1 ml of 35% or 2ml per litre of 17.5% H2O2 and 5 ml of Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed
4. Then the cuttings are dibbed into the compost, 9 to 12 per pot
5. The dibbed cuttings are then watered in using a fine rose same mix as above to settle them in.
6. Cover with a plastic bag and put under constant 24-hour lighting
7. Preferably cool-white fluorescent lighting at 20 w per sq foot and a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Inserting cuttings and covering with bag

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“There are a number of reasons for not rooting directly into plug trays.”

Let’s look at what we need from a rooted cutting… We want one that is suited to growing in a confined space i.e. a pot. They are as closely matched as possible. To get good yields from a grow, uniformity is the rule. It is no good having one plant that produces 50 grams when its 2 neighbors only produce 15 grams each. They are identical stock but this is what is often seen in grow after grow. It is much better to try and get all the plants averaging 35 grams well within the capacity of the stock line of a plant that can make 50 grams.

Remember we are talking about growing in soil-based or soilless compost mixes. The root type that the cutting produces is very important, lots of fine feeder roots are the ideal, anchor and tap roots are totally unwanted when growing in a pot. Remember the amount feeder root mass directly effects the potential crop weight

The 3.5-inch pots are 4 inches high; the rooting mix is very open with low nutrient content. This encourages early taproot development. Not all the cuttings will have rooted at the same time, so when they are transferred to the plug trays the root balls are trimmed to the same size and the tap root is removed, this goes a long way towards equalizing the clones. Once they are transferred as below they tend to stay pretty even and grow on rapidly. To show what we are looking for some equalized clones grown on and just put into flower. There are several varieties in this grow and there is not more than an inch or so between plants in each variety. They are placed by variety to make a stadium effect and make maximum use of light.

Around ten days later the cuttings will have rooted through. The rootball is gently broken up, each cutting has its roots trimmed back to equalize the cuttings and make them fit the plug tray! Full-strength peat or coir compost using organic base fertilizers are used for this.

Then they are put back in the Clone/Mother box for about 5/6 more days until thoroughly rooted through, this is very important at all stages of repotting! Fully rooted plants just jump ahead when moved on– we have found that plants moved into bigger pots too early typically produce 25% to 30% less final crop weight!

Moving the rooted cuttings to plug trays.

Cuttings in plug trays a few days later ready to move on to their first pots.

Showing a cutting out of the plug tray, fully rooted out and ready to go.

Cuttings like this can be taken from any plants in the vegetative stage.

That’s it… you are ready to grow!

(by Oldtimer1. Foreward and adaptation by Nebula Haze of GrowWeedEasy.com)

The post How to Create a Bonsai Mother for Unlimited Clones appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Ready to harvest more than 1 pound of top-shelf cannabis right from inside your home? Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Turning that dream into a reality is fully within your grasp, and I’m going to show you exactly how to produce a pound of top-shelf weed indoors. Harvesting a pound (that’s an eye-popping 16 ounces) of your own top-shelf cannabis is about more than just the weight. It’s also about independence from buying, the delight of sharing your crop with others, and the freedom to have so much weed you never run out, with enough left over to make your own goodies like edibles, extracts, and tinctures.

Our first 1-pound indoor cannabis harvest based on this tutorial (600W HPS grow light).

And our first 1-lb harvest after switching to an LED grow light (600W LED grow light).

One key to growing a pound of good weed indoors is you have to give your plants the right growing environment. A large tent sized at 4’x4’x6.5′ (1.2mx1.2mx2m) is a manageable size that provides an ideal place to consistently produce your 1-lb cannabis grow.

Here are some examples of grow lights that would be suitable for this size grow tent:

• Spider Farmer SF4000 LED grow light – (uses 450W) – Yields just under 1 pound
• Mars Hydro FC-E4800 LED grow light (uses 480W) – Yields over 1 pound per harvest
• 600W HPS (Uses 600W) – Yields up to 21 ounces or 1.3 lbs
• HLG Blackbird 600W LED (600W, dimmable) – Yields up to 24 oz or 1.5 lbs. Recommended choice – this LED light was designed specifically to achieve high yields in a 4×4 grow tent.
• 1000W DE HPS (Uses 1000W) – Yields up to 35 oz or 2.2 lbs, VERY hot, you will need cooling.

Example Plants Grown in This Size Tent

Cannabis plants grown in a 4’x4′ grow tent under a 600W HPS.

Six plants under a 600W LED grow light in 4’x4’x6.5′ (these are only on day 38 of flowering).

Two Hydroponic Plants under a 600W HPS in 4’x4’x7′ grow tent – Yielded 23.09 oz at harvest!

Those are just a few examples. Many of you have written in asking for more tutorials about growing large amounts of weed in the home environment. We have heard you loud and clear! Here’s the proven strategy we’re covering in today’s cannabis tutorial that will teach you how to yield 1 lb or more of top-shelf cannabis in a single large grow tent:

Overall Strategy

1.) Start with a high-yielding cannabis strain – Learn how to find the right strain.

2.) Get your supplies – Here’s an example of a complete shopping list for a 4’x4′ grow tent that gets great results with cannabis.

3.) “Top” plants at a young age – Cut off the top of the main stem when seedlings are a few weeks old.

4.) Train plants to grow flat and wide (like a table) in the vegetative stage.

• Simple Way: Either use plant twist tie to hold down branches…
• Using a Net: Invest in a Scrog net and install it to be half the final desired height of your plants. Any time a stem grows above the net, tuck it back underneath until you’ve filled the entire net

5.) Initiate the flowering stage, then…

• Defoliate – Follow a strategic defoliation schedule
• Not too hot, not too humid – Maintain a good environment while buds are forming.
• Keep plants healthy – Avoid bugs and nutrient deficiencies.
• If using a net,  add a second net and arrange buds to fill the entire net as they grow.

6.) Harvest at the right time.

7.) Dry and jar buds properly.

This is just a super basic outline. Check below for more details and step-by-step instructions!

How to Grow 1 Pound of Weed: Step-by-Step Instructions

1.) Start with a high-yielding cannabis strain

Learn how to find the right strain (regardless of what your goals are).

Some strains naturally yield much more than others. Choose high-yielding strains to maximize your harvest weight.

Autoflowering Strains vs Photoperiod Strains: Which is better for cannabis yields?

Although many auto-flowering strains are high-yielding, and produce fast harvests under 3 months, you don’t have as much control over plant growth patterns and size as you do with photoperiod strains. That’s because autoflowering strains start making buds after about 4 weeks, even if your plants aren’t as big as you need them to be yet. Cannabis plants about double in size after they start flowering, and if your autoflowering plants are too small at that point, they’ll stay small until harvest no matter what you do. Especially for beginners, it can be difficult to consistently harvest 1 lb per harvest with auto-flowering strains because even a small problem at the beginning of the grow can stunt your plant size.

On the other hand, photoperiod cannabis plants are much more forgiving if you make mistakes early on. You have all the time in the world to get your plants to the exact right size and shape before you initiate the flowering stage. As long as you set your plants up right before they start flowering, and keep them healthy, you’re pretty much guaranteed a 1+ lb harvest following all these steps, which is why photoperiod strains are recommended if you’re not sure what to pick.

Autoflowering strains 

Pros

• Faster – Ready to harvest in under 3 months. Can’t beat the time to harvest! If speed is most important, then auto-flowering genetics are the way to go.
• No special light schedules – You don’t have to worry about light schedules, light leaks, or anything like that. Just give the plants 18+ hours of direct light a day and that’s all you really need to think about when it comes to light. Check on your plants any time.

Cons

• Early mistakes can dramatically hurt yields – Can’t make mistakes in the seedling stage. Autofloweirng plants start flowering after about a month even if they’ve been sick and are still small. That means early mistakes like overwatering your seedlings will stunt autoflowering plants for life, so only choose autoflowering strains if you’ve got a great handle on taking care of plants for the first 4 weeks of life.
• Less consistent yields – More difficult to always get 1 lb per harvest, due to the shorter life period as well as the fact that it’s easier for plants to end up smaller than you want.
• Fewer strain choices – Autoflowering strains are “boutique” specialty genetics and you typically have fewer options when it comes to autos.

Photoperiod strains <– Recommended for this cannabis high-yield tutorial

Pros

• Early mistakes are forgiven – Even if you make mistakes early on, you have time to let your plants recover and get them the optimum size and shape to guarantee a 1-lb harvest.
• Consistent 1 lb harvests – With photoperiod strains, even a total beginner can produce a pound of weed in their first harvest as long as they just make sure to follow all these instructions.
• Bigger selection – Most strains are photoperiod strains, which means you have a much larger selection to choose from.
• Excellent bud quality – Although you can get some incredible autoflowering strains these days that have bud quality equal to photoperiod strains, on average photoperiod buds not only look and smell nicer, but also have higher THC levels.

Cons

• Takes longer – Average grow time with photoperiod strains is 4-5 months from germination to harvest day. This is about 1-2 months longer than most autoflowering strains.
• Special light schedules – In order to get photoperiod cannabis plants to make buds (start “flowering”), growers give plants 12 hours of complete darkness a day to simulate that winter is coming. This is easy to do in a grow tent by putting your grow lights on a timer. However, the downside is you can’t check on or care for your plants during their 12-hour “lights off” period every day so you don’t accidentally interrupt their beauty sleep.

I recommend growers follow this tutorial with photoperiod strains just to increase the chance you get a full pound or more. However, auto-flowering strains can work if you’re desperate to harvest within 3 months and are willing to make sure to take extra good care of your plants while they’re still young.

Examples of excellent high-yielding photoperiod strains (these are all feminized seeds, which means every plant with be a bud-making female plant)

• Blue Dream by Seed Supreme – Enormous yields every time. A true commercial producer and one of the higher-yielding strains I’ve grown. Buds are sweet-smelling with relaxing yet “social” weed effects that have given in the status of “party favorite”.
• Platinum Cookies by Seed Supreme – Excellent yields and the bud quality is out of this world. The purple-tinted buds tested at 25-27% THC when we grew it and the effects were a crowd favorite. This strain tends to get tall, but responds well to bending and supercropping to keep it short and flat. It has a 12-week flowering stage, which is a few weeks longer than average, but the yield and bud quality are worth 2 extra weeks in my opinion.
• Kushberry Moonrocks by MSNL – Great yields, pretty purple color on buds, averages around 28% THC, only a 10-week flowering stage. Effects are relaxing but POTENT. Definitely a strain meant to be enjoyed at home.

2.) Get your big-yield supplies

Here’s an example of a complete shopping list for a 4’x4′ grow tent that gets great results with cannabis using the HLG Blackbird 600W LED.

Here are other examples of grow lights that would be suitable for this size grow tent, using otherwise the same setup as above:

• Spider Farmer SF4000 LED grow light – (uses 450W) – Yields just under 1 pound
• Mars Hydro FC-E4800 LED grow light (uses 480W) – Yields over 1 pound per harvest
• 600W HPS (Uses 600W) – Yields up to 21 ounces or 1.3 lbs
• HLG Blackbird 600W LED (600W, dimmable) – Yields up to 24 oz or 1.5 lbs. Recommended choice – this LED light was designed specifically to achieve high yields in a 4×4 grow tent.
• 1000W DE HPS (Uses 1000W) – Yields up to 35 oz or 2.2 lbs, VERY hot, you will need cooling.

Any of these grow lights will grow thriving cannabis plants in a 4’x4′ grow tent.

Other hints for getting the highest yields in your setup:

• Grow with coco (or hydro) – Coco and hydro tend to produce better yields than growing in soil on average. The grow medium that tends to produce the lowest yields is super soil (“just add water” soil). However, yields aren’t the only important thing when it comes to growing, and you can achieve 1 pound in this setup even with super soil if you make sure to maximize everything else.
• Use synthetic nutrients – Along the same line, cannabis plants tend to produce the highest yields when using synthetic or mineral-based nutrients. Adding organic nutrients can definitely increase yields vs not using any nutrients, but they are not as easily available to the plant as man-made nutrients. Some great cannabis nutrient systems are mostly organic with just a few key synthetic ingredients to get the best of both worlds, like Fox Farm trio for hydro. But fully synthetic nutrients like General Hydroponics Flora trio get the best yields of any nutrient system we’ve tried in side-by-side grow experiments so far. If yields are your #1 goal, I highly recommend the GH Flora trio – just follow the instructions on the side of the bottle at half strength, maintain a pH of 5.5-6.5 pH at the roots, and you don’t have to worry about nutrients.
• Don’t ignore heat – Young plants don’t mind the heat, but if it’s regularly above 85°F/30°C in the grow space while buds are forming, it will harm your yields by making buds grow more loose and airy.  Heat also greatly increases the chance of getting bud rot or mold in your buds. Luckily, a good exhaust fan venting air out of the tent goes a long way, which is why I included in a powerful exhaust fan in the recommended 4×4 setup. However, if the whole room is warming up above that temperature, adding more fans won’t help. At that point, you should vent the hot air directly out a window or install an AC. At that point, you won’t need to worry about heat and can focus on other things.
• React quickly to plant problems – If you notice a nutrient deficiency, see signs of bugs, or catch sight of any other unexpected plant symptoms, pay attention! Check our free plant doctor tool and correct the cause of the problem as soon as possible. Most problems can be dealt with easily at first, but they get harder and harder to fix the longer they go on without intervention.

Once you’ve got your garden set up, start your seeds and lets start growing!

• How to germinate your seeds directly in the grow medium, as pictured below (here’s a germination tutorial for hydro).
• How to water cannabis plants.

Plant your marijuana seeds and keep them warm during germination.

The result? Cannabis seedlings pop up a few days later.

3.) “Top” plants at a young age

Wait until the seedling has about 6 sets of leaves, then cut off the top of the main stem.

Wait until your plants have grow about 6 sets of leaves (6 “nodes”).

Cut off the top of the plant through the main stem. You want to remove the top node completely.

After topping 4 plants, I had 4 little tops. Cutting off such a small amount of plant doesn’t seem like it would make a huge difference to your yields, but this is one of the most important steps to take as a grower indoors to maximize yields. As a result of this simple act, the plant will stop growing with only one main stem, and instead naturally grow more bushy and wide with multiple stems. These bushy cannabis plants will be covered in buds instead of only having one main bud, giving you the “sea of buds” you often see in pictures.

These 4 plants were just topped.

These are the 4 tops from the 4 plants. Such a small amount removed, but it will dramatically change the future growth of your plants.

Now that their tops have been cut off, these plants will never grow the same again. After being topped, they naturally grow bushier with multiple bud sites instead of growing with just one big bud. As a result, you increase the amount of yield you can produce per plant.

Learn more about topping cannabis plants.

4.) Train plants to grow flat and wide (like a table) in the vegetative stage.

Method 1: Bend down branches and use plant twist tie to hold them in place.

• When any branch gets taller than the others, bend it down and away from the center of the plant.
• Tie the stem directly to the plant container using plant twisty tie to hold it in place.
• You’re done when they’re all the same height and about 1.5′ tall from the top of the plant container. At that point, move to the next step.

Full tutorial on how to use plant twist tie plus bending to grow plants wide and flat like a table.

The goal of any training when growing indoors is to force your plants to grow flat and wide like a table. This ensures all the parts of the plant are about the same distance from the grow light. This shape will dramatically increase your yields once buds start forming because it allows your plants to use “every last drop” of light to make buds.

Method 2: Use a “Screen” (get trellis netting and train plants to grow under the net)

Invest in a 4×4′ Scrog trellis net (get two because you may want a second one later) and install it to be half the final desired height of your plants. In a 4’x4′ grow tent, a good final height for your plants is about 3′ tall. So install the scrog net about 1.5′ feet above the tops of your plant containers. Any time a stem grows above the net, tuck it back underneath until you’ve filled the entire net.

Keep tucking branches under the net as plants grow.

Continue until the whole net is “filled” with a canopy of living plants. This net just has a few spots left before it’s completely filled and ready for the next step.

5.) Initiate the flowering stage, then…

In order to get plants to make buds (start “flowering”) you need to give plants 12 hours of complete darkness a day. This is typically done by putting your grow lights on a timer set on a 12/12 light schedule.  Since your plants are in a grow tent, when the grow lights are off, your plants are in complete darkness so they can enjoy their “beauty sleep”.

Note: Don’t check on your plants during their 12-hour “night” period because exposing them to light at night even a few times can disrupt budding and revert plants back to the vegetative stage. Keep plants totally in the dark when the grow lights are off.

Defoliate – Follow a strategic defoliation schedule.

It doesn’t seem like defoliation (removing leaves) should improve cannabis yields, but this is a “hack” that has proven to be remarkably effective. Not only does strategic defoliation increase your yields (when done properly), it also increases the overall bud quality including the THC percentage and density of your buds. We confirmed this at the lab in our defoliation side-by-side experiment with clones. There are many great defoliation schedules, but here’s one that works well to increase yields and is followed by many commercial growers.

Example of a great defoliation schedule (most common defoliation schedule for commercial cannabis growers)

First Defoliation: 3 weeks after 12/12

Remove all the big fan leaves from the plant about 3 weeks after initiating the 12/12 light schedule.

• If a leaf is the size of your hand or bigger, remove it.
• If the stem is at least 1″ long, remove it.
• Make sure to leave at least a few fan leaves on each main stem

Second Defoliation: Do this 4 weeks after the first defoliation

• Repeat the same process
• Focus on making sure all bud sites get direct exposure to the light and aren’t covered by leaves
• After this, don’t remove leaves unless the plant is getting overly leafy, causing leaves to lay on each other and create wet spots
• It’s okay to tuck leaves to expose buds

After defoliation, you should be able to see light from the grow light hitting the floor (if the floor is in shadow then remove more leaves).

Read the full defoliation tutorial.

Other flowering stage tips

• Not too hot, not too humid – Maintain a good environment while buds are forming.
• Keep plants healthy – Avoid bugs and nutrient deficiencies.

Leaves should appear green and healthy for most of the flowering stage. It’s normal for leaves to start turning yellow or looking rough the last 1-2 weeks before harvest, but before that, it’s a sign of a problem. If you notice discolored leaves, don’t ignore it. Do something! Your yields will thank you.

If using a net…

• Once you initiate the flowering stage, stop tucking your stems under the first net.
• Let the stems grow above the net. Each stem is going to develop into a main bud (sometimes called a “cola”).
• Are the colas getting too close ot the light or starting to fall over?
  • If the stems are wavy and falling over, or if some stems are growing taller than others, install a second net about 1 foot above the first one.
  • This is not 100% necessary, but can be helpful if your stems stretch a lot after initiating 12/12 (a second net helps you arrange buds to make sure they fill the entire grow tent).
  • Use the grid to stabilize your colas where you want them.
  • If a stem is getting too close to the grow light, tuck it under that second net.
  • Try to ensure your buds are all about the same height as each other and the same distance from the light.

Regardless of the exact method of training, the goal is to get all your buds about the same distance from the grow light. This maximizes yields.

6.) Harvest at the right time.

Harvest at the right time. Here’s a quick guide.

Not Ready

Baby buds (budlets) look like a ball of white hairs. These buds have many weeks to go!

If your buds are all white hairs, they’re just getting started. Expect much more fattening from here.

Watch out for pollen sacs!

If you started with feminized seeds from a trustworthy breeder, you should never see pollen sacs. But just in case, if you see pollen sacs instead of white hairs, it means your plant is growing male flowers and should be removed from the grow space immediately. Why toss male plants? Male flowers don’t contain much THC and their pollen causes nearby buds to grow seeds.

Immediately remove any plant that grows pollen sacs instead of white hairs. Learn more about male plants.

Still Not Ready

As the marijuana plant buds get closer to harvest, they thicken, and those white pistils start to darken and curl up. You’ll notice your buds are slowly getting thicker and denser. However, if you still have a lot of straight white pistils, like this bud, it means you still have a few weeks to go.

Ready to Harvest!

You’re in the ready-to-harvest window for cannabis when most of the hairs have darkened and curled in.

A bud is ready to harvest when most of the hairs darken and curl in.

Check out tons more pictures of ready-to-harvest buds from different strains!

Learn how to use a magnifier to look at buds for even more precision.

7.) Dry and jar buds properly.

Buds aren’t smokable directly off the plant because they’re mostly full of water. You need to dry and cure buds if you want to get bud quality like what you’re used to buying.

The simplest way to dry buds is to cut off the branches and hang each branch upside down until the buds are dry. Best done in a cool space.

Learn how to dry buds and cure them perfectly.

Time to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Conclusion: Summary of Key Steps for 1 Pound Yields in a 4×4′ Grow Tent

Growing over a pound of cannabis in a 4’x4’ grow tent is an achievable goal for any home grower (even a beginner) when following my strategic plan.

Here’s a recap of the key steps covered in this guide:

• Start with high-yielding strains – Choose stable, fast-growing strains that are known for their heavy yields.
• Get the right equipment – Invest in a quality grow light, tent, fans, etc. sized for your space. If you get good equipment, especially a good grow light, your equipment will do most of the work for you.
• Top young plants – Cut the main stem early to promote bushy, wide growth.
• Train plants to grow flat like a table – Use bending and tying down (or a trellis / scrog net) to “train” plants and create a wide even canopy that fills the entire grow space. Do this before you initiate the flowering stage.
• Initiate flowering at the right time – Switch to 12/12 when plants are 1/2 the final desired size.
• Strategic defoliation – Remove large leaves to “hack” the plant’s natural plant processes and force it to grow in a way that produces bigger, denser, and more potent buds. Best when done on a specific schedule. For example, a common schedule is to defoliate heavily at the beginning of the flowering stage, and then defoliate again 3 weeks later.
• Control environment – Avoid excessive heat or humidity, and give plants lots of airflow. Luckily, if you started with good equipment and set up your grow space properly, you won’t have to worry about the environment.
• Stay vigilant – Catch issues early and take corrective steps. Don’t ignore problems!
• Harvest at peak maturity – Harvest buds at the right time.
• Dry and cure buds – Dry buds in a good environment, then jar and cure them for a few weeks. This is crucial to achieve professional quality bud!

Follow these steps carefully throughout the grow and you can expect to harvest over a pound of dense, high-quality buds from a 4’x4’ grow tent setup! With some experience under your belt, yields of 1.5 pounds or greater become possible!

You might enjoy the following cannabis growing tutorials…

15 ways to improve cannabis yields

How to increase bud density

How to increase THC of buds (make buds more potent!)

The post How to Grow 1 Pound of Weed Indoors (Proven Method) appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

GrowWeedEasy.com teaches you the secrets of cannabis home grow.

• Start Here: How to grow weed
• Get Seeds: Best online seed sources (I like Seed Supreme)
• Sick Plants? See the plant doctor
• When to Harvest? Harvest guide

Get cannabis seeds at Seed Supreme or see our full list of our favorite cannabis seed banks.

Growing weed is easy when you know what to do, but most “how to grow marijuana” tutorials leave you feeling like you need a degree in horticulture.

GrowWeedEasy.com only contains useful cannabis grow tips, tactics, and lessons from actual home growers with years of growing experience.

Even a total beginner can consistently produce top-shelf weed by following our step-by-step home grow tutorials. 100% written by humans who care.

Who Made GrowWeedEasy.com?

Grow Weed Easy.com was started in 2010 by home growers Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside. Together, we built a free online “encyclopedia of cannabis home grow” with 650+ expert home cannabis cultivation tutorials about every aspect of growing weed.

GrowWeedEasy.com is now the biggest and most comprehensive source of free home grow information in the world.  We show you how easy it is to grow your own marijuana at home.

The GrowWeedEasy.com Ethos

Our Goal: You grow as much top-shelf weed as possible, with as little time and effort needed to grow your desired yields and cannabis bud quality.

Whether you’re a total beginner who wants to start growing cannabis indoors for the first time, or an experienced grower who wants to upgrade your skills to Pro level, this website was built for you.

Looking for a complete harvest system?

If you want dense, beautiful, great-smelling weed, our new digital book gives you our complete harvest system. Follow the straightforward instructions and massively upgrade your next harvest. A few small changes can make a huge difference to your results.

Get our fool-proof harvest system.

FOR SERIOUS GROWERS ONLY

🌟 $200 Off Special Offer: Enroll today in Home Grow Masterclass!

If you’re reading this right now, you want to grow great cannabis at home.

Cannabis plants isn’t a regular house plant, but learning how to grow isn’t as complicated growers make it seem. We’ve spent the last 16 years breaking down the home grow process so anyone can learn it.

The key to consistent harvest results is simple: follow a proven system developed for home growers.

You could waste an entire grow learning through trial and error…

Or take the shortcut and harvest a sea of fat, dense, beautiful buds that smell great. At home!

Follow our 5-week course and get walked through each part step-by-step. Build by experienced home growers and honed with hundreds of students since 2019, we ensure you achieve great results on your very next harvest.

Learn How To Grow Top-Shelf Weed at Home!

Start Your First Class TODAY!

You may be asking yourself these common growing questions:

“How do I grow marijuana indoors?”

Read this guide on how to grow marijuana indoors. Or check out this article to learn what materials you need to get started growing your own marijuana!

Luckily, it’s really easy to get a cannabis seed to sprout!

“How much money will it cost to get started?”

If you’re considering growing weed, it costs as little as $300 to get started growing or a bit more for a semi-automatic, high-yielding bubbleponics grow system. See examples of yields to expect, electricity use & startup costs for different setups. Read this article to see even more growing styles with different price ranges.

“Where can I get marijuana seeds?”

Check out our How to Buy Marijuana Seeds Online Guide (with delivery to every state of the USA) to safely get your hands on good genetics. Starting with good seeds lets you choose the looks, smell, and effects of your buds!

Learn where it’s safe to buy cannabis seeds online (2026 update).

What do good cannabis seeds look like?

Learn about the best marijuana beginner strains and how to research and find the right strain.

Cannabis buds are generally green, but can also be pink or purple with certain strains.

“How much will electricity cost each month?”

If you’re just growing a few marijuana plants for personal use, it will cost you $20-$100+/month for electricity, depending on what grow lights (electricity) and nutrients you use. On average, I’d say a hobby-size grower might pay about $50/month to grow, but it depends greatly on your setup and local electricity costs! How much will electricity cost each month?

“How can I increase my marijuana yields?”

We have quite a few techniques to choose from or combine! See some of our most popular pages:

• Super Cropping – A simple technique to bigger yields
• Simplest Guide to Growing Short & Bushy Marijuana Plants
• LST (Low Stress Training) – Training your plants can easily double your harvest!
• Or check out our page on the controversial defoliation technique

Even More Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields

1. Increase Light Intensity (plus choose right light for desired yields & possibly add CO2)
2. Manipulate How Plants Grow (a free way to yield more bud indoors)
3. Provide Right Nutrients (low Nitrogen in the flowering stage, and remember sometimes less is more!)
4. Control Growing Environment (let the growing environment work for you)
5. Harvest Plants Properly (most importantly, don’t harvest early!)
6. Lastly, it’s important to remember that the strain has a major effect on yields!

Two small cannabis plants can yield several ounces of premium weed!

“How can I grow weed privately?”

Read guide on growing weed indoors without anyone knowing. But remember the most important factors to stealth growing: “No tell, no smell, no sell.” Never tell anyone, not even your best friend, that you’re growing. Be on top of preventing smells, and never ever sell cannabis. Breaking one of those 3 principles is how 99% of growers get found out!

“What if my plants get sick?”

The most common issue a grower runs into is a pH imbalance. Barring that, your marijuana plants likely either have a nutrient deficiency, heat or light stress, or are being attacked by some sort of marijuana mold, pest or bug. Whether you call it weed, cannabis, sinsemilla, skunk, pot, marijuana, or something else, the plant known as Cannabis Sativa is a hardy weed in the wild and can actually be easy to grow indoors at home when you know what to do.

Growing Medical Marijuana

“Medical marijuana” has become a household name. The body of evidence for medical marijuana in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses is growing every day. And for those who need medical marijuana, growing weed indoors is the perfect way to ensure a safe, regular supply of buds, for cheap.

In fact, when you grow weed indoors for personal use, you often end up with way too much. If you catch the growing bug like I did, and if you start enjoying the process of tending your cannabis garden just for the sake of gardening, you’re going to have to find a way to press, cook, freeze, and concentrate all your extra buds. 🙂

As you probably know, both medical marijuana and recreational cannabis have been decriminalized or legalized in many places around the world and weed is becoming legal in more places every day! Yet there still aren’t many simple indoor “how to grow weed” guides for beginners (even for those who legally grow, such as medical marijuana users and those who live in places where marijuana is legalized for personal use).

If so, I know how you feel. It can be hard to weed out all the bad information on the internet and find well-researched, free tips or instructions on how to grow your own cannabis. That’s why Grow Weed Easy.com aims to be a simple online resource that explains from start to finish what you need to do when growing cannabis so you can learn how to grow cannabis with great yields and potent buds, even if you only have a small grow space like a closet or even a computer case.

We’ve grown cannabis out of closets and have gotten ounces of buds and you can too. Grow Weed Easy.com covers many popular cannabis cultivation topics, including:

• A comparison between different cannabis grow lights including experience-based information about LED grow lights
• A page that teaches you the basics of how to grow weed
• Detailed how-to weed growing tutorials
• How to start growing weed tomorrow  (simplest cannabis growing guide!)
• Grow 4 oz with a 100W LED <– An Easy Way to Start Growing!
• Our famous grow guide that teaches you how to grow weed using bubbleponics (hydro).

Start Growing Weed Today!

Grow Weed Easy is run by a panel of experienced cannabis growers, including the founders Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside, who originally teamed together to bring you GrowWeedEasy.com. Due to the demand for more marijuana growing information, we’ve also started an inbox magazine all about how to grow weed, with additional tutorials, tips, and tactics sent to you each week. Simply sign up to start getting free expert growing articles delivered to you! All the information available at GrowWeedEasy.com is completely free and we regularly update the site and make new additions.

Looking for a growing book?

If you are interested in doing a bit of reading or would like to know more about the science behind marijuana hydroponics or horticulture, I strongly recommend viewing our page of Marijuana Grow Book Reviews. Read reviews of marijuana grow books. We would love to hear about your experiences with growing cannabis. Whether you are a pro grower already or are just starting your first plant, we have learned so much from our readers both beginners and masters! If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns, or just want to ask some questions about your marijuana grow, please contact us!

Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside

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Home Grow Masterclass – FOR SERIOUS GROWERS ONLY

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