What is the Solo Cup Challenge? (Grow Weed in a Cup)

Last updated Jun 06, 2026

by Nebula Haze

Why grow cannabis plants in solo cups? For the challenge. For the glory.

Critical Orange Punch Auto cannabis plant grown in a solo cup.

The Solo Cup Challenge is a silly and captivating project for any cannabis grower who wants some fun on the side, plus a little bonus weed.

The Solo Cup Challenge

Grow weed in a cup from beginning to end
Get the biggest buds possible
Celebrate and marvel you completed the challenge!

Amazing solo cup cannabis plant grown by Pat. This one of the highest-yielding solo cup plants we’ve seen yet.

Another Magnificent Solo Cup Cannabis Submission – grown by The Mugwamp. Possibly even higher yielding than the above solo cup plants?

Super Sativa Seed Club – Sweet Bourbon Kush Auto. Grown in Solo Cup, using Megacrop and under the Mars SP3000 👍 P.S I love your site, keep up the good work 👏
~ The Mugwamp

Why It’s Challenging to Grow Weed in a Cup

Plants are more sensitive – You have to give absolutely optimal conditions because the plant is not resilient to problems.
Roots are constricted – Plant roots get unhappy when constricted and solo cup plants may get rootbound and die.
Need to water often – Can be difficult to water plants often enough as they get bigger. Some growers must water plants multiple times a day either by hand or with a drip feed so they don’t dry out.
Tend to tip over – Can be difficult to balance plants due to the tippy nature of cups

There’s no real reason to grow this way… but it’s so fun! Here are some examples. Send us your solo cup challenge pictures for a chance to be featured on this page.

Cole Train plant grown in a solo cup

I sprouted too many autoflower seeds, and kept them in cups in the clone tent. You can see them in the corner. Free extra weed!

Cannabis Solo Cup Gallery

I wanted to share examples of different cannabis growers and their solo cup challenge results.

Nebula’s solo cup challenge attempts

Here’s my first attempt at the solo cup challenge, circa 2010. All of these plants were given a 12/12 light schedule from seed to get them to start flowering (making buds) as soon as possible.

Here it is a few weeks from germination.

Definitely not the healthiest leaves at harvest, but it produced 0.75 oz of premium bud under a handful of light bulbs!

Then I forgot about the solo cup challenge for many years…

These plants from 2020 weren’t part of a real solo cup challenge. Basically I sprouted some extra auto-flowering seeds and although I picked the winners for my bigger tent, didn’t want to toss these little ones. So I just kept watering them in their cups and let them do their thing. I stuck them in my bonsai mom tent where they shared an 85W LED in a 2’x2′ with several other small plants. They still flowered and made buds because they are auto-flowering strains. I think auto-flowering strains make it so much easier to do to the solo cup challenge.

They all tended to stay small because their roots were constricted

Here’s how they turned out!

Critical Orange Punch Auto

Zkittles Auto

That top bud up close.

Alaskan Purple Auto

White Widow Max Auto

None of these plants would win any solo cup challenge, but they made the cutest harvest ever out of some random extra plants

I got over an ounce from these little “trash plants” 🙂

Here were some of their brethren from the same seed packs, but put in normal plant pots and given access to a real grow light. Look what happens when you give cannabis plants room for their roots to grow! See the grow journal.

Front Row Strains: Critical Orange Punch Auto, Alaskan Purple Auto, Pink Kush CBD
Back Row Strains: Zkittlez Auto, White Widow Max Auto, OG Kush Auto

A cool thing about autoflowering strains is you can stick a solo cup challenge almost anywhere since these strains don’t care about light schedules. I snuck two solo cup plants in the upper corners of this tent for about an extra ounce of buds out of no where.

I grew this Mephisto autoflowering plant in a sunny window. I used a little container of soil to give the plant stability and hold extra water (I cut out the bottom of the cup so the roots could spread out a bit), so I’m not sure this counts as a real “solo cup challenge”. But I wanted an excuse to post a picture of my cat 🙂

After drying it was 3.5 grams (1/8 oz) of premium bud. Not the biggest harvest but free since it was in a window and definitely one of the most fun grows I’ve done!

Reader Solo Cup Challenge Submissions

Note: Click here if you’d like to submit your own solo cup challenge stories and pictures.

The Mugwamp Solo Cup Masterpiece

The Mugwamp had this incredible beauty to share.

Super Sativa Seed Club – Sweet Bourbon Kush Auto. Grown in Solo Cup, using Megacrop and under the Mars SP3000 👍
P.S I love your site, keep up the good work 👏

This work of art is a bud monster of a plant, with such tiny roots. Bonsai solo cup challenge master.

Magnificent Solo Cup Cannabis Submission – Grown by The Mugwamp

My very first solo cup grow – crazy training

Even a first time solo cup grower can get impressive results

My very first solo cup grow was an auto c47 germination took place in soil for one week then I did a small journal for what I call the autocup.
I currently have freakshow photoperiod growing in a autocup now.

Huge fat bud on such a tiny plant.

Weed Grown in a MacDonald’s cup by ewrecc420

The is the Early Lemon Berry RBx1 from ETHOS Genetics.. In a 32 oz cup with coco/perlite using Gen Hydro Flora series along with CALiMAGic and 1 or 2 other supplements.. This was my first time with Ethos and first time with 12/12 from seed.. She was topped, leaving 2 nodes.. LST’d to make her as flat and low as possible and waited for the stretch, which wasn’t much lol.. But she produced 38 grams of nice, dense, lemony dank! *thnx4evrythngUdo!* ??
~ewrecc420

1.3 oz (38 g) cannabis harvest on one solo cup plant:

Wow! Great grow with great genetics (we love Ethos). You should be proud 🏆
~Sirius GrowWeedEasy.com

Wizard Of Oz’s knotted bonsai weed in a solo cup

Ever seen knot weed? I’d never seen somebody tie a plant in a knot so I did it and it worked perfectly. Yellow cup is MIA x Rockstar and the Red knot is also Mockstar (MIAxRockstar)or Slymer XX there was a mix-up lol. I won a solo cup contest with the Yellow cup 3 months from germination to harvest pulled exactly 14 grams off it.
~Wizard of Oz

Grew with a knot in the stem from a young age.

Check out the other solo cup plants in the background.

Gorgeous solo cup cannabis plant

Closeup of that other solo cup cannabis plant.

Anonymous Solo Cup Plant with FAT Buds

This solo cup marijuana plant with a huge fat bud was submitted to GrowWeedEasy.com without any other information, but I think the picture speaks for itself!

Displaced Hoosier’s tall beautiful solo cup plant

I was a little late for your solo cup challenge but I wanted to submit my bagseed rockstar. I think the first seed was from a Monster Cookie or Cookie Monster strain, but I can’t remember. Or maybe I just want a cookie now. I have gained a plethora of knowledge on this site and continue to reference it daily (as well as name drop it on reddit). Thanks again!
~ Displaced Hoosier

I think this may be one of the cutest entries so far. Not fair to use baby bunnies! 🙂 ~Nebula

Here’s a few solo cup pics and a couple off-topic pictures to brighten your day.

I didn’t intentionally grow in solo cups, these were just the tops of manifolded plants (Mimosa EVO) that I couldn’t bring myself to toss. I snipped them and stuck them straight in a cup of coco with no extra love or rooting gel, put them off to the side out of direct light and watered them with the leftovers from my full size plants, otherwise pretty much ignoring them… they couldn’t be killed! They don’t call it a weed for nothing. They were so top-heavy the fan would blow them over when they needed watering. Not a huge harvest but some small, dense, generally respectable nugs I wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Displaced Hoosier

The off-topic pics are a litter of bunnies that momma had in a planter pot a week ago (sadly just a rosemary plant) right outside my back door. So much for letting my dog run around in the back yard for a few weeks while they grow up enough to leave the warren? (he is a type that was bred to hunt rabbits and small game and can’t be let anywhere near them). Apparently rabbits have babies in yards with dogs to keep other predators away, but they picked my yard with a dog that specializes in catching rabbits. Slight miscalculation but they were lucky we saw them before he did (unlike last year).

Great site!

DeadlyFruit

P.S. And who doesn’t like bunnies! (pics taken with a zoom and they were left undisturbed so there wouldn’t be a risk momma would reject them)

Thanks for sending this in, these little bunnies are enchanting! ~Nebula

Got a solo cup plant you want to share with the world? Send us your solo cup challenge pictures for a chance to be featured on this page!

About Nebula Haze & GrowWeedEasy.com

GrowWeedEasy.com was created in 2010 by Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside to help people learn how to grow great weed at home. Our focus is helping growers get better results with simple, step-by-step cannabis growing tutorials based on real grows, real pictures, and real home grow experience.