by Nebula Haze
Do you need an expensive LED grow light to produce exceptional weed? No. Even a tiny cannabis-friendly LED produces excellent bud quality with good seeds and plant care.
A $70 100W LED grew these Candy Games #38 buds.
Last week we talked about avoiding lots of the most common beginner mistakes when growing weed at home. Today I wanted to talk about how to save money on equipment, which can sometimes be the most expensive mistake.
The truth is you don’t need a crazy setup or exotic nutrients, you just need to ensure what you get is suitable for growing cannabis.
Example harvest under a Spider Farmer 100W LED (full setup with tent and filter is ~$290)
This is all you need to get to a top-shelf home cannabis harvest…
1.) Cannabis Seeds
Your seeds determine 50% or more of your results, so don’t choose lightly.
If price is the biggest barrier, this $5 seed menu by NASC has a limited rotating selection of top-quality genetics. If you’re looking to get good seeds for cheap, this is a great option. Here are my favorite cannabis strains for beginners.
Not sure?
- Easy (Hardy with Big Yields): Blue Dream, Godfather OG (very potent), White Widow
- Top-Shelf Buds (Sparkle & Smell): Mandarin Cookies, Blueberry Muffin, Crescendo RBx1
- Fastest Harvest (Autoflower Strains): Strawberry Cheesecake Auto, Special Queen 1 Auto, Purple Lemonade Auto
The seeds decide what buds look, smell, and smoke like.
2.) Bright, Direct Light
Light is food for cannabis plants, and they need a lot of light to produce big, potent, sparkly buds.
In general, more light equals more bud.
Outdoors, cannabis plants should be getting 6+ hours of strong, direct sunlight per day.
Lots of light + room to grow (this is an 11 lb harvest)
Note: There’s still time to grow outdoors this year.
Indoors, a strong grow light is needed to get significant yields.
For most indoor home growers, a LED grow light specifically made to grow cannabis plants is your best light option.
LEDs are easy to use, electrically efficient and don’t produce much heat. Even a small 100W LED can consistently grow high-quality, dense cannabis buds when kept the right distance away.
What about yields? When it comes to cannabis-specific LEDs, the wattage is a very good indicator of how much light it’s going to make.
That means higher-wattage grow lights increase the maximum yields you can expect.
100W cannabis harvest (this is 3.1 oz) – Full 2’x2′ setup ~$290.
300W cannabis harvest (this is 10.4 oz) – Full 2’x4′ setup ~$575.
600W cannabis harvest (this is 20.1 oz, or 1.3 lbs) – Example 4’x4′ setup ~$770.
Learn about the best LED grow lights for cannabis.
3.) Grow Medium (Soil, Coco, Hydro)
Soil or Coco is easiest for beginners since you can just plant a seed. Soil looks darker and has some nutrients, which lasts plants a few weeks. However, plants in soil grow a little slower and may be more prone to bugs.
Outdoor growers love soil: For cannabis growers powered by the sun, a recent outdoor cannabis grow study found the most successful outdoor growers typically grow in soil.
Grow weed in soil – nutrients last a few weeks
Coco is made out of ground coconut husks. Coco contains no nutrition, which means you need to add nutrients in the water from the beginning or plants won’t grow.
The pros are slightly faster growth, less prone to overwatering, and more resistant to some pests.
Grow weed in coco – slightly faster growth, but must add nutrients from the start.
Serious beginners can succeed at hydro on their first grow, too (that’s how my husband Sirius started growing weed). You just need to follow good instructions when establishing your seedlings so their roots grow healthy and strong. After cannabis plants are established, hydroponic maintenance may actually be easier than soil or coco.
Grow weed in hydro – add nutrients from the start, fastest growth.
Learn more: What’s the Best Grow Medium? Soil vs Coco vs Hydro.
4.) Cannabis Nutrients (Add to the Water)
Cannabis plants use a lot more nutrients than most houseplants and need a good source of nutrients (fertilizer).
During the crucial budding phase, buds won’t get as big as they could if they run out of nutrients during the flowering stage.
For most cannabis growers, adding extra nutrients in the water increases harvest results vs not adding nutrients.
- Regular soil contains some nutrients, but cannabis plants often quickly deplete the soil.
- Coco and hydro don’t contain any nutrients, so you must add nutrients to the water.
That means using a proven cannabis nutrient system is an easy way to maximize your results.
I use the General Hydroponics Flora trio. Fast growth, big buds, smooth smoke. Use at half-strength what it says on the bottle. If you want something simpler, the FloraNova duo uses just one bottle per stage.
Cannabis I grew from seed to weed in under 90 days with the General Hydroponics Flora trio (see the grow journal).
Learn about the best cannabis nutrients.
5.) Make Watering Easy
You should have a source of water close to your plants, because giving water regularly is your main job after getting everything set up. If you’re giving nutrients, you add it to the water before giving it to plants.
Follow a proven watering schedule for cannabis seedlings and make it easy to catch and remove runoff water. Established plants need to be watered every few days unless you provide extra water automatically, for example by using auto-watering pot bases.
When it comes to saving time, making it easier to water your plants is where to aim your focus. That’s because you can mostly automate watering and create an easy way to remove runoff water. That way you’re not spending much time watering your plants.
Auto-watering pot bases can water established cannabis plants for up to a week.
Learn how to water plants so it’s as easy as possible.
