Micro Growing Cannabis: Tips & Techniques
From smallest spaces to full grow rooms, there are many different ways to cultivate marijuana. In this course, I will teach you about different types of cannabis cultivation in micro grow spaces and their advantages and disadvantages.
What Is Cannabis Micro Grow?
Cannabis micro grow is cultivating cannabis in small spaces, such as cupboards, closets, or tents.
Micro growing is like normal growing weed, except you use less space, fewer nutrients, light, and other resources.
That means you have to be highly accurate with your measurements and calculations.
That has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you have to use less light and can use modern LED lamps for vegetative and bloom stages.
And you won’t have to spend as much on your electricity bill. On the other hand, however, plant yield will be lower.
In this course, I will teach you how to optimally climate your plants grown in small grow space with few lamps. We’ll talk about different types of micro grow spaces and what differences there are between them.
Additionally, for those who are looking for more general information on cannabis cultivation, we have another post on growing cannabis that covers a wide range of topics and tips.
Choosing Between Types Of Growing Spaces
There are two possible ways to micro grow marijuana; indoors and outdoors.
In this course, I will teach you how to micro grow indoors, where you can fully control climate.
If you’re starting, I advise you to start indoors. It’s much easier to control all factors in room space with climate control.
Indoor Growing
Indoor micro grow offers more control over climate and is possible all year round.
Also, preventing theft is more manageable, and growers won’t have to deal with annoying critters such as birds or deer.
Indoor grow space can be divided into different types; in grow tent, in grow rooms, closet and in a box.
Growers can also use closet as micro grow space if they don’t have enough room for grow tent.
You can still grow some great weed by following some simple rules. Ensure to use grow light system with florescent lamps so you won’t get too much heat.
Grow Room / Grow Box
If you want to keep your growing operation secret and avoid attracting the attention of passersby, micro grow closet is the best option.
You can make it as visible as you want; no one will be able to see what’s going on inside.
Growth room is small size space with a lamp hanging from ceiling and place to hang your plant.
Heater and fan are often needed, so you must install these yourself.
Micro grow room requires little building skills; you can put it together yourself.
Grow box and closet is also ideal for beginner micro growers because it’s effortless to set up. You can order pre-made box and closet models from company specializing in cannabis micro grows boxes.
Grow Tent
Grow Tents are made explicitly for growing cannabis. They’re easy to set up, lightproof, have a floor that can be easily drained, and are cheap.
You can also hang lighting in tent very quickly to create perfect climate for your plants. You should definately get one if you’re an indoor micro growers.
Cannabis grow tent also offers perfect climate because it has its own built-in ventilation system. Air is sucked in through bottom, heated, and then blown out top.
And since we’re talking about cannabis tents, they come in all size these days, and you can buy one for a couple of dollars.
Outdoor Growing
If you micro growing weed outside, you always have to think about climate.
Certain plant do best in certain seasons and temperatures, which are determined by your region.
So if it gets too cold, plant can die. So there’s always risk involved.
How To Place Micro Cannabis Grow Setup
At first glance, it may seem impossible to fit everything in that small space, but once you have some experience with cannabis, it’s pretty easy.
You don’t need to buy expensive equipment; you can get by with a few regular household items and some plants.
Please keep reading to find out what you need for micro setup and how to make it yourself.
In this course, I will teach you everything you need to know about cultivating cannabis on small space with limited equipment.
I will explain how you can create suitable climate for your plants in micro grow room and what lights and nutrients you should use.
DIY: Micro Grow Setup
In order to create a suitable environment for your cannabis plants, you’ll need some equipment.
You can buy everything you need at garden center or local store. Below is short shopping list with all neccessary items:
- Small tent
- 4 x 250 watt LEDs lamps
- Tent lighting kit with fans and plugs
- Reflector
- Carbon filter
- Air extractor with carbon filter
- Heat cable, thermostat, and thermometer/hygrometer
Types Of Growing Mediums
Cannabis plants grow in soil, rock wool, or other materials. Substrate is term used to describe these materials.
Many different substrates are available, each with its own characteristics and requirements.
We’ll take closer look at three most common substrates: soil, rock wool, and hydro.
Soil
Soil is always an option when you want to micro grow cannabis. It’s also nice and easy if you don’t have much experience because soil has everything your plants need: nutrients, oxygen, and water.
Just dig hole in earth where you can put your seedling. Then fill this with soil and plant your seedling so that its roots go deep into the ground.
You could use regular soil to grow your cannabis plants, but I would advise against it. Regular soil contains all kinds of weed killers and fertilizers, which will end up in your buds.
Plus, soil can contain harmful fungi and bacteria that could infect your plants. Soil you buy at garden center is usually peat moss or bark fines.
These don’t contain any nutrients for your plants, so you have to provide those yourself. Fortunately, this is easy to do with liquid nutrients.
Rockwool
Rockwool is commonly used as growing medium by micro growers.
It has very great capillarity and retains water well, so you don’t have to irrigate often.
In addition, it doesn’t attract fungi and bacteria, so it’s sterile environment for your plants.
Downside is that rock wool takes up lot of oxygen and can create high levels of carbon dioxide.
You will, therefore, have to provide your plants with quite some air during entire life phase. You can do this by placing an airstone on bottom or by blowing air through tube at regular intervals.
Rockwool also gets warmer than soil when exposed to light. So always keep temperature in check.
Hydro
Hydro is most common way to grow indoors. Hydro simply means that you’re cultivating in water.
Plants get their nutrients from water, and they’re also watered through it, so there’s no need to make regular trips to tap with buckets of water.
Choosing Grow Light
After carefully choosing right location and medium, you have to install your lights.
In addition to lamp, you’ll need reflector and lamp holder.
Once you hang light above your plants, it has to be hung at certain height.
This depends on type of strain growers cultivate and stage it is in.
You can’t just use any light to grow weed. You need certain type of light that is specifically designed for micro growing cannabis space.
Different substances are produced in plants during photosynthesis, depending on type of light.
It’s therefore important to let your plants grow under right lighting circumstances.
I use LED lights, you can get them at local stores, and they offer several different types you could use based on your preferences and budget.
LED
The LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. These are semiconductor materials that generate light when current passes through them.
They’re much more energy efficient and last longer than conventional bulbs. Regular lighting contains lot of infrared and ultraviolet radiation, which is harmful to your plants. This doesn’t occur with LED lights.
CFL
CFLs are ideal for growing micro cannabis. They don’t generate as much heat as MH or HPS lights and use little electricity.
Lamps can be hung from above or placed on the side of your plants. They create lovely, even light, suitable for starting and growing stages.
CFLs are real blessing for micro growers, but disadvantage is that you won’t get any big yield with this type of light.
Temperature And Humidity Requirements
Cannabis is native to warm and humid climates, such as India or Morocco.
Good thing is to provide your plants with climate they would experience in their natural habitat.
- Seedling stage: between 20 and 25 degrees C, with high humidity
- Vegetative stage: between 24 and 28 degrees C, with medium humidity
- Bloom stage: between 18 and 22 degrees C, with low humidity
These temperature values are guidelines to help you start. If you’re starting cultivation indoors, you can always adjust temperature. We can use micro cannabis grow tent that has built-in fan for this exact purpose.
Nutrients For Cannabis Plants
Cannabis plants need nutrients to be able to grow and flower. They get these by absorbing water with nutrients through their roots.
Main nutrient is nitrogen (N), along with phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). These are generally available in fertilizers available at garden centers.
In addition to N-P-K ratio, you also have to consider the ratio of elements: macronutrients and micronutrients.
Macronutrients are N-P-K, mentioned above. Micro-nutrients consist of trace elements such as iron, magnesium, calcium, or iodine.
These can’t be absorbed without help from specific bacteria in soil or rock wool. You can use fertilizers that are specially developed for cannabis micro-grow plants.
Cannabis plants need different nutrients for different stages of their life cycle.
During germination and seedling stage, plants mainly need nitrogen (N), phosphor (P), and potassium (K).
These are used to create new leaves and stems and to develop root systems.
Vegetative stage requires much nitrogen yet little phosphor, while bloom stage needs much more phosphor than nitrogen.
Phosphor is important for creation of buds during bloom stage. Nitrogen is also essential during this period, but not in large quantities.
Different Micro Growing Methods
There are many different ways to grow cannabis in small spaces. It all depends on size of your micro grows space and what you want to achieve.
In this course, I will teach you how to grow single cannabis plant in solo cups / shot glasses.
Growing Cannabis In Shot Glass / Solo Cups
This is most basic way to micro grows in small spaces. It’s super easy, and you don’t need any special equipment.
All you need are solo cups or shot glasses, cannabis seeds, some soil, and water.
Just fill up solo cups with soil and place cannabis seeds in middle of each one. Keep them moist and wait for few days until seedlings emerge.
Then, keep providing your plants with water and see how they grow. You can already start giving them nutrients after week or two.
Cannabis Plants Training And Pruning Techniques For Stealth Grow
Plants can create more top buds by enabling them to use light more efficiently.
Also, more top means more buds can form, so you’ll have a larger yield.
To achieve this, you will have to do some training and pruning from time to time.
Your cannabis will also have stealth growth if you use these techniques.
Topping And Fimming Weed
Topping is removal of growing tip of plant. That will result in two main buds instead of one.
This method is helpful if you have single plant in small space and want to make most of it.
More yield, smaller size. But only do this sometimes because plants will become weaker and could eventually die.
You can also top off plants that are already growing through Solo cups. This way, weed won’t grow through cup and will stay nice and compact.
Fimming is process of removing shoot from point where it grows out of top, node will then become main branch.
That can be useful if you have number of shoots and you want to make sure they all get same amount of light. It’s also suitable for beginner micro growers because it’s very easy.
Super cropping And Low-Stress Training (LST) Weed
More advanced growing technique than topping or fimming weed is low-stress training. This involves tying down plants to form more beautiful, straight shapes.
Plants won’t suffer from much stress when you do this, so they can handle it more quickly than topping or fimming them.
This technique works best with cuttings and young plants that still need to grow their main stems too much.
Once again, you have to prune bottom part of plant and tie top part down horizontally on bench.
This method is used to create more horizontal surfaces without cutting plants. Buds will become more compact and wider, and they can produce more resin.
Super cropping is most advanced training technique and should only be used by experienced micro growers.
Plant is put under lot of stress, so they will create new stems and more buds to compensate for this stress.
By doing an opportunely sharp squeeze, you can force plant to bend in direction you want. Look at videos of super cropping for more information.
Defoliation Weed Techniques
Cannabis defoliation is the process of removing leaves from your cannabis plants. This technique is also known as lollipopping.
To increase light penetration to lower leaves, you can remove small shoots that grow from those leaves.
If you remove them, more light can be absorbed by bottom leaves, and these will become larger.
Micro Growing Cannabis Stages
Cannabis plant has four life stages:
- Germination
- Seedling stage
- Vegetative stage
- Flowering stage
During its life cycle, cannabis plants go through series of stages.
First, it grows from seed to small plants, starts flowering, and finally, gets harvested.
When micro-growing cannabis, germination process is first step to start cannabis growth process.
There are various methods of germinating cannabis seed, but we recommend paper towel method.
During this time, roots will grow out, and shoots will emerge from seed.
Seedling Stage
First thing is to make sure you have nice, sterile soil. You could also start your plants in jiffy pellets or another growing medium.
Fill pot with soil and water it well. Put seedlings on top of soil and cover it with some more soil.
Ensure seedling has enough light and keep temperatures between 70 and 77 degrees F. Also, provide plenty of fresh air.
Keep watering pot when it’s dry and see if it’s moist after couple of hours.
First, leaves emerge from seedlings after couple of days. Cotyledons (seedling leaves) are green.
Vegetative Stage
During veg stage, plants get nutrients, grow big and create plenty of leaves.
More light plant gets, more it will grow. More leaves it has, more light it can catch, and better plant can convert light into biomass.
That’s why you should place your lamp as high as possible and keep it there the entire time.
You could also hang lamp from ceiling with fishing line or ribbon.
Flowering Stage
Lot of things happen in flowering stage. As we already know, weed plants start to produce buds.
Plants also get their characteristic smell because certain chemical processes occur inside them.
Buds start to form and grow bit by bit, so ensure they have enough light and nutrients. You can determine whether you have to harvest by looking at trichomes.
When To Harvest Micro Grow Cannabis Plant
Micro growing usually lasts around four months, depending on strain, just like regular weed growing.
It’s important to keep track of dates to know when to harvest your first buds.
Like with regular growing, you should harvest your plant when it has reached its full potential.
You want to harvest your plants when they reach their full maturity because this is when most THC is formed.
At this point, buds are also fully developed, and most resin is present in buds.
Buds become darker in color, and trichomes will become more visible. They’ll start to look like small little snowflakes.
Another way to check if your buds are ready is by rubbing bud between your fingers. If it crumbles easily, your cannabis is ready for harvesting. If it doesn’t crumble, it’s not ready yet, and you should wait little while longer.
How Much Marijuana Yields When Micro Growing
There’s little space in micro-growing, so you must choose carefully what you want to grow.
If you have room for few plants, best option is choosing an auto-flowering strains with high THC% because this will produce most resin possible, and that is where all the psychoactive properties of cannabis come from.
Because we are talking about small space here, I don’t recommend growing tall strains since there is limited grow lights and space in your cannabis micro grow space and probably not enough for higher strains.
Choosing The Right Autoflower Strain For Your Needs
Many different factors come into play when choosing right strains for your micro grow. First and foremost, you should know what strains are available and how they grow.
Autoflowering cannabis plants come in different size, shapes, and colors.
Any strains that is labeled as an autoflower will more than likely be small enough for your needs.
Buy Seeds At Dutch Seeds Shop
We stock only best autoflower cannabis seeds for micro growing. All strains are specifically selected for their small size and quick bloom time.
You can choose from different types of autos cannabis seeds, each with its specific properties and distinctive effects.
Choose from different autos seeds that are suitable for either indoors or outdoors.
We also have range of unique genetics, such as Super Lemon Haze Seeds, Super Sour Seeds or White Widow Seeds, etc.
Seeds Guarantees
At Dutch Seeds Shop, we are sure about quality of our cannabis products.
We offer you a 30-day return policy, which means that if seeds don’t germinate or cannabis plant don’t flower, you can send seeds back to us for a new pack free of charge.
Pros And Cons Of Micro Growing
Micro growing has lot of advantages. Here are some of them:
- Space saving and power saving;
- Cheap costs: no need for expensive grow lights and climate control systems;
- Easy to set up: no need for construction work;
- Low risk of detection;
There are also some disadvantages to micro growing:
- Small yield.
- No room for error when it comes to watering and temperature. Everything has to be perfectly set up.
Best Cannabis Strains For Tiny Spaces
If you have little micro growing space, you’ll need to choose strains that’s easy to manage in small space.
Here are some recommendations for best micro growing marijuana strains and information about them:
Sativa-dominant Strains
- Amnesia Haze – most potent marijuana seeds available on market today. It has THC levels of around 22% and CBD of less than 1%. While THC will leave you feeling relaxed and happy, CBD will not affect your mood. Instead, it will help to relieve pain, inflammation, and anxiety. This is great strains for micro growers because it is easy to grow. However, it’s also just as good for any other micro growers because it’s simply one of best strains out there, regardless of how much you can grow. Plant features an earthy scent with citrusy tones that you can detect when smoking. Its taste is also unique and features sweet undertones mixed with spicy hints.
- White LSD – cannabis autos seeds with high THC level. This strain is best for daytime use due to its high cerebral effect. This plant has high 18% THC and 0.2% CBD making it ideal for treating pain and anxiety.
- AK-47 XTRM Auto – one of best autoflowering strains available, with origins in California and Colorado, where it won many awards. AK-47 is well known for its strong psychoactive properties, and XTRM Auto is great little strain that matches up to its ancestor. Plant’s buds are resinous and thick, coated in THC that is sure to hit you hard. This plant has high levels of CBD, so not only will you find yourself in a great mood after smoking this strain, but you can also use it to treat your medical symptoms with CBD.
Indica-dominant Strains
- White Widow – one of most popular strains on market, and for a good reason. This potent indica-dominant hybrid contains THC, with just about 20% psychoactive compound per ounce. It also has high level of CBD, which can help with pain relief.
- Purple Kush – this indica-dominant hybrid features THC level of about 15% per ounce. Its CBD content could be higher, but it has CBD analgesic properties to help pain relief.
FAQ
Here are some most commonly asked questions about micro growing weed with answers:
How much yield can I expect from micro growing?
It depends on number of plants you’re micro growing and size of your space.
Micro growing is great if you want to try producing cannabis for first time or want to try it out without committing yourself to more extensive setup.
You’ll be able to see if this hobby is something for you and what kind of demands it has before investing more significant amount of money into more extensive setup with lights and ventilation system that takes more time and effort to maintain.
How long does it take to grow, and how long does it take to finish?
Micro growing cannabis takes same time as regular growth, depending on type of plant and micro growing conditions.
Indicas are easier to manage and faster to finish, Sativas take bit longer and yield more.
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