Safest Way to Plant, Tend and Harvest Your Own Cannabis

 

The safest way to Plant Tend and Harvest Your Own Cannabis. We offer the inside scoop on how to advance your vegetable garden, from picking the best seed to treating your weed.

After attempting to join in male-dominated online cannabis growing forums for years, April Brett had had enough of being treated with contempt simply because she is a woman. She made the decision to start her own Facebook community, O’Cannabis: Canadian Ladies Growing Together, in February 2020.

 

According to Brett, who lives and develops in Hamilton, Ontario, “I wanted to build a club specifically for ladies where they can feel comfortable, have no drama, and learn to improve.” We encourage and support one another, just as women are expected to do.

 

The timing of Brett was perfect. A month after she formed her group, pandemic lockdowns spread across the nation, prompting people to seek companionship online and take up home-based hobbies as a way to relieve tension and boredom. Brett saw the number of women who decided to start cannabis epidemic gardens grow by the hundreds, to more than 3,500 members today.

 

Brett, who uses cannabis to treat her anxiety, sadness, migraines, and chronic pain, thinks that growth is really soothing. “It greatly reduces tension. When I’m in my garden and observing my plants as they develop and thrive, I feel very peaceful.

 

Brett can see several advantages to producing her own marijuana: it tastes better, is more affordable than purchasing it from dispensaries or medical marijuana suppliers, and she is fully aware of the ingredients she uses. She points out that consumers have no way of knowing whether commercial producers use chemical fertilizers, insecticides, or mold inhibitors. (Health Canada regulates the use of these substances and mandates product testing for licensed producers.)

 

While producing marijuana can seem difficult, Brett claims it’s easy if you adhere to a few fundamental guidelines. Cannabis may be grown by those who struggle to maintain houseplants, she claims. Simply keep things simple.

Terese Bowors, a cannabis coach located in Nelson, B.C., the nation’s hub for cannabis cultivation, concurs with Brett. She claims that you can cultivate cannabis if you can grow lettuce and tomatoes.

Women in the Know gave us the inside scoop on everything you need to know to advance your pandemic garden.

 

Follow the Simple rules

You are permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants for recreational use per household under the federal Cannabis Act. Nevertheless, some provincial, local, and indigenous governments, as well as some landlords and strata, have their own regulations.

Recreational growing is not allowed in Manitoba or Quebec. However, a judge on the Quebec Superior Court found in 2019 that the province’s restriction was unconstitutional. The Quebec government has appealed the decision, and according to its website, recreational growing is still prohibited. However, Éducaloi, a charity in Quebec that promotes legal literacy, claims growers with green thumbs can do so for the time being. “If you choose to cultivate marijuana at home, make sure to keep up with any changes!” On its website, Éducaloi issues a joyful warning.

 

Meanwhile, other provinces have severe rules on how it can be done while Newfoundland and Labrador prohibits outdoor growing. For example, in British Columbia, you cannot have a crop that is visible to the general public, but in New Brunswick, you are required to have a secret garden enclosed in a lockable structure that is at least five feet tall.

Bowors surrounded her garden with deer netting and lined it with a pale, white gardening fabric. She remarks, “It kind of looks like a big marshmallow, and the fabric also absorbs the heat, which the plants adore.

 

If you use cannabis for medical purposes, you might be able to obtain a prescription from a doctor and a certificate from your doctor authorizing you to grow more than four plants. (You can get assistance with the process from one of the many medical cannabis clinics.) Depending on how many daily grams you are prescribed and whether you intend to grow indoors, outdoors, or both, you can grow a certain number of plants.

 

Start Seeds Indoors For Your Vegetable Garden

 

If you use cannabis for medical purposes, you might be able to obtain a prescription from a doctor and a certificate from your doctor authorizing you to grow more than four plants. (You can get assistance with the process from one of the many medical cannabis clinics.) Depending on how many daily grams you are prescribed and whether you intend to grow indoors, outdoors, or both, you can grow a certain number of plants.

 

Although there are numerous online seed banks offering a considerably greater selection of seeds at lower prices than authorized shops and producers, it’s crucial to remember that they’re not authorized. When people buy from the black market, they might not be getting what they think they are and may end up with a much stronger strain, warns Ashleigh Brown, founder of SheCann, a digital network for women interested in medical and legal cannabis, likening it to “a bottle of wine rather than a light beer.”

Strains Selection

There are hundreds of cannabis strains, but just a handful are offered by manufacturers and sellers with legal status. Women can prevent choice fatigue, according to Mikela Moore, a Chilliwack, British Columbia, grower and administrator of the O’Cannabis organization, by taking into account two crucial factors: the type of high you desire and your climate, as well as the two primary subspecies: indica and sativa.

 

Sativas generally give you an exhilarating head high whereas indicas generally ground you with a hefty body stone. Hybrids, which fall midway in between, are another option.

For the treatment of her sleeplessness, Moore has a medical certificate to produce cannabis. “They like to say, “Indica put you in-da-couch,”” Moore explains. While with sativas, you’ll be able to clean the house or go for a walk.

 

Sativas often grow higher, prefer humid, warm climates, and have longer growing seasons. On the other hand, indicates have shorter growing seasons, are bushier, and are better able to tolerate the cold. There are also ruralizes, often known as auto flowers, which have the shortest lifecycles of the group and begin flowering depending on age rather than light. Autoflowers are perfect for people who live in smaller spaces and for areas with shorter growing seasons. According to Moore, “autoflowers are essentially on a genetic timer, they’ll just do their thing regardless of how much sun they receive.”

Regardless of the type, cannabis does best between 20 C and 25 C, and it won’t grow well in temps below 12 C or above 30 C.

 

It’s crucial to understand that you have a 50/50 chance of receiving male or female plants if you purchase ordinary seeds. Male plants pollinate female plants, leading them to generate seeds in their buds and essentially spoil your crop. Only female plants create buds. You have to remove the male plants because of this. When your plants are around six weeks old, you can determine their sex (female plants have wispy white hairs, whereas male plants have pollen sacks), but it’s not always simple for beginners.

 

Andrea Meharg, a cannabis coach and educator located in Parkhill, Ont., suggests newcomers buy feminized seeds to prevent the disappointment of having male plants. She claims that using high-quality feminized seeds will get you 70% of the way to successful growth.

Retailers and seed companies frequently include all the important information about their seeds in their website descriptions.

Plan the garden

When designing your garden, the two key choices you must make are where to put your plants and whether to plant them in the ground or in containers. The most crucial factor, according to Moore, is to pick a location that receives a lot of direct sunlight. Additionally, she advises looking for a location with appropriate airflow and weather protection. Fences, garden posts, and tomato cages can all provide support.

“Cannabis is a relatively hardy plant,” she explains, “but it is still vulnerable to severe rains and high winds.” “You want to select a location that is slightly shaded but still gets a mild wind to assist strengthen it.”

Moore suggests considering your soil and space while determining whether to grow in containers or in the ground. “If you have a lot of clay or sand in your soil, it’s not going to be ideal for the plants, so you might be better off growing in pots,” she explains. “And if you plant a plant, you might end up with a tree.”

 

You can even rearrange the pots if, for example, your coworkers are coming over for a BBQ or your kids have a playdate and you want to keep your new interest a secret.

Moore advises seven- to 10-gallon pots for photoperiod plants and five-gallon pots for auto flowers, which she grows in pots on her sunny porch. She recommends ladies think carefully about what, if anything, to grow near their cannabis. Some plants, like tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash, are susceptible to powdery mildew, which can spread to cannabis plants. Other plants, such as marigolds, alfalfa, and herbs, make excellent neighbors because they can deter pests and diseases. They make excellent neighbors because they can deter pests and diseases.

 

You must also decide on the type of soil and fertilizer to use. Moore says PRO-MIX HP, a peat moss and perlite soil, is popular, but she prefers coconut coir, which is manufactured from coconut husks because it is less bug-prone.

 

You can use chemical, organic, or homemade fertilizer (think compost teas, eggshells, and coffee grounds). Plants require different amounts of the three major nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium during the vegetative and flowering stages, so you’ll need to adjust your fertilizer accordingly.

 

Moore advises fertilizer but claims it is not required. “You can grow a plant with just water and sunlight, but if you want to get more out of your plant, fertilizers come in useful,” she explains.

Moore also suggests storing your plants in a secure location away from public view (regardless of whether this is required in your municipality), as theft is unfortunately widespread. She does, however, recommend reducing ambient light, such as security lights, to ensure your plants get the necessary dark times.

Start growing

If you’re starting from seed, you can start them indoors right now or wait till it warms up and plant them outside. Remember that before growing outside, the temperature should be regularly above 12 degrees Celsius. (More information on beginning seedlings can be found here.)

“You’ll have a much healthier, much more robust, much bigger plant by the end of the growing season if you start that seed inside in [early spring] just like starting tomato seeds,” adds Meharg, who offers growing seminars for women through her firm, Reveal Cannabis. “However, you may sow the same seed on May two-four and have a complete harvest in October.”

 

According to Brett, creator of the O’Cannabis group, one of the most common mistakes people make is overwatering their plants, especially seedlings, which can lead them to shrivel up and die. “I simply give them enough to last a couple of days since they prefer to get wet and dry out,” she explains.

 

When her plants are larger and in pots, she watered them until 10 to 20% of the water runs out, waits for them to dry up, and then repeats the process. She claims that the simplest way to tell if your plants are dry is to lift up the pots and weigh them. You’ll get the hang of it with time. Another way is to stick your index finger in the dirt and see if it’s dry up to your knuckle.

 

Bowers, who grows her plants in raised beds, recommends watering lightly and early in the morning before the heat of the day.

Brett and Bowors both encourage spending a lot of time with your plants. Bowors enjoys gently walking about her plants, sniffing and touching them, while Brett converses with her girls, which she and numerous researchers feel gives them a boost. “I tell them how lovely they are and how nice they will be to smoke,” she says. “They’re like my kids.”

Harvest your plants

Photoperiod plants are normally harvested between September and October, but this depends on your climate. While plants can resist a couple of light frosts, Moore recommends removing them before the first cold snap.

 

She recommends keeping a close eye on the wispy white hairs to determine when it’s time to harvest your plants. When your plants begin to shrivel and turn rust-colored, it’s time to pull them up. Moore suggests removing the huge leaves, cutting off the branches, and hanging them on a line to dry in a low-humidity, well-ventilated environment. “If you go that far, the last thing you want to do is hang them in a wet area and let them rot,” she explains.

 

It will take approximately a week for your crop to dry, and you’ll know it’s done when the stems crack. You can then trim your buds and, if you’re patient enough, cure them by placing them in jars that you gently shake and open and close once or twice a day for a month. “It makes a tremendous difference in how it tastes,” Moore adds.

 

Keep learning

 

Brett used MiracleGro too close to harvest time the first time she planted cannabis, and the fertilizer lingered in her plants, damaging her yield. “When you were burning it, it simply tasted incredibly bad and smelled horrible,” she says.

She felt she needed some direction to try again, so she sought out a mentor to assist her in learning the ropes. “The only thing he wanted in return was for me to share my knowledge,” she adds, adding that this is one of the reasons she founded O’Cannabis: Canadian Ladies Growing Together.

She urges women to join the group to gain guidance on common problems (such as dealing with bugs and mold) and encouragement during the growing process (such as encouraging memes and images of other growers’ plants). She also recommends speaking with staff at hydroponic stores and purchasing a classic growing guide, such as Jorge Cervantes’ Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible or Greg Green’s The Cannabis Breeder’s Bible.

Even if your first growth fails, she urges you to try again, as she did, and promises that each growth will improve.

Brett adds, “My life is so much better now that I cultivate my own.” “I have very little anxiety and despair since I handle it with my own meds.” When I’m growing up, I also have a sense of community because I’m out there helping people. It’s satisfying.