Growing indoor weed is a cannabis lover’s dream. There are so many ways to grow weed, but growing indoor weed is rewarding and it allows you to experience cannabis growing no matter the season. In order to make sure your indoor weed is perfect, you’re going to need some of the best equipment available.
Germination Kits
One of the most difficult parts of growing a plant is starting it. Germination is the most vulnerable time of a plant, so you’ve got to make sure everything goes well. There are many different ways to germinate a cannabis plant, but if you want to use the best equipment for growing indoor weed then you should try the Total Germination Package. The package includes a heat mat, heat mat thermostat, seedling trays, humidity dome, and rock wool cube mediums – everything you need to start your cannabis plants the proper way.
The most important thing during germination is heat and moisture. By using a humidity dome, you can keep the relative humidity up as close to 100% as possible. The heat pad helps you keep the temperature up and is especially useful for the nights and cold winter days. The rock wool cubes are one of the many great ways to germinate seeds. These cubes retain water very well, making them a perfect medium to use with the humidity domes.
CO2 Regulators
One of the best pieces of equipment you can get when growing indoor weed is a CO2 regulator. CO2 is fundamental to cannabis growth and bud production. One of the most difficult parts of using CO2 is regulating the amount of CO2 in the room and there isn’t enough CO2 in the average household to be enough by itself. Instead, growers use different techniques to increase the CO2 levels in their growing areas. One of the most efficient methods of doing so is through CO2 canisters, But these canisters aren’t good enough by themselves, you need a CO2 regular.
CO2 regulators ensure that the CO2 is released slowly by using solenoids. It’s important to increase the CO2 levels, but it can’t be too much, otherwise, the plants can get CO2 poisoning – just like humans. You can calculate how much CO2 to release based on your room size, but the best growers growing indoor weed use CO2 monitors as well. These CO2 monitors read the PPM, allowing you to have complete control over the CO2 levels. Not only can the monitors read the levels, but there are ones that combine monitors with regulators to automatically control the amount of CO2 in the air – a completely automated system.
PH and EC Monitors
The technology for growing indoor weed has improved drastically over the years. Now, it’s no longer good enough to just use nutrients. Growers need to know what pH and EC they are watering their plants. By monitoring the pH and EC of the water/nutrients, growers can dial in their feeding to suit the plant’s growth.
Growing indoor weed can involve the cheapest DIY methods or fancier equipment. The better equipment will save you time and be very accurate – there’s no point using something that’s giving you inaccurate readings. The best readers can read the pH and the EC of the solutions, and the BlueLab Guardian Monitor is one of the leading products in this market. There are two probes that read the pH and EC/temperature separately. If your plants are showing nutrients problems and you can’t seem to solve the problem, it could be your pH or EC that is out of sync. Consider one of the many monitors on the market to bring your crop back into the golden zones.
Water Filtration
Are you using water strain from the tap, borehole, well, or rainwater? Well, you might want to consider getting some water filtration to step up you’re grow op. Any residual minerals in the water can affect how much nutrients you should add and what pH your water will be. Reverse Osmosis is the most popular water to use in grow operations because it is completely neutral. Properly RO water will result in a ppm of close to 0, making it easy to monitor exactly what you feed your plants. If you’re having any nutrient problems, the water you’re starting with could be the problem.
You can buy RO water, but this can get costly over time – especially if you have a large operation. Instead of buying water the whole time, you can buy an RO Water Filter from HydroLogic. All you need is your tap and the water filter to have pH stable water that will prevent mineral build-up in your plants. The filter costs $315 and can filter up to 300 gallons per day. No more chlorine, contaminants, or water wasting. The filters work well with taps but also filter out iron and sulfur from well water.
Grow Lights
The first thing growing indoor weed requires is a grow light. There’s no point even thinking about growing indoor weed if you haven’t sorted out this important piece of equipment. When looking at grow lights, there are two main things you have to consider: the type of lights and the intensity of the lights.
There are three main types of lighting when it comes to growing indoor weed:
1. LED
Light-emitting diodes are the latest and greatest in grow light technology. More and more growers are switching to LEDs because of the many advantages associated with these lights. Before you consider purchasing a full set of LEDs, one of the most important things to know is that they’re expensive. LEDs are the most expensive grow lights you can buy for growing indoor weed, but there’s a reason for that – LEDs are quite impressive.
The light spectrum, energy-saving, and temperature/sound reductions are reasons why LED lights are in demand. These lights put out just as much light but at a fraction of the electricity usage of other types of lights. Kind LED K3, is one of the world’s best-LED brands that you can get here for a 30% discount at $693. These lights use approximately half the electricity while burning cooler and not as loud as HIDs. The full-spectrum lighting also ensures that your plant gets the best vegetative and flowering light in needs. The spectrum can also be adjusted by switching off different LED panels at different times – a unique characteristic that no other light type has.
LED lights are also being used as supplementary lighting like the Kind LED Flower Bar, which provides supplementary red lighting during the flowering stage. Growers usually struggle to provide the full spectrum throughout the entire grow, so by using an LED bar you can provide the necessary light at all times.
2. HID
High-Intensity Discharge lights were for many years the only real way of growing cannabis on a decent scale. Nowadays LED, CFL and T5 lights are just as popular, but HID lights are still the go-to option for many growers around the world. They are cheaper, more intense, and they are proven to work; but they’re also more expensive to operate and they have a shorter lifespan – so you’re going to have to weigh up the options.
HIDs actually covers a few types of lights, all of which are ignited using a different gas and which work better in different stages of the plant’s growth. The two main types of HIDs are HPS (High-Pressure Sodium) and MH (Metal Halide). HPSs are mainly used for flowering, while MHs are mainly used for veg. MHs produce a blue light, which the plant needs during vegetative growth, thanks to the metal halide gases; and HPSs produce red light, favorable to flower production, due to the presence of sodium gas. A 600w HID light will be enough to light a 4×4 area with lumens reaching 90,000. These lights produce the most lumens of any light, but their spectrum is limited and they produce a lot of heat. You can get HID lights from 250w all the way up to 1000w.
3. CFLs
Compact Fluorescent Lights are a low-energy using alternative for people not needing a lot of lumens. CFLs have the lowest lumen output of all the lights, but for small spaces and for plants that don’t need much light, these lights are very useful. CFLs do not require additional ballasts, because they are already built into the base of the bulb.
There are small 10w CFL bulbs and they go all the way up to the largest 250w CFL bulbs, so with the right combination of bulbs, you can light up your area. These bulbs work best for seedlings, clones, small veg plants, and mothers; but they have been successfully used for veg and flowering of smaller plants, thanks to the different light spectrums available. There are red, blue, and daylight CFL bulbs available, all of which provide a different spectrum suitable for different plant growth.
4. T5s
T5s are also fluorescent lights, but they are tube fluorescent lights. These lights can be used by themselves when growing indoor weed or they can be used as supplementary lighting. When used for flowering, these lights are only useful for smaller plants; with larger plants not reaching the same yields as under LEDs or HIDs.
The T5s long tubular shape can be installed horizontally on top of the canopy or vertically on the sides of your plants. Many lights struggle to penetrate the canopy of your plants, so using T5s on the sides can help boost production of the lower bud sites.
Grow Boxes
Instead of building your entire grow area, why not just purchase one readymade. Grow Boxes are becoming more popular, especially as hobbyists enter the cannabis growing market. These boxes come fully kitted, with everything you need to grow quality cannabis plants. Lighting, ventilation, exhaust, and reflection are all taken care of. The grow boxes have hydroponic and soil options available, but you’ll also need to decide the size and lighting of your box.
SuperBox CFL Smart Grow Box
This is a compact grow box that uses CFL lighting. It is 18 inches wide, 24 inches deep, and 30 inches high. There is carbon filtration already installed and you can choose what combination of lighting you’d prefer. There are also added extras, including the BlueLab Guardian Monitor and a Stealth RO Water Filter. This grow box is the perfect growing indoor weed option for those with space issues.
SuperStar Smart Grow Cabinet
This is the real deal when it comes to growing indoor weed in a grow box. This cabinet will set you back $1,695 but it comes fully equipped to produce big yields in a reasonable space, giving you a good gram/watt ratio. With both hydroponic and soil options, the SuperStar cabinet comes equipped with a Kind LED K3 Series 2 XL300 light, which has more than enough power for the 24’ wide x 24’ deep x 60’ high cabinet. You won’t have to worry about the smell because there is carbon filtration already installed. The ‘smart’ component is because you can control the lights and water schedule of your cabinet from your cell phone. This is an amazing feature that means you won’t need a babysitter when going away from your plants for a couple of days. Enjoy the freedom of this smart technology for the best growing indoor weed experience.
SupHerb Dryer Drying Cabinet
Grow Boxes aren’t just for growing. You are also going to need a space to dry your bud once it’s been harvested and this drying process needs to take place under the right conditions. Instead of having to control the temperature and humidity of an entire room, you can just use this drying cabinet. These cabinets have a strong wooden design that provides adequate airflow and humidity control. This cabinet is useful in all temperature zones and will take your bud to the perfect consistency.
The best equipment for growing indoor weed will help you in areas that you didn’t know you needed help. Instead of struggling with everything by yourself, get some help from the latest and greatest growing indoor weed technology.
