We see more and more people trying to grow their cannabis because cannabis and its amazing products are more popular and prevalent than ever, and it seems it won’t stop any time soon. Many beginners, to acquire the expertise or skills required to start a fully performing indoor or outdoor growing project, choose a simpler alternative – the micro grow. Take a few seeds and begin planting in a cupboard. Try and wait to get the best of all the seeds, that’s why it’s called micro grow method. It is a natural way for inexperienced growers to obtain the experience they need, and experiment without fear of ruining a large and costly project. We will be dealing with the fundamentals of micro growing in this article and some of the best tips.
What’s this Micro Grow Method?
The benefit of cultivating cannabis indoors is the ability to track growing processes. Nearly all situations can be optimized in your tight cultivation room. This helps the cannabis plant to flourish in a perfect condition and to bloom. A plant may grow very big out in the open since a container impedes root formation. Yet, at the same time, as you are doing indoors, you have no control over the environment outside. Within, you have full control over the lighting, temperature, circulation of air and humidity, and water and nutrition, of course. For a thriving plant and also for a proper yield, these conditions are important.
Micro growth is much likely similar to normal indoor cultivation. But there’s only one primary difference here: the space availability. Micro growing requires very minimal space. An old speaker case, a computer cabinet, or a small homemade grow box are some of the examples. Because of the lack of space, all the other basic aspects of growing cannabis – water, air supply, light, medium, strain option – are slightly different from your normal indoor growing. The goal is to establish the best conditions for growing as many plants in that limited space as possible. Or allowing one single plant to expand to its full growth size, within micro growing space limits.
The Space of Micro Growing
It’s important to have the right space for your micro grow production. Many micro-growing setups require some additional benefits over others, and you must understand and know how to place your plants safely using a micro growth pattern to understand how to care for them. Here are some of the options.
You can use a closet setup. It is a simple cultivation method using your room closet. The issue with a closet or wardrobe setup is the existence of bugs and odors. Even if you think you don’t have bugs in your room, the cannabis terpenes will attract these pests to come out of their hiding place. At the same time, the cannabis scent will circle your room and beyond. It might not be a discreet way of cultivating, especially in an urban neighborhood.
Another method is building a tent. It is probably the way to cultivate micro growth because it’s almost a garden, just smaller. You can add vents and exhausts for the best air circulation. What you should be concerned about this setup is its size. Since tents are best to be set in your backyard or any extra space outside, it can be hard to hide from your neighbor’s prying eyes.
Proper Ventilation and Watering
Without sufficient water and air, your plants cannot thrive and produce well. A good and clean system of ventilation and water supply is a requirement for any proper cultivation, including micro growing.
A good air movement is highly necessary for cannabis growing as CO2-rich air is easily exhausted, and it is a prerequisite for the photosynthetic cycle of a plant, allowing the growth of newer plant cells. Because it dries out the crop, the hot air due to the lighting needs to get out of the environment. Table fans are commonly used in indoor growing combined with ventilation systems, but this may not be practical for your micro growth. A sleek solution is a fan found in computers. You’re putting one at a low point, which will act as your intake fan and putting another at a higher position to serve as an exhaust. That way, the hot air will come out first as heat rises, replacing it with cooler and fresher air. Don’t forget to use some kind of filters on the fans to help you battle unwanted odors and pests.
After a while, watering the micro grow becomes troublesome as the plants get bushier and increase in width. You may need to use a small water system to water your plants from the bottom or make them grow available from the side. Should not forget that micro growing plants need more water than normal growing plants, as they have less root space.
The Light of Micro Grow Method
The heat generated by the light that you use in your micro growth makes all the difference. You will be cultivating in a small space, and it will warm easily, so your light’s temperature alone may dry both your plants and the medium. The heat could also be damaging, depending on how high they are installed. For example, if you have a high-temperature light and your cannabis plants are tall, you got to be sure that they can only be at a certain height to prevent getting scorched by the light.
LED Lighting
When cultivating in a tight area, LED lighting is almost the best choice. They only generate a small portion of the heat, and it is exponentially smaller compared to the HID bulb, which we’ll talk about next. This means, in LED, the ambient temperature of your setting (also the running temperature) should be small. If you are using a 100% spectrum LED, you have to do change every lighting schedule you have prepared in advance, unlike HIDs where you will need to switch the bulbs for you to change the light cycle. It’s important to ensure you don’t overwhelm your plants while using LEDs. Strong LEDs cannot crisply scorch your plants, but their broad-spectrum can bleach plants, plus it hinders production. If you’re growing within small spaces, it is highly recommended to use electricity ranging from 270 watts or the 360 watts to be certain with your plants having the perfect expanse of light.
HID Lighting
When you’re going to cultivate using HID lights, our recommendation is to use a 400W grow light. They’re going to generate heat but not so much, and they’re going to be strong enough to enrich your plants without stressing them. The height distance between the HIDs and your plants is what you want to focus on because HID lamps can get incredibly hot that they could burn your skin. Imagine your cannabis being burned by them.
T5 Grow Lighting
Some have considered using this T5 as grow lights that will give the touch a complete spectrum and moderately cool. Just like HIDs, when it’s flowering time, T5, as grow lights possess the capability to “bloom” as well as “grow” bulbs, you can turn off with ease. Such type lights were famed to grow and cultivate plants from beginning to end, and are widely found throughout the micro growing community. They have limited power, however. While they may be potential to vegetate and bloom, you do not easily get any yield that you would be using LEDs or HIDs. Now, if the goal is to expand with restricted or minimal heat in constricted spaces, T5s are more than capable of performing this task.
Techniques that Optimizes Micro Grow Method
It was previously stated that space is the key difference between using micro growth and regular cultivation indoors. Your setup’s lack of space typically needs shorter and bushier plants, which is reflected in selecting the right cannabis strain. There are other ways of controlling plant development, and here are some of those: topping and super cropping.
Topping is the process of cutting the very top of the plant, which encourages new secondary branches to develop. The plant thus grows in width and not height, growing in a bush-like form and developing more buds. On the other hand, super cropping (or HST, high-stress training) demands that you sever the main branch stem. This technique must be performed with caution. Ensure that you split the stem so that the plant feels it’s gone for good and starts to develop side branches, but not completely so that the main branch can recover and expand to a lower height.
Mostly all growers need to realize that growing a micro is not a suitable replacement for growing indoors or outdoors in real terms. Nevertheless, cultivating the green thumb and learning about the important things necessary to grow healthy cannabis is a great starting point.
Conclusion
Explore, try, and play with new techniques, varieties, and instruments, as long as you carefully treat your plants. The whole cycle of cultivating cannabis plants is in itself, a reward. And the harvest, too, will satisfy you undoubtedly. So, go ahead and start your micro grow cultivation.
