This, on the surface would seem so basic, and often taken for granted. It shouldn’t be though, they are very important to healthy root growth. Every pot you use should have proper drainage holes in the bottom, if they do not, make some holes in the bottom for drainage.

The other important factor here is size. Start small, and plan on transplanting about every two weeks during the vegging stage. You can start off in something simple, like a 12 or 16 oz plastic cup, not a transparent cup though, it has to be colored. A transparent grow pot will allow light in, and get at the roots. Roots will not grow well in a lighted condition. Roots and light are just plain bad.

Alot of growers feel strongly about using square grow pots. Square pots allow for better use of your space, whereas round grow pots, would waste space, that would be best used by your roots.

Earth/Soil:

The next step is to gather your growing things. What do we all need if we’re going to grow cannabis? Pots to put soil in, which should not pose any major problems. By soil I mean an earth mix, of course, and in this you have a huge range to choose from. Cheap bags of earth as sold in many gardening centers will work, but can pose many problems for the beginner. The earth contains little nutrient and is not airy enough. Well aerated soil is important for good development of the roots of our cannabis plant. By ensuring you have a well aerated soil the plant will grow more vigorously, be stronger, more healthy – just better all round. You can achieve this by adding small, white, light stones called perlite to your earth, which make it airier.

Now it has to be said that cannabis plants will pretty much grow on anything; after all it is and remains a weed. But try and indulge the plant as much as possible and she will indulge you in return come harvest time with a large yield. So make your way over to the local grow shop if you can. The biggest advantage of using good quality earth is that you have nothing or very little to do. So you do not need to add extra nutrients, for example. Try to get a decent organic soil from your local gardening center, add about 35% to 40% perlite to this soil and you’ll have a decent base to start with. This recipe can always be improved upon, it is merely a starting point, that will work. However, you could add some domolite lime, bat guano, bone meal, blood meal, the list goes on and on. Try a good organic soil available from your local nursery, along with the necessary pearlite, and whatever else listed above, that you may decide to add into your soil.

We have filled out pots with earth, so what do we need now? Well obviously, growing marijuana without the cannabis plants themselves can be a little difficult. The easiest way to get hold of some, is from seeds. These can be sold in most countries and you can order them without any problems.

I can hear the next question on your lips: what sort should I raise? And why are some seeds so expensive and others cheap?

The simplest way to explain this is that it is similar to the difference between branded clothes and unbranded. Branded clothing costs much more but is not necessarily better. The major part of the price you pay is going on the brand itself, and the same goes in the seed world, where the well-known names command the highest prices. It also has to do with the image; ‘expensive’ is associated with being ‘better’.

One company sells its seeds for more expensive prices but sells fewer than the seed company which sells its wares for cheaper prices. Also, the amount of work put into a seed’s development and that of new varieties (basically, R&D), adds to the price. Through many years’ experience the quality of the seed is kept high, as with big companies such as Sensi Seeds, and the asking price is high as a consequence.  But the eventual price depends on many, many factors and my own experience is that price is not necessarily an indicator of quality.  You can have good and bad experiences with expensive and cheap seeds.

Even seeds picked out of your weed can be raised into decent plants. But we still haven’t got our seeds, so which will we plump for?

There is way too much choice, I must say. Each variety has its own qualities in growing. So the good news is you can’t really make a wrong choice. So don’t work yourself up into a lather choosing. But to make it easier for you: go for an Indica variety. Why an Indica? You have two basic sorts of cannabis plant: Indicas and Sativas.

Indicas don’t grow too large and have a short bloom period, with strong, broad stems and wide leaves. The Sativas are the opposite, with a strong growth leading to large plants with thin leaves, and especially during flowering, are much bigger than the Indicas. You also have hybrids of the two that are primarily Indica with a little Sativa, or they can be mostly Sativa with a dash of Indica in them. Both sorts are outstanding but for a beginner there is a greater chance of success with an Indica. Sativas can be unpredictable and during flowering can triple in size.

Indica varieties will double their size at most during flowering, which is way less (especially when space is limited). Indicas are therefore easier to deal with and do not hold as many surprises in store, as well as having greater resistance to stress (with less for the grower in turn). Definitely for the grower with just a few plants in a cupboard I recommend the Indicas. Now I don’t want to give the impression that a Sativa is hard to raise, but if you want to maximise you chances of a successful harvest you have got to go for an Indica. You will notice that there are a lot of these to choose from. Everyone has a personal opinion on what variety you should go for, so choose for yourself, as it is ultimately down to personal preference.

So finally, after much ohh-ing and ah-ing, you’ve made a choice. Nice one!

How do I germinate my seeds:

Once again, you'll find countless methods for germinating seeds.

Here are some:

(1) I use a paper plate, a moist paper towel, laid on the plate, and folded half over the seeds, and I slide the whole thing into a zip lock baggie, than I blow into the baggie just before zipping it shut. This way as the moisture evaporates, it is re-distributed back over the paper towel.

I place the whole thing into a drawer, next to my stove, it's kept warm there. 48 hours later they are ready for planting.  After germination the sprout is placed tap root down with the little bean head about 1/4 inch deep.  Every other day for the first two weeks they get some superthrive mixed at 3 drops/gal water. Superthrive is not a nutrient but a combination of hormones and vitamins that primarily stimulates root growth.

(2) I throw my seeds in a shot glass filled with water, let them sit for 12-24 hour. then throw them in pre soaked peat pellets, under a humidity dome for 4days to a week before roots show.

(3) Take a cup, put some water in the cup and drop the seeds in. Place in a WARM place and check for the taproot periodically.

(4) Wet paper towel. Fold and put inside tupperware. Place in warm area (like on top of light) wrap in black plastic first.

Something should be said on cleanliness, and being sanitary when handling seeds, wash your hands thoroughly first, and handle as little as possible, especially when making the transfer from the paper towel into it's first new home.

Marijuana is naturally a high light requirement plant. While there are alternatives, this is the plants natural desire, to bathe in lumens. To fill that need, growers typically use HID lighting, because it meets the demands of the plant.

HID (High Intensity Discharge) Lamps are:

• Efficient. They put out more light, with less energy usage, than any other type of illumination available to indoor growers.
  
• Bright. HID's produce more light than other types of indoor horticultural lighting.
  
• Expensive. HID's cost more than flourescents. They range in price from $50-$600 dollars.
  
• Hot. HID's produce heat and precautions have to be taken.

Fluorescent lamps are:

• Inexpensive. Shoplight fixtures can be purchased for as little as $7. Compact fluorescent bulbs only cost a couple of dollars a piece.
  
• Locally Available. Most discount stores and home improvement stores carry inexpensive, fluorescent fixtures and bulbs.
  
• Fine for vegetative growth. Fluorescent bulbs put out plenty of light for plants growing vegetatively, including mothers, seedlings and clones. Some growers prefer fluorescents for vegetative growth because of the slower pace of growth and better root development.
  
• Fluorescents need to be in close proximity to achieve their rated output, which means their canopy penetration is more limited than HID's.
  
• Comparatively inefficient. 10 forty watt fluorescent bulbs use the same amount of energy as a 400 watt HID, but produce far less light.  Since they use the same amount of energy but produce less light, the remaining must be given off as heat. Contrary to how it may first appear, fluoros actually run hotter than the equivalent wattage of HID-- they just disperse the heat quicker, because it is spread over a wider area.

Typically a grower would use a MH light for vegging, and an HPS light for flowering. These offer the best color spectrum, for the associated stage of growth.

Rules are made to be broken though, HPS light bulbs have improved, and growers are learning you can veg & flower using an hps, or veg using cfl's and save some money on your electricity, than flower with their HPS light..
(MH=metal halide light    HPS=high pressure sodium)

The rule of thumb is to only load a breaker up to 80% of its rated capacity. On a 15-amp service with 14/2 gauge wire one should only load it up to 12 Amps MAX. Since most lights will draw 1 amp per 100 watts a 15-amp breaker can handle one 1K light each. This brings up another point in home growing. That it is always good practice to have the fans and the light that they cool on the same breaker. That way if the breaker is somehow tripped (Murphy's Law) then both the light and its cooling system are down. Instead of the cooling system for the light going down and the light still blazes away because it was on another breaker. Note: above figures are estimated based on 110V supply.

Vegetative growth is the second stage in the life of a plant after it completes germination and begins photosynthesis. During this stage a plant will be photosynthesising as much as possible to grow as large as it can before the onset of the flowering phase. In essence it is the period of growth between germination and the beginning of sexual maturity characterised by flowering.

All plants have a vegetative stage where they are growing as fast as possible. It is almost standard practice to grow Cannabis plants with no dark period, and increase the speed at which they grow appreciably. Plants can be grown vegetatively indefinitely (Mother Plants for clones). It is up to the gardener to decide when to force the plant to flower.

Again, there are many ways to accomplish this. The basics of vegetative growth is to grow your plant, until it reaches sexual maturity. There are 2 features that distinguish mature veggie plants from immature ones. They are alternating nodal arrangement and leaves with 5 or more blades. You can flower before those features are present, but the plants perform a whole lot better if you wait. Most strains except for equ. sats have these by 12" or so. Personally, mine have always had these features before they reach 30 days old.

There are other factors to consider too, most indoor growers veg for about 4 weeks. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Alot of indoor growers like growing an Indica strain. These will about double in size when you switch to flowering cycle. A Sativa, will grow about 3 times it's size, during flowering.

These factors, all need to be taken into consideration, along with the size of your grow room, and the light that you are using.

The main difference between vegetative growth and flowering is the light cycle. 18 hours of light (or more) and 6 hours of complete darkness tells the plant it is in vegging state. (Some people veg using a 24 hour light cycle). A 12/12 light cycle, tells the plant to flower. It is important to maintain complete darkness during flowering

Some members input:

Soil:

If I am doing clones (99.9% of the time) I use RapidRooters or rockwool...

I then plant those into a mixture of 60% Foxfarm Ocean Forest and 40% perlite in the largest styrofoam cups i can find with a
good drainage hole in the bottom. Under the t-5s they go for 24/0 fun. Wham Bam Thank you Ma'am with LOTS of light is the key. When the roots start to wrap in the styro cup.....I up pot into a 1 gallon and finish the veg to my desired height. A week before flower I transplant to a 2-3 gallon and then flip em to 12/12.

Hydro:

Clones in rapids or rockwool...or aero if you have a bubbler or bucket...when you have ample roots coming out of the cube...into hydroton...run 24/0 lights and drip...backing the drip off to 15 minutes per hour after 1 day/the hydroton is all wet.

Proper lighting is very important in VEG. Low light will cause spindly/tall plants that are hesitant to branch out. This is often amplified if you are growing sativas/sat hybrids.

Ample lighting AND ventilation will result in bushy/branching plants with healthy root systems. t-5 or Halide @ 25 watts per sq ft or higher is optimal/the best bet for bushy growth in veg. CFL is also favorable for smaller numbers of plants or for side lighting. Side lighting will increase the chance the plant will fill/bush out sufficiently to take cuts or offer multiple bud sites. Temps in veg should never exceed 85F. 65-75 is optimal. IMO.

Always monitor NITROGEN levels in veg. The higher the temp of the room the LOWER the N should be in the mix. High temps/high N will also cause spindly/tall plants with lengthy internodal spacing. If temps are cool in the room and light levels are high the plant will take in more nitrogen and use it for dense/bushy growth.

Beneficial microbes and mycorrihzae innoculants are also very important in early veg. These products can be apllied early on in the veg cycle in an attempt to boost ROOT MASS. The larger the root mass the healthier/larger/more productive the plant will be.

I use a 4 foot shoplight with 2 40 watt cool white flo's. I also have a 17 watt fish tank flo and a reptile flo im not sure what the wattage is. I also have a 150 watt hps that im using right now but thats only cause i dont have any plants in flower at the moment. I like to tie my plants down to let the sides grow out. I usually let them go until they are about a foot tall before putting them into flower. I also cut the top cola off so the sides can catch up to the top. I just topped 2 of my plants yesterday and i'm trying to clone them by sticking them in water. I dont have any root gel or nutes besides some miracle grow but i dont like using it. I basically germ the seed throw it in dirt and water it.

This is a collective compiliation

from all of our members.