Despite every attempt to keep the home grow movement in a box, cannabis reform has brought new interest in growing at home or as part of a collective. For the most part, home growing has not been as popular with legislators who have attempted to limit this right for many reasons just about everywhere.
In the U.S. this is a battle that will go on at a state level until (at least) the drug is rescheduled. However, it is likely to go on for longer than that. Cannabis reform has reintroduced some very basic issues to mankind. This not only includes the right to grow what you want but access to the kind of seed you want to plant.
Biological diversity is a very important topic to most people involved in only a small way in the movement. That is where variety comes from.
Growing your own marijuana is a fairly time and resource-intensive proposition. It is a skill and can be easily learned. However, there are some basic things to understand first.
That starts with how cannabis seeds actually germinate and grow.
Three Types of Cannabis Seeds
Check out any seed shop (and it is easy to do today with the internet). One of the biggest loopholes in the Drug War was the ability of breeders to send their seeds globally. This is how the cannabis industry began to find a modern commercial center. Dutch breeders are in many ways responsible for creating a new modern nexus of reform in Amsterdam based in fact on the seed industry itself.
This is, as a result, the best place to begin to learn about cannabis seeds and different strains of cannabis. However, the first thing that jumps out at the novice consumer is that there are in fact three types of the marijuana plant. Knowing what these are, what they require to flourish and how to take care of them is the first step to successful cultivation.
Autoflowering. Autoflowering seeds are extremely popular right now for one very good reason. These plants produce flowers automatically when the plant has reached a certain level of development. They are also popular with novice growers and experts alike. Many people find that these are easier plants to grow.
Feminized. Feminized seeds are those that only produce female marijuana plants. This is the only kind that will produce bud, and therefore the only kind you are interested in. However, this is also a very important trait for another reason. Cannabis, like other plants, has a built-in survival mechanism that allows the plant to become hermaphrodite if the conditions are right. Plants tend to do this if they are under stress. The end result? Your once female, bud producing plants will get a little gender confused and create no buds. Specially feminized seeds help you avoid this problem from the get-go.
Traditional. “Traditional” marijuana refers to plants that only begin to produce flowers under certain light conditions. They flower during a very specific photoperiod which is determined by the number of dark and light hours. This is why many indoor breeders put their plants on a strict 12-hour photoperiod schedule. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark makes the plant believe it is summer and therefore produce flowers. Yields from these seeds also tend to be larger than auto-flowering varieties.
Hybrids. Most of what you can buy today, even in terms of seeds, are actually hybrid strains of marijuana. Autoflowering itself is a trait that comes from an indigenous strain of cannabis called Cannabis Ruderalis. This Landrace strain crossed with either Indica or Sativa strains will create auto-flowering plants.
How Do I Begin to Grow My Own?
There is a wealth of information on the internet and available from seed shops and other vendors. Many of the best seeds still come from Europe, where there has been a more or less legitimate industry around this for at least the last forty years.
If you are looking forward to growing cannabis in the comfort of your own home, visiting these online seedbanks should be your first step.
You can buy everything you need, from the seeds themselves to grow equipment very easily online. None of this is illegal.
Where it does become a bit tricky is what you do with the seeds and where.
Growing cannabis is just like any other plant on the technical side. That said, there are other considerations to always consider. Growing can be a smelly process. If you are growing in stealth, security will always be an issue.
That said, it is not a difficult process. All the materials you need are otherwise found in either head or grow shops.
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