Picture yourself peeking behind the door of your grow room early in the morning just to inhale the delicious aroma emitted from the multiple sugar-coated buds (*dreamy sigh*).
It is easy to turn this imaginary scenario into reality once you start to grow your own green medication.
But like every new beginning in life, it may feel quite perplexing to figure out how to assemble all the essential weed growing supplies that you need.
However, there’s no use in feeling overwhelmed. While marijuana growing does come with some challenges, it is also a process full of joy, excitement, and gorgeous rewards (that are not solely limited to the harvesting point).
In this article, we will list the top most essential weed growing supplies to help you get started with a mind to both indoor, as well as outdoor marijuana growing.
We will explain how each of these tools and devices can work in your favor, as well as whether or not you can actually go without (some of) them – because, hey, no two cannabis growers are alike.
Contaminated by the DIY fever, we will also provide smart tips on crafting or re-purposing already available materials into weed growing supplies because as we know fair well, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Essential Weed Growing Supplies in a Nutshell
Entering the world of cannabis growing can feel like swimming deep into unknown waters. Cannabis-related terms, scientific terms, complex phrases and thousands of tips from hundreds of different marijuana growers start flooding you from all across the web.
In order to turn the extensive bits of information into easily-digestible practical guidelines, we want to show you that the most basic weed growing supplies that you need are extremely effortless to find, understand, and subsequently, utilize.
For this purpose, we’ve compiled the neat cheat sheet below named “Beginner Cannabis Grower Go-To Supplies.”
Beginner Cannabis Grower Go-To Supplies
- Reflective materials (may or may not prove to be useful if you opt for readily-assembled grow tent or grow cabinet).
- Grow lights
- Fans (your personal goals as a cannabis grower will determine the complexity of the ventilation setup you’ll need).
- Growing medium (you can grow cannabis in soil or in the absence of soil).
- Containers and trays
- Pruners, scissors, net/mesh, sticks
- Magnifying glass, protective eyewear, and protective gloves
- Fertilizers (optional).
- pH meter (optional but highly recommendable).
- Thermo-hygrometer (highly recommendable).
- Distilled water (mucho importante!)
- Humidifier/dehumidifier (optional)
These are the 12 quite common and easy to find supplies that you can actually get without even leaving the house if you choose to assemble your weed growing kit online.
But here comes the trickier part – how to choose the most suitable types out of these supplies that will suit your cannabis growing mission? Keep reading and find out everything you want to know.
Growing Space
Each marijuana growing journey begins with choosing the most suitable grow space. This is an extremely crucial step to take the time to evaluate all the pros and cons of the options you have available.
If you want to grow cannabis outdoors, you simply want to choose a suitable spot. You won’t really need any extra installations such as reflective materials, grow lights, and ventilation setups, among others.
But you still need to be careful in picking a spot that isn’t exposed to regular harsh winds or (maybe) suspicious neighbors. If needed, you can install additional trellises to support your cannabis plants. You can also make use of cloth sheeting to keep your green ladies well-protected. It’s a good idea to consider greenhouse marijuana growing, too.
Did you know that growing weed in greenhouses might be the future of sustainable cannabis growing, according to academics, horticulturists, and engineers? When Dan Sutton built a 120,000-square foot greenhouse in Maple Ridge, B.C. and calculated the energy output in numbers, he quickly realized the setup would use 90 percent less electricity than traditional indoor cannabis growing facility.
If you want to grow cannabis indoors, you want to figure out whether you’ll turn a spare room into indoor cannabis grow space or whether you will opt for a grow tent. There are many inexpensive tents that can be upgraded into perfect marijuana grow rooms. There are also many top-grade grow tents that are already pre-equipped with all the essential supplies you need to get straight down to growing.
If you are considering communal cannabis grow the project, large-scale cannabis grow gig or you wish to utilize a large yet portable grow space, then shipping containers can work wonders for you.
When picking the best cannabis grow space you need to evaluate your long-term goals as a cannabis grower.
In the case you are good to go with growing 1-2 marijuana plants, a mini grow closet can work beautifully to suit your needs. It is much easier for beginner marijuana growers to start with only a handful of plants. Plus, this can be a great option if one of your major concerns is the discretion of your grow space.
With this in mind, professional grade grow closets might be your best option if you are not the type of person who enjoys drilling, calculating, or if the DIY alternatives are simply unreliable according to your personal preferences.
As a rule of thumb, an indoor grower must pay attention to the grow room’s insulation.A well-sealed grow space will allow you to gain full control over the growing environment. No light or air will penetrate into the grow room, and the invasion of various pests will be also blocked. Nevertheless, adding reflective materials on the walls is a must so that the power of your grow lights will be optimized for the best results.
Grow lights
Indoor marijuana growers need suitable grow lights to replace the function that the Sun plays for outdoor marijuana growing. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as “perfect marijuana grow lights” or “best marijuana grow lights” from a “fit all growers” perspective.
Your choice of grow lights will depend on your personal budget, your goals, the dimension of your grow space, and several other highly intimate factors.
Picking suitable lights for each growth stage of the plants is crucial altogether with the suitable light spectrum and the rated life of the grow lights, plus the energy output because you are the one who’s paying the energy bills.
We’ve compiled a comprehensive guide on marijuana grow lights where you can find all the practical bits of information you need when picking suitable grow lights.
When you get down to choosing cannabis grow lights that will work great for you, we encourage you to think critically.
Maybe you’ve heard that HID grow lights can help you get multiple potent buds upon harvesting so you’re ready to give them a try. But are you sure the excess heat emitted by HIDs will work in your favor (which can happen if you’re planning to grow marijuana indoors during the cold winter season, for example)? On the other hand, HIDs can easily burn your marijuana plants if you don’t have the time to monitor your indoor grow space regularly and reposition the lights accordingly.
Investing in high-quality and easy to manage grow lights will make a huge difference in your marijuana growing journey so skip the rush and choose wisely.
Quick Tip: Although not a mandatory weed growing supply, light timers can make your indoor marijuana growing journey so much easier. Once the light source is plugged into the timer, and the timer is plugged into the wall, your grow lights will switch ON and OFF automatically (so you won’t have to do this manually).
Ventilation Fans
“Even at low humidity levels, if you have no air flow and your grow room is stagnant, bud rot can proliferate fairly easily. To break the cycle of mold growth, you want to break up that environment.”
explains John Pratt in an interview for Cannabis Business Times.
The beneficial action of rotating fans does not only prevent mold growth but they also help to strengthen the branches and the stems of your cannabis plants which is crucially important for supporting and nurturing the juicy buds.
If you want to keep the oscillating fans out of your way, just mount them on the wall. But to make sure, though, that the air circulates not only from a single direction but throughout the entire grow space (meaning upwards and downwards, too).
Rotating fans won’t be efficient on their own if you’re growing anything more than a handful of plants. With this scenario, you will still need to let fresh air penetrate the grow room which will inevitably affect the humidity and temperature rates.
To ensure that the stagnant air leaves the grow room along with the distinct marijuana smell, you need inline fans that can be mounted after drilling suitable holes. Ducting will be attached to the inline fan.
Air conditioners can also work well, and especially when you need to keep the temperatures cooler.
Since cannabis odor can quickly spread throughout your house, a carbon scrubber can work beautifully. Odor neutralizers can also help but they can’t be possibly compared to the powerful odor neutralizing the action of a carbon scrubber.
Growing mediums
In terms of the growing medium of your cannabis plants, you have two major options – growing weed in soil or growing weed in the absence of soil.
Coco Coir is commonly found in various potting mixes used for creating good-quality soil for marijuana plants. But if you grow weed solely in Coco Coir, then this is considered soil less growing. That’s because Coco Coir is deprived of the living microorganisms which establish their colonies in the soil, and initially enrich the soil with essential nutrients.
With hydroponic marijuana growing you can utilize Coco Coir / clay pebbles or only water as a growing medium. All the nutrients needed for your plants to thrive will be added manually after testing the pH and adjusting the ppm of the water if and when needed. Although it may seem complicated at the very first glance, hydroponic marijuana growing actually gives you far better control over the growing medium.
If you choose traditional marijuana growing in soil, the higher the quality of the soil, the higher the quality of your crops. Do NOT use soil obtained outdoors for indoor marijuana growing as you risk exposing your plants to pests found in the soil from your backyard.
Growing Containers and trays
Any type of container can work for growing marijuana but some types will simply work better than others. Of course, the size truly matters depending on the growth stage of your cannabis plants. When still seedlings and during the early stages of vegetation, small pots will work fine. But at some point, you’ll need approximately 2 – 6 gallons pots.
The best working containers for growing marijuana are either fabric pots or the more recently introduced air-pots. Both fabric pots and air-pots will allow air to flow freely through the root system of your cannabis plants, keeping them healthy, flourishing, and out of trouble.
Pruners, scissors, net/mesh, sticks
Even beginner gardeners know fair well that plants have their specific needs in terms of careful pruning and trimming.
With marijuana plants, training techniques are very beneficial for increasing yields, as well as optimizing the power of the grow lights and other interrelated factors in your grow space. In order to apply some of the marijuana training techniques, you can’t go without suitable pruners and scissors. Don’t forget to sterilize the tools each time you use them to avoid contaminating your green ladies with harmful bacteria.
The SCROG ( Screen of Green) method can play a key role for maximizing yields while making the most out of your grow space, and for this purpose, you’ll need a suitable net or mesh.
Sticks will be useful for supporting the branches.
Magnifying glass, protective eye wear, protective gloves
Spending a lot of time in your grow room under the influence of the powerful grow lights can be very damaging for your eyes. That’s why protective eyewear made it to our list of essential weed growing supplies. But do keep in mind that good-quality sunglasses can also work like a charm.
Since you want to monitor your green ladies both closely, as well as carefully and regularly, you’ll not only need suitable eyewear to protect your eyes but you will also need a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass can be helpful during each stage of your marijuana growing journey but it becomes a must when you need to inspect the maturity of the trichomes and pick the most suitable time to harvest your cannabeauties at the peak of their potency.
Apart from magnifying glasses or jeweler’s loupes, digital microscopes work even better. Your investment will be worth it as you will be able to understand each step of the growth journey with precision and act accordingly.
However, with the advanced technologies available only a click away, there are awesome apps that can substitute a magnifying glass as part of your essential weed growing supplies.
Protective gloves will help to protect your marijuana plants from possible contamination when you are in close contact. Also, protective gloves will be extra handy when it’s time for harvesting and trimming so that the sticky resin doesn’t end up on your hands but instead, it remains on the buds.
Cannabis Fertilizers
We want to keep things extra crisp and brief when it comes to marijuana growing and fertilizers, so here we go – the less is more. If you’re growing in high-quality soil, you can easily skip on any extra fertilizers. Top dressing or composting can be a much better alternative to synthetic nutrients.
If you’re growing marijuana hydroponically, then you can’t possibly go without suitable nutrients tailored for hydroponic growing, or else, the growing medium will fail to supply the essential elements your green ladies need to survive and flourish.
Always check carefully if the nutrients you are about to pick match the growing medium. Most liquid fertilizers are made for hydroponic growing but many growers use them for traditional soil growing, too. Just be very, very careful with the dosage and use half or even less of the recommendations on the label.
Soil pH meter
Using a pH meter is as straightforward as it can get – just stick it into the growing medium and into the water you feed to your green ladies and make sure that the pH levels are always kept within perfect balance.
For growing marijuana in soil, the pH levels should be kept at a rate of 6.0 and up to 7.0, and the same rates apply to the pH of the water you use for watering.
For growing marijuana in hydroponics, the ideal pH levels should be kept at a rate of 5.5 and up to 6.5.
At any cost, do not underestimate the importance of balancing the pH levels. Disrupted pH will block your plants’ ability to absorb nutrients and this can be very damaging.
If you notice that the pH levels have become too high (meaning too alkaline) or too low (meaning too acidic), there are numerous effortless ways to bring them back to normal. One easy-peasy method of adjusting the pH level of the soil or water is to squeeze some fresh lemon. Lemons are acidic, and they feature pH levels of 2.0 – 3.0 so they can help you lower high pH levels.
Cannabis Thermo-hygrometer
Both the temperature, as well as the humidity rates of your indoor grow space matter when it comes to the success of your mission as a cannabis cultivator.
Adjusting the temperature and humidity levels can feel like a breeze, and it is not a complicated task like most beginner growers tend to think.
However, it would be impossible to adjust these levels without a reliable thermo-hygrometer. Thankfully, there are fantastic devices available nowadays, and they won’t break the piggy bank.
Of course, digital thermo-hygrometers are a bit more costly but the advanced devices are simply spectacular. Most of these can not only memorize the temperature/humidity rates so that you gain complete control over the growing environment but you can also easily monitor the humidity/temperature rates by logging into your smartphone device. Real-time monitoring has changed the game for cannabis growers forever.
Distilled Water
Distilled water truly deserves to be a part of the essential weed growing supplies that you need, although most guides won’t pay that much attention to that note. But since we’ve learned part of our lessons as cannabis growers the hard way, we know that using distilled water makes a HUGE difference.
Water is a major player in the process of photosynthesis, and it is so easy to disrupt the pH balance of the growing medium when using the wrong type of water.
Usually, spring water can work just fine but only distilled water will make your plants truly happy, healthy, and vigorous whether it comes to outdoor or indoor cannabis growing operations.
Humidifier/dehumidifier
Last on this list of essential weed growing supplies we have a humidifier and a dehumidifier.
Although these devices are only optional, they can easily become some of your favorite humidity adjusting go-to secret weapons.
Unfortunately, very few of us are lucky to live in regions where the humidity and temperature rates are naturally perfectly-well suited for growing cannabis (such as those living in the Mediterranean climate zones).
Just make sure you choose decently-sized humidifier/dehumidifier or else, you will have to refill or clean the water reservoir every few hours or so.
If you don’t want to waste even a single penny on any extras such as dehumidifiers and humidifiers, do check our guide on relative temperature and humidity for growing marijuana indoors for the full list of awesome DIY tips and tricks on that note.
Essential Weed Growing Supplies that You Need: The Bottom Line
How many of the essential weed growing supplies we’ve compiled are you about to pick for your unique cannabis growing adventure?
Above all, remember that you don’t have to opt for every one of growing supplies that made it to this list. The number of plants you grow is intricately connected with the budget you’ll need to spend. With this in mind, you can always start with only a very small investment and build your way up as you become more confident and experienced as a cannabis grower.
In any case, don’t forget to equip yourself with duct tape. Duct tape is one of those always-necessary extras (or basic) supplies that can assist you in sealing the grow space, setting the ventilation, as well as fixing injured stems if needed.
Also, keep a ball of strong string handy no matter if you are an indoor or an outdoor grower. And, of course, start looking for mason jars made out of thick glass and airtight seals so that you will be ready for curing and storing your green medication excellently.
Do you feel better prepared on picking the most essential weed growing supplies that you need? Did we miss something out? We’re always happy to hear back from you, fellow marijuana growers.
We wish you fantastic cannabis growing journey.
