Whether you are just starting your cannaventure or you already have some experience, one thing is for sure – knowing how much light to grow marijuana will make a tremendous difference when it’s time to harvest the fruits of your efforts.
And while it is easy to get perplexed with the numerous pieces of advice regarding cannabis cultivation, we want to help make your life as a marijuana grower simpler and more joyful.
Keep reading and you will find everything you need for the best amount of light your green beauties require to flourish!
#1 – How Much Light to Grow Marijuana Indoors
On the one hand, indoor marijuana growers have better control over the light setups in their growing spaces.
That is a great advantage since you are the only one in charge of supplying your green princesses with the much-needed access to consistent light.
However, on the other hand, there are many other challenges on the way, such as monitoring the lights, placing them properly, choosing the most suitable lights system for yourself, and much more.
But cheers up because we have a handy and easy-peasy cheat sheet on the top experts’ tips for grow lights and marijuana plants indoors!
1.1 Lights Schedule
To understand and utilize lights schedules in the most beneficial manner, there are only 2 major breaking points you need to be aware of – the vegetative stage and the flowering stage.
During the vegetation, your green babies will only focus on producing leaves and stems, without a trace of buds.
You can either keep your plants within the vegetative phase for as long as the particular strain you are growing allows you (typically no more than 2 months), or you can shorten the period and put your marijuana plants into flowering as soon as they enter their 3rd week of development.
However, it is important to remember that the better you take care of your green goddesses during the vegetative phase, and subsequently, the longer you keep them in vegetation, the higher the yields.
Big and healthy leaves will produce food for juicy, multiple buds.
As a rule of thumbs, the vegetative phase is a great period to simply shower your plants with light – and that can go for a good 24 hours if you wish to!
Anyway, most growers stick to the 18/6 light schedule, which means 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness.
Just make sure your plants receive at least 14 hours of light per day during vegetation and you will be alright! Then the more light you can grant – the better but this is entirely your choice.
When it comes to the flowering stage of your cannabeauties – all you have to do is sustain the 12/12 light-dark cycle and you will be just fine to enjoy sufficient yields!
1.2 Calculating the Lights Needed for your Indoor Growing Space
Calculating how much light you need to grow your marijuana plants indoors is sometimes one of the trickiest parts, however, it is actually very simple.
The challenges come with the fact that different marijuana strains will tolerate lights differently. Cheer up and just remember that practice makes perfect and don’t get disappointed if your cannajourney doesn’t flow smoothly from the beginning.
As a rule of thumbs, in order to calculate the lights, you will need for your indoor cannabis cultivation, use the following guidelines below.
1 – Measure the length and the width of your growing space. Let’s say you get the number 60.
2 – Divide the number by 4 (4 is the average individual growing space for each plant to develop well). So we divide the example given above – 60 by 4, and we get the number 15.
3 – Now multiply the number you get by 65. 65 stands for the average watts your plants will need to thrive. So we multiply 15 by 65 and we get the number 975. That is the number of the watts you need according to your growing space – in this example 975 Watts in total, which means you will need, let’s say 2 light bulbs of 400W each plus an additional 250W light bulb.
#2 – How Much Light to Cultivate Cannabis Outdoors
When it comes to outdoor marijuana growing, you get bonus points for not having to worry about light setups since you will rely on the natural sunlight to nurture your future crops.
However, timing is still of vital essence. You must absolutely plant your green beauties when the climate is best to stimulate their proper growth and development.
2.1 Lights Schedule for Outdoor Growers
Some cannabis cultivators prefer to grow their green beauties indoors before they are ready to flower but you can easily succeed without doing so.
Just make sure you plant your green babies at the beginning of the spring, although every strain is a bit different and you must also keep that in mind, too.
Thus, by the time your cannabis plants enter the flowering stage, the natural seasonal conditions will do all the work for keeping the green babies in the vegetation phase.
Then, when mid-summer months reach their peak, the nights become longer and that automatically helps to keep your plants within the 12/12 light-darkness hours.
2.2 Rules of Thumbs
The major responsibility you have as an outdoor marijuana grower is to keep into consideration the specifics of the climate in your geographic region.
For example, if you are located in an area, where frost tends to fall until the early summer, then you cannot afford to plant your green babies directly in the outside but you will need to vegetate them indoors at first.
Nevertheless, it is important to understand that even street lamps can harm your marijuana plants’ development if they shine brightly at night and deprive your green beauties of the vital dark hours.
So make sure you do everything possible to control such issues from happening.
Don’t forget to put a smile on your face and enjoy the ride! Happy Marijuana Growing!