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Micro growing | good yields in small spaces

Most of people who smoke cannabis thought about growing some at least once in their lives. But some times you think, you won’t have enough space to make a grow room or place a grow tent. Well, micro growing is a good solution to this problem.

Micro grow setup in cupboard
Micro grow setup in cupboard

Lately, more and more people are interested in cannabis cultivation. But not everyone has the necessary experience or knowledge to start a large scale grow. That’s why most new growers stick with planting one or two seeds in a cupboard or tiny grow box. This way of growing in relatively small space is called micro growing. It’s a good way to grow some smoke for yourself and gain some experience before you can move on to a proper indoor grow project. In this article we will try to explain the differences between proper indoor grow and micro grow, so hold tight.

Basics of micro growing and differences from indoor growing

We’re not trying to get you confused, micro growing is also done indoors mostly. When we are talking about proper indoor growing, we mean a larger scale growing operation. While micro growing, is the same indoor growing but in smaller proportions. You still need all the basic equipment to do micro grow, like – seeds, soil, water, lights, air ventilation and so on… It only differs slightly from indoor grow due to lack of space you have. The main goal remains the same, to make the best possible conditions for your plants to thrive, even in tiniest of spaces.

Choose the right strain

Choosing the right strain is fairly important when growing in small space. One of the things to consider is plant height. Sativas usually grow to be slender and tall, while indicas tend to grow bushy and short. Since you have limited space to grow in, indica seems like a better strain to go for.

Another good option is autoflower strains. Most of autoflowers grow shorter than indicas no matter where you grow them. They are designed like this through selective breeding. They are also not dependent on light cycle, so you can expect to harvest it sooner than indica or sativa.

Soil

Your plant size will also be determined by the size of pot you will be using. The larger the pot, the bigger the plant. Usually plant takes about as much space underneath as it does above the soil. Take that into consideration when choosing your pot.

To give you some idea about what size pot you should choose:

  • Plant grows to an average size when planted in pot of around 12 liters
  • Plant reaches up to 60cm in height when planted in pot around 5 liters
  • Plant sprouts up to 24-30cm when planted in pot around 2-3 liters
  • Plant grows to be around 13cm when planted in 0.5liter pot

*One thing to remember, due to quantity of soil, you will need to use fertilizer and water your plants more often. *

Choosing the lights

Stealthy micro growing
Stealthy micro growing

Cannabis, just like any other plant, can’t grow without light. And you can’t get good yields without good lighting. There are variety of lamps that you can choose from – LED, HPI, HPS, CFL, Fluorescent tubes. A thing you need to know when choosing lights is wattage per square meter, which is around 400W.

One of the popular choices among indoor growers is HPI and HPS lights, because of their good light output. But a problem with these lights is that it produces a lot of heat. Which can be very problematic with micro growing. These lights can make your micro grow very hot, very fast and your plants might die out very quickly.

CFL’s and fluorescent tubes are a good choice as they also have great light output, but they don’t produce as much heat. These lights also come in various colors, which is a good thing. When your plants are in vegetative state they need more blue light, and once they hit flowering stage they need more red light.

And possibly one of the best choices would be LED lights. These have very wide light spectrum and produce absolutely no heat. It’s perfect for a micro grow. Of course there is a downside to it – these lights are a bit more expensive.

Few LED lights that would suit your micro growing :

These are just few cheaper options we could find for you, just to give an impression of what it it’s. If you’re looking for something top shelf, amazon is a good place to look for it. Quality is quite good and delivery times are fast. Just carefully read through reviews before buying to get the general idea about items quality.

Ventilation and watering

Same as light, air and water is necessary for plants well being and growth. Keeping fresh water and good air circulation in your micro grow is key to your successful harvest.

In order for new plant cells to grow and for good photosynthetic process, CO2 rich air must be cleared. That’s where ventilation system comes into play. Together with CO2, hot air has to be cleared from your growing space. For this purpose ventilation system is usually used together with table fans. This might not be very handy in your micro grow.

Micro growing in PC box
Micro growing in PC box

You might want to use something simpler, like computer fan. Putting one fan close to the bottom, which will work as fresh air intake fan and putting one close to the top, which will work as an exhaust fan. In this sense, as heat in your grow space rises, it will be removed through top exhaust fan, while fresh air gets fed through bottom fan. You can also add a small table fan inside ( IF there’s enough space for it), just to add some extra air circulation going. Good idea is to put some kind of filters to these fans, to avoid pests and strong smell that cannabis plants produce.

Watering your plants can become a bit hard after a while. As your plants grow they will start taking up more and more space. They will also get bushier, so it might be hard to water them. Best option if you have access from the side to your grow to water your plants from the bottom.

Recommended strains for micro growing

We have selected couple of cannabis strains for the purposes of this guide that go well with this growing method. You can always go for any other strains you desire. When doing micro growing , good strains to consider as mentioned above are indicas and autoflowers. Reason for that being that they grow small in size, which is perfect for micro growing. Here is our list of cannabis strains that we believe are best choice for micro growing and are very suitable if you are just starting off as a new grower:

Autoflower strains:

Indica strains: