How Long Does It Take for Marijuana to Grow Indoors?
Weed consumers today want to cultivate their marijuana indoors. However, they often wonder with one question in mind: how long does it take for marijuana to grow indoors?
Some people are quite impatient as they want to use the produced buds whenever they want to. If you want to grow marijuana indoors, then you must be aware of how the process goes and how long you need to wait for the buds.
How Long Does It Take for Marijuana to Grow Indoors?
Once you decide to grow cannabis indoors, you have to be familiar with the entire growing process. You should know what is necessary so that you can get started in the right manner.
On average, the length of time required in growing marijuana indoors is normally about 3 to 5 months. However, if you plant weed and expect them ideal for smoking, then the growing process will take up to 7 months. You will get the same answer even if you consult an experienced cannabis grower.
Growing cannabis indoors takes months due to some factors. These factors affect the time needed for bud production. These factors may include your strain of choice, your setup, and how big you want your plants to be.
The bigger a cannabis plant is, the more time it needs to mature. However, a cannabis plant takes 3 to 5 months to mature in most cases. This includes the time you need to grow your plants from seeds. Besides, you will wait for one more couple of weeks as you have to treat the buds after harvesting them.
What to Do Before You Start Growing Cannabis?
Before you begin growing cannabis plants, you have to prepare all the necessary materials and supplies. You can buy the needed supplies and wait for them to arrive at your doorstep, especially the seeds. It takes around 2 weeks.
Once you have all the materials and supplies, you must set them up together with the grow site. The time you take for purchasing the supplies and setting up the cultivating area will determine if you start growing cannabis indoors.
For the seeds, you can buy them from the weed grower. You could also get them from the seed bank. However, it will take around 4 weeks. However, if you order from a cannabis grower, then you can start growing your plants soon.
Growing Timeline: From Seeds to Harvest
The total length of time needed for growing cannabis plants from seeds to harvests is roughly 5 months. The first phase is growing the seeds that can last for a week. The seedlings will have their taproots in 4 to 6 days. After that, they will move to the vegetative stage, which takes around 3 months to be exact.
On the contrary, everything will still depend on your preferences. Some cannabis plants need around 3 weeks in this phase before they can get into the next phase – the flowering period.
Also, your cannabis plants will need you to set a time you want them to be in the vegetative phase. Many growers prefer leaving their plants in this phase for a few weeks to months. The time that your plant needs in the vegetative phase will determine the size of your yield.
When it comes to yield, the amount a plant can produce will depend on the size the plant reached while it’s in the vegetative phase. A smaller plant produces smaller bud spots while a larger plant will have the opposite. Regardless of the case, you need to make sure enough light will cover the bud spots or else they will not develop properly. Light is truly important in growing weed indoors.
Flowering Phase
The flowering phase is the succeeding step following the vegetative phase. In this phase, there are various processes to occur before you can finally get the yield. The time your plants will take to begin this phase will depend on their size. Short plants normally take about 6 to 8 weeks while the medium-sized plants take about 8 to 12 weeks. For longer and bigger plants, it will be 12 to 14 weeks or longer than that.
The flowering stage is the most interesting part of growing cannabis indoors. Here are the changes you should expect to happen:
- In the first 3 weeks within this phase, the buds will go through the transition process from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage.
- In the 3rd and 4th week, the budlets will start to develop.
- On the 4th to 6th week, you will notice the buds starting to look fat.
- On the 6th to 8th week, the buds start to ripen, and the pistils may darken or become obscure. These changes may take more time to complete for some strains of cannabis due to the plants’ size.
The flowering phase will end on the 8th week. After that, you can start harvesting your plants.
Drying and Curing the Buds After Harvest
The harvesting phase also involves some processes, such as curing and drying. The drying process will take less than 2 weeks but may still depend on the kind of buds yielded. Good buds take less time to dry – approximately 4 days. Make sure your plants dry completely but not too dry. Drying the harvested plants is necessary for reducing the chances of mold during the curing process.
The curing process takes around 2 to 5 weeks. This process is so useful as it helps in reducing the “speed effects” of your buds. Therefore, the buds become suitable for some therapeutic purposes like:
- Treating anxiety
- Relieving pain
- Reducing depressive feelings
Curing can also help a lot in getting rid of that punitive smell and flavor the harvested plants may produce when you cut them.
Conclusion
Nowadays, more and more people choose to grow marijuana indoors. They don’t need to depend on the cannabis dispensaries for their supplies. However, when you choose to grow marijuana in the comfort of your home, you need to be ready because things may not work the way you want them to.
The answer to the question “how long does it take for marijuana to grow indoors?” will vary from one strain to another. Impatient growers are often advised to try the autoflowering strains or the pure indica strains with short flowering time. After all, everything depends on you.
