Sea of green, outdoor grow.

Well not where I am, but in Kenya it is National Tree Planting Day. Recently one of our readers asked us what the best type of soil to use when growing marijuana indoors. Realizing that today is National Tree Planting Day I thought it would be very appropriate to talk about this subject. Now, speaking from no experience of my own, wink wink, that was a legal disclosure for my own personal sake, there are several things that you should consider.

If you have never grown marijuana indoors you should probably use regular old dirt for your first grow. With hydroponics and modified hydroponics systems you can achieve better results, including higher yield and better quality pot, but it is also much easier to mess everything up. We don’t recommend using dirt from your backyard, but you can find something at your local hardware store or gardening supply center. Now, in the spring, is the time to stock up on dirt if you are planning on growing plants indoors; it looks kind of sketchy buying potting soil when everyone else is buying snow shovels. If you buy Miracle Grow brand soil it already contains some fertilizers and using regular water with no additional fertilizers or nutrients will allow you to grow a marijuana plant that will produce buds that you can then dry, smoke, and get high from. We highly recommend this method for first time growers. On your second grow, you can start experimenting with liquid fertilizers.

If you follow our instructions for your first grow, you can start using Coco Coir on your second grow. It is made from coconut fibers and while the material itself has little nutritional value for your plants, it is much more efficient at holding water than soil is. This allows you to go longer periods without having to water your plants, and since it has no nutrients of its own allows you to have greater control over what nutrients you are giving your plant. But, the downside is that you have to give your plant the nutrients it needs to survive. If you give it too much or in too high of a concentration your plant will die, or be shocked and could become a male or hermaphrodite plant. You want females, those sexy ladies, voluptuous with all them curves and big lady lumps. If you choose to grow this route, you can purchase your coco at a garden supply store, hydroponics supply store, or pet shop ( its used as a substrate for reptiles, but is most expensive at the pet store). This method is also true for using rockwool.

Now once you have some experience, you can get into full on hydroponics. We at MJMB consider using coco a modified hydroponics system because you need to add the nutrients in, you can’t use straight water and expect your plant to live and thrive if you’re growing in coco. Hydroponics requires a few things your water resevoir, nutrients, and air. You need to make sure the roots don’t get dry, that they receive nutrients and that they also get oxygen. You can make a simple hydroponics set up with a five gallon bucket, a lid for a bucket and a netted pot typically used for aquatic plants. The water and the nutrients and the water go in the bucket. You can get a regular aquarium air pump at a pet store with an air stone, and put this at the bottom of the bucket to allow the roots to get oxygen. Cut a hole in the lid to fit the netted pot hydroton, which are specially designed clay balls for hydroponics growing. This method requires making clones or seedlings which we will get into at a later date.

We hope you found this post informative and we will get into a more detailed, step by step approach to how to go about growing under each method. As time goes on we will get into what type of lights to use, which nutrients you need, setting up your grow room, and any other questions you may have for us. So, if you have any questions feel free to post them as a comment to this post.