by Greg Green
General indoor growing
Light is the most important factor next to choosing your strain that you must consider. There are two main ways to light your plants indoors. Natural light and Artificial light. Both ways have advantages and disadvantages.
The first thing you should know is that indoor lights produce bigger flowers (more bud) than natural window light. This means you get more THC quantity with artificial lights than you will with natural sunlight indoors. Even in countries that have hot sun for 6 months of the year you can still find it hard to produce big buds indoors under natural light. Some people have grown plants under an attic window that they open during the dry days. This will grow you bud but not as much as you would get using an artificial light system. The other side of the coin is that natural light is free, electricity is not and grow lights are a little bit expensive to buy and use. They are not as expensive as it is to run an electric cooker 24 hours a day but they are still expensive to use all the same.
When using a window grow try to place your plant near a window that gets the most sunlight. Sun comes up in east and sets in the west. It travels more north or south depending on which side of the equator you are. Think about it for awhile. Also remember that you have the seasons to think about. If you plan on a window grow try to establish when you want your plant to receive most of its light. You want your plant to get most of its light during flowering. If July is the best month for sunlight then you may consider producing your seedling back in April or May or even as early as late March. Try to guess when you will get the best weather. Coordinate this with the flower times directed by the breeder and you will be able to foresee your harvest time.
Also remember that people can look up and see your plant if they are sitting near the window. Do people come to wash your windows? Also remember that if you have a sativa plant then they will get big. Take all these factors into consideration when you are growing your plants with natural sunlight indoors.
If you are growing indoors then you may have a room or part of a room that you wish to use such as an attic, closet, basement, spare bathroom or hot press. These locations nearly always need artificial light. You may even decide to build a cabinet yourself. There are many ways to set-up an indoor grow room. We will discuss this later in detail.