The Dassie Grow Diaries: First Time Growing Cannabis? Here’s What You Need to Get Up and Running

Why grow your own

Thinking about growing cannabis, or is it your first time growing cannabis? There has never been a better time to get into growing your own dank. It’s incredibly rewarding being able to consume your own cannabis and there is a sense of pride that comes along with it. As with most things in life, the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it, and this is very true when it comes to homegrown. 

There is a misconception that cannabis just grows like a weed. Great homegrown doesn’t just grow, it demands a lot of time and attention on a daily basis to get right. 

You can make cannabis cultivation extremely complicated, or you can make it extremely simple, it’s up to you. 

Where to grow

Cannabis plants love the sun and flourish in the brightest spot in the garden or balcony. Semi-shade works too, you’ll just get a smaller yield. Things tend to get tricky if you’re growing in the Cape, the prevailing summer winds present a bunch of challenges, so keep that in mind. 

Style of grow

There are two popular growing techniques: organic and synthetic.

To give you a brief description, organics is about having living soil that contains a balanced ecosystem with a symbiotic relationship with your plant. Synthetics, on the other hand, is efficient and nutrients are fed to the roots directly, whereas with organic growing you’re relying on beneficial microbes and fungi to transport nutrients. 

If it’s your first time growing cannabis then I recommend trying the organic route, it’s more forgiving. If you feel like a challenge, then try out synthetics. 

It’s always best to keep things simple – growing should be fun, and not a stressful experience. 

When to start

We are going to focus on growing outdoors for this article. 

Outdoor season in South Africa starts in November when the hours of light are over 12 hours, meaning that your plant will grow in a vegetative state and won’t bloom until the amount of hours of light reaches 12 or under which is around March. The later you start the less time your plant has to grow and set up branches to support the flowers. If you start too early, your plant will start to bloom in November and then because the hours of light are over 12, your plant will going into a state which we call pre-veg which means your plant will stop blooming and go back into a vegetative state. This tends to create a very messy plant that requires a lot of attention and pruning. 

What you need to get started

I would recommend starting with a fabric pot, they come in different shapes and sizes, and will stop your plant from getting root-bound. Fabric pots enable your roots to grow more tips, the more root tips you have, the more nutrients your plant will be able to absorb. They also help prevent the easy to make mistake of overwatering your plant. Keep in mind that the size of your pot also impacts the overall size of your plant. 

Spend the money and get yourself some decent organic living soil, FreedomFarms is a very popular choice amongst growers. FreedomFarms soil is great to a point, from then on you’ll need to supplement it with some organic nutrients. I recommend using BioBizz, just the Grow and Bloom is all you need.  

Source your beans

Along with great soil, choosing quality seeds is just as important. The growing season is short, so you need to make sure what you’re growing is female.  Nothing worse than getting to the end of the season to then find out your beloved plant is male.  There are three types of seeds, regular, feminized, and autoflower. I recommend getting feminized or autoflower as then you’re guaranteed a harvest, and as with soil, spend as much money as you can on them, it will pay dividends. 

Conclusion

Before you get started, do some research in the types of strains you want to grow, and make sure they will suit your environment. For example, If you’re growing in the Cape, you don’t want a 3m high plant as it will just get battered by the summer winds. If you’re growing by the coast where it’s damp and moist, you don’t want a plant that’s very dense as it will invite all sorts of mould and rot due to lack of air movement. 

AIf it’s your first time growing cannabis, make the experience as much fun and as exciting as possible. Enjoy the learning experience and enjoy watching your babies flourish! 

Dassies’s Top Places to Purchase Growing Gear?

Growing equipment, seeds, smoking gear:

https://marijuanasa.co.za/

Growing equipment, hydroponic equipment, and a vast range of growing nutrients:

http://hydroponics.co.za/

Great fabric pots, durable and just have a great shape to them:

http://plantmatter.co.za/

Check out the Dassie Grows website, and don’t forget to check him out on Instagram