Cannabis cultivation has witnessed a significant spike over the last few years. With more legalizations across states and countries, marijuana and cannabis manufacturers can create exceptional hybrid marijuana strains. However, there is still an ongoing debate and doubt about the indoor and outdoor cultivation of marijuana plants.
If you are starting a company or want to cultivate marijuana for your use, you may have thought about the same thing. While both indoor and outdoor cultivation have their own set of advantages, growing marijuana plants indoors may be more beneficial. Here is a list of six primary advantages of growing marijuana plants indoors.
1. Controlled Environment for Indoor Plants
All plants require specific climatic conditions to grow and produce better yield, especially marijuana plants. For instance, marijuana plants need low humidity, warm temperatures at night and hot temperatures during the day, sunlight to grow better. However, you have to wait for the perfect climatic conditions to grow your marijuana plants outdoors.
With indoor cultivation, you can rest assured about optimal climatic conditions since you have control over such factors. The procedure gives you control over temperatures, CO2 production, light, and humidity. That way, you can monitor your marijuana growth week by week in stable conditions without any hassle.
The latest equipment and tools designed for indoor cannabis cultivation are top-notch and provide cultivators with a choice to create and maintain a diverse range of climatic conditions for different strains and hybrids. Indoor cultivation may significantly help people in areas that do not have suitable climatic conditions for marijuana growth.
2. Indoor Marijuana Plants May Require Fewer Security Regulations
Security regulations concerning marijuana plants and cultivation are rigid, especially for outdoor cultivation. Moreover, such security regulations can differ from one state to another. Security regulations concerning marijuana cultivation usually revolve around regulating security to limit access to the plants, tracking the entire inventory, and securing the final product. The security regulations can especially bother manufacturers and brands operating cannabis cultivation on a large scale.
In some cases, security regulations require cultivators to have both digital and physical security surveillance personnel. That means one may even need to appoint security personnel at all times along with network security systems, video surveillance, alarms, and notifications, etc.
Indoor cultivation also has its own set of regulations and laws over security, but they may be fewer than outdoor marijuana cultivation. So, growing indoors may also help you comply with regulations and security standards set by authorities with less hassle.
3. Better THC levels
Novice marijuana cultivators may feel surprised knowing that the potency of indoor marijuana plants is higher compared to the ones grown outside. That explains why most cannabis users are opting for marijuana extracted from indoor plants. Most cannabis users stated that indoor marijuana plants offer a better high compared to the latter.
The primary reason behind that is the higher trichome count and dense nugs among indoor marijuana plants. Whereas, in outdoor cultivation, you achieve relatively less dense nugs and lower trichome count, making it less potent than the other. Since you can control almost every environmental factor like light, humidity, and temperature, you can expect better bud growth and THC levels which may not be possible through outdoor cannabis cultivation. Novice, or connoisseur, you know one thing that better THC always means potent high.
4. Better Lighting With Artificial Lights
If you are familiar with cannabis cultivation, you know that sunlight plays a vital role in the growth of plants. No doubt, sunlight is one of the best sources of light for marijuana plants. However, the benefits of artificial lighting for indoor marijuana plants may outnumber natural lighting. For instance, with artificial lighting, you can increase the duration for which your plants receive light since you can keep them on for as long as you want.
That may not be the case with sunlight because it stays only for a few hours a day. Moreover, if you are in a region where days are shorter, then you may even miss out on that most days. Not just the duration, but you can also control the intensity and the distance of the light from your marijuana plants with indoor cultivation. With LED grow lights designed for this purpose, you can keep your marijuana plants under the light for even a good 20 hours every day.
5. Faster Seed-to-harvest Time
Here’s another significant advantage of growing your marijuana plants indoors. Usually, the harvest time for indoor marijuana plants is three months. However, that could vary, depending upon the strain you grow. That is not the case when it comes to outdoor cultivation, though. Outdoor cannabis plants require at least a good nine months until they are ready for harvesting. The delay is because of the natural and controlled climatic conditions in both cultivations.
Also, since you can maintain a consistent climate throughout the growth cycle of indoor marijuana plants, you can have multiple harvests throughout the year. However, you can only grow one crop a year with outdoor cannabis cultivation. That is also one of the reasons why cannabis companies prefer indoor cultivation to have multiple harvests and make profits all year round.
6. Indoor Cannabis Looks Better
Looks and quality are crucial when it comes to the sale of cannabis plants. The best part is that indoor marijuana plants top both charts. With a controlled environment and faster breeding, you can expect strains that look exceptional and possess strong and unique flavors.
Indoor cannabis plants don’t have to deal with natural elements like rain, wind, and dust, so they look way better than cannabis flowers that are grown outdoors. Since outdoor plants deal with such natural elements, their looks may not be as superior as the indoor ones. We’ve already mentioned how indoor marijuana plants have dense nugs and more trichomes, enhancing their looks further.
Final Thoughts
Those were some of the notable advantages of growing marijuana plants indoors. The upfront cost of indoor cannabis cultivation may seem high initially but can produce higher returns than outdoor cannabis cultivation. Apart from the advantages mentioned above, protection from pests, insects, and animals is another privilege you have with indoor marijuana cultivation.
While growing cannabis outdoors, you cannot avoid unwanted guests like pests that may damage fine and healthy crops altogether. However, the chances of pests entering your indoor garden are very slim.