Perhaps you’re tired of exorbitant prices of weed at the dispensaries, and now you want to save some money as you develop your green thumb. Growing your weed is rewarding because you get to smoke something that you nurtured with your two hands. But also, you’re sure of what you’re getting into your body, especially if you love to grow organic marijuana.
However, growing weed comes with a lot of challenges; and you need to know when you’ll be occupied— this will help schedule your activities so that the everyday engagements of growing weed don’t interfere with other commitments— like work and family. Or if you want stealth, you’ll now the longest you can keep your growing plants from spying eyes.
How Long Does It Take to Grow Marijuana?
It takes averagely between 3 and 5 months to grow weed indoors from seed to buds. That also includes the time for drying and curing. However, other factors will influence how long it takes to grow weed from seeds to buds. Look at the weed growing timeline below for detailed grow process.
- Getting equipment (1 day to 2 weeks)
- Getting clones or seeds (1 day to 4 weeks)
- Germinating seeds (12 hours to 8 days)
- Seedling phase (1 to 4 weeks)
- Vegetative stage (2 weeks to 6 months)
- Flowering phase (6 weeks to 3 months)
- Harvesting phase (1 to 3 days)
This weed growing table makes it easier for you to countercheck if you’re on the right track, doing things right. Before you begin growing indoors, devote five months to the process— especially if it’s your first time and you don’t know about the strain. However, other factors can add or subtract from it.
Factors that influence how long it takes to grow weed
As with everything, there is no single right answer out there for how long it takes to grow weed. Here are factors that influence the speed at which your plants will grow;
The strain you’ve chosen to grow
How well do you know the strain you want to grow? Is it Indica, Sativa, or a hybrid strain? The Indica strains grow short and have shorter flowering duration. The short flowering period, between 8-12 weeks, makes Indica strains the preferable variation when you need your cannabis to yield faster.
Sativa strains, on the other hand, grow tall, so they expend most of their energy stretching. They also have a longer flowering period. Sativa strains take between 10-12 weeks at the flowering stage—which lengthens their growing duration.
Sativa strains tend to grow tall even indoors, unlike the Indica strains that form little bushes which enhance their yield. Compared to all the other strains, the Indica strains give a bigger yield. They should be your best bet if you’re just beginning because they’re very accommodative. They’re the ones you should grow as you nurture your green thumb.
Hybrid strains will give a balance of both— most times one strain higher than other. Hybrid strains will take some traits from Indica and other from Sativa. Like Sativa, most hybrids grow rapidly at the vegetative stage, but dwarf their growth towards flowering and form a thick, short bush like Indica. Hybrid strains also have the shortest flowering period— between 6 to 10 weeks, making them the go-to strains when you need a faster yield.
Autoflowering strains grow faster than photoperiod stains
Ordinarily, Sativa and Indica strains flower according to their light cycles. Outdoors, in an uncontrolled environment, these strains will begin to flower in fall when days are shorter than nights and light exposure is reduced. Strains like these that depend on seasons for their flowering are known as photoperiod strains.
Indoors you must manipulate the plant’s exposure to light. When you want them to grow big bushes before flowering, you’ll give them more than 12 hours of light in the vegetative stage and reduce the exposure to less than 12 hours to initiate the flowering stage. Growing indoors helps you to control when Sativa and Indica flower. Photoperiod strains will take longer— between 8 to 14 weeks.
Autoflowering strains, on the other hand, have a specific age at which they flower. They do not depend on light cycles to flower. When their time to flower arrives, they flower— no need to play with the lights. Autoflowering strains grow way faster than other strains. An autoflowering strain will take about three months from seed to buds. That’s a pretty short time, the best for breeders who want more grow cycles in a year.
Where you’re going to grow it
The choice to grow your plants either indoors or outdoors will affect the time they take to grow from seeds to buds. Outdoors the plants will take longer to flower.
If you grow at the beginning of spring, your plants will flower for a longer time— until the beginning of fall when days shorter, and the plants are less exposed to the light. Other growers prefer to plant their seeds a little late to shorten their flowering time.
Outdoors, the flowering for the most apart will take between 6 to 14 weeks, other strains might take shorter, and others a little longer. It all depends on genetics.
Indoors, it is easy to control the light cycles, allowing you to reduce the flowering period. You can leave your plant in the vegetative stage for between 2 to 4 weeks by exposing them to 18 hours of light. Then later, when you want to induce flowering, you can lower the exposure to 12 hours light and 12 hours of darkness.
After the flowering stage begins, you will wait for between 6 to 14 weeks to harvest them, then another 14 days for drying and curing before you smoke your buds.
In conclusion
Growing weed, though rewarding, is an arduous process that calls for patience and skill. Know the strain you want to grow, the length of time it takes to grow weed depends hugely on it.
