How To Build The Best Indoor Medicinal Plants On A Budget

August 20, 2021

This article aims at anyone who wants to try growing plants but refuses to spend a fortune.
The best place to grow medicinal plants is indoors. You have complete control over everything when growing plants indoors, which allows you to really maximize rapid growth and huge yields with incredible potency.
Setting up an indoor plants grow in your home is a lot easier than you may think. You will need to invest some time and money into an indoor grow, but acquiring materials and building it out doesn’t require a lot of skill and can be done cheaply.
So let’s get started, by going through the whole growing process step by step, beginning with the preparation and ending with harvest.

1. Seeds Or Clones

Buy high quality, low-cost seeds

While it might seem counterintuitive to buy seeds when you’ve got the chance to grow bagseed for free, investing in quality medicinal plants seeds from the get-go has the potential to save you money (and stress) in the long-run.

When you buy seeds from a respected seed bank, you’re paying for guaranteed quality. Established seed banks have teams of dedicated breeders and growers constantly working to improve their genetics. That means, after germinating your seeds, you can rest assured the plants in your garden will grow strong and healthy (given the right care, of course) and reward you with good yields of top-shelf bud.

Buying autoflowering seeds is another great way to save money. Today’s auto strains have the potential to produce great yields and excellent buds, with the potency and flavours to stand up to any photoperiod strain. If you’re a budget grower, make sure to go auto for your next grow.

Save money on seeds by cloning

Cloning means that you can use clippings of your existing plants to grow new ones. You no longer need to buy seeds, unless you want to try a new strain.

Keep in mind, however, that cloning also comes at a cost. In order to get good results, you’ll want to take your clones from a robust, healthy mother plant, which you’ll need to keep in constant vegetation. Keeping a mother requires space, a constant 18/6 light cycle, and plenty of fertiliser. But, in return, you’ll get the opportunity to take numerous clones from your mother every few weeks, potentially for years to come.

Note that, over time, the yield potential of mother plants tends to go down. To deal with this, most growers renew their mother plants every 6–12 months. In general, we recommend buying seeds, keeping the healthiest plant from your seeds as a mother, and cloning it for 6 months before repeating the process. This will help ensure you’re always working with healthy plants.

2. Build a grow room out of an old cupboard or closet

To transform your closet into a grow room for raising medicinal plants, you’ll need to take measurements of the height and width of the closet. Some commercial grow cabinets are made to accommodate the growth of four medicinal plants, so you need to estimate how many medicinal plants you want to raise in the closet.

Bear in mind that you’ll have to fit in grow lights, ventilation fans, and possibly a hydroponics system there, too, so you really need sufficient space.

3. Utilise the Right Lighting

This is another aspect of growing that it pays to invest in. Experienced cultivators know that the more powerful the light, the greater the yield, up to a point. If you want to save on electricity, LED grow light is your best option. These grow lights also provide a fuller light spectrum to help your plants grow. There are also HPS and HID light options that won’t break the bank.

When choosing lighting, you must also consider the size of your grow space. As a general rule of thumb, you should have four square feet per plant. If you buy three seeds, that means you need 12 square feet of space. You probably won’t require as much space if you are growing autos, however.

4. Ventilate Your Grow Room

Medicinal plants plants love fresh air. They achieve the best growth when they get a slight breeze. It also serves to prevent mold. The best way to give your plants the breeze they need is with a fan on the lowest setting. You can also remove larger leaves or lollipop your plants to improve air flow.

To reduce the cost of your ventilation system, make sure you buy an extractor fan with a m³/h rating that will ensure the correct air circulation. m³/h (cubic metre per hour) is an indicator of how much air an extractor can pull out of a space every hour. For proper ventilation, you’ll want to invest in a fan with a m³/h 70 times higher than the volume of your room/tent. This is because the average number of air exchanges required in a grow room is around 70 per hour.

For example, if you’re growing in a tent that measures 1m × 1m × 2m (with a total volume of 2m³), invest in an extractor fan with at least 140m³/h. You’ll want the smallest possible extractor that can effectively maintain an optimal, consistent temperature in your indoor garden. The smaller the extractor, the less power it’ll use, and the more money you’ll save.

Pro tip: We also recommend outfitting your extractor fan with a carbon filter to help reduce the smell of your grow-op.

5. Growing Medium

You must purchase a high-quality organic potting mix. Fortunately, standard garden-variety soil with added nutrients is more than enough. In general, two quarts is enough per one-gallon grow pot. This is ample soil for three x 2.5-gallon pots, and plenty for our small grow.

6. With or Without Nutrients

It is debatable whether you need to spend any money on nutrients if you already have a high-quality organic potting mix! However, if your plants show any nutrient deficiency, you may regret not having a back-up plan. You will find plenty of options online from brands. An 8-ounce container is sufficient and relatively cheap.

Conclusion:

How much money to spend on your medicinal plants garden is completely up to you. But, remember that, while the quality of your harvest is somewhat dependent on how much money you can invest (especially indoors), growing good medicinal plants shouldn’t cost a fortune.

By following the tips in this guide, you should be able to produce a great harvest at home while keeping the costs of your grow to a minimum. Good luck, and happy growing!

If you have more issues with your plants, do not hesitate could contact us freely.

Our emails address is: business@ecofarm.ca

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