Deciding to take the plunge and grow your own cannabis can be a great way to cut costs and gain a lot of control over what you smoke. When thinking about growing cannabis -either for medical or recreational reasons-, many things must be taken into account, but two of them pop out more than the rest: whether it’s legal to grow it in your country and what kind of seeds you should use: regular or feminized auto-flowering seeds such as one on seedsman.com. Since knowledge is power, here is the basic information that you need to know if you are considering to start growing at home.
Is it legal to grow cannabis at home?
In most countries, possession of cannabis is legal as long as the quantities are low and just for one’s own use -and said use shouldn’t be done in public places. The cultivation situation, however, differs from country to country. In the United States, it is completely legal to grow and consume your own cannabis in several states, while in others like Connecticut or Delaware, it is still forbidden. In some European countries such as Spain, self-consumption (and, by extension cultivation for self-consumption purposes) is not legalized but is also not considered a criminal offense. Therefore, as long as it is proven that there are no dealing drug purposes behind it, it is allowed to grow your own cannabis.
In the UK it is permitted to possess, purchase and sell seeds of any kind, but it is illegal both to germinate and grow them. The cultivation of cannabis is just as punishable as the sale of it: up to 14 years in prison and several fines for the offender. The number of years and the amount of the fines will depend on the estimated production to be calculated in each case.
Thus, growing large amounts of cannabis at large greenhouses converted into drug factories would get the stiffest penalty in the UK, while using spacious rooms and medium-sized floors in residences for the sole purpose to produce its herb would get a severe prison sentence. Growing from 10 to 28 normal-sized plants, however, would have a lesser punishment, while growing up to 9 plants is just a misdemeanor. Plus, in the UK it is taken as a mitigating circumstance that the person involved is medically prescribed to use marijuana or cannabis, so it is rare to see prison sentences in cases of people with serious and proven medical illnesses.
Whether it is legal in your country to grow your own cannabis or not, it is possible to buy seeds online easily, discreetly and legally through companies, which sell a diverse and increasing range of cannabis seeds for domestic preservation. They encourage customers to store seeds until a time when it is legal to grow them and also sell products that can be used to help store it safer and for longer periods.
What are the best seeds to grow at home?
Regular, feminized seeds
They turn into plants with a vegetative cycle of between 2 and 3 months, with a flowering cycle of between 5 and 16 weeks. They are governed by the photoperiod, so they must be planted at a certain time (in the northern hemisphere, between March and June, to harvest in September-October). Flowering begins when they have 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light, so this is what should be respected if the crop is indoors. This allows to mold more the size of the plant, since the more time is invested in the vegetative period, the bigger it will be. The production of feminized seeds is usually superior to that which can give an auto-flowering, and in general, reach higher quality, but it is also more complicated and more money and time-consuming.
Feminized auto-flowering seeds
They have become a viable option both for less experienced growers and for those who want to have the harvest in less time. They do not depend on the photoperiod, so they will flower when they complete their cycle: 60 to 70 days. Thanks to this, you won’t have to worry about light pollution if you plant outdoors, which could be a problem with regular feminized seeds, as they need 12 hours of absolute darkness.
In addition, these plants are generally smaller or more adjustable in size, as their final size will be determined by the size of the pot in which they are planted. Since they produce more leaf matter in the buds, their taste may not be as good as that of a feminized, and their genetics with Ruderalis proportion makes them generally have a lower THC proportion, but thanks to their shorter life span, auto-flowering plants have less risk of pest infestation.
