How to set up an outdoor grow shed for cannabis

How to set up an outdoor grow shed for cannabis advice, Garden cultivation tips, Building guide

How to Grow Cannabis in a Garden Shed: A Quick Guide

13 August 2022

How to Set Up an Outdoor Grow Shed for Cannabis

Contents – How to set up an outdoor grow shed for cannabis

  1. Preparing the Space
  2. Installing Meters
  3. Sowing Seeds
  4. Managing Grow Stages
  5. Caring for Crops
  6. Training the Plants
  7. Harvest and Beyond

Sheds for Easy Cultivation

Do you lack indoor space for weed? Is your climate too harsh or land too unwelcoming to plant life? An outdoor grow shed is the ideal way to explore your cultivation ambitions.

This solution takes the perks of indoor cultivation and displaces them to an outdoor space. You enjoy complete control of your setup without dedicating an entire room to cannabis.

Read on to learn about this style of ganja gardening. Get feminized or autoflower marijuana seeds and grow prolific crops with these seven steps.

1. Preparing the Space

Grow sheds are enclosed spaces, but their conditions resemble the outdoors. To turn yours into a proper grow room, ensure you have these three factors:

  • A power source to run the appliances
  • Insulation to maintain a steady climate
  • Ventilation to avoid moisture issues

Once you have a stable and functional space, you require equipment, including:

  • Containers and soil (or a hydro tank)
  • Irrigation systems or watering cans
  • Nutrient solutions for vegging and flowering
  • Grow lamps and mounting equipment
  • An HVAC system for climate control

Install everything according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When you have the baseline, take the next prep step to facilitate your cultivation journey.

2. Installing Meters

Meters are a cultivator’s best friend. They track relevant environmental factors and notify you when anything’s out of order.

Acquire, install, and learn how to use the following:

  • Thermometers for temperature
  • Hygrometers for relative humidity
  • Lux meters for light exposure
  • pH and EC meters for water quality

You could play it by ear, but why not use these neat gadgets and achieve abundant harvests?

3. Sowing Seeds

You have seeds and setup; now’s the time to combine the two.

Start by germinating the seeds between moist paper towels to ensure each becomes a viable plant. Once they pop, sow them taproot-side first into small soil containers.

Two rounded cotyledons will grow from the tiny stem as the plant unfolds. They rise above the ground after a week, marking the start of the seedling stage.

4. Managing Grow Stages

From this point forward, growing cannabis in a shed is similar to regular indoor cultivation projects. If using a photoperiod strain, lights determine the growth stage.

Generally speaking, here’s how much time you should dedicate to each stage:

  • 2–3 weeks to the seedling stage
  • 3–16 weeks to the vegetative stage
  • 8–12 weeks to the flowering stage

You switch between the stages by changing the light schedule to mimic the turn of summer to fall. Plants need 18 hours of sunshine each day for vegging; they produce buds when daytime shortens to 12 hours.

Autoflower variants spend five or six weeks in vegging before they automatically flip to flowering. Maintain an 18/6 light schedule for the entire seed-to-harvest period but change the nutrients when you notice bud sites.

5. Caring for Crops

When growing indoors, it’s your job to maintain the optimal conditions for plant development. Temperature and humidity preferences vary with the strain and stage. Research your chosen cultivar and use these figures as general pointers:

  • Seedlings require 68–77°F and 65–70% relative humidity
  • Vegging plants require 70–78°F and 45–55% relative humidity
  • Flowering plants require 60–89°F and 40–50% relative humidity

Drop the temperatures by 5°F and humidity by 5% during lights-off hours.

Besides maintaining the conditions, supply your crops with nutrients and moisture. Waterings should happen:

  • Daily but lightly for seedlings
  • Every other day in vegging
  • Every third day in flowering

Check the pot weight and plant condition to ensure you’re providing enough aqua. Add nutrients to the water once a week.

6. Training the Plants

Do you know how to grow weed in a greenhouse? You’ll be familiar with this step. Cannabis can stretch to incredible heights if left unattended, which soon becomes unsustainable in an outdoor grow shed. You can manipulate the branches and foliage through trimming and training, though.

Trimming is the easier of the two techniques. It involves removing large fan leaves to let light penetrate the canopy. It’s best done during the vegetative stage, as pruning in flowering can stress the plant and reduce output.

Experienced growers also see excellent results with high and low-stress training. These techniques involve manipulating the branches and foliage to optimize light use and boost yields.

Growers often pair Sea of Green with indica and Screen of Green with sativa. Topping, fimming, and lollipopping are more invasive but equally effective.

Unlike pruning, training doesn’t work for every strain. Read up on your cultivar’s preferences to determine the best approach.

7. Harvest and Beyond

Do everything right, and you’ll see rich bud sites after several months. Then it’s a matter of determining the ideal harvest window, which relies on two factors.

Each strain has an expected flowering time. This information usually comes in ranges, so you combine it with signs of ripeness to decide when to collect buds. Look for a strong scent, curled pistils, and opaque trichomes.

Once you gather flowers, take the time to dry and cure to get strong-smelling, potent marijuana.

Sheds for Easy Cultivation

Now that you know how to grow weed in a garden shed, you’re no longer limited to small closets or subpar land. Buy seeds and put this room to good use by cultivating marijuana.

Jennifer Gallagher – How to set up an outdoor grow shed for cannabis

Jennifer Gallagher Outdoor Grow Shed for Cannabis

Jennifer Gallagher, an experienced cannabis grower at SeedSupreme Seedbank. During a 7-year career in the marijuana growing business, Jennifer has gained a high competence in this field. As far as weed is concerned, she knows it all inside out. Jennifer is an expert in pot-growing, as well as cannabis types and their effects. She’s also familiar with all legislation nuances.

Jennifer Gallagher LinkedIn

Comments on How to grow cannabis in a garden shed article are welcome.

Design Articles

Art Gallery Architecture

Arts Centre Buildings

Office Designs

Building Articles

Office building designs

Contemporary Interiors

Barcelona Pavilion Mies van der Rohe building
photo © Adrian Welch

CBD

CBD Posts

How to grow autoflowering seeds

How to choose right HVAC system for commercial cannabis

How people designing a new cannabis culture
How People Designing a New Cannabis Culture

Comments / photos for the How to set up an outdoor grow shed for cannabis page welcome