Growing cannabis in small spaces

Growing cannabis can be tricky. Many people can’t grow marijuana at home because they don’t have enough space. So growers have to be more creative when planning their grow because, as we will see, any corner of our house can be used to grow cannabis for our own stock if we use the right lighting system: if necessary, we can use CFLs, LED panels, HPS lamps, LEC CMH lighting kits. As we have already mentioned, spaces like the staircase, under the desk, inside the cupboard, etc. can be suitable for growing cannabis at home, you just need to adapt the available space a little.

Choosing the right cannabis variety for growing

If you are going to grow cannabis in a small space, it is essential to choose which strain to grow. Sativas will have to be avoided if space is at a premium or if we don’t have air-cooled spotlights as these plants reach great heights when flowering. Using this type of reflector will allow us to have the lamp closer to the plants, so we have a slightly higher space for our plants to grow.
If we have low spaces, we should therefore grow mainly Indica or autoflowering varieties rather than Sativas. Indica and self-pollinating plants produce more compact and vigorous plants, but yields are not compromised because they are good producers. We can try to grow Sativas using various techniques to control plant height, although this will be more difficult than growing mainly Indica hybrids or autoflowering varieties.

If we have a standard grow tent, we can try any genetics, as height should not be a problem in most grow boxes available on the market.

What growing technique to use when growing cannabis?

Let’s assume that we don’t have a lot of height in our cultivation and we know what seeds to use. Now we just need to know how to grow them. There are several cultivation techniques suitable for use in our case, so we will explain the ones most commonly used in indoor grows.

In our case Sea of Green (SOG), Screen of Green (SCROG) and Low Stress Training (LST) techniques can be very useful. We can also use different pruning methods such as FIM, Super-cropping etc. Basically any technique that will help us control the height of our plants.

We should also note that cannabis plants usually stretch less if we use MH lamps in the pre-bloom stage (the first two weeks to flowering). Something important when the plants have to stay short and compact.

What light to use when growing cannabis in small spaces?

Usually, all indoor growers must choose the right lighting system for the available growing space. The larger the space, the more powerful these systems can be, as the heat produced by the bulbs can drastically increase the temperature of the grow space.

If the height of our growing space is approximately 1.5 meters or less, we should choose 250W HPS bulbs (even 400W if we use air-cooled reflectors and a powerful air extractor), CFL or LED systems, otherwise the heat emitted by the bulb will increase the temperature too much, affecting our plants. We can also combine two different types of lamps (for example, 250W HPS in the middle and LED strips/bulbs on the sides), whichever best suits our needs.

LED technology for growing cannabis in small spaces

Over the past few years, the performance of LED lighting systems for indoor cannabis cultivation has gradually improved. New optics, base plates, higher wattages, better spectrums and better light penetration are some of the improvements that have been made to LED systems.

As they produce little heat, they are ideal for use in small spaces for cannabis cultivation, but we must bear in mind that we need to keep a distance of at least 20 cm between the lamp and the plants so that the different colours mix and the plants get the right light spectrum. Otherwise, the plants will not photosynthesise properly, which will result in a change of colour on the leaves.

Here’s the lowdown on growing cannabis in small spaces. You can choose one of our varieties for these needs. Let’s make it work.