Grow Q&A: Maximizing Your Marijuana Micro Grow

Dear Dan, Love your work on the improvement of not only growing but making sure everyone can grow, no matter their space, money or experience level!

Because of your influence, two years ago my fiancé and I decided to stop having to deal with the underground cannabis market (as we live where ignorance still reigns supreme) and grow our own. We have a micro grow that consists of 16"x 16" tent, 300-watt (5-watt diodes) full spectrum LED, 4" fan/filter, using the full Fox Farm nutrients with Ocean Forest in grow bags. We have had two harvests already but we know we can do better with your help. My question is, what can we do to maximize potential and keep our ladies healthy in a micro grow?

Many, many thanks to you and everyone at High Times for all the work you've done for our culture! – Liv2Gro

Dear Liv2Gro,
Thank you so much for the kind words and it feels good to know that our words have inspired you and your fiancé to grow your own. Nothing feels better than puffing on nuggets that you produced yourself, knowing everything that went into making them the best.

As for your micro grow, the most important thing is to keep heat from building up in such a small space. To that end, it’s a good thing that you are using LED lighting as it creates little heat. Be sure to have an exhaust fan blowing out the warm spent air from the top of your tent and a circulating fan to move air around inside the tent.  

The other important thing is to keep plants short and stocky and use some sort of trellising system in order to avoid having the branches growing too close to the light source. You can either pinch growing shoots in order to create a smaller and more branchy plant, or train the branches with string or weights to spread them out.

Have a grow question? Ask away at deardanko@hightimes.com

(photo courtesy of Cabinet Grow)