Greenhouse marijuana growing is increasingly popular especially in states with legalized recreational marijuana growing.
The benefits of greenhouse marijuana growing include:
- Extending the outdoor growing season so it starts earlier and can continue longer.
- Facilitating an indoor-outdoor marijuana grow op.
- Saving money by using free sun, wind, air movement, ventilation, rain.
- Giving your cannabis plants natural light wavelengths and other outdoor factors that boost growth rate, plant health, potency, harvest yield.
- Protecting outdoor plants from detection, pests, and diseases.
- Providing space for bigger roots, larger plants, bigger buds.
There are two main types of greenhouses: those attached to an existing structure such as your home or a shed, and those that stand alone.
The attached structures are usually easier to install and benefit from the sturdiness of being joined to an existing structure.
One disadvantage is that one side of an attached greenhouse will not receive any sunlight or ventilation advantages.
Unattached greenhouses stand alone on your property.
They offer you the chance to locate your greenhouse marijuana garden in the best part of your property for sunlight exposure, wind protection, electricity access, security stealth, and other factors.
Before you place a marijuana greenhouse, you want to carefully observe your property for four seasons, especially autumn and winter, to see how many hours of direct sunlight reach your property in various parts of it.
You want at least 5 hours of direct sunlight, if not more.
You also want to make sure that your marijuana greenhouse isn’t located too close to and/or under trees that could throw shade and/or leaves and limbs onto the greenhouse.
The marijuana greenhouse should be located on a level, slightly elevated piece of ground, so the greenhouse isn’t subject to flooding or excess moisture.
The ground should be graded, leveled, and then covered in commercial-grade, anti-weed ground cloth.
Pouring a concrete foundation adds to the protection from ground moisture, and adds a secure tie-down option.
The greenhouse should be placed with its longest side going east to west so it gets southern exposure, which promotes the most sunlight hours especially when the sun is low on the horizon during autumn and winter.
Greenhouse marijuana structures are covered in transparent plastic, polycarbonate, or glass.
The least reliable is plastic because it rips and deteriorates.
Your greenhouse must have built-in aeration and ventilation flaps and openings, preferable like what you’d see in an indoor grow tent—with zippers and heavy-duty materials.
You want reliable air flow because greenhouses heat up quickly in full sun, even in cold weather.
Some greenhouse marijuana growers add grow lights (especially LED and T-5), exhaust fans, air movement fans, and irrigation systems to their marijuana greenhouse.
In some climate zones, your marijuana greenhouse with good sun location will be temperate during the daytime, but too cold at night.
Growers use electric or propane heaters to add heat at night, but using gas can create high humidity, and fire risk.
plants.
A marijuana greenhouse can become too warm, so growers use shadecloth to block sun for heat control.
Shadecloth is also used to implement a 12-12 bloom phase lighting program.
One of our favorite businesses is Greenhouse Megastore.
They offer useful advice, and a huge selection of greenhouses and greenhouse accessories in diverse shapes, sizes, and price points.
Greenhouse marijuana growing enlarges your growing options, saves you money, and can give you larger plants and larger yields than are easily achieved in an indoor grow op.
If you have outdoor privacy and lots of sunlight, a marijuana greenhouse is something you should consider.
Watch the videos in this article and plan for the day when you have a greenhouse marijuana operation with hundreds of plants!