Growing the perfect hemp plant, year after year requires us to control the growth of our hemp quite a bit. This is maybe the simplest answer to why we start our plants indoors, but it goes a lot further than that.
This article is aimed at not only answering this question in detail but to giving our customers a little insight into the care and process we take while growing hemp.
Why We Start Our Plants Indoors
As the days get brighter and longer, the planting season grows ever nearer. Every year in April, we cut our clones and nurture them to be ready for the outside world when June rolls around.
We currently have about 60 mothers (the plants that we cut the clones from). We can gather roughly 1,000 clones from each mother. Once cut, we place the clones in soil on trays to begin their development into mature plants. They spend this portion of their lives safely in a building, and not without reason. Let’s investigate why starting plants indoors is optimal.
Lighting
Many consider bright sunshine the best light for growing, but it presents one major flaw: unreliability due to weather. Growing indoors helps us give our plants adequate lighting for the appropriate amount of time each and every day, without fail. With plants as young and small as freshly cut clones, any deviance from normal lighting might result in a detriment to their development.
Humidity
Some areas of the country have ample, if not excessive, moisture and precipitation on a year-round basis. Not southwest Colorado. We live in a semi-arid climate here. While the crisp mountain air provides advantages of its own, small clones with developing root systems require moisture. Growing indoors allows us to water when needed, but also to control the ambient humidity. This way, whenever slight adjustments must be made, we don’t depend on the weather to do the adjusting.
Inclement weather
This might be the number one reason that we start our plants indoors. Storm systems and the like present major problems for small plants. Just as animals build resistance to exterior forces as they grow larger and stronger, plants do as well. However, neither animals nor plants possess that resistance innately.
Heavy rain, wind, a late frost, and excessive heat create environments too harsh for small clones to survive. When these plants stay inside during the early stages of life though, it allows them to strengthen in a controlled environment. As a matter of fact, to toughen them up for the outside world, we subject them to a light wind produced by fans. Believe it or not, that actually makes them heartier and prepares them for real wind.
Consistency
Growing indoors accommodates all of these factors and more. Ultimately, we find that the success of a hemp crop is rooted in consistency for young plants. Just as humans often thrive on the predictability of routine, so do our hemp clones. Until someone finds a better way, we plan on starting our clones indoors every single year.
Outdoor vs Greenhouse Hemp Production
The biggest drawback of growing hemp outside is the weather. Here in Colorado especially, mother nature can be fickle and has been known to throw snowstorms at us almost every month of the year. It is also impossible for an outdoor grow to control factors like lighting and humidity.
Outdoor growing does have one major benefit over greenhouse production. Price. Because most major outdoor grows only require a few employees until harvest, labor, lighting, ventilation, and maintenance costs are much lower.
There are many industries where the variation and cost savings of an outdoor growth to make a lot of sense. Products like paper, textiles, fuel and plastics can all be made from hemp.
For hemp that is being used for CBD Oil and other products that will be consumed by humans, the quality and control of indoor growing cannot be beaten.
Growing Hemp Indoors – Summary
After reading this article hopefully you agree and understand why we start our plants indoors. Hemp is a resilient plant, but the only way we can guarantee the quality we want is to grow a start our hemp indoors. Quality is truly our #1 goal and this was the only way we could bring you the quality of products we set out to make.
We’ve also written more about the different steps of our process. To take a deeper look into how cloning is done, click here. To learn more about what cannabis needs to stay healthy, check out our article, How Cannabis is Grown.
