Just like with any methods of growing, there is no single system that is the best of them all. Which one you choose will depend entirely on your potential growing areas and the kinds of cannabis you want to grow. Both indoor and outdoor seeds have their positive and negative factors. Read this article to find out which one is best for your growing project!
The debate as to whether or not indoor is better than outdoor is age old, and it is time to dispel some myths about the difference between indoor cannabis and outdoor cannabis. For a long time, smokers have heavily preferred indoor weed, believing it to be a stronger and more authentic experience. However, it is impossible to ignore the external factors that might have resulted in this perspective. Identifying whether indoor is in fact better than outdoor requires at least some understanding of the difference between the two, which is an area most smokers have never cared to explore.
So then this argument rests entirely on understanding which growing method is going to be better for what you intend to do with it. They both have their benefits and they both have their downsides and, above all, they both serve different purposes. An outdoor weed smoking experience can be just as pleasurable as an indoor weed smoking experience if the strain is chosen wisely and with consciousness.
Why has indoor been preferred over the years?
Most consumers, smokers, and growers out there will say that they have preferred indoor weed because it has been infinitely stronger than any outdoor weed they smoked. Well, this may be true, but that does not mean that outdoor cannabis is not potent as well. Because of prohibition in recent times, outdoor growing projects have had to be operated by guerrillas, or hidden from the neighbours in the backyard.
Outdoor weed does not exactly allow for inconspicuousness, and as a result is an easy target for law enforcement. This pressure has meant that over the years attention to the genetics of the outdoor cannabis plant has waned.
This has effectively influenced the attitude towards outdoor cannabis because there has been far less outdoor weed circulating the market. But, truthfully, the two have their benefits, and are appropriate for different reasons at different times. At the mercy of the elements (like droughts, pests, floods, and frost), the outdoor cannabis plant can be a raging success story, too.
Why choose to grow indoors?
As I said earlier, both styles of growing cannabis have their benefits. There are things that indoor cannabis are and are not good for. One of the most obvious benefits of growing cannabis indoors is protection from the natural elements and being able to harvest perpetually. This is good if you are trying to manufacture a strain, and you are looking to decrease all the possible variables.
Producing the entire growing environment from scratch means that the grower can be in control of all of the variables when growing. This means growers can ensure a really consistent production of buds.
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The benefits of growing indoors are:
- The growing time is shorter than outdoor
- Growers can control all the environmental factors
- Many harvests can be taken in a year
- It is discreet to grow indoors
However, growing indoors has its drawbacks, too. Just think about whether you would prefer to eat an organically grown, outdoor tomato or one that was grown indoors under LED lights. Most people would prefer to eat a tomato that had been grown outdoors.
Other factors that make indoor growing a less preferable option are that it is expensive. It is not cheap to try and mimic the amount of sunlight that an outdoor plant would receive, and running that many LED light bulbs can cost a fortune. It’s bad for the environment to be using that much power for a plant that can grow naturally outside.
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So, the disadvantages of growing indoor cannabis are:
- It is much more expensive to create the indoor growing environment, and much more expensive to maintain the growing environment
- It requires much more maintenance than outdoor cannabis because it requires maintenance of the entire growing environment
- It is less natural and worse for the environment
Why choose to grow outdoors?
Growing outdoors has been difficult for most because of the loss that can result from the natural elements, as well as the loss that can occur at the hands of law enforcement. However, recent adjustments to cannabis laws means that outdoor grow operations are much more feasible than they once were. This means that the potential for really good outdoor grown bud is exponentially bigger now than once upon a time.
Some growers incorporate both methods into their growing technique. For example, some will begin their strain experimentation stage of growing indoors under LED lights. When the plant is almost ready to flower, it is moved outdoors for optimum growth potential. Then, once the strain is perfected, it can live outdoors thereafter.
The benefit of growing outdoors is naturally the benefit of growing anything in its natural habitat and environment. The cannabis plant is naturally going to flourish more outdoors, because it is a plant. A well-grown outdoor plant actually tastes better, smells better, and the buds look better if they are presented well. Outdoor weed actually produces a bigger yield than indoor weed plants because they have all the room that they need to grow. It’s cheaper to grow outdoors and it is easier, because the natural environment looks after everything for you.
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So then, the benefits of growing outdoor cannabis are:
- It is cheap and easy
- It is completely natural and does not harm the environment in any way to do so
- It yields more than the indoor cannabis plant
- It produces the best-looking, most flavourful buds
I think it is important that growers do not get deterred from the outdoor growing method because of the potential setbacks. Once these hurdles are overcome, the outdoor cannabis plant is tremendously successful. There is no control over the environmental factors when growing outdoors, so the plant is at the mercy of Mother Nature. However, choosing the right strain for where you live can help you overcome some of these hurdles. For example, if you live in a colder climate, perhaps it would be better to pick a strain that is adaptable to that.
The only disadvantages of growing cannabis outdoors are:
- It is at the hands of Mother Nature
- It is impractical to grow outdoors if you live in the city
- You must be really close to a water source
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Choosing consciously
It´s important to identify what your intentions are by growing weed and thereby choose consciously which option is better for you. If everyone in the world was growing cannabis indoors, there would be a tremendous amount of electric energy being sucked out of the grid. It just seems to be a little bit ironic to be damaging nature to grow a plant that was a gift from nature! There is honestly not better food for your cannabis plant than natural sunlight, no matter how advanced technology becomes.
However, growing indoors has its benefits too. Using the indoor environment to experiment with growing different strains or mixing strains is appropriate and perhaps even necessary. However, once this stage has been passed, there is no reason why you should not expose your plant to the outdoor elements. This is, after all, where the cannabis plant thrives.
There is nothing to say that an indoor plant is going to be more powerful than an outdoor plant. Both have the potential to be terrible plants if they are not looked after well. The difference lies in the attention that is paid by the grower, and how much they love growing weed!
