Indoor Habitat

 

The “grow room” is the center of indoor growing. Growers enhance the potency of their crop through several methods.

Intense artificial lighting is essential for the success of indoor grown marijuana. Most indoor growers set their lights on a timer to control the amount of light the plants receive each day. Growers will often cover the walls of the grow room with reflective material to increase the light being received by the plants.
Temperature is closely monitored  to stay between 30-24 degrees Celsius. This is the perfect range to boost metabolic activity. To achieve this controlled temperature, elaborate ventilation systems are installed to flush excess warm air out. Keeping the grow rooms warm is almost never a problem because of significant amounts of heat coming off the high powered lights.

Air quality is a more complicated factor to control, but growers have several ways to created the ideal habitat indoors. The rooms are usually dehumidified and fresh air is pumped in through a ventilation system. Carbon dioxide is supplemented to the grow room in varying amounts depending on the maturity of the plants. As the plants mature, less and less carbon dioxide is necessary. For instance, when the plant has not yet reached flowering maturity, the ideal concentration is 1,000 ppm but when the plant is fully matured and is ready to be harvested, only 250 ppm is truly necessary.

Hydroponics is a growing technique where water is swapped for true soil for the material the plant is grown in. The marijuana plants are generally placed into a pot filled with ceramic beads. These ceramic beads allow the roots to bind on to something. Once the plant is in the pot it is lowered into a tub of water shallower than the pot. The tub of water is connected to a large storage tank that is extremely rich in nutrients. Once the nutrients in the tub of water have been used up by the plant, more nutrient rich water flows into the tube from the storage tank. Hydroponics is not limited to marijuana, production but is also being used to grow high quality produce such as sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

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Marijuana did not always have a safe home indoors and it has developed some interesting adaptations to become a successful species.