- Growing cannabis at home is a labor of love—it requires ample supplies, trial and error, patience, and precision. It’s an intensive skill that takes time to learn.
- To start growing your own cannabis (or hemp, if marijuana growth isn’t allowed in your state), you’ll need a growth space, climate control equipment, lighting, power sources, measuring tools, and planting supplies.
- While home growing isn’t legal in Louisiana as of June 2024, some patients may meet the requirements for the State’s industrial hemp program.
When you walk through the doors of your local dispensaries or cannabis pharmacy, you might not spend much time thinking about all of the hard work that goes into cultivating and processing dispensaries-grade marijuana. It’s a labor of love.
Aside from the time commitment, numerous supplies are needed to grow cannabis: a place to grow, climate and lighting solutions, measuring tools, and more. Fortunately, we’re breaking it all down in this guide.
Regulatory Considerations
Before we dive in, take note of your state’s laws surrounding cannabis cultivation. Your state may not allow you to grow cannabis, or it may only allow patients to grow medical cannabis (not recreational cannabis).
People living in the following states are allowed to grow medical or recreational cannabis:
- Alaska
- California
- Colorado
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Nevada
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington D.C.
In addition, you can grow medical cannabis only in the following states:
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
In the above states, “cannabis” includes marijuana products with any THC content. Note that, unfortunately, Louisiana (TeleLeaf’s home state) is not on either of these lists.
However, if it’s not legal to grow cannabis in your state, you can cultivate hemp (a type of cannabis with less than 0.3% THC content) if you meet the requirements of your state’s program per federal law.
#1 A Grow Location
If it’s legal to cultivate cannabis in your state, there’s one vital component to consider: space.
Luckily, you can grow cannabis both:
- Indoors – To grow cannabis indoors, you’ll need ample supplies. Temperature controls are slightly more straightforward for indoor growers, but they face setbacks like limited space and odors.
- Outdoors – Growing cannabis outdoors can be a challenge. Depending on your climate conditions, it simply might not make sense to grow outdoors in your neck of the woods.
At the beginning of your journey, you won’t need too much space. To produce enough cannabis for personal use, you’ll need an area around five feet in length and width. Since cannabis plants can grow up to multiple feet in height, you’ll also need enough overhead space.
#2 Climate Controls
If you’re looking to maximize bud output, quality, and consistency, climate controls are key to your operation.
Depending on your climate, you might need the following climate control tools for growing indoors:
- A heat source (like a furnace vent or space heater)
- A cool air source (an air vent or portable A/C unit)
- A humidifier
- A dehumidifier
- Ventilation equipment (fans and ducts)
In short, you’re trying to maintain a consistent, temperate climate inside your grow area. Experts generally agree that any temperature between 65 and 85°F can work. Humidity, on the other hand, should vary throughout the growth process. While your grow space should be very humid early in the process, you’ll want to gradually dry out the environment to protect against mold growth.
If you’re growing outdoors, you’ll have more limited control over your growing conditions. However, you should try to grow during times of year that generally accommodate the temperatures mentioned above and compensate for low humidity with watering tools.
#3 Lighting
If you’re growing outdoors, you won’t need to supplement lighting—until you’re successfully cultivating and you want to experiment with light supplementation, of course. In general, though, the sun’s rays feature the full spectrum of light plants need to thrive.
Indoor growers, on the other hand, will need to purchase an artificial light source. Since typical household lights don’t emit the full range of light, grow lights are a must for indoor operations.
Your light should be:
- Encased – Housing your glow bulb behind glass can help maintain climate control. If you’re struggling to keep your grow space warm enough, you can skip this step.
- Ventilated – To let out heat emitted from the bulb, your light casing (if you use one) should have a ventilation hole. You might choose to install a vent from this hole to the outside of your grow space.
- On a timer – We’ll touch on light timers in the next section, but connecting your light source to an automation tool can make your grow operation less maintenance-intensive.
#4 Power and Controls
Speaking of light timers, let’s touch on external controls. For indoor growers with climate control equipment and lights in their grow spaces, connecting these to remotes will make your life much easier.
Plus, remote controls offer some automation potential—once you can predict how temperatures fluctuate in your growth space throughout the day, you can automate your climate and lighting controls to maintain stasis.
One thing that home marijuana growers can never have enough of is power sources: power strips and extension cords are worth their weight in gold for indoor growers.
If you’re growing outdoors, the only thing you’ll need to consider automating is your watering system (if you choose to use one). While you can water your plants by hand or rely on rainfall, some growers install sprinklers or other irrigation methods to automate the watering process. Again, connecting these systems to a remote makes it easier to tinker with these systems when needed.
#5 Gauge and Measuring Tools
There are three key measuring tools you’ll need throughout your cannabis cultivation journey:
- Temperature and humidity gauges
- Measuring cups
- pH testers (like test strips)
Even if you’re growing outdoors, you’ll likely need these tools. Keeping track of the temperature and humidity in your environment is paramount: after all, you’ll need to know which metrics to tweak and when to do so.
You’ll use the measuring cups to mix plant nutrients: formulas sold by growing stores that promote healthy plant growth. You might think you don’t need these, but they’re strongly recommended by home and professional growers alike.
pH strips are vital to nutrient mixing and soil testing throughout the growing process. You should monitor the acidity of your soil to determine which nutrients your plants need—like humans, plants’ needs change.
#6 Planting Supplies
Of course, you’ll also need run-of-the-mill growing supplies like:
- Pots
- Potting soil
- Your nutrients, fertilizers, and pesticides of choice (if you choose to use them)
- Stakes
- A watering can or irrigation system
- Seeds
Securing seeds can be sticky—ease of access will greatly depend on your state’s laws. In states where home growing isn’t legal or marijuana hasn’t been legalized, you may have a hard time procuring seeds (and we always recommend obeying the law).
If you’re growing outdoors, you’ll also want to take steps to keep animals (and nosy neighbors) out of your cannabis plants. To that end, you might need to encase your grow pots with chicken wire or hardware cloth. Keeping your plants in pots (instead of planting them in-ground) will also make them more portable.
Cannabis Laws in Louisiana—Is Growing Allowed?
At present, cannabis laws in Louisiana do not allow medical marijuana patients (or anyone else for that matter) to grow their own cannabis. Only licensed cannabis growers are permitted to cultivate cannabis, and home growers should not expect to be approved for such licenses in the current legislative climate.
What about hemp in Louisiana?
The state does have an industrial hemp program, but “industrial” is the operative word.
In order to be approved to cultivate hemp, growers must:
- Apply for, fund, and renew a growing license each year
- Submit to fingerprinting and a criminal background check
- Maintain accurate records of their seed sources, grow practices, and yields
- Contract with third-party testing companies to ensure compliance with THC limits
In addition, Louisiana does not issue licenses to anyone convicted of any state or federal drug crimes.
In short, getting a license to grow hemp on a small scale at home is certainly possible, but it may not be cost-effective.
TeleLeaf Connects Patients With Medical Marijuana Care
While growing cannabis can be a fun (though labor-intensive) way to source your own medical marijuana, it simply doesn’t make sense to take this route in some states and climates. If you can’t grow, your next best option is procuring cannabis from a dispensaries or pharmacy.
In Louisiana (and other states with medical-only legalization), that requires a recommendation from a licensed clinician. When you’re looking for cannabis healthcare (and the recommendation you need to access medical cannabis), TeleLeaf has you covered.
As the best online medical marijuana card service, we’re committed to helping patients access the highest quality of care. Plus, we offer telehealth services, making it easier and more convenient than ever to start medical cannabis treatment.
Ready to get started? Contact TeleLeaf to schedule an appointment.
Sources:
Growealth. Where Is It Legal to Grow Weed in the US? Marijuana Cultivation Laws
https://growealth.com
US Department of Agriculture. Hemp and Farm Programs
https://www.farmers.gov/
Lotus Premium Plant Nutrients. How Tall Does a Cannabis Plant Grow?
https://lotusnutrients.com
Spider Farmer. What Is the Ideal Grow Room Temp and Humidity for Cannabis?
https://www.spider-farmer.com/
StashStock. Louisiana METRC and Cannabis Cultivation
https://www.stashstock.com/metrc-louisiana
Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Industrial Hemp
https://www.ldaf.state.la.us/plants/industrial-hemp
Ashlyn Saucier 
Live Chat
