Growing Cannabis Sativa (Industrial Hemp) indoors
Like many plants, the culture of the Hemp (Cannabis Sativa, rich in CBD) can be carried out in outside (outdoor), or inside (indoor). Each cultivator will have in heart to choose its mode of culture, because as we will see it, according to the chosen method, the results in growth, bloom, and quality can be quite different.
The different uses of Industrial Hemp
The cultivation of hemp is a thousand year old practice, the first traces of hemp (cannabis) use date back to almost 12,000 BC in some prehistoric homes in Eastern Europe and Japan. Thus, cannabis, or hemp, would be one of the first plants cultivated by man. The cultivation of cannabis was essential, because the benefits of this plant were numerous :
- The flowers and heads were used as remedies in the traditional medicine of the time, but also in certain rites.
- The fibers of the stem were used to make resistant clothes, links and strong ropes.
- The nourishing seeds were used to obtain an oil rich in nutrients, and the solid residues from the extraction of this oil were used to feed animals.
Nowadays, the cultivation of hemp (Cannabis sativa) has grown considerably. There are no less than 25,000 different uses :
- Biofuel
- Bio Plastics
- Food and bedding for animals
- Textiles and clothing
- Construction
- Cosmetics
- Medicine
- etc.
Indoor cultivation
Growing Cannabis Sativa (hemp) for CBD production indoors allows growers to control all parameters such as light, temperature, humidity and nutrients offered to the plants. This method allows to secure the production, week after week, until the flowering of the plants.
The production of CBD indoors by the industrial cultivators answers certain rules, which make it possible to obtain beautiful plants which will give an abundant and quality CBD.
It all starts with the choice of the variety of cannabis. The cultivators have a restricted choice as regards varieties, because only, some are authorized to the culture in France, and in Europe, they must imperatively present a rate of THC lower than 0,2 %. To avoid confusion with illegal cannabis rich in THC, legal cannabis (low in THC, but rich in CBD) is also called industrial hemp. Once the seeds are chosen, the culture will be able to start, and many parameters are to be watched closely, in order to obtain a beautiful bloom of the plants of Cannabis Sativa, and thus an important harvest :
The light
To obtain a beautiful bloom, and plants in full health inside, the cultivators must provide to their culture an artificial light approaching as much as possible the light of the sun. If during all the growth of the plant the lighting is important, it is during the blooming of the hemp plants that the quality of the light, and the duration of lighting are the most important.
The substrate and the nutrients
In outside, the seeds of Cannabis Sativa, will develop after their germination an important and deep root network, in order to collect the water present in the ground, as well as the nutrients necessary to its growth. The culture in inside (indoor) is different, each plant is placed alone in a pot filled with a substrate favorable to its good growth, of regular contributions in fertilizer, rich in nutrients, allow a growth and a bloom more quickly than in outside (outdoor).
The temperature
Well with the shelter in their interior greenhouse, the plants of Cannabis Sativa, are maintained at constant temperature of the germination to the bloom. Temperatures too low or too high can slow down the good development of the plants, even to stop it. At the stage of the bloom a temperature ranging between 20 and 25 degrees is generally proposed in indoor culture.
Humidity
Indoors, the regulation of humidity (water in the air) is crucial for the good health of plants. At the time of the germination of seeds, a too important moisture could support the moulds, on the contrary, an insufficient moisture could dry the seeds of Cannabis. For a good harvest and according to the varieties of cannabis, a hygrometry of 40 to 50 % is ideal.
The water
The watering of the plants is an important parameter since it also influences the humidity of the space of culture. Each pot is therefore watered little, but regularly.
If all these parameters are well controlled from week to week, the quality and the quantity of CBD will be excellent.