
Photo credit: Thichaa
Dr. Pepper Hernandez ND, Ph.D., CTC, CNHP in ECS and Naturopathic Medicine, is a cannabis therapy consultant, founder and education director of the Cannabis Holistic Institute.
Growing my own cannabis is more than just a hobby for me—it’s a deeply empowering, healing, and regenerative act. In today’s world, where industrial agriculture and synthetic pharmaceuticals dominate the health landscape, cultivating your own plant medicine and food reconnects you to the rhythms of nature. It also encourages sustainable practices, and can give you control over what goes into your body.
Homegrown cannabis allows you to tailor your medicine to your unique needs, from pain relief and anxiety reduction to sleep support and spiritual insight. And when done regeneratively—with living soil, compost, and natural fertilizers—it becomes a closed-loop, Earth-honoring system that benefits both plant and planet.
Here are three essential pillars to support your journey toward cultivating high-quality, sungrown cannabis—plus some tips for making the most of your homegrown medicine.
Choosing the Right Cultivar for Climate and Wellness Goals
The first and most crucial step in growing cannabis is choosing the right cultivar (strain) for both your local conditions and your specific wellness intentions. Not all cannabis is created equal. Different cultivars express different effects, grow at different rates, and thrive in different environments.
Match Cultivars to Climates
If you’re growing outdoors, your local climate should guide your strain selection. Indica-dominant strains are often short and bushy with faster flowering times, making them ideal for regions with shorter summers or early fall rains. Sativa-dominant strains typically need longer to mature. They prefer hotter, more tropical climates.
For example:
- Northern growers may succeed with autoflowering strains or fast-finishing indica hybrids like Northern Lights or Frisian Dew.
- Southern or coastal growers might thrive with long-blooming sativas like Durban Poison or Amnesia Haze, which benefit from a full, warm season.
Sativa:
- Height: Tall, often reaching 8–12 feet or more.
- Structure: Long, lanky, and branchy with wide spacing between nodes.
- Leaves: Narrow, slender, and finger-like with light green coloration.
- Growth cycle: Longer flowering period (usually 10–16 weeks).
- Origin: Typically native to equatorial regions like Thailand, Colombia, and Southeast Asia.
- Ideal environment: Thrives in warm, tropical climates with long growing seasons.
Indica:
- Height: Shorter and bushier, typically 3–6 feet tall.
- Structure: Compact and dense with tightly packed branches.
- Leaves: Broad, wide, and darker green.
- Growth cycle: Shorter flowering time (usually 6–9 weeks).
- Origin: Native to the Hindu Kush region (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India).
- Ideal environment: Suitable for cooler climates with shorter growing seasons.
Grow With Purpose: Align Cultivar to Wellness Goals
Each cannabis cultivar carries a unique profile of cannabinoids and terpenes that determines its effects. Are you growing for physical pain? Emotional? Mental clarity?
- For anxiety or stress relief: Look for high-CBD cultivars like ACDC, Harlequin, or Ringo’s Gift.
- For chronic pain or insomnia: Choose sedating strains rich in terpenes like myrcene, and THC. These include Granddaddy Purple or Bubba Kush.
- For energy and focus: Seek sativas or hybrids high in limonene and pinene terpenes, such as Green Crack or Jack Herer.
If possible, source seeds from a local or regional breeder who cultivates organically and regeneratively. These seeds are likely better acclimated to your environment and align with natural growing cycles.
Building Living Soil From Regenerative Inputs
Healthy cannabis starts with healthy soil. Instead of using synthetic nutrients or commercial “super soils,” build a living soil ecosystem that supports your plants from seedling to harvest—and improves with every cycle.
Start with a Foundation of Compost
Good compost is the heart of any living soil mix. Create your own using food scraps (avoid meat/dairy), yard waste, cardboard, and natural browns like leaves and straw. Vermicompost (from worms) adds microbial richness and is a powerful soil amendment for cannabis.
Compost is more than just fertilizer—it’s alive. It inoculates your soil with fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and beneficial nematodes. Together they break down organic matter and make nutrients available to your plants.
Enhance With Organic and Mineral Amendments
To create a balanced living soil, blend compost with:
- Peat moss or coco coir (for water retention)
- Aeration material like perlite, pumice, or rice hulls
- Minerals such as basalt rock dust, gypsum, and oyster shell flour
- Nutrient-rich amendments like kelp meal, alfalfa, neem cake, fish bone meal, and biochar
The goal is to feed the soil, not the plant directly. When you focus on feeding microbes and building organic matter, your cannabis will have access to everything it needs.
Topdress and Mulch
Throughout the growing season, use mulch (like straw, shredded leaves, or cover crops). This helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and slowly feed the soil as it breaks down. Topdress with compost, worm castings, or dry amendments during key growth stages (vegetative and flowering) to keep your soil thriving.
Creating Natural Fertilizers from Kitchen and Garden Waste
Instead of relying on chemical or bottled nutrients, you can make effective, nutrient-rich fertilizers from materials you likely already have on hand. These natural inputs are both sustainable and regenerative.
Fermented Plant Juices (FPJ)
Fermenting local weeds and plants like comfrey, dandelion, nettles, or horsetail with brown sugar creates a potent liquid feed full of plant-available nutrients, growth hormones, and beneficial bacteria.
To make FPJ:
- Chop plant material and mix 1:1 with brown sugar.
- Pack into a jar and let it ferment for 7–10 days.
- Strain and store the liquid.
- Dilute at a 1:500 ratio in water for feeding.
Banana Peel + Eggshell Bloom Booster
Banana peels are rich in potassium and phosphorus, essential for flowering. Eggshells add calcium, which supports cell wall strength. It can also prevent issues like blossom end rot or calcium lockout.
To use:
- Dry and crush both banana peels and eggshells.
- Steep in water for 3–5 days.
- Water into soil or use as a foliar spray (strain first).
Compost Tea
Aerated compost teas (ACT) are made by bubbling water with compost, molasses, and kelp for 24–36 hours. This process multiplies beneficial microbes, creating a tea that improves soil life, prevents disease, and enhances nutrient uptake.
The Power of Sungrown Cannabis
There’s no substitute for full-spectrum sunlight. Outdoor-grown cannabis typically has higher terpene levels, more balanced cannabinoid expressions, and a deeper, more grounded energetic signature.
Sungrown cannabis also uses fewer resources—no lights, no fans, no artificial climate control. It relies on nature’s rhythms and is less energy-intensive, making it the most sustainable option for conscious cultivators.
Pro Tips for Successful Home Growing
- Start small—Whether it’s one or three, fewer plants means better attention and less overwhelm.
- Observe daily—Spend time with your plants. You’ll learn their patterns, and spot signs of stress before they escalate.
- Harvest with intention—Trichome color is your guide: clear = early, cloudy = peak THC, amber = more sedative. Use a loupe to inspect.
- Dry and cure with care—Hang in a dark, cool, ventilated space at 60°F/60% humidity for 10–14 days. Then cure in jars for at least 2–4 weeks for the smoothest, most medicinal experience.
Growing your cannabis is a sacred act of reclamation—of health, of sovereignty, and of relationship with the natural world. When you do it regeneratively, using organic inputs, living soil, and plant-based fertilizers, you’re participating in a healing cycle that nourishes the Earth as it nourishes you.
All information in this article is for educational purposes only. The information provided is derived from research gathered from external sources. Please check with your Cannabis Educated Primary Health Care Physician or Educated & Trained Cannabis Therapy Consultant before beginning any new diet or lifestyle change.
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