Planting Cannabis seeds in soil

You've finished cooking your homemade organic soil, you've received you cannabis seeds from the seedbank, and now you're ready to plant a cannabis seed to grow your own organic cannabis. First let me explain a couple things, most importantly the right time to grow cannabis.

When should I plant a Cannabis seed?

Generally speaking, outdoor cannabis grows in the season when the days are longer than the nights. In the Northern Hemisphere like us in California and other US states where it's legal to grow cannabis, that season is roughly April to October. In the Southern Hemisphere of course, the seasons is flipped. The important thing to note is that cannabis doesn't know what month it is, it only knows how much light it's receiving each day. When the amount of light per 24 hour day diminishes to a certain point, the cannabis plant knows that it should redirect its growth from leaves to  flowers. That flowering point varies a bit for certain cannabis varieties, but it's usually in the early summer.
Because of this, we need to make sure we don't plant our cannabis seeds too early in the season. For example, consider that February is a pretty dark month with less daylight hours than nighttime hours. If we planted a cannabis seed in February, the seed would sprout but the little plant would soon notice that there isn't much daylight. The little plant would assume it's late into the grow season, and in desperation she would start churning out flowers even though she hasn't yet built out the branch capacity to support them. To make matters worse, as you head into April and your little flowering plant notices the days getting longer, she will then revert back to a vegetative state, pull the plug on her buds and begin producing leaves again. The existing buds will die off and your plant will likely be severely weakened and stressed by the whole experience. I mean, wouldn't you be?
Considering you are a first-time grower, and knowing that it's my responsibility to get you to the finish line, we want to plant our seeds when we know there won't be any issues with your plants flowering too early. I suggest planting your cannabis seeds between April 15th and May 15th. If you have to plant a week earlier or later that will be fine, but I'm suggesting this period to keep everything going smooth. For reference, I've planted seeds as late as May 20th and still wound up with plants that were nearly 4 feet tall. Outdoor cannabis grows very quickly and frankly speaking, you may not want or need really large plants in your backyard. Heed my advice: If you plant seeds in early-to-mid-April, your plants my be a little too big for you to manage.

How to plant a Cannabis seed

Alright, let's get to it. This is not too difficult but you need to understand the basics to avoid an ungerminated seed.
  • First, take a 1 gallon fabric pot and fill it with your homemade organic soil. Water the soil thoroughly so it is wet and ready for your seed.
  • Label the pot so you know which seed is going into it. I just write the strain name on a piece of cardboard and stick it in the soil. If you don't do this, you'll soon be staring at three mystery pots and not know which strains are in which pot.
  • In the center of the pot, make a little hole about a quarter-inch deep. I use a bic pen to make the hole since it's smaller than my pinky finger and even that hole is a little big. I think next year I'll use the paper end of a lollipop.
  • Wash your hands to prevent any weird diseases from attacking your soon-to-hatch seedling.
  • Look at your seed while it's still in the baggy. Do you see a tapered end, a flatter end, or both? The tapered, pointy end of the seed is where the tap root emerges, and you want that end pointing UP in the soil. I repeat, the pointy end of the seed should point UP in the soil. If you can't make out the pointy end, look for the flatter end which is the opposite side of the seed. The flatter end should face down towards the ground when you plant it.
A cannabis seed shown up close. The pointy end is on the left.
The pointy end of this cannabis seed is on the LEFT side. The pointy end goes UP.
A cannabis seed close up. The flat end is on the right.
The flat end of this cannabis seed is on the RIGHT. The flat end goes DOWN in the soil.
  • After the cannabis tap root emerges from the pointy end of the seed, it will automatically curve back towards the other side of the seed and continue growing in that direction. You have no control over this. If you mistakenly place the seed with the pointy end downwards, the tap root will curve up towards the top of the soil. Eventually it will curve back down again but the seedling will have expended most of its stored energy by that point and may never reach daylight, or will reach daylight but grow runty.
    • If you don't get the seed orientation correct, you might end up being fine and just have a runty plant. My job is to get you to the end with homegrown marijuana so I'm stressing seed orientation to increase your chances of success. So, if you can't tell which end is which don't panic, just try your best.
  • Remove your seed from its bag and drop it into the hole you made. I like to use tweezers so I can see which end is which before I drop it in to the soil. Your hole might be too large but just try and get soil packed back into the hole while doing your best to keep the seed's pointy end pointed UP.
  • Put soil back into the hole and pack it gently.
  • IMPORTANT FOR OUR SOIL: Place a little marker a couple inches from where you covered up the seed. You can use a toothpick, small straw, anything that will remain for a week or so until the cannabis seedling emerges. Why? Our soil is made from very rich homemade compost and you will get all kinds of stuff spontaneously sprouting in it. Tomato plants, bean plants, fruit trees...when your soil is moist and in the sunlight, these little guys will sprout. If you didn't mark your cannabis seed and the seed happens to be a dud, you might be growing a guava tree all summer long because you think it's a crazy strain of cannabis.
  • The seed needs moisture to germinate. Your soil needs to be moist but shouldn't be soaking wet, and this moist condition should last until and beyond the point that a seedling emerges from the soil.
    • Keep your soil out of direct sunlight for too long. Warmth and sun is good but too much sunlight will dry out your topsoil and possibly your seed. If you need more moisture on the topsoil, use a spray bottle and gently mist it until it's moist again.
  • Once this is completed, you'll need to wait between 3-10 days for seedlings to emerge.

How long will it take for my Cannabis seeds to sprout?

You should see a seedling emerge from the soil between 3-10 days after planting. Sometime it can go a little longer. If you've reached the 10-day mark and you still don't have a seedling emerging from the soil, you can gently uncover the seed to see what's going on.

How likely is my Cannabis seed to sprout?

As long as you've acquired your cannabis seeds from a reputable seedbank and you stuck with a well-known strain of cannabis, you should have a great chance that your seeds germinate. I'm usually at 75% or higher.

Great news, I have a seedling growing out of my soil!

Excellent, I knew you could do it! Now pay attention to Rule #1: DO NOT OVERWATER YOUR CANNABIS. Your organic soil will hold moisture very well so you only need to water when the soil is dry down to one knuckle deep, or when you pick up the pot and notice it is light in weight and not holding water. Your cannabis seedling is all-natural and ready for the wild but you still need to shelter her for the next few weeks from strong winds, hot or cold spells and cannabis bugs like Thrips and Aphids. In the meantime you're now ready to move on to the Cannabis Vegetative Growth page.

If you're growing Cannabis from clones follow this advice

Even though I much prefer growing cannabis from seeds rather than growing cannabis from clones, if you've gone the clone route then you'll need to transplant your clones into your soil. This is simple but you need to remember a few things for growing cannabis clones:
  • Don't expose your roots to sunlight for too long. Dig a hole in your soil, get your plant in there and replace the dirt. Direct sunlight on your roots will kill them and stress the plant.
  • Cover the stem with soil about halfway up to the lowest leaves. This helps to cut down on total plant height and also gives the little plant more stability if windy weather arrives.
  • Do not place your clones in direct sunlight for a the first few days unless the clones came off an outdoor plant. Your clones most likely came from an artificial lighting environment which is nowhere near as intense as actual sunlight. Your little clones need to be gently introduced to the sunlight otherwise they will suffer badly and possibly die. Take it slow for the first few days and keep your little clone in a shaded area. Give her a few little 5-minute spells of direct sunlight each day until she looks like she can handle full-blast sunlight all day long. Less sunlight won't hurt your plant; too much sunlight will kill your plant.