Cultivating marijuana can be done both indoors and outdoors. Each growing style has its pros and cons and what works for one individual might not work for the next.

To better understand your cultivation options, we need to look closer at the two processes.

Indoor Growing: Benefits and Limitations

Growing weed indoors is ideal because growers have more control over how they cultivate their plants. With a controlled indoor environment, cultivators can supervise their room for temperature, light conditions, humidity, and ventilation, all without worrying about the elements, seasons, or outdoor pests. Growing indoors can also be a fantastic way to retain your privacy while still cultivating the cannabis that you enjoy.

Benefits

• Environmental Control: Every stage of the growth process can be accounted for by the head grower. 
• Maximize Growth: Supplement your plants with CO2 in an indoor garden to boost your results.
• Potency Options: A variety of iconic strains are notoriously effective when grown indoors. Northern Lights, Chocolope, and Amnesia Haze are all potent strains that provide massive yields when cultivated indoors.
• Reduced Pest Exposure: Depending on where you live and what you grow, outdoor pests can become particularly problematic. Pests are one of the leading causes of crop failure and an indoor garden can go a long way toward preventing that recurring issue. With that being said, indoor gardens may still face pests including spider mites, so a wary eye is still required.

Limitations

• Rising Costs: Growing cannabis indoors requires extensive energy use as well as a large physical footprint. You will need to invest in lighting and nutrition for your plants.
• Potential Odor: In rental situations, the odor of cannabis can create a problem with other tenants or landlords.
• Conflicting Yields: Some strains do not have near the same level of yield when cultivated indoors versus outdoors. This is often due to a limitation in space, a lack of lighting, and an uncontrolled environment. 

Outdoor Growing: Benefits and Limitations

Outdoor cannabis cultivation has been the norm for thousands upon thousands of years, so why change anything? While there are plenty of amazing reasons to consider growing indoors, sometimes enthusiasts prefer to raise their crops outdoors in the sunlight for a more natural process.

Let’s dig into a few of the benefits as well as a couple of the limitations associated with outdoor cultivation.

Benefits

• Embrace the Elements: Growing outdoors can be a great decision if you live in an area with a cannabis-friendly climate. Outdoor growth in a temperate climate with plenty of sun can lead to large yields with minimal effort put in place by the grower. 
• Maximum Yield Potential: Take advantage of the great outdoors to maximize the yield potential of your newest crop. Cannabis maximizes its potential outdoors with a full and more complete terpene profile, requiring less energy and fewer nutrients along the way. Notable strains that enjoy outdoor cultivation include Durban Poison, Super Silver Haze, and White Widow.
• Sustainable & Eco-Friendly: Finally, cultivating marijuana plants outdoors can be a great way to help the environment while creating a sustainable hobby. Growing outdoors helps to reduce energy expenses while offsetting many of the more wasteful aspects of indoor cultivation.

Limitations

• Lack of Privacy: Unfortunately, cultivating marijuana outdoors comes with an intrinsic lack of privacy. Due to the popularity of the plant, outdoor gardens are often targeted by animals and human invaders alike. Consider a privacy fence when cultivating outdoors.
• Shortened Seasons: Growing outdoors leaves you beholden to the elements and the turning of the clock. States with shorter growing seasons will leave growers hard-pressed to get their crops finished on time.
• Climate Impacts: Unfortunately, the elements aren’t always good for our plants. Places with sudden temperature swings or harsh weather can reduce a great crop to mulch in no time.