How to Grow Actually Really Good Weed in Your Backyard This Summer

The morning after Ohio voters passed Issue 2 last fall, two middle-aged men showed up at Tilth Soil’s warehouse on St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland. They arrived within five minutes of each other. In fact, they were neighbors and they knew each other.

As those two men walked past heaps of packaged soil blends, taking in the sights of the city’s most robust composting operation, they sheepishly explained that they were looking for soil for their, uh, indoor tomato plants.

Cue the awkward pause.

Nathan Rutz likes telling this story. He’s the director of soil at Tilth, and he says this moment is a good example of the surge of interest in cannabis that the state is about to experience. As soon as the last of this mild winter frost burns off, spring planting season will no doubt see thousands of cannabis plants sprouting from the window boxes of Toledo to the riverside flatlands of Meigs County.

A lot of that weed will be bunk. Most of it will be serviceable and downright enjoyable. Some of it will even be top-tier sticky-icky kind bud. The thrill of the season is going to be finding out what it takes to grow good weed. As the plant expresses its own chemical wonders, you too will learn a few things about what kind of gardener you are.

We’re here to sort fact from myth, which in the cannabis scene is no small task, so we spoke with a few longtime home-growers to gather tips and tricks for your own plants this summer.

You know, it’s not as simple as just tossing some bag seeds into your lead-ridden Old Brooklyn backyard dirt and hoping for fat nugs in the fall. Cannabis is an easy plant to grow, relatively speaking, but you have to know what you’re doing. We all know that you let your poor pothos plant wither away and die over the winter. You need help. Seriously.

“Home grow in Ohio is here to stay,” Max says. He’s been growing cannabis for years, and held stints as a teacher at the Cleveland School of Cannabis; he goes by @professor_bluntstache on Instagram. Along with compadres Jake (@jaake888) and Chris (@collectiveinterest), he took some time to explain to Scene how to grow some nice plants in our fine Northeast Ohio climate. We’re mainly just interested in smoking the stuff and watching Kids in the Hall, but they were kind enough to articulate the agronomic complexities of this biological wonder.

But first, let’s review exactly where we stand as a voting and toking populace.

Issue 2 was passed by a 57-43 margin in November 2023, yes, and the law itself went into effect in December. That means that home grow is 100% legal in Ohio as of this writing. The rest of the Issue 2 language, which mainly dealt with setting up an actual taxed-and-regulated market for adult-use cannabis (grown and sold via licensed businesses), is now getting a classic Republican rubdown by state lawmakers who took little to no interest in cannabis for, oh, just about forever and who now want to slice off their own piece of the pie.

The Ohio House is currently workshopping language in H.B. 354, a bill that would “modify” the measure approved by voters. (For those voters awaiting dispensary sales, keep an eye out sometime this fall.) Rest assured that all states go through this herky-jerky process, in which lawmakers sink their teeth into the law and set up their pals in law enforcement with some nice tidy tax revenue for profoundly ironic reasons; Ohio is not unique in that regard, but it is very Ohio-y. In the weeks following the election, state senators yapped their wet, floppy jowls and suggested, among other things, lowering the THC limit in cannabis products and eliminating home grow altogether. The backlash was something fierce.

And yet, here we are.

For home growers in 2024, you can legally grow up to six plants per adult (or up to 12 per household). A reasonable estimate is that one plant will yield about four ounces of dried flower, possibly much more than that. On the high end, a savvy gardener could garner more than a pound of bud this summer. That’s far more than the average consumer will need, at least until you hit the Phish tour. (As of now, H.B. 354 brazenly bans the “sharing” of cannabis among adults, so go figure).

The bottom line is that we’re at the crossroads of a pivotal moment for Ohio. The state is actually implementing cannabis reform – astonishingly.

“I think Issue 2 has brought a lot more transparency and education to younger people,” Jake says. “I know a lot of younger people have dealt with drug addictions and substance issues. Especially in Ohio. Having that education shows people the right path to take.”

So, for gardeners of all experience levels, for cannabis consumers of all stripes, what is the right path to take? The cannabis plant is a hardy and beautiful specimen of biological grace. It basically grows itself. But if you’d like to help it along and control your intertwined destinies, what does it take to grow really good cannabis?

I put the question directly to Max–“Where do you begin with all of this?”–and at first all he said was, “Oh, man…”

With that auspicious start, let’s get into it.


Sourcing Primo Genetics

Think of your favorite strain (or “cultivar,” if you’d like to use the proper agronomic term). What kind of cannabis really knocked your socks off?

Maybe it was Do-Si-Dos that finally relieved your Sunday Scaries. Maybe it was Green Crack that got you back in the mood to pick up the guitar and write some songs and feel creatively refreshed. Maybe you think I just made up those names.

You can Google “Do-Si-Dos seeds” or, better yet, “Do-Si-Dos feminized autoflower seeds” and begin your research. Grow the kind of genetic profile that you will want to consume or share. With a little homework, you can pinpoint the breeder behind your favorite strains. Perhaps you can even find a local breeder who can set you up with genetics that generally have the profile you want. Try reaching out via DM on Instagram, but know that cannabis still carries some degree of stigma; breeders are often interested in talking about their work, but doing so openly on social media can be a faux pas. Do what you can to scrutinize the breeder’s website, if they have one.

If you like Do-Si-Dos and you’d like to see what happens when that strain is crossed with Wedding Cake, try Dosi-Cake, bred by Archive Seed Bank. Garden centers and grow stores are another option as cannabis becomes a more open industry.

“Source your seeds from places where you know you’re getting good stuff,” Max says. It sounds obvious, but the quasi-legal cannabis market in the U.S. has provided ample room for scam artists and gatekeepers and braggadocios: 21st-century Runyonesque hustlers abound. Much like researching a new pair of running shoes, take your time to examine the marketplace and vet suppliers.

Chris adds: Don’t source your seeds from Amsterdam. And on that note, he points out that, yes, seeds are 100% legal to ship within the U.S.; the seeds technically have less than 0.3% THC content, which renders them legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. No need to have your seeds shipped to your dog like Chris Perez.

Feminized autoflower seeds especially will achieve two things: They will provide you with a feminized crop of cannabis plants, and they will automatically shift from the vegetative to the flower phase. We’ll explain more about both concepts soon, but they’re important. Consider feminized autoflower seeds “easy mode” for intimidated gardeners.

Christine DeJesus, director of cultivation at Galenas, a licensed cannabis business in Akron, thinks that we’ll see a lot of people trying their hand at growing cannabis in 2024. She also recommends that most growers work with seeds; the alternative would be working with clones (or cuttings taken from established cannabis plants). No need to make it harder for yourself, especially if you’re a novice gardener. Plants grown from seed tend to be more vigorous; they will have a taproot that will strengthen the plant and provide stability against wind.

“If you can start seeds for most other plants, like garden vegetables or flowers, then you can pretty easily start cannabis the same way,” she says.

So, secure your seeds first. Know that if you pop six or 12 seeds you may not end the season with all plants healthy and intact. Consider this whole process one grand experiment for you and your cannabis plants.

Rutz offers some sage advice at the outset: “Grow feminized auto seeds, and you will have a good time. Pop that auto on 4/20, boom, 90 days, take it down.” That’s perhaps the most succinct advice you’ll get on growing cannabis. For those who want to go even deeper, continue reading.

Getting Started

Max says he learned a lot about growing cannabis from his time working at Blueberry Hill Family Farms in Loudonville (which supplies Mustard Seed Market locations). Gardeners of all stripes will surely be able to bring lessons from other plants to their cannabis this year. In fact, you can even, generally, follow your tomato plants’ early-season timeline.

“Really, plants will grow themselves,” Max says. “I don’t think that’s the hard part. As long as you have experience with how plants need to be watered and how plants are affected by feeds, and as long as you just use good soil, I think that you’re going to have minimal issues. Issues come more from trying to do things to your plant–trying to prune too much, trying to feed too much.”

As you embark on your journey, go ahead and start your seeds earlier in the spring indoors under lights. Try mid-April. There’s always temptation to get the garden going early each year, but beware late frosts in our region. Earlier certainly does not mean “better.” There’s no rush here, man! In fact, starting your plants a little later can help contain your growth later on. You might want to grow the biggest, fattest plant possible, but there are real health drawbacks to such girth. A small, well maintained plant is a happy plant.

“Cannabis is a lot of people’s gateway plant into gardening and into paying attention to plants, which is then paying attention to Earth, which is then paying attention to a whole host of societal ills,” Rutz says. “It’s an enchanting addition to the home garden.”

He says his first experience with growing cannabis a few years ago–er, uh, I mean just a few weeks ago!–was both straightforward and haphazard. That might be how your own season goes. Rutz started his plants in two-inch soil blocks, then moved them into four-inch pots outdoors in late May. He later moved his plants to a raised bed rich with Tilth soil, ensured they were all female (more on this in a moment), and they grew to seven feet tall. They smelled great! He didn’t prune them, train them, defoliate them–and by early fall he had giant Christmas tree pot plants that eventually flopped over in a storm. He staked them; all was not lost. But be wary of giant cannabis plants and the madness of local weather systems.

Let your seeds sprout and grow to be about the size of a small tomato plant that you might find at Home Depot. Think Mother’s Day or even Memorial Day for a nice timeframe for getting your babies outdoors. Check your soil temperature. Get your raised beds ready with a nice, quality soil blend, or get your quarter-gallon pots ready for transplanting the little sprouts.

Prepare yourself so that by late May or early June, when you move your starters outdoors, your plants should be sexed.

All right, what does that mean?

Cannabis is a dioecious plant, which means that it can be either male or female (or both!). You, young grower, you want the female plants and their lovely flowers.

“The No. 1 thing–and I mean the No. 1 thing!–is get your males and females sorted out,” Max says. “The biggest challenge is going to be, this year, there’s going to be so much pollen in the air that I feel like almost no one is going to get a good flower run unless they’re in a secluded area.”

At this, the other growers in the room collectively groan. It’s a grim realization. Mistakes will be made across Ohio, and cannabis pollen drift from one backyard to the next may be a real threat to your plants.

To identify female plants, you need to look for a single stigma forming at the node–a small hair-like protrusion at the base of a branch. (See photo below.) When you see those stigma forming, you know you’ve got a female and you’re ready to roll. If what you see looks more like a pair of balls, then you’ve got a male–and you’ll want to get rid of that guy. If you see yellow pollen on the leaves below those balls, you’re already too late.


Veg & Flower

All right, you’re really growing cannabis now!

As you begin to plot your garden out back, you’ll want to scout and ward off pests. From here on out, your plant is very vulnerable to the whims of nature; the prying eyes of local high school jazz band musicians and aphids are the main culprits. If you’re growing other plants in your garden, take a look around. Are there any bugs munching on your plants’ leaves? If you’re noticing aphids on your non-cannabis flowers, maybe wait for the aphid pressure to die down before you move your cannabis plant outdoors or before you move them into heavily trafficked raised beds.

That said, where should you station your cannabis plants?

“Full sun if you can help it,” Max says. “And if you can’t help it, whatever you got! But if it’s full shade, it ain’t happening.” Consider the south or west sides of your home, which will typically receive the most sunlight. Also consider “hardening” your plant for a week in a mostly shady spot in your backyard; DeJesus says it’s very important to get them used to the temperature and the wind before throwing them into the full blast of the sun.

Once outside, your plants will experience two major growth phases: vegetative and flower. The veg phase will see the plant grow strong and mighty. The flower phase is where things get interesting, where glorious THC-rich buds bloom like frothy nectarines.

The running theme through these growth phases is “water, but not too much water,” Rutz suggests. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find this green thumb koan almost impossible to decipher. Make it easy on yourself: Consider sub-irrigated planters, which will prevent you from overwatering your plants.

DeJesus adds: “It’s better to water less frequently and more deeply than to water more frequently with a smaller volume of water.” This is perhaps helpful wisdom for many areas of life. Resist the urge to water a feeble amount each day, which will lead to stunted roots and soilborne disease. If it’s raining heavily one week, dial back the watering can. One inch of rain per week is a good benchmark.

Use plenty of soil, too; don’t skimp. Cannabis is a hungry plant, so it will suck up pretty much anything in its soil, and you want to make sure it’s a good, balanced blend with the proper nutrients (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus) and water.

And for god’s sake, don’t just use whatever dirt is lying around in your backyard. That’s a rookie mistake. Rutz found that his own soil in Cleveland was contaminated with lead, which led him to start Tilth Soil as an outgrowth of compost collection outfit Rust Belt Riders. He saw an ecosystem-wide need for living soil offerings. In the upstairs rooms of the warehouse, he bio-assays every batch of soil that leaves the building, ensuring that it’s going to deliver the nutrients that our tomatoes and cucumbers and cannabis plants want and need.

If you’re working with autoflowering seeds, the cannabis plant will begin to shift into bloom as the daylight rhythm begins to die down a few weeks after the summer equinox. Watch the development of your plants’ flowers, which will take on delightfully crystalline, hairy appearances. Take photos! Enjoy the slow unfolding of nature.

Harvest Season

If your plants have weathered the weather itself, as well as the threat of pests and mold and bud rot and pollination and nutrient deficiency, then there’s still one final enemy to evade before harvest: local potheads who’ve smelt what you’re growing out back.

“I’ve had neighborhood ruffians steal stuff out of my yard twice now, and they did a real hack job on my plants, which I was none too pleased about,” Rutz nearly shouts. “And it was way too early, too–the plant wasn’t even ripe! ‘A pox on both your houses!’”

So, stealth is important.

“Everyone needs to be growing smaller, shorter plants in general, to keep ‘em out of the prying eyes of the ruffians,” Max says. “And for good air flow.” A giant plant is fun, but a smaller plant may be more reasonable for your needs.

On one hand, cannabis cultivation is legal in Ohio. But judiciousness is key here: Some degree of stigma remains, and cannabis draws incredible curiosity from passersby. Raised beds are obviously nice, but pots will provide some mobility throughout the summer; you might want to move your plants to a more concealed location if and when you realize that you’ve been found out or while you’re on vacation.

When a tomato turns red, it’s time to dine. Slice it up and toss it on some bread with a little mayonnaise, some S&P, and you’ve got an incredible sandwich. That’s simple enough. With cannabis, this question of harvest is a bit more complicated. You’ll see beautiful buds well before you should cut them down. Most seed packages will list some sort of day count for your plants, but it’s a bit more nuanced than that.

First, if the plant is drinking less water, it’s time.

Then: “Get out the loupe and look at the trichomes!” Rutz says. Those little bulbous structures on the buds are where cannabinoids and terpenes are manufactured (you’ll see trichomes on the fan leaves as well, but don’t judge your plant based on those). As the trichomes on your buds begin to turn milky and even amber, almost glittery, then you know you’re close to harvest time.

Also, keep an eye on the weather. As you’re getting close to harvest in late September or early October, beware heavy rainfall or even early frosts. The more rain in the forecast, the greater the risk for bud rot and a decimated crop. If you feel you’re getting close to cutting down your plant, you can begin to take off the fan leaves to make your harvest easier. You can then take down the plant branch by branch, moving upward from the bottom, over the course of a week or so.

Savor the art and science you’ve navigated all year. It’s your plant. It’s your right to grow it.


Drying and Curing

Now, don’t get carried away! After all your hard work, there’s still more to do. An easy mistake would be to cut the flowers from your cannabis plant and try to grind them up and pack your bowl.

“You can start smoking it when it’s smokeable,” Max says plainly enough.

The issue is that you need to dry the plant after you’ve harvested. As you’re cutting the branches, you should hang them upside-down in some sort of basement setting–somewhere that might achieve a 60-degree temperature and 60% humidity, if you can help it. Dry your plant material in that position for about two weeks.

Then, as your plants lose their moisture content, get a nice little pair of shears and put on a bad movie and slowly trim your buds. Just a light touch is all you need, tedious as the work is. Be gentle with your flowers when trimming. You’re on the one-yard line of your cannabis flowers’ finished appearance.

One more point–yes, there’s more. After drying and trimming, you should take some time to cure your flowers. This time period is critical to the quality of your final product; a slow dry and cure is key. Curing your plants can be a somewhat involved process. At the risk of getting fairly complex here, consider a two-week cure in airtight mason jars. Open the jars daily for the first week, and then keep them open for another 12-24 hours if the buds are still moist and if the small stems have become bendable again.

This process is where the smokeability and taste of your cannabis will really come through. Properly dried and cured home-grown cannabis will look and feel different from what consumers may be familiar with in the licensed marketplace. It may seem leafier or gnarlier in appearance–and certainly stickier.

If you’ve been diligent this year, you’re on the threshold of an incredible moment: smoking your own home-grown cannabis.

“People are going to be getting a true treat,” Max says.

Your Rights

Now, not to get all highfalutin here, but a season of cannabis cultivation will place you at the very heart of this plant’s political and spiritual history.

Cannabis has been grown by humans for thousands of years. The plant can be put to nearly limitless uses; we’ve really only stopped here for a moment to discuss the joys of getting baked, but cannabis can achieve incredible societal reform for us knuckle-dragging 21st-century nimrods. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we could solve most of our generational ills by legalizing cannabis and ensuring free access to the plant for all. (Jack Herer’s famous $100,000 offer still stands, even after his death: $100,000 to the person who can disprove his claim that cannabis is the only known “annually renewable, natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper, plastics and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs; provide about 30% of the world's medicines, while reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere, all at the same time.”)

Ohio’s willingness to engage with at-home cultivation is a very positive step in a direction that will entertain Herer’s fact-backed claim.

Now that the plant is legally in your hands, fellow Ohioans, part of the responsibility is to honor that political and spiritual history.

Be willing to get out there in the broader cannabis community, even the broader gardening community, and engage. If you’re interested in what we’re discussing here, you have to show you’re interested.

Consider the friendly atmosphere of your local farmers market: Customers tend to have in-depth conversations with familiar faces, asking questions about agronomy and flavor profiles. Getting to know your farmer is a fundamental aspect of a more sustainable economy. The same goes for cannabis. Breeders and growers like Max and Jake and Chris, and growers in the licensed landscape like DeJesus are deeply committed to education about this plant.

This gets to the heart of why home grow laws are important in the long slog of U.S. cannabis reform. Allowing home grow keeps the province of the plant in the hands of the people. A taxed-and-regulated market is strictly a reality of how the U.S. economy functions; given the federal illegality, it’s… complicated… but that market plays an important role in engaging customer demand.

Maintaining home grow, however, is the key to the 21st-century cannabis story.

“It symbolizes freedom unlike anything else,” Jake says.

DeJesus agrees: “Home grow is a very important part of any cannabis policy,” she says. Not every state allows people to cultivate cannabis at home, and so it must be taken as a meaningful insistence of the will of the voters that this activity is now legal in Ohio.

That may not mean much to everyone. If you’ve read this far and you care little for cannabis, then, uh, thank you for reading. But if you do care for the far reaches of this plant’s capabilities, then you can now participate, free of shackles, in that planetary narrative of discovering who we are and what we’re meant to do here. Cannabis reveals much about our shared existence on Earth.

“What people don’t understand on a very sentimental, emotional, spiritual level, is that this plant becomes part of our family,” Max says. “It becomes part of me.”

Imagine that. And with just a nice pot of soil and some water and some sunshine, maybe even a bowl of Fritos and the full run of Kids in the Hall on DVD, you too can dive into the cosmic vastness of life itself and find a sense of who you truly are.

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