Some parts of the world, like California and British Columbia, are famous for growing incredible cannabis plants, but many of us aren't lucky enough to live in a climate that's naturally conducive to the cannabis plant. For those who grow while battling the elements of winter, we've got some tips and tricks that will have you producing excellent crops all year long.

Ensure You Know What Cannabis Needs To Grow

There's a reason they call it weed. It's not hard to get a couple of cannabis plants to sprout, but cultivating a plant that produces useful buds is a different story. To grow, cannabis needs water, nutritious soil and light in precise measurements. Traditionally, marijuana is grown outside, where sunlight reaches the plants naturally while crops are exposed to natural hazards such as rain, snow and insects. When the grow is brought inside, you can control the conditions and protect your crop from outside effects.

Optimize Your Grow Room

It's important to create the perfect growing environment for your plants. Maintaining a grow room at 70–80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal as cannabis plants will suffer if they're in an environment below 60 degrees. Greenhouses are perfect for a winter grow because they allow the heat of the sun to become trapped in the room, maximizing something that's scarce during the colder months. Most greenhouses can be modified with additional heating and humidity technologies too. Ensure your plants are off the ground or layer the ground with heat pads that add to the overall warmth of the room. By using high-pressure sodium bulbs rather than LEDs and CFLs, you should be able to keep a small to medium grow at ideal heat so you can produce cannabis all year long, despite the cold.

Know How Humidity Helps

Marijuana needs both the proper temperature and humidity to grow. For cannabis, a humidity level of 60 percent is ideal. This high percentage can be hard to maintain during the winter months when the humidity tends to drop, usually because of indoor heaters drying the air. If more moisture needs to be added, consider buying any standard humidifier to do the job automatically or take a manual approach and dampen the leaves with a spray bottle regularly.

Find The Ideal Seeds

When purchasing seeds, make sure you have a good understanding of what you're buying, especially if you plan on doing your growing during the winter months. Most seed banks will sell seeds designed for cold weather; they're the toughest and take the shortest amount of time to flower. Depending on where you live, these strains will vary, but any local seed seller should have knowledge about what grows best and when.

Growing cannabis is a passion that shouldn't be limited to the summer season. It is, of course, a challenge to battle Mother Nature but it's not impossible to grow cannabis during the winter months. Visit your local hydroponic store to discuss the best growing options in your area and ensure you've done ample research before investing money in your grow. Inexperience is usually a bigger killer than the winter's chill.

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