
“Data has made a lot of good decisions for us,” said Rogers. “It’s about the little things that add up to the big things.”
In addition to nature, Plena is also embracing Big Data—weather stations gather endless information; crops are analyzed and compared. Combined, the data will inform when different varietals should be planted in order to thrive.
Still, much of that thriving does depend on nature. Outdoor stressors such as solar radiation can prompt production of cannabinoids, allowing for smaller plants with higher levels, Zwicky said.
Growing weed outdoors
Like Rosenthal, Rogers espouses goal-oriented farming. “Don’t just grow cannabis, grow cannabis for a specific reason.”
Controlled lighting in the greenhouses prevents flowering, keeping the plants in the vegetative phase longer so that they gain mass, Zwicky said. But most importantly for Plena, greenhouse cultivation allows for consistency across the plants and ensures there is a crop ready to plant once a field has been turned over.
Indoor growing
Organigram spent CA$250 million constructing its facility, Rogers said. It contains over a hundred grow rooms, each of which can be tailored to the specific climate needs of a varietal.
The fight over whether indoor farming is better than outdoor has raged for decades. It is normally framed as outdoor idealists against indoor advocates. There are obvious benefits to both grow methods—free light and cheap land versus control and consistency—and greenhouses offer some of both. But now, the debate has moved into the new zone of commercial farming.

Robert Masterson, a cultivator at A Golden State , told us that standardized methodology is their motivation for growing indoors. “Cannabis grown indoors can be given the perfect amount of light per square foot and unique spectrums of different lighting sources to maximize terpenes and potency,” he said. “Not all indoor cultivators can completely control their environment, but when done correctly they can achieve the highest genetic potential of specific cultivars.“
Cultivating indoors provided secrecy. until police eventually figured out ways to track down those operations too . While indoor growing may have changed the game in terms of keeping the black market supplied with product, it also changed how we use the cannabis plant, standardizing the growth of high-potency plants (which is why you’ll often hear that today’s weed is so much strong than the stuff Boomers smoked in the ‘60s— it probably is ).
Wyze Cam Spotlight
While myths about “today’s” THC contents being higher than ever have been circulating since the mid-2010’s, that push has been consumer-driven, not tech-driven. In 2015 The Atlantic reported the “shift toward high potency has arguably more to do with contemporary market forces than with a younger generation of marijuana enthusiasts.”
Wine, weed, and hospitality expert Rachel Burkons is among those pushing publicly for cannabis appellations. Burkons runs an Instagram account @smokesipsavor that puts the pleasures of California’s earth on full display , and makes recommendations for how to pair regional products, including cannabis.
Why is this even an issue?
That’s why Raeven Duckett Robinson , Co-founder of Community Gardens in Oakland, California is on #teamoutdoor. “It’s like [the] Twizzler versus Red Vine debate. I support outdoor because it’s more affordable—and weed should be grown outdoors anyways; indoor gets over-hyped and it’s bad for the environment.”

If you are still wondering which is the best place to grow, inside or outside, consider sampling both cannabis that is grown both outdoors and weed that is grown indoors to see what you prefer. There are many sites that allow you to buy weed online. Most of these stores sell cannabis grown in different locations. If you like a certain strain, you should be able to find the seeds for sale easily in a grow store or on the internet.
A lot of folks have found themselves with time on their side due to the ongoing pandemic, so to do something constructive, many have learned how to cultivate cannabis at home.
If you live in a warm climate and you decide to grow a Sativa plant, keep in mind that these plants can grow extremely tall. If you don’t want everyone in the neighborhood finding out that you are growing weed at home, perhaps consider growing indoors instead.
Without doubt, growing cannabis outdoors is far better for the environment than growing indoors. Growing outdoors you need very little to no electricity whatsoever, so it is much less carbon footprint than indoor growing. Some indoor strains use 12 to 18 hours of electricity each day. Things like fans might have to be kept on 24 hours a day. If you are concerned about the environment, outdoor growing is a much better option.
Is growing outdoor better for the environment in comparison to indoor growing?
If you want to grow weed to produce dense, attractive looking buds, growing inside your home is probably your best option. At the end of the day, any weed that is grown well will get you high.
More often than not, outdoor plants produce far more smokable buds in comparison to indoor plants. At the same time, some Indica plants take a much shorter time to flower compared to Sativa plants, so you might produce a lot more cannabis throughout the year if you are growing indoors.
It is difficult to say which method produces better cannabis because it is a matter of personal preference. Both methods can get you really stoned, but in a slightly different way.
Outdoor: Is the climate in your current location suitable for growing weed outdoors?
Before you start growing outdoors, consider speaking to others in the area who have grown cannabis in your area. If they have successfully grown weed, perhaps asking them what type of seeds they used, what type of fertilizer worked best and how many weeks it took to flower will give you a good indication of what to expect.
Over recent years, it seems growing cannabis plants has become more popular than ever before. With weed stores like this cannabis dispensary in Calgary NW and authorized grow stores both online and land-based supplying customers with top quality seeds, it’s no wonder the process is growing in popularity.