
Knowing the difference between an indoor grow and an outdoor grow can allow you to make an informed decision on how you would like to cultivate cannabis.
And, if you've not done so yet, you should check out our step-by-step guide for growing weed at home.
With the constitutional court ruling last year declaring that growing cannabis at home fell under the right to privacy, we've started to see a change in tides for cannabis culture in South Africa.
Nowhere has it been more evident than the competition Stark Ayres is running to see who can grow the biggest dagga plant.
But where is best to grow weed indoors or outdoors?
We'll take a look at how exactly indoor growing differs from outdoor growing, the pros and cons, and which one will work best for your intentions and available means.
Growing weed: Differences between indoor and outdoor growing
Outdoor growing is the most natural way to grow, you utilize the sun's light and in most cases will plant directly into the soil.
Growing cannabis outdoors is typically more difficult than growing it indoors, as you will in most cases have to deal with pests and weather conditions which may hamper your growing efforts.
Indoor grows are more controlled and allow for a better environment for growing, with the ability to control things like temperatures and humidity. High humidity can lead to bud rot and powdery mildew forming on the plant, while temperatures that are too cold can stunt the plant growth or in some cases even kill it.
Happy indoor weed plants. Photo: TSA.com Indoor sounds great right? Well it is, but there are some areas of indoor growing that make it quite a challenge. Firstly, indoor growing is by no means cheap.
A sufficient lighting setup for a 4 4 foot grow tent can cost in excess of R5000, with high-end options running more than R10 000 for the same area. There is also the cost of electricity to run these high powered lights, and even in cases where highly efficient lighting is used, you're still likely to see a big rise in your electricity bill. Add to that the cost of air conditioning and dehumidifiers and you'll realize that a moderate scale indoor setup can set you back as much as R30 000.
Outdoor grows are a challenge, but when done right can be extremely rewarding.
The sun is by far the best light for growing, it offers a full spectrum which helps cannabis thrive. Indoor grow lights do their best job to mirror the natural light one receives outside.
One area where indoor growing takes a massive lead over outdoor though, is in the ability to grow multiple harvests a year indoors, as opposed to a single annual harvest outdoors.
Cannabis requires 12 hours of darkness a day in order to flower, in nature this occurs with the changing of summer into autumn, meaning you get one flowering season a year.
With indoor grows, you can control the light and choose to flower your plants when you want to. Because of this, it's common for indoor growers to have several harvests a year, as many as 4 when growing fast flowering or auto flowering strains.
To make things simple, let's compare the most prominent pros and cons for both indoor and outdoor grows.
Pros of growing weed indoors
Full environmental control
Little to no pest problems
Ability to trigger flowering
High THC percentages due to environmental control
Can grow throughout the year
Cons of growing weed indoors
Expensive setup and running costs
Pros of growing weed outdoors
Excellent light quality
Extremely cheap to start
Plants can get larger and give more yield
Easier to allocate space to grow
Cons of growing weed outdoors
Pests
More likelihood of mildew or bud
Only one harvest a year
Quality of weed grown indoors vs outdoors
South Africa is unique in the way we discuss our cannabis, indoor is almost always tied to high grade bud while we use the term outdoor' to refer to the cheaper lower quality bud, the kind you usually find sold by car guards.
However, the truth is that a good outdoor grow can rival that of an indoor grow and in some cases even surpass it. In America, there are large dispensaries which sell predominantly outdoor grown bud, but because the flower was grown well it compares with indoor.
Large colas of cannabis present in an indoors grow setup. Photo: TSA Locally however, outdoor has been given a bad name because of the way that large scale outdoor grows are done. Large scale outdoor growers in Swaziland and Lesotho for instance have historically put their flower through some sketchy drying and curing practices.
In addition, the buds are usually then shoved into black bags and compressed. The process of bricking weed is one that makes it easier to transport, but also decreases the quality dramatically. This is why low grade weed, that most refer to as outdoor will typically have very little trichomes on it.
If you were to compare a nug from one of these growers to that of an outdoor grower, perhaps growing under shade cloth and who dries and cures their bud correctly, you will see a large variation in the quality. It is certainly possible to get your outdoor to look as good as some indoor does.
With that said, it's certainly easier to acquire high quality bud from an indoor grow. In most cases, given that you have the right equipment, you should be able to achieve good quality bud. Because of this, many outdoor growers consider indoor growing too easy and prefer the challenges of the outdoor grows, utilizing natural farming methods and specialist pest control in order to create high quality natural buds.
An example of well grown outdoor cannabis, in this case a Jack Herer autoflower. Photo: TSA.com In the end, it's not so much about either one being better than the other, they both have the opportunity to provide you with high quality flower. However, for newer grow
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
02/07/2025
Hege Wik and Odin appear in FOLKTALES by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institut...
02/07/2025
(Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Patty Consolazio
This one's for any person who's ever felt put down, left out, marginaliz...
02/07/2025
Calrec expands ecosystem at NAB 2025 giving broadcasters access to dynamic workflows and ultimate flexibility Helping broadcasters meet the shifting needs of me...
02/07/2025
NEW YORK Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump, ending a long-running legal saga that could clear the way...
02/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved the transfer of licenses for five TV stations from Sinclair to Rincon Broadcasting, which announce...
02/07/2025
As the media industry faces an uncertain business climate and rapidly changing consumer habits, TV Tech's most popular stories from the first six months of ...
02/07/2025
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. New data shows that U.S. homes now own an average of two smart TVs, with Samsung and LG dominating the market but Roku and FireTV continue to g...
02/07/2025
LOS ANGELES Funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management have acquired FilmRise, an independent digital streaming content distributor, and merged it with Shout! ...
02/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Advanced Television Systems Committee named Luiz Fausto vice president of standards development, succeeding ATSC vice president Jerry Whitaker, w...
02/07/2025
Boston Conservatory and the Sphinx Organization Join Forces to Make Classical Ed...
02/07/2025
02 Jul 2025
VEON Raises USD 200 Million in Private Bond Placement Dubai, July 1, 2025: VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital operator ( VEON ), announces ...
02/07/2025
Brand new factual series follows mechanic and self-taught engineer Dom Chinea as he makes the move of his life to the far west of Cornwall
UKTV today announces...
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
02/07/2025
Rohde & Schwarz acquires ZES ZIMMER Electronic Systems GmbH and expands its T&M ...
02/07/2025
Wuppertal July 2, 2025
Riedel Communications Launches RefSuite Ecosystem for S...
02/07/2025
Andrew will serve as Chair of ABC alongside his role at NED, APL Media, where he supports the executive team with strategic insight and global expansion plans. ...
02/07/2025
Black Forest Labs, one of the world's leading AI research labs, just changed the game for image generation.
The lab's FLUX.1 image models have earned g...
01/07/2025
The launch of Code of Silence, coupled with the Britains Got Talent semi final, gave ITV its best Sunday night of 2025.
The first episode of the new crime dr...
01/07/2025
ITV and Mammoth Screen have announced the start of filming for Betrayal, a gripp...
01/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies has delivered its second Bombardier Global 6500 missionize...
01/07/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., July 1, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its second quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, Ju...
01/07/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations, renewing the licenses for Chesapeake...
01/07/2025
Dalet has released a new update to its Dalet Flex media workflow platform, introducing powerful new capabilities to its flagship platform....
01/07/2025
NEWARK, N.J. With the FIFA Club World Cup final rapidly approaching and the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup now less than a year away, interest in soccer in th...
01/07/2025
COW Job Listing: Laser Engraved Logo
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Laser engraved logo
July 1, 2025Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Cr...
01/07/2025
LeGrow.Studio Builds Broadcast Hub for ePro League
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
TEM Constellation HD and BlackmagicURSA Broadcast G2 drive liv...
01/07/2025
Beeble launches SwitchLight 2.0, bringing AI-powered relighting to any footage
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
New AI model delivers full-scene p...
01/07/2025
Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Created with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film camera...
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a consent decree with Sinclair to resolve a variety of in...
01/07/2025
DENVER Low-power television (LPTV) station owners looking to navigate the complexities of selling their assets in todays dynamic media environment are invited t...
01/07/2025
NASA announced today that live programming from its NASA+ channel will be available on Netflix starting sometime this summer....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has appointed Katie McAuliffe to serve as policy advisor in his office....
01/07/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Alphabet's GFiber, the broadband provider formerly known as Google Fiber, has announced that it recently worked with Nokia to demonstr...
01/07/2025
NEW YORK, N.Y. DoubleVerify (DV) has announced the launch of DV Authentic Attention for Social. The product will first launch with Snap, the owner of Snapchat....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations and agreed to renew the license for C...
01/07/2025
Compact new converter lets users capture live NDI and streaming sources into software over a USB interface
Video interface and IP workflow innovator Magewell ...
01/07/2025
Disguise, the award-winning tech company driving visuals for Broadway and West End hits including Redwood, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Disney's Fr...
01/07/2025
Vocal-processing plug-in joins NOIZ Hub series
Launched in 2024, KIT Plugins' NOIZ Hub series was created with the aim of providing a range of professio...
01/07/2025
New self-paced learning programme announced
Mastering.com have announced the availability of a new online course designed to cover the fundamentals of maste...
01/07/2025
Historic appointment ushers in unified leadership for WRAL-TV, New Media, and Digital Solutions
RALEIGH, N.C. - 6-27-25 - Capitol Broadcasting Company is prou...