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Weed can be grown in many different ways. You might know about normal growing methods, hydroponic growing methods, as well as marijuana plant training.
These are all different ways to grow your weed. Now, one relatively new and revolutionary way to grow your weed is upside down.
While growing weed upside down (or Topsy Turvy) is possible, it does have a number of downsides to it. The vast majority of sources agree that it’s not worth all the effort or risk. Growing weed the traditional way is a lot easier, and generally yields better results, with fewer drawbacks.
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Can You Grow Weed Upside Down?
Yes, technically speaking, you can grow weed upside down. Now, of course, plants are generally designed to grow upwards towards the sun.
Therefore, growing your weed upside down can pose a number of challenges, with lighting being one of the biggest issues of all. However, there are also benefits to growing weed upside down, mainly that you can save a lot of space.
Upside down plants are also less susceptible to pest infestations, it’s harder to overwater them, and you generally have to engage in less maintenance too.
Let’s move on and take a look at exactly how this process of growing marijuana upside down works.
What You Need to Grow Weed Upside Down
Right now, we’re going to take you through a short step-by-step tutorial on exactly what you need to grow weed upside down and how to do it.
As you are about to see, it’s really not that difficult, although it does need to be done right.
Setting Up the Grow
The first thing that you will need is a fairly sturdy pot or container that comes complete with hanging wires in the mouth.
You are now going to take that pot and place it upside down. You then want to use something like Coco fiber or your desired soil and put it in the lower end, or into the mouth of the pot.
Now, on a side note, wherever you hang those pots up, it needs to be secure. You certainly can’t screw them into something like simple drywall. You need actual wooden studs, or something similar, for a secure hold.
Remember that if your plants come crashing down, even from just a few feet in the air, they will most likely die. Once you have inserted this layer of fiber, you can then go to the top of the pot, or in other words the sitting end, and put in your potting soil.
Make sure that you fill the pot all the way up to the top with the potting soil. You can now plant your sibling or start your plant.
At this point, you’re not yet going to turn it upside down, and you’re going to take care of it as you normally would come, complete with water, fertilizer, and more.
You need to allow it to stand upright for at least two or three weeks, until the root system develops. You need that root system to be fully developed before you turn the pot upside down.
Once the root system has fully developed and is quite solid, you can then invert the pot and hang it upside down by its wires.
Watering the Upside Down Weed Plant
One of the major issues here is of course watering. Having an upside down plant makes watering a little bit harder.
The best thing that you can do here is to use something like a slow dripping irrigation system.
That said, you can always use a stepping stool or a small ladder to get up to the top and water your plants as normal.
For this, it’s a good idea to use rubber hydroponic plugs or some kind of soil mix that holds a lot of water.
Because your plants are upside down and suspended in the air, they will most likely drip a good deal of water onto the ground below.
Lighting Needs
In terms of your lighting needs, you won’t need to change all that much. The fact of the matter is that even though your plants are upside down, they will still want to grow upwards toward the light.
For this reason, you can keep your lights situated at the top of the grow room, and you really don’t have to put lights on the floor.
That being said, moving your reflectors around to direct the most light possible towards your plant is recommended. That said, if you really want to, you can also put lights on the ground.
Simply put, do everything you need to meet the lighting needs of your weed plants.
Pros & Cons of Upside Down Growing
Now that you know that it is possible to grow marijuana upside down, and exactly how to do it, it is worth taking a look at both the advantages and disadvantages that this type of growing method comes with.
Pros
let’s first take a look at the many different benefits that come with growing your marijuana upside down.
Saving Space
Theoretically, growing your weed upside down will help you save a lot of space. Technically speaking, you can have plants hanging from the ceiling, and plants on the ground.
This should effectively allow you to double your overall growing space, or in other words, you can have two plants for every one that you would usually have.
Enhanced Pest Control
One issue that growing plants normally comes with is pest control. When your leaves and plant matter touch the soil, it is much more likely for fungi and other pests to transfer from the soil to the plants.
When your plants hang upside down, they don’t touch the soil much, or at all. This makes it much less likely for fungi and various pests to invest your plants.
Enhanced Mold Control
Another issue here is mold. When you grow weed, plants that are grown on the ground don’t always have the best air circulation.
This increases the chances that mold and mildew may occur. However, with your plants hanging upside down, it’s much harder to overwater them, and they also get better air circulation.
The result is that there is a far lower chance of mold and mildew occurring.
Reliable Watering
When plants are grown on the ground, it is very easy to overwater them. However, when plants are grown upside down, it is virtually impossible to overwater them. All excess water will automatically drip down and run out of the pots.
Convenience and Maintenance
The other thing to keep in mind here is that it’s much easier to stand up and take care of your upside down weed plants, than it is to bend over and take care of plants on the ground.
There is also the fact that you won’t really have to engage in any staking down plants, tilling, or weeding.
Cons
Now that you know what all of the benefits of growing your weed plants upside down are, let’s take a closer look at all of the possible disadvantages that come with this growing method.
Stress
Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to growing weed plants upside down is that you can cause them great stress.
Weed plants, just like all other plants, are designed to grow upright, not upside down. This can then cause a whole lot of stress, and this can lead to a weekend plant.
The high amount of stress that this growing method causes can also result in weak stems or even totally broken stems.
Potency Issues
As mentioned above, weed plants that are grown upside down may be subjected to increased amounts of stress.
Weed plants that are very stressed out are likely to have stunted growth, less terpenes, and less THC and CBD as well.
In other words, your weed, if grown upside down, it may be less flavorful and potent. The yields may also be smaller.
Lighting Issues
Another big issue that you will be faced with when growing weed upside down is a lack of lighting.
If your plants are grown upside down, for one, they automatically face away from the light. You will have all of that soil and the container between the plant and the lights.
Due to both the position of the plants as well as the container being in the way, your weed plants may very well get less light.
Not getting enough light does of course in itself lead to many different problems. Therefore, you have to be very careful with how you position your plans, your lights comment and your light reflectors.
Heat Issues
The other thing to think about here is that if you hang your plants upside down, they will be much closer to your grow lights.
Grow lights create a lot of heat, and this means that your plants, especially the soil, might get too hot.
If your plants get too hot, they will suffer from heat stress, and this in itself can lead to slower and stunted growth, deformed plants, lower potency and flavor, and a reduced yield.
Is It Best To Stick To The Traditional Way Of Growing?
The vast majority of sources out there will say that growing weed upside down is not worth the effort or the risk.
Generally speaking, the fact of the matter is that it takes much more work to grow weed upside down, and if you don’t do it right, you won’t even reap any of the benefits of doing so.
That being said, if you want to effectively double your grow space, and have better mold and pest control, then it is a method worth trying.
You just need to keep in mind that you definitely need to use the right kind of hangers for security, you need to position your lights properly to avoid lighting issues and heat stress, and you also need to have a decent irrigation system in place as well.
If you do this properly, you can very well mitigate all of the drawbacks or disadvantages of growing weed upside down, but doing so does take effort.
Related;
The bottom line here is that it is very possible to grow your weed upside down. It does come with some advantages that might be worth the effort, although there are also many disadvantages that you will see, especially if you don’t do it right.
Therefore, especially for beginners, it is recommended that you just grow with the traditional way of growing weed right side up.
