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You are here: Home / Cannabis Cultivation

Can I Grow Weed On My Windowsill? (Only If You Do This )

Last updated December 8, 2022 By Steven 16 Comments

Marijuana plant growing on a windowsillYes, you can grow weed on your windowsill.

But you may not want to.

It’s probably the simplest way to start growing marijuana. But it won’t get you the best results.

You may get a couple of decent buds, but you’ll get nowhere near the yields you could get under better growing circumstances.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether the ease and simplicity is worth the diminished yield.

This article will help with that.

I’ll give you all the pros and cons and help you figure out if you should be growing on your windowsill or if you’re better off doing it elsewhere.

And if you do decide to grow in your window, I’ll explain exactly what you’ll need and how to do it, in order to get the best possible results.

Contents

  • 1 Growing Marijuana On A Windowsill: Is It A Good Idea?
    • 1.1 Pros
      • 1.1.1 Natural Light
      • 1.1.2 Save Space
    • 1.2 Cons
      • 1.2.1 Security
      • 1.2.2 Limited Space
      • 1.2.3 Lighting
  • 2 How To Grow Weed On Your Windowsill
    • 2.1 What You Need
      • 2.1.1 Autoflower Seeds
      • 2.1.2 Deep Pot
      • 2.1.3 Soil With Nutrients
  • 3 Can I Grow Weed On My Windowsill: Final Thoughts

 

Growing Marijuana On A Windowsill: Is It A Good Idea?

For most people, it is probably not a good move. Here’s why.

If you are growing on a windowsill, you’re probably going to want to keep your grow as simple as possible. That means you’ll likely be growing bagseed, or whatever seeds or clone you can get your hands on.

Most likely, your plant will turn out to be a regular strain and not an autoflower strain.

Why does that matter?

Autoflowers switch from vegging to bloom automatically after a certain number of days. They do not rely on the light cycle to tell them when to switch.

Regular (i.e. non-autoflower) plants, on the other hand, will not switch to flowering until autumn, when the days become shorter.

You’ll either have to grow at that time of year, or you’ll have to reduce the daylight hours artificially to induce flowering. That means removing the plant from the windowsill and putting it somewhere dark.

Unless you are growing at exactly the right time of year, you’ll definitely want to grow an autoflower. And unless you know a grower who can provide you with an autoflower clone, that means you’ll have to buy seeds.

Since seeds are pricey (though the top online seed banks usually have some kind of sale going on), it doesn’t make sense to spend good money on seeds, then grow them on a windowsill, where your results will be far from ideal.

The truth is: weed is very easy to grow and you really don’t need to do anything special at all to get your plant to grow. With a little bit of care it will even give you a few small buds.

But if you want serious yields, you need to provide ideal, or close to ideal, growing conditions.

This means a larger pot than will fit on a windowsill, more light than you’ll get in a window and the ideal temperature and humidity, which you can’t really control on a windowsill.

If you’re going to spend the money on seeds and have them sent in the mail, I’d go ahead and spend a bit more to and get the bare minimum to ensure those seeds give you yields that make the cost and effort worthwhile.

This article will help you get that set up.

And if you’re not going to spend money on seeds and you don’t have that friend who can hook you up with autoflowers, you’ll likely end up with a regular plant that won’t flower unless it’s the right time of the year.

Am I saying no one should grow on a windowsill?

No. But I am saying it’s probably not a good idea for most people. Either way, let’s look at the main advantages and disadvantages of growing weed on a windowsill.

 

Pros

The advantages are basically just the simplicity of it. Your grow takes up as little space as possible and requires as little equipment as possible (i.e. no grow lights).

Time is also an advantage. How long does it take to grow weed? It depends on a lot of factors, but on a windowsill you can’t let the plant get too large, so that means much less time in vegging, which speeds up the entire grow.

 

Natural Light

Growing on the windowsill exposes your plant to natural light. Assuming the window gets plenty of light throughout the day, this means you do not need to buy grow lights. This saves you money on the lights and also saves having to find a way to hang them above your plant.

 

Save Space

If you have a small apartment with no balcony, you may not have space for a cannabis plant. And even if you do have some closet space, that would mean having to buy grow lights, to make up for the lack of natural light. A windowsill is space that is generally unused, so putting a plant there is easy and it won’t get in your way.

 

Cons

As mentioned above, there are a number of cons, mainly the fact that your plant will not be able to grow to its full potential, and that it will only begin flowering at the right time of the year, if it is growing in natural daylight (unless it is an autoflower). Add to that the issue of security.

 

Security

If a plant is growing on your windowsill where light from outside can get to it, there is a high chance that eyeballs from outside can get to it as well.

This reason alone would keep me from growing cannabis on my window sill, unless I was living in an area where it is legal, or I had a window that was not visible to other people from outside. The latter is very rare: even if you are in a rural area and no one ever passes by your window, they still could.

Perhaps the police are investigating something unrelated, or the power company has to work outside the window one day. You never know.

If the plant is visible from the outside at all, even if no people ever go there, I would think long and hard about growing in that location.

 

Limited Space

Space in front of any window is limited. This means you won’t be able to fit a large pot and your plant will never grow very large. Harvests will be limited to a few smaller buds at most.

 

Lighting

A windowsill location exposes your plant to natural light, but in many cases, this is not enough light to effectively flower a cannabis plant. You may have to supplement the natural light with some grow bulbs to get a harvest of any kind.

To get a good harvest, you will definitely need additional lighting.

In addition, if you use natural light only, your plant will adhere to a natural life cycle. That means it will only switch from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage in autumn, once the days are shorter.

As mentioned before, you can avoid this issue by growing an autoflower plant, which will switch to flowering after a specific time, regardless of lighting.

 

How To Grow Weed On Your Windowsill

So you’ve decided to go ahead and grow cannabis on the windowsill. Here’s what you will need at an absolute minimum, plus a few things to be aware of.

 

What You Need

These are the things I would get for my grow, at an absolute minimum. Obviously, you may disagree with me about the necessity of buying seeds. If you do not get seeds, just know that you’ll either have to control the lighting schedule in some way, or only harvest in the autumn.

 

Autoflower Seeds

As mentioned above, unless you are growing at the right time of year so that your plant will switch to flowering naturally in a timely fashion, you’re going to want to grow an autoflower strain.

You can find our recommendations for the best autoflower seed banks in this article.

The other option is to exercise some control over the lighting, but that will likely mean removing the plant from the windowsill, in which case yours is no longer a windowsill grow.

 

Deep Pot

Your marijuana plant will grow much smaller on a windowsill, because there is no way to fit the size of pot you would need to give the roots enough space. That said, you can increase the space somewhat by getting a deep pot.

A deep pot (i.e. a tall pot) gives the roots a bit of extra room to grow, without making the pot too large to fit on the windowsill. But it still won’t be anywhere near enough space for the roots of the plant to really grow.

 

Soil With Nutrients

Your cannabis plant needs food and you can either provide it using nutrient solutions or by growing your plant in a nutrient rich soil. The soil is less work, so I recommend that for a windowsill grow.

 

Can I Grow Weed On My Windowsill: Final Thoughts

That’s all you really need to get started growing weed on a windowsill. You may want to add a few fluorescent light bulbs (cheap regular ones are fine and this post will show you what to look for to make sure they will work) or small LEDs to supplement the natural light, especially during flowering.

The additional bulbs will help boost yields, so they are generally worth the small expense.

Another possible issue to be aware of is water evaporation. Many windowsills sit above radiators, meaning water in the soil will evaporate more quickly. Getting a pot with a water reservoir can help insure that your weed plant always has access to quality water.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section below. I read all comments and answer any that ask a question or provide useful information.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. gadina says

    March 9, 2020 at 01:12

    can i grow under a window film

    Reply
    • Steven says

      March 9, 2020 at 01:30

      It would depend what the film filters out.

      Reply
  2. Jazmin says

    May 9, 2020 at 19:30

    I was gifted a little plant, I believe it’s Godzilla glue. I would plant it outside but where I live is above 100 degrees in the summer so I’m planning to keep it inside next to a glass door. The door is south facing so I only get direct sun from 1-6. Will this be enough to get some kind of bud on it? I don’t want to invest a lot into it because I wasn’t even planning on growing myself but would like to get something out of it since it’s a cool experience.

    Reply
    • Steven says

      May 10, 2020 at 01:11

      Probably not, but give it a try. You could always just get a couple of warm white CFLs (2700K or 3000K) to add some light.

      Reply
    • Autumn Owens says

      June 9, 2020 at 11:05

      U mean gorilla glue?

      Reply
    • Greenlight918 says

      June 10, 2020 at 05:02

      I’d put in 3-5 gal grow bag(depending on size you want the plant to be).,and bring it back and forth from outside. Let it get good morning light outside and bring it in or in the shade during the scorching time. Just a thought.

      Reply

      Reply
  3. Weedhead says

    May 19, 2020 at 07:47

    I’m 4 weeks in growing white widow in 11l smart pots on a south facing window sill. How long before I start to get buds and will I need extra light, they get light from around 9am to around 6pm

    Reply
    • Steven says

      May 20, 2020 at 01:50

      You’ll probably need extra light to see buds, and definitely to grow good sized ones.

      Reply
      • Weedhead says

        May 20, 2020 at 05:13

        So I’d be better off just moving the plant outside? (WW auto btw)

        Reply
  4. Zeus says

    June 19, 2020 at 17:57

    What is the smallest size grow tent that can be used to flower one or two small plants ?

    What wattage led to accompany said tent ?

    Reply
    • Steven says

      June 20, 2020 at 01:07

      It depends on how big you want the plants, but you can use a 2.25″ by 2.25″ inch tent (70 cm x 70 cm) with a 100 – 150w (actual wattage LED). The easiest is to just buy a kit like this one: https://www.spider-farmer.com/collections/grow-kits-system/products/sf1000-led-grow-light-full-spectrum-70x70cm-grow-tent-kits-carbon-filter-indoor?ref=growlightinfo

      Reply
      • Honeytoast says

        March 9, 2021 at 15:09

        Would this be decent enough got a small sea of green setup? I’m imaging 9 red cup Bruce banner grown small for less finish work

        Reply
  5. Omar s says

    June 24, 2020 at 17:49

    Iam growing weed in my window I would to put some electric light as a support to sun light could you tell me when and how schedule to use it

    Reply
  6. Michael says

    August 10, 2020 at 15:13

    Grew a few outside for first time
    I’m hooked can’t spend $300 now on tent lights etc
    I think I have a shot to grow in window
    It faces South also it faces woods whew
    Suggestion for a light to help and suggestion name of soil
    I think I could build a shelf to window to use 5 gall pot
    Any suggestions would be appreciated

    Reply
  7. Jason says

    December 19, 2021 at 06:33

    Could I grow during a canadian winter?

    Reply
  8. Redeye says

    August 12, 2022 at 23:57

    I have a plant in my window how many times to water it? Its just a baby

    Reply

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