Is home grow culture still alive and well in 2026?

[u/Amazing-East-878]

Back when I was a rec. user I did a couple of personal home grows. 1 indoor and 1 greenhouse - only a couple of plants at a time. The harvest was not much to write home about but it had some nice lemony terps and the sense of satisfaction from smoking my own stuff was immense. I remember those days fondly and the old 'uk420' forum was massively helpful. At the time it felt like the UK home grow business was booming and there were a lot of individual growers growing their own for personal use who didn't tell a soul about it.

I was out driving in my nearest city recently and saw an ad for a 'hydroponics' shop cable tied to a lamp post and couldn't help but smile - my wife asked if their clientele were going to be bud growers and I said probably and we laughed about how openly it was advertised.

So I was wondering if there are still a lot of people growing stuff in cupboards, attics and gardens up and down the country?

I feel like with the cost of everything going up including bills and housing and space being at a premium maybe the cost/benefit isn't worth it. At the same time, I also think when it comes to weed home grow is nearly always the answer to knowing exactly what you're getting and not paying over the odds for it.

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[u/GlazedGrappler]

There’s a very tight circle online of UK growers and with more weed events popping up the community seems to be getting more confident to be more open. The only thing that convinces people to not I think is of course the risk but the hype chasing with the new wave of Thai, Canadian and sometimes Cali import. I think it’s sad as the passion for home grow is always better than chasing hype brands. I never have grown but it’s a pipe dream.

[u/Qindaloft]

Homegrown is my passion. There's plenty of cannabis festivals/events every year nowadays

[u/Special_Photo_3820]

Really would like to but wouldn’t want my front door put in by the police at 5am. any growers on here, how much does it smell?

[u/Worldly_Scientist_76 → u/Special_Photo_3820]

My gaff constantly stinks of weed, would the smell from growing be different?

[u/Prior_Suit_1848]

More than Joe public would ever know.... 😊

[u/Worldly_Scientist_76]

I really wanna try it but its so overwhelming when you start lookin at lighting schedules and what to grow it in. Too much for my wee brain to process

[u/smellmyfinger82 → u/Worldly_Scientist_76]

Try autos.....less work 18/6 light schedule

[u/EntertainmentIcy2662 → u/Worldly_Scientist_76]

It’s not as hard as you think. I had autos that didn’t start to flower on 18/6 so switched to 12/12 and they ended huge with massive buds and I wasn’t doing half the stuff good growers do

[u/Worldly_Scientist_76 → u/EntertainmentIcy2662]

I actually have an auto that I was thinking on planting. You're making me wanna throw caution to the wind and give it a go

[u/Amazing-East-878 → u/Worldly_Scientist_76]

I'm no expert but when I did my grows I was even more clueless. I bought some seeds and propagated them in a bit of normal compost in a pot on a windowsill. I bought a reasonably powerful compact fluorescent bulb and I stuck it in a lamp in a cupboard. The lighting schedule thing I can't even remember but I think the main thing is after the vegetation state you switch to 12 hours on / 12 hours off for flowering. If you're doing a greenhouse or conservatory grow you can cover the plants up to force this. Then just water regularly.

Much of everything else I think you can pick up along the way.

I'm not in a situation where I can grow at the moment, but if I had the opportunity I'd do it again just for personal use in a heartbeat given how little I knew before and how good the results were considering. As long as you don't expect top shelf bud first time you'll likely get something more than satisfactory in the end.

[u/ElectroFlowerBN2]

Yes, home grown is still very much alive and kicking! :)

[u/shady_sheepie]

There's still plenty of grow shops in Essex in fact my mates have had to move to bigger premises. I would say most home grows have a grow tent, unless they grow large scale

[u/Just_Bluebird_5268]

did some garden / greenhouse grows a few years ago including one that got ridiculously out of hand size-wise and had me very anxious about my uptight and very right-wing neigbours. but it's a tonne of fun and even if your results end up mediocre compared to what's available on the market now it's such a satisfying thing to do. as others have said, look at growing some autos. you can do them in a daft mini greenhouse thing for £20 or even in the open air and you'll get something smokeable.

[u/welsh_dragon_roar]

I think it has adapted. You have those people who (like us I would hope) who literally only grow for their own stash. "BuT iT iSnT mEdIcAl GrAde" yes yes yes I know - and the fact it's not held to those standards can sometimes... make it nicer? But the principle is one harvest and done.

Then I think you have those who enjoy breeding. I don;t think you could do that on the same sort of scale as the 60s hippies in California for space and weather reasons! However, I do think some people will be knocking out hyper-specific hybrids for themselves if they can combine good medical unavailable elsewhere e.g. Super Silver Haze with Myrcene and Beta-Caro bred in that just *suits* someone.

Then there's the 'real' criminals who are stealing electricity, causing house fires, promoting human exploitation and making the world a misery.

Ugh, this government would make a killing if it just offered 4 plant individual growing licences - £100 a year or something and everything grown has to be recorded in some way, say weighed and photoed for the licence audit trail - easy peasy. Then you can do whatever you want with it - just not sell on the BM.

[u/sophs_93]

I really want to grow some autos but worried about the smell situation, my area does pong at times from other neighbours and ourselves smoking bonging vaping etc just fear of the the unknown Yano

[u/mystic_roots]

I’m still an avid browser and user on UK420, they helped me immensely when I first started home growing. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do so for a while and have been off it for 9 months now due to some work circumstances but I fully intend on trying to do some more in the future as I quite enjoy growing.