I haven't grown it, or if I have, I forgot about it, but I think I can answer your questions.

First, a weed is just a plant growing somewhere you don't want it. Usually weeds are prolific.

It will be easy to grow from seed, but the seed exterior is hard, so you might want to abrade it a bit with a nail file. You could also soak the seeds overnight to help speed up the germination.

If you can put it outside, I certainly would, even if it is in a pot. It loves sunlight.

I'd be interested to know if you turn up any books on the medicinal use of the marijuana plants. I've grown herbs for decades and use them for medicinal purposes. It is one of the most engaging, useful hobbies I've ever had.


Cher

someone tossed a roach in the garden in back. It grew into a 6' plant. It got mostly afternoon sun.

A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place". If you are growing it on purpose, it is by definition not a weed.

that's just practice and learning.

You can grow inside or outside. Inside you are trying to re-create the outdoors. You can grow in soil, or use hydroponics and circulate oxygen and nutrients. Light can come from compact florescent lights, and although the yield will be less than if using High Intensity lighting, that next step up can cost you $1000 pretty quick. But it can also increase your yield by quite a bit, so might be a good investment. If you have extra money, you can buy digital lights, although they are more costly and may not give the same output. But they are cheaper to run than HID lights.

Ballast - $200
Bulb - $120
Fixture - $100
Tent - $200
Exhaust Fan - $250
Exhaust Filter $100
Ducting...
Soils, Fertilizers from $100 per 8-10 week grow to hundreds, depending on what you want to spend money on. You can make your own as well, run a bucket with an aerator, perhaps growing plants like Comfrey or Stinging nettle which can be used as fertilizer, or adding earthworm poop, alfalfa and kelp meal, other things to the water so it grows beneficial organisms with which you water.

You don't need all of that, but you might. The plants can get very stinky for a few weeks when growing and it is nice to be able to duct it outside rather than bathe your house and clothes in the smell.

Indoor plants are subject to problems such as spider mites and powdery mildew, problems that are usually successfully addressed early in a preventative program, using things like Rosemary, Neem Oil, and high PH water.

The plants grow for about 8 to 12 weeks, in two stages, vegetative and then flowering. During the first or "veg" stage it is developing roots and flower sites, and this can be as short as a week or two or as long as months, depending on the result you want. The lights stay on most of the day at this stage, some keep them on 24 hours. When you are ready you move them into flower - that is, you change the light from 24 on to 12 on and 21 off. This tells the plant the season is progressing and it begins to mature.

You asked about keeping them going. Just before you put them into flower you will take a couple of cuttings and put them in your do it yourself cloning bucket. They will develop roots and turn into the same plant, with the same sex, as the one you are flowering.

Sex. I guess it's time for that talk. There are male and female plants. You want female, because they have more of what you really want. You will be watching your plants in the vegetative state, and when you see a finally identify a male plant, you will kill it. They will fertilize every plant in your place faster than you can know and soon you will have thousands and thousands of seeds, and little flower.

The flowering stage will last for 8 to 12 weeks, depending on the strain. You will need something that magnifies to about 60x (they sell cheap pocket scopes for about $3 on ebay) so you can see the plant and look for the signs, also to check for bugs.

At harvest you will need to decide how to properly dry and cure, a subject unto its own, but certainly learnable. Read up, you can turn your crop into hay if you let it stay too moist, or get harsh if let dry too quickly.

The plants put out THCA and CBD's. The THCA is converted to THC, and that is what gets people intoxicated. The other compounds are generally more sought after by some medical patients, although many people use it for anxiety and to combat depression, and for them the TCH is more important. The cure you do can influence these.

It wouldn't hurt you to develop a little relationship with a shop in town. You may intend to ship everything in, until you actually see what those shipping charges are going to be.

That help?

I couldn't ask for a better quick introduction to growing cannabis.

I live in Colorado. Don't grow marijuana but I do know that state law decrees it has be grown "in an enclosed space." So if you're planning to grow it outside, that means you'll need some kind of lockable cage for it. Basically, I think they don't want the neighborhood kids hopping your fence and stealing your buds.

There's no difference between medical plants and regular weed. If you're interested in it for medicinal purposes but don't want to get high, consider going to the shops and buying some CBD edibles or tinctures. You could also try getting seeds for these CBD strains: http://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/whats-the-deal-with-these-high-cbd-strains

Really, if you're interested for medical purposes, I'd strongly suggest buying over growing. The people in the shops are very knowledgeable and can help you figure out what weed will best suit your needs. Plus, the dosages will be more consistent than plucking a random bud and smoking it.

Now I will try to buy some seeds, just for fun.

I've never grown or consumed them because it's illegal in Maryland but have started doing a little research on medicinal uses (I have Lupus, and would love to get off some of my current meds!). For autoimmune-related symptoms, look for strains with a higher CBD level. That does not necessarily mean low THC. Both, together, are therapeutic. For chemo and pain, and depression, higher THC would help. Consult a reputable medical marijuana web page before making your purchase.

Good luck!

And if you can get hold of some seeds and let your first crop self-pollinate, you'll never have to buy any again. You can grow inside or outside, but it's easier to control the light requirements inside.

You can also do the clone thing, as someone mentioned above, if you want uniformity, but I'm always kind of curious how my original hybridized seeds (a white widow/northern lights cross) will mutate. I've been growing for years (it's been decriminalized here since 1975) from an original set of 10 seeds I got from Mark Emery out of BC, just using shop lights and not all the other fancy gadgets, and although my buds aren't huge, they work. I guess I've got genetically modified pot, but it still does the trick. I haven't spliced the genes with eels or anything. LOL.