Once you have your ACMPR registration, you choose how to grow: indoors, outdoors, or a combination. Each method has real trade-offs in cost, control, yield, discretion, and even your plant count (the formula treats indoor and outdoor differently). There is no single best answer — it depends on your space, your climate, your privacy needs, and your authorized amount. This guide compares growing indoors, outdoors, and combined so you can pick the approach that fits your situation and keeps your grow manageable and compliant.
Key takeaways
- Indoor: year-round control + discretion, higher cost/electricity, more plants allowed per gram/day.
- Outdoor: cheap and high-yield, but seasonal, weather-dependent, less private, fewer plants allowed.
- Combined: split production across both, blended in the plant-count formula.
- Your climate and province matter — and Quebec/territories add their own considerations.
- Match the method to your space, privacy needs, and authorized amount.
What are the pros and cons of growing indoors?
Indoor growing gives you the most control: you set the light cycle, temperature, and humidity, so you can grow year-round regardless of the weather and produce consistent results. It is also the most discreet, which matters for privacy and security. The trade-offs are cost and effort — a tent, lights, fans, and the electricity to run them add up, and you manage the environment yourself. Notably, the ACMPR formula allows more plants indoors per gram per day, so the same authorized amount yields a higher indoor plant count. Indoor suits people who want reliability, privacy, and year-round supply and don't mind the setup and power costs.
What are the pros and cons of growing outdoors?
Outdoor growing is the cheapest method — sunlight is free, so you avoid most equipment and electricity costs, and plants can grow large with high yields. The downsides are that it is seasonal and weather-dependent (one harvest a year in most of Canada), less private since plants are harder to conceal, and subject to pests and climate. The ACMPR formula allows fewer outdoor plants per gram per day, because each is assumed to yield more. There is also a siting rule: an outdoor grow cannot be adjacent to a school, playground, daycare, or similar place used mainly by people under 18. Outdoor suits people with suitable private land, a workable climate, and a seasonal rhythm.
When does a combined grow make sense?
A combined grow splits production between indoor and outdoor, and the ACMPR formula blends the two into one authorization. It makes sense when you want to capture the best of both: grow outdoors in season to keep costs down and yields up, while running a smaller indoor setup for year-round consistency or to keep going through the off-season. It is also useful if your indoor space is limited but you have some outdoor capacity, or vice versa. The trade-off is that you manage two environments, which is more complexity. For many growers, combined is a practical middle path that balances cost, supply continuity, and plant count.
How does combining indoor and outdoor work in practice?
Combining the two methods is common, and it usually means using each where it is strongest across the year rather than running both at full scale at once. A typical pattern is to start plants indoors under controlled conditions — where seedlings are easy to protect and manage — then move them outdoors for the main growing season to take advantage of free, abundant sunlight and the larger yields it produces. Some growers reverse the idea, bringing plants indoors to finish when the outdoor season ends. The benefit is getting the outdoor season's low running cost and high yield while keeping the control and year-round capability of an indoor space. The thing to watch is your registration: your authorized amount and plant count still set the ceiling, and your production method affects the count, so plan the combination to stay clearly within what you are allowed.
What are the trade-offs of growing indoors?
Indoor growing trades higher running costs for control and consistency. The big advantage is that you set the conditions — light schedule, temperature, humidity — so you can grow year-round regardless of season or weather, harvest on your own timeline, and keep the grow private and secure inside a locked space. The trade-off is cost and effort: lighting and ventilation draw electricity (usually the largest ongoing expense), the equipment is an upfront investment, and you have to manage the environment actively, since problems like heat or mould are on you to prevent. Indoor plants also tend to be smaller and yield less per plant than a big outdoor plant, which is why the rules allow more plants indoors for the same authorized amount. For many medical growers the consistency and security are worth the cost, especially if a steady, year-round supply matters — but it is the more hands-on, higher-running-cost option of the two.
What are the trade-offs of growing outdoors?
Outdoor growing flips the equation: very low running cost and big plants, but far less control and a fixed season. Sunlight is free and abundant, so your electricity cost largely disappears and a single healthy outdoor plant can yield a great deal, which is why the rules require fewer plants outdoors for the same authorized amount. The trade-offs are real, though. You are at the mercy of your climate and a single growing season, so timing matters and a bad spell of weather, pests, or an early frost can hurt your harvest. Security and privacy are harder outdoors, since plants must be kept out of public view and reach — typically behind a fence on private property — and that is a genuine compliance consideration, not just a preference. Outdoor growing suits people with suitable private space and a climate that cooperates, who want maximum yield at minimum running cost and can plan around the season rather than growing on demand.
Do you have to grow at your registered address?
Yes — and this matters whether you grow indoors, outdoors, or both. Your registration authorizes production at a specific site, so your plants, including any outdoor ones, must be at that registered address; you cannot grow at a different property or a friend's place that is not on your registration. For a combined indoor/outdoor setup, both parts belong at the same registered site — for example an indoor space and a backyard at the home on file. If you move, you need to update your registered site before growing at the new location, rather than assuming the authorization travels automatically. Outdoor growing adds the extra requirement that the plants be kept out of public view and access at that site, which shapes where on the property you can realistically grow. Keeping production at your registered address, secured appropriately for each method, is a core part of staying compliant — the location is part of what you are authorized for, not an afterthought.
How does your province and climate affect the choice?
Climate is a big factor. Milder regions like coastal British Columbia and southern Ontario have longer outdoor seasons that favour outdoor or combined growing, while shorter, colder seasons in the north or Prairies push many growers indoors. Electricity rates vary by province too, which affects the cost of indoor growing — cheaper hydro (as in Quebec) makes indoor more affordable. Provincial and municipal rules, plus landlord or condo restrictions, can also shape what is practical where you live. Factor your climate, power costs, space, and local rules together: the right method is the one that fits your real conditions, not just the one with the highest plant count.