Disclaimer:
This post is about medical/recreational cannabis.
I recommend you don't use it.
It could be illegal in your country.
Be careful!
Artificial Light
When I first found out about cannabis (long time ago), it was already legal in the Netherlands.
For us, indoor, 'Hydro' from the Netherlands was the pinnacle of weed.
'Homegrow' meant it was bad. Outdoor was considered 'Hecke' ('hedge-' or 'ditchweed').
The Dutch are champions at high-density growing indoors. They produce vegetables and flowers on schedule in giant facilities, under heavily controlled environments.
This way, they can produce very uniform, stable, fresh produce and distribute this in tight chains all over Europe (even worldwide).
At the time, it was by far the best quality you could get.
Things have changed, gradually. And same as with salads and other things, people start to recognize, that there is more to fruit than just size and weight.
Anyways, artificial light comes with benefits:
Stealth
Indoor grows can be stealthy operations. Under prohibition this is often the only possible method. Even in the Netherlands growing large batches is still illegal (It's weird... feel free to comment, if you know more).Controlled day/night cycle
Huge benefit, as it allows you to induce flowering on schedule and at a time of your choosing. Allows you to ignore seasons.Controlled environment
Depending on how sophisticated you want to operate, you can control humidity, temperature, nutrient intake etc. precisely.
I could grow indoors and under lamps. If I wanted to maximize my harvest, this would be the best way to go about it, probably... but not necessarily.
The Sun
Free
Sunlight is a free ressource. There is no pollution associated with plants growing under the sun - quite the contrary, actually.Full Spectrum
Sunlight has a broad spectrum of light and invisible rays all over the range.
Lamps could never reproduce that.
While I could harvest the sunlight indoors (greenhouse), it's complicated turning the sun off or on on demand. In my particular situation, on my balcony, it's impossible.
Conclusion
Since the sun is absolutely free on my balcony, and harvesting some does not produce any pollution, and I don't have to be stealthy (I want to to some extent, but generally, it's not illegal anymore), I will use sunlight.
The sun is a bit unpredictable, and I can't really grow out of season, but growing plants under lamps, while the sun is shining outside, seems ridiculous to me.
As for yield, if I really wanted to push it, I could grow 3 large plants outdoors in the garden. Outdoors, right in the soil, cannabis can grow huge and easily exceed anything you could do indoors with 3 plants. Then, I could harvest some, and would have to 'destroy' the rest (That's what the law is still meant to enforce). So that would be a bit pointless, but kinda proves clearly, how lamps aren't generally superior.
... I could grow 3 monster plants and just harvest the hash, btw, but I am not sure, how the law would apply there and also that would be impractical in my situation for a few other reasons...
There are other schemes, where people combine lamps and the sun and for some purposes (season-extension and things) this might make sense, but generally not in my case.
Anyways, the whole myth that people used to say 'homegrown' was trash and outdoor impossible is just silly. Likewise, you don't need any special hemp fertilizer, but that's for another post.
With the new auto-strains and just general better practice, you can grow excellent quality outdoors even in Germany.
The challenges are different than indoors, but it's far from impossible...
...which I am determined to prove.
I think: the plant has developed to grow under the sun, which at the least means, that the sun can not be bad for it. Sure, this is not Southern California, but we get sunlight, too. It will be ok.