With anticipation and impatience we are already waiting for the new outdoor season 2016. If or as soon as the climate is warm enough to grow tomatoes, you can also plant cannabis plants outside. In any case, there must be no more (night) frost. Spring is only a few weeks away and it is never too early to plan for the coming outdoor cannabis growing season. For many, this starts in March.
As an outdoor grower, the first thing to do is to pick an ideal growing space and decide whether you Guerilla Grow would like to grow in one's own garden or Terrace or a suitable growing space in a good location.
Finding the right place for an outdoor grow
Whether you decide to guerrilla grow or grow in your own garden, the grow area or soil should be prepared beforehand to achieve good results. Just sticking seeds in the ground and coming back after a few weeks or months will generally not lead to very good results.
Before outdoor growing, the area where the plants are to be grown must be completely cleared of weeds and undergrowth, and the soil should also be dug up, loosened, turned over and additionally treated. You will learn more about this later.
One of the most important points in outdoor growing is safety and discretion. It can also happen that plants are ripped. Some cannabis social clubs, for example, have already had experiences in this regard.
Therefore, it can be a good idea to hide cannabis plants camouflaged and inconspicuous in the middle or behind other plants in nature so that they cannot be seen.
Some are lucky enough to be able to grow through their own garden, secluded and safe from view. A small greenhouse is also suitable here. If you want to avoid the plants being seen through the transparent walls, they can be painted white. The white colour also distributes the incoming light more evenly in the greenhouse.
Whichever method you choose, protect your plants!
The Guerilla Grow has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it is hard work and tedious, but on the other hand, you are usually not in danger of being associated with the plants because they are not at home.
Grow areas that are well hidden from public view are suitable for guerrilla growing. At the same time, it should be a sunny spot. Even if it is not always easy, there are countless such places, especially if you live in a rural area. It is worth taking enough time to find a good guerrilla site. Guerrilla sites near rivers or lakes are generally a good choice because of the water supply for the plants. Make sure that it is not a recreational area or the like, where many people are often out and about.
Many outdoor growers start with seeds indoors first, leaving cannabis plants under Fluorescent tubes or Energy-saving lamps grow until they reach a certain size and hardiness, then move them outside as soon as temperatures allow. March, April, May, depending on the climate, is a good time to put the cannabis plants outside, so they start flowering in August or September.
Clones and larger plants can also be brought outside at the beginning of the outdoor flowering period or shortly before, when the days are getting shorter again, because they usually only need a short growing phase of about a week to be able to start flowering.
Pure Indicas and strong Indica dominant hybrids can only be planted outside in May or June because they usually have a shorter growing and flowering phase than Sativas have.
What do you need for outdoor growing:
- 0.25 litre pots and 3L pots, 11L pots
- Humus
- Komost/Worm Compost
- Perlite
- Coco(fibres)
- Bat-Guano
- Neem oil
- Propolis
- Sprayer 3-5 L
- pH tester and pH-Down
- Dolomite
Here's what to consider when planning for outdoor growing
- Choose cannabis strains that are suitable for your climate region. If the weather is already deteriorating in late September, with frequent rainfall, it is advisable to use Short flowering varieties and not necessarily long flowering HazesThey can take until November to finish flowering.
- Consider what size the cannabis strain in question is expected to reach.
- If large plants are to be grown, an area of preferably 1.5 m² must be provided per cannabis plant so that they can spread and develop sufficiently.
- Plants should be at least 2m away from each other.
- With outdoor growing, it always makes sense to sow significantly more seeds and grow more plants than are to be cultivated/harvested later. On the one hand, this gives you the opportunity to select and choose the highlights, on the other hand, with outdoor growing and especially with guerrilla growing, you have to reckon with natural and unavoidable losses of plants, e.g. due to animals or environmental influences.
If you have no other option than to plant the seeds outside directly into the soil, do not plant them too deep. 1.5-2 cm deep into the soil is quite sufficient.
Prepare the outdoor area when planting directly into the ground
First, remove all other plants, weeds and grasses, including all roots, from the growing area where you want to cultivate and dig everything up with a spade. It is best not to leave a mound or pile of weeds lying around, as this could be conspicuous.
Cuttings and larger plants can be planted in a previously dug and filled planting hole in the ground. Cannabis soil The plants can be planted directly into the soil, as long as the natural soil is good and suitable for the plants.
Outdoor grow in pots
The cannabis plants can also be placed in pots or Texpots on the outdoor grow area, which has been cleared of weeds. Pots offer the advantage in outdoor growing that the plants can be moved to another location if necessary, also it is easier to control the nutrient supply in pots and it can be more convenient than digging deep holes. Sometimes the soil in the chosen spot is also so unsuitable for cannabis that it is easier to use pots.
During the entire growing period, the outdoor growing area must be cleared of weeds weekly. Even if everything has been removed before, it will quickly grow back and hinder our ladies.
There are a lot of interesting and sensible Irrigation systems for outdoor growing, but the most inconspicuous method for guerrilla growing is and remains watering by hand. This leaves no traces or conspicuous installations that could attract attention.
If the existing soil is loose, sufficiently but not excessively loamy, and at the same time water-permeable and suitable for cannabis plants (pH value!), you can plant the plants directly in the soil. Where stinging nettles grow, cannabis plants usually also feel at home.
At least one month before the plants are placed directly in the soil outside, the subsoil should be prepared accordingly. Compost, worm manure, guano, organic nutrients, dolomite and possibly coco substrate to improve drainage should be mixed into the existing soil. Vermiculite and coarse coco substrate to improve drainage should be mixed into the existing soil and well loosened. First dig a deep hole in the soil and then mix the soil with the other components and fill it back into the planting hole.
In addition, it is sensible Polymer crystals These can store a large amount of water and expand 15-fold when watered. This helps the plants to survive drier phases well, but does not replace regular watering in dry and hot weather.
If the soil is too loamy, sand should not simply be added, as is often assumed, because sand and loam become cement and much too dense. It is better to work straw or coconut fibres underneath so that the loamy heavy soil is broken up. However, when guerrilla-growing, make sure that the surface around the plants looks as much like the rest of the soil as possible, because of the camouflage.
Sandy soil is easy to work with and warms up quickly in spring, but it also holds fewer nutrients. Especially with too much watering, nutrients are quickly washed out. Compost can help to bind particles and fertilisers and keep them in the soil. It should be borne in mind that in hot climates compost is quickly processed and used up by bacteria in the soil and microorganisms.
For best results in sandy soil:
Mulch the surface of the soil around the plants with straw, vermiculite, etc. to avoid too rapid evaporation of water, add compost more often.
Most soils are a mixture of sand and clay. The soil in the forest varies greatly in terms of its pH and nutrient content. The needles from the trees and other plant materials from trees cause the soil to be acidic. Long-needled pines generally grow in lean soils.
Open grassy areas usually have excellent soil for cannabis plants. Sunlight penetration is good, but visibility is often quite high and plants in open areas have little protection from wind and weather.
Cannabis Grow Outdoor - Step by Step
It is best to start germinating seeds in March if you want the largest cannabis plants possible. These plants will grow to an average height of 2.5-3.5 m, depending on the variety. If you don't want the plants to grow that tall, you should start a little later.
First, place the germinated seeds in small pots (9×9 cm) with moist planting substrate. The pH value should be around 6. Now place the pots in sunlight if available or under Neon tubes or ESL lamps (100-250W). Make sure that the substrate does not dry out, but it should not be too wet either.
Wait until the small seedlings grow. Depending on the variety and temperature, it can take 5-10 days until the first two cotyledons are visible. During this time, the plants should be exposed to sunlight or appropriate artificial light for an optimal start. If the small plants do not get enough light from the beginning, they will only grow small and puny or become incredibly long, yellowish and spidery.
If it is already warm enough outside and the sun is shining, it is good to get the young plants used to the sunlight in advance and put them outside in phases.
After about 3 weeks, the cannabis plants are about 20 cm and usually have 3 pairs of leaves (not including the cotyledons). At this point the small plant is repotted, provided it has developed a good root ball. This should be the case if everything has gone ideally so far.
The young cannabis plants are now placed in 11L pots. You can use the following soil mix for this:
- 500g Bat Guano per 100L soil
- 20% compost / vermicompost
- 80% cannabis soil
- 250g Nutrihemp/100L soil
Mix all ingredients well and pour into the 11L pots. During the next 2 weeks, water the marijuana plants whenever the soil in the pots has become dry. Do not wait until the whole pot is completely dry. Water with a pH value of 6 should be used for watering.
About 8 weeks after the seeds have germinated, they are planted in large pots (25L and more) or placed directly in the ground. To do this, first prepare the growing area as described and dig a planting hole. The planting hole should be 70 cm deep and approximately the same diameter. Mix 20L of vermicompost, a packet of Nutrihemp and 500g of Bat Guano together with the existing soil or 50L of cannabis soil and add to the planting hole.
As soon as temperatures allow and frost is no longer expected, the cannabis plants are placed in the prepared planting holes or taken outside. After the cannabis plants have been planted outdoors or in your garden, water them regularly when the top 3.5 cm of the soil surface has dried out.
From mid-July onwards, it makes sense to support the flowering and add more nutrients to the soil. For this purpose, a mixture of for example: 20 L vermicompost, 100g Nutrihemp, 250g Torta de Neem and 500g Bat Guano per plant is spread around the plant and carefully worked into the soil without damaging the roots.
Continue watering with water with a pH of 6 until the end of flowering, when the plants need water.
Depending on taste, you can cut off the lower small leaves and flowers from mid-July to August to encourage larger buds higher up.
I'm just thinking Juan, stop texting and have a smoke, that's what I'm doing now and wishing everyone a successful, safe and relaxed Grow Season 2016.
See you in the days 😉
You can find more tips for outdoor growing in our Grow tips in the category Outdoor Grow