How to Grow Weed Outdoors

how-to-grow-weed-outdoors

Several marijuana smokers said that smoking buds produced from an outside grow give the sweetest and most potent high. That can be because a natural environment where there’s an abundant sunlight enhances the flavor and potency of each buds. With outdoor growing, worrying about light leak problems and costly electricity bill are eliminated, if not, at least minimized. However, it also presents some challenges and requires some sort of preparation to grow healthy and happy cannabis plants.

FINDING A GOOD SPOT

The first thing you need to work on when you decide to cultivate marijuana outdoors is to find a good spot. Choose a location that you can access but hidden from passersby. Do not select a site that can easily be discovered by other people and do not leave trails. Once you have ensured that your location is safe from other people and hungry animals, it is now time to consider and pay attention to these three big factors:

Sunlight

Find a spot where the marijuana plants can receive as much sunlight needed. Cannabis loves the sun and it is best if they can receive at least 4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. Remember that morning light is better than the light during the afternoon for maximum growth of cannabis plants.

Soil

Choose a location where there is good soil. A good soil is one that has good draining properties, neutral pH (about 6.5) and is not too loose and not too compact. As you decide to cultivate weed outdoors, look for a good site at least a month before the growing operation so you can do what needs to be prepared. If the pH of the soil is too low, you can add sodium bicarbonate. If it’s too high, you can adjust by adding lime.

Planting on pots is also a good choice when growing outdoors. Aside from it can be moved and hidden when circumstances need, you can easily look for a good quality potting soil or compost to fill the pots in. Either way, whether you plant them directly on land or plant them on pots, marijuana requires specific nutrients to grow healthy and produce greater yields.

Basically, the nutrients that you need are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, or better known as N-P-K. You can find it in gardening stores where usually, fertilizers are labeled to show the amounts of each nutrient that’s there.

The challenge for you as an outdoor grower is to know the signals when your plants are deficient in some specific nutrients. It’s up to you to supply them either by watering or directly fertilizing the soil.

Water

It is much better if you can find a site where there is a source of fresh water nearby. If you can’t find one, you have to prepare buckets and fill them with water that you can use during days with no rainfall. Bury them partially to avoid suspicions.

SEED SELECTION

There are over a hundred of different marijuana varieties suited for outdoor growing that you can choose from but during the seed selection, consider factors such as weather, frost and climate. Choose to grow a kind of strain that can withstand the pressures of growing outside and consider the above mentioned factors to avoid the risks of losing your money and time spent. Also, know its characteristics and the total amount of time before it’s going to be a consumable bud.

Where to get Marijuana Seeds?

Purchase Online

Nowadays, plenty of trusted seed banks are out to give you the best and well-bred seeds for cultivation. They have wide varieties of strains enabling you to choose the perfect strain for your preference. Another thing, it’s the quickest and the most discreet way to acquire seeds.

Bagseed

Bagseeds are usually just fine to use and will grow into a bud you’ve already experienced. However, most of these bagseeds have very low chances of germination and if ever they successfully do, it’s hard to produce the same buds because it’s hard to create similar growing conditions.

Shop

If you live in a place where marijuana is being dispensed legally, then you can easily find shops that sell marijuana seeds. The goodness of it is that the seller can give you a heads up on what to expect when growing the strain and most especially, you can get clarifications right away whenever you have questions.

CRUCIAL OUTDOOR PROBLEMS

Outdoor marijuana growing is cheaper than cultivating indoors but in doing this, you may be exposing your plants to more risks than indoor growing. Not only growers may experience deficiency in nutrients but also pest infestation. Here are some to watch out for.

Aphids

These are also known as plant lice which sucks the sap of the plant. They are soft bodied organisms that are usually green, pink, black, or brown or sometimes colorless. They have the ability to reproduce asexually that is why they rapidly multiply. Once a plant is heavily infested by these insects, the leaves can dry out due to loss of sap. Also, the wastes of these insects called the “honeydew” are somewhat sugary, the reason they can easily attract ants.

If this pests are left undetected, large colonies will stabilize, finally draining the plant and will look for another plant to infest afterwards.

Worms and caterpillars

These soft segmented pests might be small but believe me, they can bring down one plant once it is infested especially if they are corn borers or hemp borers. These pests produce cankers by eating the stem which weakens the plant. Usually the signs are the holes on the stem, chewed leaves and brown trails or sometimes brown caterpillar poop. Removing these stem boring pests is a must to ensure they don’t reap the benefits of your plants first before you.

Fungus Gnats

These are found in the soil and feed on the fungus. But once they’re out of soil ick, they also attack the roots of the plants. These pests can cause the plant to retard its growth and acquire fungal diseases. To detect if your plants are being harassed by these pests, try putting a sticky tape on the soil and check if there are few fungus gnats trapped on it. Early detection is the key when they start infesting your cannabis to prevent them from laying eggs and producing maggots on the soil.

Slugs and snails

These slimy creatures are the most common type of pest. They are considered threat to almost all types of plants. They attack the stems, leaves as well as the buds at a very fast rate when they are left unnoticed. They are very easy to detect though. The classic silvery trail they leave is your best sign.

Spider Mites

Uncontrolled spider mites are the most devastating pest you’ll ever meet on your marijuana plant. They are very minute that you can hardly see them by the naked eye. They usually shelter on the underside of your cannabis leaves and can cause a massive damage when not detected. They extract the chlorophyll of your plants’ leaves which is very essential in photosynthesis. They reproduce rapidly causing detrimental damage when they attack in large numbers.

Other crucial problems that a grower may encounter outside are: frost, busts pollen sacks, heavy rains, poor soil drainage, heavy wind, mold growth, drought and people (thieves and authorities). These could be some of the reasons why indoor growing is better than outdoor marijuana gardening.

 

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