You can grow lots of buds free in an outdoor guerrilla garden. (c) Copyright, John Foster, 2017Spring is here, and it’s time to start planning your outdoor marijuana growing season, which traditionally runs from March through October in most places.
You want a jumpstart on your planning and planting, so your marijuana plants are rooted and ready to be put outdoors as soon as fears of frost are past.
Time the starting of your marijuana plants indoors so you have all females, with developed root systems and at least a foot high, ready to transplant as soon as you’re sure outdoor temperatures will stay above 45°F.
“Harden” your young marijuana plants started indoors by giving them a few hours of direct sunlight as early as possible before you transplant outdoors.
Start as many marijuana plants as you can, even if it’s more than you want to put outdoors.
Then cull the weaklings and put only the best performers outdoors.
If you have an enclosed, secure outdoor space in your back yard or otherwise very near an indoor grow op, consider an indoor-outdoor garden.
That happens when you use the sun when you can, then put the cannabis plants back indoors to ensure 18-24 hours of strong direct light per day, until the outdoor day length is at least 14-15 hours.
If you put marijuana plants out too early, before the sun is up for 14-15 or more hours per day, you risk them going into flower too early.
Choose Several Marijuana Strains
Include any outdoor strain that’s worked for you before, but also new strains targeted for outdoor growing.
If you can’t get to a grow site often, and you want to avoid the possibility of male plants, get feminized seeds.
Autoflowering marijuana is by definition feminized, and it flowers when it wants to regardless of how many hours of light it gets, so you might try an autoflowering outdoor garden.
Environmental & Climate Problems
If you live in the Western United States, be aware that extreme drought, fires, surface water shortages and other climate change conditions make guerilla outdoor marijuana growing much harder than in years past.
You’ll want to use water-holding crystals, dense soil mixes, ground cover around the root zone, and other tactics to ensure your marijuana roots don’t dry out.
You can’t count on precipitation, surface or groundwater sources like you did in the past.
You’ll most certainly have to carry more water into your remote outdoor marijuana garden than you otherwise would have when the climate was kinder.
You can use various supplements and nutrients to armor your plants against harsh outdoor conditions.
Outdoor marijuana growing exposes your plants to conditions and threats they wouldn’t has as much of in a controlled hydroponics indoor grow room.
If I can get to my crop easily, I bring Sensi Grow or Bloom base nutrients, Bud Factor X, Rhino Skin, Big Bud, and Bud Candy to my grow site and mix big batches of liquid nutrients to feed to the plants.
Especially if it’s super hot and the plants are thirsty, these nutrients will have a huge beneficial effect on your plants.
Site Selection & Grow Security
Of course, the size of those plants, and you getting back and forth to them…can be a problem and involves careful site selection.
Just take a close look at who’s likely to be hiking, hunting, taking photos, mountain biking, ATVing, repairing power lines, farming, or otherwise coming anywhere near your grow site.
Take a look up in the sky for a few hours: how many airplanes and helicopters fly over?
Think you’ve found a wonderful grow site near railroad tracks, old dirt roads, power line tracks?
Think again. Utility people use them. They spray poison and cut “weeds” off of them.
And remember that if you go back and forth to your outdoor cannabis grow site more than once or twice, especially with some kinds of foliage, you’re going to create a path that people might follow just like you do.
The best outdoor marijuana growing situation is for you to have a private, enclosed space (with easy access to water, fertilizer, and other supplies) that you totally control.
The guerilla method has logistical problems, and you can get ripped off by Mother Nature or people.
Growing in your backyard is safer, but increases your security risks because your garden is associated with your home.
Outdoor marijuana growing is well worth the hassle and risk, because you get larger plants with higher yields, and the sun is free.
Some outdoor marijuana plants will grow as tall as 10-15 feet high and be several feet in diameter.
You can harvest a kilo or more per plant!
