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OUTDOOR
GROWING
MANY OF THE ELEMENTS THAT YOU NEED to complete your outdoor
or guerrilla grow site are described in the indoor growing chapters of
this book. If you skipped through Chapters 5 and 6, be sure to go back
and scan through them — paying particular attention to information
about germination, feeding and cloning — as they will give you ideas
about what your cannabis plants need to thrive.
Many cannabis enthusiasts claim that the best cannabis they ever smoked
was grown outdoors. If you live in a climate that is warm enough for tomatoes
to grow outdoors, then you have the perfect climate to grow good weed
outdoors. If your climate is very warm and if you have a long summer then
you may be able to grow high-yielding Sativa varieties like the Australian
bush, Haze and high yielding skunk hybrid strains. Although these strains
have long flowering periods, they also have the ability to yield more
than two pounds of bud per plant when grown to full maturity outdoors.
As an outdoor grower, you may either choose your own backyard or a guerrilla
grow in the woods or a field as the site for your patch. When you have
found an area that suits your needs (refer to Chapter 4), you can start
to prepare your plot. Be aware that seeds planted in untreated ground
will have a low germination rate. To avoid this problem, most outdoor
cannabis growers begin their plants indoors, germinating seedlings indoors
and growing them in plastic pots. By cutting away the base of the pots
and holding the soil in place using a piece of cardboard secured with
strong tape, pots can be transported to the grow patch and planted. This
method offers the advantage of cloning all females for transplanting to
the outdoor patch — for the ideal all-female, sinsemilla, high-yield
outdoor crop.
The
months of March and April are very good times to start your plants outdoors
because they should mature and begin to flower by August or September
— when the daylight hours start to decrease. So, you should plan
to find your grow spot and start your garden by April. If you are using
clones you will probably want to wait to transplant them until just before
the flowering season, since clones only need to grow for a week or two
before flowering. Pure Indica or Indica hybrid strains can be planted
in May or June because they have shorter vegetative and flowering times
than Sativa strains.
Try to remove as many weeds as possible while preparing your grow patch
and don't leave heaps of earth around for people to notice. Carry the
earth away in bags if you have to. You can then simply sow your seeds
or plant your seedlings or cuttings.
If you must work with seeds outdoors, don't bury them too deep: 1/2-inch
to 1-
inch below the soil's surface is fine. If you are working with seedlings
or cuttings, dig
small holes and place the plants and 'bottomless1 pots described above
directly into the holes, removing the piece of cardboard before doing
so. Ensure that the pot is completely below ground and not visible to
passersby. The roots will grow down through the hole in the bottom of
the pot and into the surrounding soil.
You may choose to add prefab, store-bought soil to the patch. Look for
a soil with a higher IM than P and K value. Adding soil is a good idea
because it the store-bought kind does not contain living masses, such
as weeds. Even though you may have weeded and treated your outdoor soil
patch, it could still contain seeds or spores from weeds and other plants.
You'll most certainly have to weed your outdoor area nearly every week
during the initial growth stages.
After you have sown your seeds or planted your clones, simply sprinkle
them with water. That's all you need to do. You don't need to adjust the
soil pH yet or feed the soil. What you've done should be fine for starting
seedlings or clones.
If nature does not provide water for your plants then you need to draw
water and feed your plants when needed. There are a few irrigation techniques
you can use to bring water to your plants however these may reveal your
grow site to others. By simply digging a partial trench around your plants
you can force the roots to grow in a certain direction. You can also channel
running water from a stream to your plants by digging a water route. Water
always runs downhill so you need to take this into consideration when
investigating different schemes of irrigation. All of these irrigation
methods may compromise your security and this is why %hand watering' is
still the single best way to water your outdoor plants.
Polymer crystals have water-retaining properties and can be used in conjunction
with your soil mix so that the plant has some access to water during the
dry spells. Simply fill a plastic bottle with water and the crystals and
allow them to expand overnight so that they absorb as much water as possible
before you mix them in with your soil. Polymer crystals will retain and
then release the water at a very slow rate, which is why outdoor growers
like to mix polymer crystals in with their soil.
When growing outdoors you need to keep your plants healthy and free from
unwanted predators that may find your top cola and leaves to be quite
tasty. In the second week of vegetative growth, you may even want to spray
the area with some pesticide.
OUTDOOR
SOIL
If you have not yet read about soil in Chapter 5 you should do so now
before reading on to understand exactly what kind of soil and nutrients
your cannabis strain prefers and how to maintain the right balance throughout
your grow. Frequently, an outdoor grow patch is selected because it looks
like it is already sustaining some form of life such as weeds, grass,
trees and bushes. This usually indicates that the soil is probably a loam
type, meaning that it has some sands, silts, clays and humus in it. In
some cases the soil may be missing some of these components or have a
very high percentage of one of them.
Check the soil in your outdoor patch. Sift through it to determine if
it is primarily a sand, silt, clay, loam or humus type. As you dig down
you will find that the composition of the soil changes. Generally, the
top few inches of'surface'soil will contain humus and some living matter.
The next layer below this, the 'topsoil', is the one that the roots will
grow down into.Try to determine whether this topsoil needs more loam.
If you need more you should consider adding more soil to your grow area.
If you have chosen well, your grow patch will not need additional soil
supplements and by simply turning the soil you should be able to achieve
very effective results.
If
you want to dig your own patch go down a minimum of 1.5 feet to a maximum
of 3 feet. You should be able to remove a large amount of ground's natural
composition. Most growers would do this if there appeared to be too much
clay in the topsoil. Clay on its own, as you know from reading chapter
5, is not good for cannabis roots but is good when mixed with sand, silt
and humus to form a loam. If you have sand, silt and humus you can mix
it with the soil you have dug up. Do this by using a shovel to break the
clay in with the sand, silt and humus.
The problem with digging up a patch is keeping it looking natural. If
you are using vermiculite, perlite or other colorful soil-less substrates,
be sure to keep them well below the surface. A good sprinkling of a coconut-based
grow medium over the surface makes your patch look more like part of the
surroundings. Coconut fibers also add nutrients to your soil. If you mix
coconut fibers in with the soil you will also provide the roots with additional
room to breathe and grow. Coconut substrates are very popular with outdoor
growers and can be obtained from grow shops.
The next section focuses on the specific challenges that outdoor growers
face in caring for their plants from the beginning of the vegetative growth
stage to the end of flowering.
CARING FOR OUTDOOR PLANTS
Weeding
The best way to weed is by hand. Don't attempt to add weed killer to your
grow area unless you know a great deal about the weed killer you're using
and how it reacts with cannabis. Some weed killers claim they'll protect
your plant and only kill the surrounding weeds, yet are not very agreeable
to marijuana plants. If you want to test weed killers then it's suggested
that you create a small patch with one clone to see how the clone reacts
to the weed killer. Also, remember that people could be ingesting or inhaling
this cannabis so use a food plant friendly weed killer. To begin with,
we recommend that you do your weeding by hand.
When you've weeded a grow area, your plant will grow much better without
having to compete for nutrients and light. Generally, you'll have to weed
the patch every week for the first 2 to 3 weeks and then once every month
throughout the plants'grow cycle. Some grow areas may be weed-free in
March but, come June, the area may seem like it hasn't been weeded at
all because of the speed of weed growth. Whenever you visit your plants
make sure you pull up a few weeds to keep them under control.
If
you feef your area is very dense with weeds you may want to consider a
ground cover. A ground cover is placed on the ground and cut to allow
the marijuana plants to grow through it. Covers can be anything from plastic
garbage bags to sheets of paper. Of course, this is not conducive to stealth
growing, but it does keep the weeds from receiving light.
Most growers who wish to clear a large area for a bigger grow do so the
year before. Around autumn growers can clear the area of any leaves, branches
and dead matter with much more ease than in springtime or summer when
weeds and new plant growth can get in the way or hide potentially good
growing areas.
There is absolutely no reason why anyone should ever fell a tree in order
to grow an outdoors plot of cannabis plants, unless the tree is already
dead.
Watering
This is nature's job, most of the time. If you find that your crop is
experiencing a warm spell or drought during the summer you may wish to
carry some water to your grow area. If you have to trek over long distances
then it's recommended you fill a backpack with plastic bottles of water
Some garden growers use sprinkler systems during dry spells. This is great
but can attract unwanted attention to your patch.
How much water your plants need depends on the size of the plants. Larger
plants can require a minimum of a gallon of water per day. Natural loam
soil is able to hold water for anywhere from four to six weeks before
becoming extremely dry under the sun. Deep pockets of water may be held
underground. The best way to judge whether your plants need water or not
is through a simple visual inspection. If they're wilting badly, they
need water. If you want to ensure that your plants have a constant water
source then factor this into your choice of outdoor location and use water-retaining
polymer crystals.
If
you want to check for an underground water source, simply dig a small
hole about a foot deep next to your grow patch taking care not to hit
any major roots. Put your hand down inside the hole. Does it feel dry
or is it cool and moist? If it's cool and moist then the soil has stored
some water below the surface that your plants can drink without any problems.
Nutrients can be added to the soil at any time during the plants' life
cycle. Switching to a P feed during the flowering weeks will help promote
bud growth. Outdoor soil treatment is much like indoor soil treatment,
except for the weeding.
If you have good sunlight and enough water then your plants will grow
throughout the full cycle quite well. At the end of the flowering season
you'll be ready to harvest your plant and reap your bounty.
The more you experiment, the more tricks you'll invent for yourself to
get the most out of your yields. Some of the best cannabis growers use
very exotic and original methods. A number of people have even tried outdoor
hydroponics to get their plants to grow bigger and better.
Air Pruning
Depending on the soil's composition it should retain a certain amount
of air between watering. The presence of too much air can necessitate
vair pruning'. If you dig a trench around an outdoor plant, the roots
will not grow into the trench. Instead they will sense that there is too
much air and not enough nutrients or water to continue their development
in this area of the medium.That is why roots do not grow above the surface
of the soil, nor do they grow out of the bottom of your pots and onto
the work surface or floor.10b Air pruning by creating trenches around
your plant will eventually cause the roots to grow in the direction of
your choice and can be used by outdoor growers who wish to guide their
plants towards a natural source of water or nutrients.
Outdoor Flowering and the Photoperiod
Towards the end of summer the photoperiod will naturally change outdoors.
The cannabis plant automatically controls its own flowering by calculating
the alteration in the number of hours of daylight and the uninterrupted
darkness at night.
The plant hormone phytochrome is responsible for regulating when flowering
should commence. Normally, in summer there is more daylight than darkness.
As the year progresses, there is gradually less daylight and more darkness.
Phytochrome reacts to this change and reaches a critical level, which
triggers flowering in the plant. However the plant must be mature enough
for flowering to begin. If the plant is not mature enough, the photoperiod
will have no effect on the plants flowering capabilities.
The photoperiod differs slightly from strain to strain because of the
uneven amounts of light and darkness available at different latitudes
around the world. Some plants only need eight hours of darkness to trigger
flowering and others need more, but most mature plants will be begin flowering
when the photoperiod changes to 12/12. Do not confuse the latitude you
are growing in with the plant's own natural photoperiod. The plant's natural
photoperiod regime is genetic and is part of its lineage.The seed bank
you acquire your plants from should indicate if their strain requires
special adjustments to the photoperiod, especially if it is an outdoor
strain. All mature cannabis plants will eventually flower when the photoperiod
changes.
The bottom line for outdoor growers it to estimate when the photoperiod
naturally changes so that they do not miss the start of the flowering
period due to late outdoor cultivation. It is far better to let a plant
vegetate longer than to flower late. If you are behind schedule you may
find that the weather is no longer suitable for cannabis cultivation.
Early spring is always the time when growers should be thinking about
planting their outdoor crop.
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