One of the biggest handicaps facing the novice marijuana grower is the eternal question of whether it is possible to grow out of season outside. This question is not easy to answer, and, usually, before making inquiries on their own, they prefer to opt for growing marijuana indoors.
The advantages of indoor growing are well known, its reference being the power to cultivate whenever you want, regardless of the season of the year. However, it also has many disadvantages such as the rise in light consumption for which you can have certain problems. If you want to know everything about this technique, we talk about it on the blog in a guide to indoor growing.
What’s more, you always have to take into account the weather of your country. For example, in Spain in certain areas it is possible to cultivate twice a year, specifically, in autumn and spring. But nevertheless, one of the problems of extemporaneous outdoor cultivation is that the moment it rains the plants begin to bloomWhat’s more, since we take them out, they start to bloom. Therefore, it is best to grow them indoors for a while before proceeding to take them out to the garden. We must also protect them from the cold and rain, so if you have a greenhouse it may be ideal.
In addition, the greenhouse option is economical since a small investment in fluorescents can be very useful in the future of the plant. In fact, large growers prefer to do the first stage indoors and then take them outside in order to obtain the maximum performance.
However, we have to warn that you have to be careful both in the indoor growing stage and in the outdoor growing stage. In the first phase, it is essential to control electricity consumption, since when electricity companies detect an unusual peak in electricity consumption, they report this information to the authorities (it depends on the country you are in). Second, you have to keep in mind that By growing outdoors, you don’t just risk being discovered by your neighbors, but to have your plants stolen. It is very common, especially in the people who cultivate in the garden of the chalet, that they enter to steal. Therefore, certain passive security measures must be adopted, fundamentally based on hiding the plants as much as possible.
A greenhouse can be a good option, since in addition to allowing and promoting cultivation, it hides the plants. However, to make the greenhouse an attractive and economical option, we recommend making it as basic as possible, either with canes or metal bars. If this option is not feasible, We strongly recommend that the plants are not exposed to excessive wind and that they are oriented towards sunlight.
When distributing the different stages of cultivation, the vegetative phase will be the one we will carry out indoors. As we have already said, this is to prevent the plants from blooming as soon as they are removed. This way they will be able to grow strong, they will have a good root and they will already be ready to flower the moment you take them out.
Indoor growing is no different from the ordinary indoor growing process, so we recommend that you read our guide on how to do it correctly, following our recommendations on photoperiod. While it is true that the plant can grow with water substitutes, it can never grow with light substitutes.
Nevertheless, one of the greatest dangers of this technique is revegetation. You have to keep in mind that the marijuana plant is annual, that is, it is born, grows and dies when the season ends. Therefore, and as these cycles are marked by the photoperiod, if indoors you are cultivating with different times than those that occur outdoors, when you remove the plant this phenomenon can occur, which is especially dangerous in autoflowering varieties. To avoid this danger it is best to set a deadline for the harvest. However, in autumn this danger does not usually exist, because the photoperiod is constant.
An option that is also quite economical is that of the automatic seeds of which we spoke before, which have to be planted directly outside between the months of February and March for the spring harvest, and in mid-August for the harvest of the autumn season, always taking care that the place is sunny enough. In this way we will save ourselves from previously growing them indoors.
Growing cannabis in spring
When growing clones in spring, you have to bear in mind that the critical date is the second half of May, since there is a danger of revegetation. Thus expert growers choose the month of June to start growing clones or cuttings. In this way they will always grow instead of bloom.
It is very important that, as we have said before, we set a date for the harvest (in order to avoid revegetation), the optimum being the second half of May. You also have to keep in mind that, if you grow indoors and later transplant outdoors, you must be very careful in it, since it is a very critical moment. For this reason you must stimulate the growth of the roots of the plant by means of fertilizers. Normally these fertilizers have a strong nitrogen component, so you have to take care that excesses are not produced. Once you have placed the plants in the greenhouse, the only precaution that must be taken is to control the environmental conditions and the conditions of the substrate, in such a way that these are optimal, that is, without deficiencies and without excesses.
Growing marijuana in autumn
Both spring growing and fall growing share quite a few similarities, but they are not entirely the same. There are certain differences. The main difference between the two is the date of harvest; while, in spring, we warn the need to set the limit in the month of May, in autumn there is no such limit. This is due to the uniqueness of the photoperiod. In autumn this is constant, so it is suitable to provide marijuana with the necessary sunlight until, even, the following spring. However, you always have to take care of the plants from the inclemencies of winter.
Winter is a season, it is an especially harsh season, but our greatest enemy will always be hail, especially in locations high above sea level. Hail has always been the greatest enemy of every grower due to its fearsome effects on plants. These effects are totally destructive and can ruin the entire harvest. For this reason, it is advisable to reinforce the upper part of the greenhouse during this time, and if that is not enough, put the plants in pots, even if this limits their growth. This will allow us to move them to the interior at the moment when the hailstorm begins, and thus we will be able to save the harvest as much as possible.
Another recommendation to safeguard the life of our plants from the effects of the weather is to use plastics in our greenhouse. One possibility that will give us an extra is to use black containers, since black color absorbs solar radiation better than any other color. Isolating the pots from the ground is also a highly recommended option, but as you can see, our main enemy will always be the cold with its more than possible frosts and hail.
You have to keep in mind that, Thanks to these tips you can have up to three cannabis harvests in a year, which is a lot better than just one. In addition, one of the peculiarities of farming out of season is that thieves are not so vigilant, so the risk of theft will be considerably lower.
It should also be noted that all these tips are designed for Spain, taking into account the weather, environmental factors and the general peculiarities of the country, so if you reside or live in a continent or country in which the summer month corresponds to the months of December and January, that is, to the coldest, these recommendations may not serve you. However, tips such as using a greenhouse, using black containers, isolating the pots from the ground, etc., will always be useful, no matter where you live.
You should also bear in mind that not everything is an advantage; for instance, clones or cuttings will not grow as large and automatics will not achieve the same results. In addition, changes occur in the phenotype of the plant. However, we consider that these drawbacks are not so great as to disregard all the advantages of growing out of season. What’s more, these changes in the phenotype will allow us to make hash concentrates, since the concentration is much lower. If you liked this article, we recommend you visit this other about how to combat harsh weather in cannabis.
In conclusion, this is one of the best ways to avoid the main disadvantage of growing outside, that is, being able to harvest only once a year. If you follow all of our recommendations and adhere to our advice to the letter, in principle, you shouldn’t have any kind of problem. But be careful with everything related to legal issues; Find out whether or not it is legal to grow marijuana in your area, since, if not, you could be committing a drug trafficking crime, the penalties for which are currently quite high. However, if it is allowed, you can improve your harvest and cultivate practically in almost all times of the year.
Most viewed articles on our blog
