Cannabis Cultivation - Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation

Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation

Cannabis can be planted outdoors under the Sun, either on natural soil or in pots of pre-made or commercial soil. Of course some strains are better than others for outdoor cultivation. One strain is not the same as the other and some is just more suitable for your garden than others. This can of course depend on different conditions, variables and aspects. Outdoor marijuana strains, like most other strains, can be bought basically anywhere and there are hundreds of different cannabis strains that are bred for outdoor growing, or at least claimed to be so. A lot of these outdoor cannabis seeds are simply copies of other already existing strains or seeds and have just been given a different name or a nice and interesting sounding description.

To generate optimum quantities of THC-containing resin the plant needs a fertile soil and long hours of daylight.This means that for that THC production outdoor growth occurs optimally anywhere within 35° of the equator. Typical growing regions include Mexico, Nepal, Northern India, many parts of Africa, Afghanistan, California and Australia.

In most places of the subtropics, cannabis is germinated from late spring to early summer and harvested from late summer to early autumn.

Outdoor cultivation is common in both rural and urban areas. Outdoor cultivators tend to grow indica-based strains because of its heavy yields, quick maturing time, and shortness. Some growers prefer sativa because of its clear-headed (cerebral) high, better response to sunlight, and lower odor emissions.

One can cultivate on his own property or practice guerrilla farming i.e. plant cannabis in remote areas such as forest clearings or mountain cliffs and visit rarely. However, such a method is prone to ripoffs – so much so that some ingenious growers even attach pots to trees to decrease this possibility. Guerrilla growing has given birth to the activist movement Operation Overgrow, where the plant is grown with the explicit purpose of introducing the cannabis plant into the natural ecosystem.

For outdoor cultivation, growers choose areas that receive twelve hours or more of sunlight a day. In the Northern Hemisphere, growers typically plant seeds in late May or early June to provide plants a full four months of growth. Harvest is usually between mid-September and early October. In North America, northern locations are preferred (North Coast of California and British Columbia being particularly notable), but southern locations (such as Maui, Hawaii) are also known to be good producers.

Where local laws do not permit growing cannabis, cultivators sometimes grow in forests or rugged and rural areas where the local population is unlikely to find the crop. Cannabis is also grown hidden by a crop that is taller, such as maize. This is reported by the United States government to be common in the midwestern states. Bamboo and elderberry are also used as camouflage companion plants.

Some government agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have claimed that in State and National Parks people have been injured by cannabis farmers protecting their crops using booby traps; no arrests or convictions for this had been made as of 2007.