Cannabis in its natural state is a yearly plant; seeds germinate during spring when the conditions are right and it grows until the end of summer. When they days get short enough, it starts to flower, reproduces, grows seeds and dies. During the winter, seeds stay in the ground waiting for the right conditions, and only some seeds actually survive. When growing outdoors, you should right for the right moment to be as efficient as possible.
When can Cannabis be Harvested Outdoors?
Cannabis, just like all plants, needs a series of conditions in order to grow properly. If you’d like to know when to harvest outdoors, you’ll have to keep in mind two conditions:
- Temperature: cannabis plants stop growing when the temperatures drop. Don’t start your grow until the outdoor minimum temperatures are above 10°C; winter isn’t the same in all regions of the planet, and temperatures can differ also. Get used to seeing low temperatures in spring; you can check the weather online or using an app.
- Light hours: feminized and regular seeds need a certain amount of hours in order to grow and flower. In the northern hemisphere, most strains have the right amount of hours to grow from may onwards, and start flowering during august.
The only strains that grow regardless of the light they get are autoflowering seeds. Even then, they still need a lot of light to start flowering properly. The pro here is that you don’t have to wait for the light to change for them to flower.
In order to differentiate them from autoflowering plants, feminized and regular plants are normally called light dependent.
What Happens if I Germinate Cannabis Seeds Early?
Most light-dependent strains get enough light to grow properly from the first week of may onwards; if you germinate your seeds at the end of march or in April, it won’t be mature enough or start growing until the first weeks of May which is when it’ll start growing properly; this allows for larger plants and larger yields.
If temperatures allow for it and you germinate during February, they’ll start flowering much too early and won’t finish their cycle correctly; towards the start of May they should have enough hours of sunlight to revegetate after a month of stress.
Let’s go over that again…
The date from which you should begin to grow is the end of March onwards, although you’ll need to make sure that the minimum temperatures are above 10°C.
How to Achieve Large Cannabis Plants Outdoors
If you’re looking for large cannabis plants, you’ll need to germinate at the start of the season once the temperatures are high enough. Keep in mind that the earlier you plant, the more transplants your plants will need in order to accompany plant growth. It’s important to keep them stress free in order to keep them growing until august, which is when most commercial strains begin to flower.
How to Maintain Small Cannabis Plants Outdoors
Managing discreet plants outdoors is sometimes needed, especially in urban areas. If you’re looking for smaller plants, wait until the end of June to germinate; this allows for the plant to grow during July and August. If you wait until halfway through July, the flowering stage will also take longer to start, while also providing smaller plants.
When to Plant Autoflowering Seeds Outdoors?
Growing autoflowering cannabis seeds can be done from April to October, when the weather is good. The best time to do it is actually the first few months of the season: April, May, June, when the heat isn’t too bad and the insects aren’t out yet.
If you decide to germinate auto seeds during this season you’ll need to keep the climate and weather in mind – if it rains a lot and can still get cold, we recommend waiting; if it’s too cold the plants’ growth could become stunted.
Planting autoflowering strains outside of the growing season doesn’t make any sense. We recommend planting feminized or regular seeds, which will grow a lot more before flowering and produce more yield.
If you want to know until when you can grow your plants, we recommend checking out this post in which we talk about how to grow cannabis outdoors, germinating your cannabis seeds from May to June in the Northern Hemisphere.
