Gardening Tips: Can You Grow Weed In Your Backyard?

ByRobinson

Since the cultivation of marijuana is becoming a reality in more than 30 states these days, it’s time to make plans on how to grow marijuana plants in your backyard. States like Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Nevada, and others lifted the ban of growing and using weed for recreational purposes.

This means that people in these states will be able to grow their marijuana plants outdoors as well. Indoor plant cultivation is possible, but it requires some essential elements like artificial sunlight source, unique watering systems, etc. By growing the plant outdoors, the entire plant cultivation process becomes much more comfortable. However, it’s critical that you know more about the soil building before you begin. Here are some suggestions on how to successfully grow marijuana plants in your garden:

Contents

1. Finding The Plant Seeds That You Want

First of all, it’s crucial to buy the seeds that are suited for growing in outdoor conditions rather than the ones meant for indoor growing. All reputable sellers will specify all the needed information about the seeds they’re selling so potential buyers would know which seeds to look for.

There are many varieties of seeds that include the mold-restraint seeds, which are fantastic for growing seeds in humid conditions. On the other hand, buyers must know that there are seeds with a short flowering period. The short flowering period is an important thing to know if you’re growing the plants in the northern latitude.

After finding the type of seeds that suits your needs, there are other things to learn before you start planting.

2. Understanding Plant Genders

Cannabis is one of the rare plants in the plant world that have both female and male flowers on separate plants. Female plants can produce buds (fat flower) that are very rich with psychoactive compounds. On the other hand, male plants produce tiny flowers that won’t provide you with the desired psychoactive effect if you smoke them or ingest them in any other way.

After planting the seeds, people usually end up with the same amount of plants from both genders. It’s vital to remove the male plants before they begin to flower. Why is that important? When male plants begin to pollinate, the female buds will end up with a lot of seeds, which is not a good overall result.

However, it’s possible to find seed packages labeled with “feminized seeds.” Buying these seeds will ensure that you grow only female plants. Inform yourself about the seeds before you decide to purchase them because knowing more means you’ll have less trouble during the cultivation process.

3. Soaking The Seeds And Providing Optimal Growing Conditions

Cannabis seeds don’t require any special treatment. However, soaking the seeds in the water a few days before planting them will help speed up the germination process. The cannabis plant seeds belong to a group of plants that prefer warmth and sunlight, like tomatoes. Therefore, to have a good start, you should leave the seeds indoors on a window so they could soak the sunshine and warmth of a spring day. After that, you can move the seeds outdoors when all there are no risks of cold weather and frost.

4. Providing Good Growing Conditions

This type of plant needs at least 6 hours of direct sunlight exposure each day. However, they require fantastic drainage as well. The soil bed that these plants require should be no different than the one used for growing most vegetables and fruits.

Another essential element is a good circulation of air. Without air circulation, your plants might get suffer from fungal diseases. In case you’re wondering what’s an excellent method to prevent plants from getting sick and how to cure weed, spreading your plants to at least six feet away will provide excellent airflow, which will help them stay healthy.

These plants require a lot of nutrients. Therefore, it’s essential to enrich the soil with compost at least a month, but ideally in Autumn before planting the seeds. The minimal requirement is 2 inches of compost spread over the entire planting area, which should be worked into the soil. However, if you’re planting the seeds in the pots, you may want to consider using fertilizer instead of compost.

5. Watering And Feeding The Plants

This plant is a very thirsty one. Make sure that you water it every time the soil becomes dry. In case the soil bed is rich enough, there’s no need for adding fertilizer. However, adding fertilizer will undoubtedly lead to having much better overall results.

A fertilizer with high nitrogen levels must be applied every 20 days to stimulate the plant’s growth. When you reach the mid-summer period, you should switch to fertilizer rich with phosphorus instead. Phosphorus will stimulate the density and abundance of buds (flowers).

6. Clipping The Plants (Pruning)

Depending on the sort, the outdoor plants can grow up to 12 feet or even more. Pruning the plants will result in having more buds, and that’s why people tend to prune their plants. Clipping the vigorous shoots every once in a while (around 30% of each significant shoot) is sufficient.

Pruning is essential since it boosts the bushier to form, which is much better than having a skinny and long plant. This method stimulates the growth of many small shoots around the plant. All these shoots will eventually produce more buds. However, you must stop with pruning mid-summer so you’ll avoid interfering with the production of flowers.

7. Harvesting Them Appropriately

When everything’s done right, buds will form by the end of the summer and will be ready for the harvesting process in October. How to know if the buds are ready for harvest? When you see the little wispy hairs growing from the buds turn from white to brown-red color, you’ll know they’re ready.

The harvesting process is not complicated at all. What you need to do is to cut each bud by leaving at least six up to eight inches of stem below the bud you cut off. The next step is to trim all the remaining leaves. Hanging the buds in a shady and warm place for a week will dry the buds, and make them ready to use. The final step is to trim the buds from the stem and keep them in a sealed glass container.

Conclusion

Growing marijuana sounds like an exciting and easy job to do, but in fact, it’s not that simple. These sensitive plants require unique treatments to develop and produce the best buds. Make sure to know which type of seeds you need. After that, ensure that the soil is fertile with nutrients and water, and perform all the necessary steps to keep your plants grow healthy like providing them with constant airflow, pruning the excess shoots, and finally by harvesting your plants appropriately. So yes, growing this plant is possible in your backyard, and with these tips in mind, you can surely successfully do so. Just make sure that it is legal where you are and that you have the proper go-ahead from your community.

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