It might not seem like it, but Spring has sprung.
It’s slowly starting to warm up, which means it’s getting closer and closer to planting time!
If you’re growing indoors, you’ve probably already been growing through the winter months, but for those of us who only grow outdoors, now is the time to get your grow in order.
Get the Gear
Those pots from last year might be in rough shape. Cracked plastic or torn fabric won’t help your plants in the long run, so double check your pot conditions and pick up some fresh ones if you need to.
Once you get your pots in the sizes you want you need something to fill them with. Most outdoor growers will grow in some type of soil blend, but soilless media is becoming more popular as well.
A great option is to get your plants started inside in a soilless media like coco coir or rockwool, then transplant them into a hearty soil blend outdoors after they develop. Of course you can’t grow high quality plants without high quality nutrients though!
You can keep it simple with the basics and use organic fertilizers that carry the essential nutrients your plants need, then simply feed them water. But there are more concentrated options, both organic and synthetic that can provide consistent nutrients throughout your plants’ growth that will help grow bigger, stronger plants.
The biggest decision to make when choosing nutrients is whether you want to use organic nutrients, synthetic nutrients or a combination of both.
Prepping your grow
If you’re using pots for your plants then preparing your grow is pretty straightforward. You want to get your pots lined up with enough space between to account for future growth. You don’t want a bunch of plants growing into each other with no space to get in between.
If you’re growing in a soil bed you reuse instead of pots, you still want to make sure your soil is ready. The quick and easy option is to till your soil and mix in your new blend to freshen it up.
Some growers prefer a no-till method, mainly those trying to grow organic. But no-till growing can save time and money since you let the soil do all the work over time, building up its own nutrients and biological life to support your plants.
One of the great perks of growing outdoors is that you save a ton on electricity! Unless you have a greenhouse with supplemental lighting, you don’t need any sort of grow light outdoors because you have the best grow light in the sky.
If you’re just growing a few plants, you can save some more money by hand-watering. However if you have a big farm, you’ll like need some form of irrigation set up when you plant.
You can set up a DIY irrigation system to save some money, but it’s worth a little extra dough to set up a system like Netafim that can take care of every aspect of your feeding schedule.
Once you have your grow organized, you can move on to deciding whether or not you want to grow from seed or clone. We have a guide on how you can choose between the two, since both have their pros and cons.
There’s more steps you can take to make sure your outdoor grow is primed and ready for planting like soil conditioning, fertilization and more. But cannabis doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to grow strong and dank. Just some preparation and care throughout its growth.
