I’m moving more of my marijuana plants outside. Growing outdoor marijuana has been a learning experience for me. I really pushed the envelope to begin with, putting some of the larger ones out at the start of April. That was too early. It was still getting too cold at night, meaning that it was still getting close to freezing (2-3 degrees centigrade). A lot of the leaves either got burnt by the sun, or by the cold. They dried up along the edges and turned sort of yellow.

Smaller plants got hurt more than bigger ones. In fact, one little baby almost lost all it’s leaves, although new ones are sprouting.

She got hammered, but there is new growth

Another problem with moving them out early is that there is too much stress on the plants. I’ve got two plants showing signs of being males – they look like they have male flowers, but it’s way too early for that, unless its a product of stress. The only other option is that they are auto-flowering seeds that came out of my old stash (slim chance of that).

I’ve got another showing female flowers. Again, it’s way too early for female flowers unless I’ve got an unplanned auto-flowering girl. It’s probably a stress reaction. I’m not too concerned. I’ll let the males drop their pollen and grab the seeds off this female and see what develops.

Last, I’ve got a plant that’s growing well, but only has tri-palm leaves, instead of the regular five fingered leaves. Another grower shared with me that every time he’s had that occur the plant turned out to be a hermaphrodite. Again, I don’t care. I’ll let it develop and see what the flowers look like. I might get lucky and get both female and male flowers. If so, once again, I’ll let them self-pollinate and grab the seeds.

Each subsequent move was more successful. I let the bigger plants fend for themselves, but I took a little more care with the little guys. I used a trick suggested to me by the guy behind East Island Seeds. You take a 1 litre plastic pop bottle and cut off the bottom. Take the cap off, and presto, you’ve got an individual greenhouse for your little plants.

The plants I moved outside are three varieties: Early Wonder Skunk, and autoflowering strain, Dutch Treat x Hash Plant, and early maturing strain, and Red Girl x Dutch, one of the two first seed batches I started, and one that I’ve had a lot of success cloning.

What is interesting to me is how clear the differences are between the mostly indica Skunk and Hashplant, on the one hand, and the sativa characteristics of the Red Girl x Dutch. The RGxD has long, skinny leaf fingers while the Skunk and Hashplant varieties have fat little indica fingers.

Dutch Treat x HP, RG xDutch, Early Wonder Skunk

All in all I’ve got at least 4 strains going now: Red Girl x Dutch, the Purp, Dutch Treat x Hash Plant, and Early Wonder Skunk. I probably have a few mutts growing from my old stash, and I’ve got one Low Ryder that’s still trying to live, but isn’t thriving.

Here’s the outside nursery. I’m going to have to start moving plants out to the woods really soon or giving them to friends.

Click to see a bigger version

I’ve moved most of my marijuana plants outdoors. I decided to take advantage of the free sunshine.

I moved a few out earlier, but the results were poor. As most of us know, when it’s clear and sunny in the daytime it can get cold at night because their is no insulation provided by the clouds. We were getting days that were hitting 10 degrees C., but the nights were still getting down to 2 or 3 degrees Celsius. I got some dead leaves as a result, and had to move the plants back indoors.

The overnight temperatures aren’t getting as low now, and I’ve had most of the plants outside for more than a week with no adverse signs. One problem, however, is that the stems weren’t too strong, as I didn’t have fans blowing on them in my grow container. That means that I’ve got some bent plants. Of course, that also means that they’re shooting out more tips from lower down the stem.

Right now all I’ve got inside are four plants that I put into flowering mode in order to sex them (they’re all girls). With my ADD I’m not exactly sure if all my clones were from girls, but I don’t really care. I like growing plants, whether they’re males or females. As long as I’ve got some girls I’m happy, and I think I’ll harvest some pollen from any males and make some seeds.

If you review what I’ve just written you’ll realize that I’m not the guy to copy. I just do my own thing and let things happen. However, I have been getting in touch with some people who do know a lot about growing marijuana. One of them is the guy behind East Island Seeds. Here is some good advice from him:

Germinating Marijuana Seeds

When trying to sprout seeds make sure to use pure water, with no additives. Nestle pure water seems to work best for me. I keep a case of bottles around at all times, and make sure you keep them in a dark place such as a closet or in a box that you can close.

Planting Marijuana Outside

When planting out doors you need to evaluate when the last frost of the year is. Normally late April is a safe time if you use green house cones or if you make your own temporary green house. Using 2 litre plastic bottles with the bottoms cut of and the lid off works well and is a cheap means of doing this. Moving bigger plants out side you need to insure that the temperature won’t dip below 5 – 8 degrees at night. Make sure they are healthy and strong. Run a high powered fan on them 3 days prior to moving them out side 24 hours a day it will simulate a colder environment and help them resist natural winds.

When moving, if you transplant to the soil on the ground, let them dry out and when you plant them give them a health watering with just pure water, no additives. Something that might help a lot is something called Super Thrive. Its a growth hormone that you can use on all indoor and out door plants until the last 3 weeks of flowering. It you will have bigger, stronger and healthier plants.

Keep in mind that that advice comes from a professional grower who knows what he’s doing. You can get his seeds at Vancouver Seed Bank or from him directly.