I’ve already mentioned the Outdoor Growing Contest and the fact that it’s time to start preparing for next year’s outdoor crop. Whether it’s preparing the plot, getting your seeds or clones arranged, or just putting money aside for a grow budget, it’s worth starting the project now. That way, when time becomes an issue you will be prepared.
Remember, an outdoor garden can be huge, or small. It depends on what risks you want to take and how much work you want to do. I recommend something small to start with. Rather than have a bunch of tax-free easy money as your goal think of it as a lifestyle operation that will reduce your dependence on commercial growers and allow you access to organic bud that isn’t run of the mill.

Try to reduce the amount of chemicals you use. That includes petro-chemical based fertilizers. Use natural source material whenever you can.

I’ll talk about growing in BC in this post. We’ve got a few different climates here, but they’re all challenging. Right on the coast it’s mild, but very wet. If we look for an Interior logging slash it gets sunnier, but also higher elevation and colder. Days are longer in the summer but the growing season is short. We can be getting frosts, and possibly even snow, by October in lots of areas.

We need a strain that has proven reliability in this area. We don’t want to invest months on a project just to see the plant get moldy or die just before the buds ripen. We also want something that isn’t going to stand out too much. Something that grows wide and fat is better than one of those tallboys you see in pictures from California.

Too tall for guerilla gardening

This Afghan weed is too tall too!

Location is critical. It has to be sunny and it has to be secure. It needs access to water, and it either needs good soil or it has to be somewhere that soil can be taken to. You can be creative about a location. Some people grow in their backyards. Others grow in remote locations. British Columbia is covered in logging slashes, power lines and natural meadows. Remember that power lines get cleared periodically and logging slashes get re-planted. Make sure you don’t get there before work crews do. A southern exposure is best, and a south facing hill can help with a gravity watering system.

Lot's of sun...

...and hiding places.

You should start your garden indoors. If you can get clones from a good outdoor strain, fantastic, but otherwise you’ll need to start from seeds. You’re going to want to be able to sex the plants before putting them outside if at all possible. You also want to grow them as large as possible. If you’re packing them in on your back, or on an ATV, or a burro, they can’t get too big, but the bigger they can be when you plant them outside the better you’ll like the results. If you can get the plants as tall as 18 inches with vigorous growth and sturdy stems you’ll do great. Moving them will expose the plants to physical damage, so you want strong plants and good containers.
To start a plant inside you don’t need a full blown high output system. Fluorescent lights will do the trick for vegetative growth. When the plants are young keep the lights as close to the plants as possible. It’s said that longer skinnier pots will lead to a longer as opposed to a wider root ball. Longer roots can penetrate deeper into the ground in search of water, and this may be a benefit to you. Make sure you’ve got good drainage holes in the pots.

Prior to transferring the plants to an outdoor location you’ll need to gradually harden them off. To abrupt a change can be a shock that leads to death. Keep that in mind, because you’ll need a safe place around home where you can expose the plants to direct sun (much stronger than any lights) as well as cold wind and cold nights. Partial shade first, then full sun.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider. Where will your garden be? How dispersed will it be? How many plants? Where will you start them? What strain will you use? What kind of containers? Where will you harden them off? And guess what? We haven’t covered it all yet.

Don’t worry. Anything worth having takes effort, and good weed is no different. Start planning now, and more important, start doing now. Everything will work out as long as you start the process and stick to it.

Related posts:

Outdoor Growing Contest
Growing Outdoors – Water
Pot Seeds
Doper Math