Ok, time for another reminder.

If we work backwards from when we can plant outside we have to base it on when the danger of frost passes.

Last May I went camping in the mountains.  The first night was mixed rain and snow, and in the morning the water in our pots was frozen.  Too early to plant weed in the high country,  away from prying eyes.

But think about it: if you want a good size plant growing outside in the north country you’re going to want to start it inside, and have it as big as practical before you transplant it outside.
Days start getting shorter after the summer solstice, which is June 21.

If you can still get frost in May, but want the plants established outside by the 21st of June, you’ve got a small window (or you have to plant in a more mild area, which might not be an option for everyone).

Check when your area is frost free.

You also want all females, because if you risk it by planting unsexed weed outside you may end up a) having to kill a bunch of males, b) having a high percentage of males or c) getting old fashioned seedy weed.

To ensure you have females you either have to grow and sex individual plants before transplanting or you need clones.  You can clone you own babies if you have a good mother.

Not the kind of clones I mean

Not the kind of good mother I mean, either

So, let’s work backwards.  Say you aren’t using clones.  That means you have to start, on average, twice as many plants as you want to put outside.  You also have to factor in poor seed performance.  I’m no expert, but here’s what I’ve heard many, many times:

• the awesome feminized seeds that someone bought from Holland didn’t turn out so well;
• out of ten seeds seven were males;
• the clones my friend gave me didn’t work so well – only one really thrived.

So, start lots of plants so that numbers are on your side. Be ready to sex them individually. Lots of plants mean a higher chance of more females overall, even if you get a bad split.

The plants need at least three months to become mature when you start from seed. If you try to force them into bloom before then you run the risk of triggering a hermaphroditic reaction. Don’t ask me why (I can only guess stress) but I’ve forced plants early and had exactly that result. I suspect you can’t screw with Mother Nature too much, and should let the babies grow up to be cowboys (or whatever you want to call them).

Three months back from June means May, April and March. But…you also need a bit of time under light manipulation to flush out the males. That means you’re looking at February, more or less, to get started. Christmas is coming. Money can be tight in January as a result. Start planning now.

One thing to keep in mind is that forcing a plant to start flowering inside just before the solstice can be a good trick. The reason is simple, yet ingenious. Some say (I haven’t proven this myself yet) that if you transplant a plant that’s in the bloom cycle outside after the 21st it will notice each day getting shorter and stay in the bud mode. That gives you a week in June, plus July and August to get some good buds before danger of frost or mold gets bad.

It seems to me that if you’re going to do this you should start manipulating the lighting period from, say, 24 hours per day down bit by bit. That way, when your females go outside after the 21st they’ll be used to shortening days and won’t go back into veg state in the still long days of June. (You can force a plant to go into bud, then put it back into veg by manipulating the photo-period).

Now, I think there’s a better way, but it’s a bit more work. Grow some plants. Let them mature. Sex them. Kill most of the males. Keep a couple separate. Take the females and put them back into the veg cycle, and keep the males in a bud cycle.

When the females recover from the forced sexing you can start cloning the best specimens. Take a lot of clones, and get them well rooted. Be aware that a tiny clone is genetically mature. It can go into bud even if it’s only a few inches high. This is how bonsai gardeners and Sea of Green guys get bud off small plants.

The advantage for an outdoor guerilla gardener is that 10 mature females that are two feet high will produce more bud more safely than one monster bitch that’s sticking out like a sore thumb. They’re easier to hide, and use less water. Grow the clones in tall, narrow pots, so that the roots grow deep. This will help with water collection when you transfer them outside. Spread them out so that if someone stumbles on your patch they won’t get everything in one go.

What's easier to conceal? This?

Or weed so tall it sticks out like this?

Meanwhile, don’t forget about your males. Grow these indoors, and keep them in the bloom cycle. Watch the flower develop. If you’ve never seen males before you will have a challenge sexing them the first time, but once you see full fledged males you’ll never be confused again. When the little pollen buds get ready to split open capture some pollen in a paper bag, a plastic baggy or a little jar. Keep it safe and then harvest the males. Take the male buds, grab some hemp strand from a main stem, wrap it tightly around the male flowers and presto – you’ve got what I also was told were Thai sticks

Make your own!

I know, other people say that’s not what a Thai stick is, but what do you want to do? Throw away the male buds after you get the pollen? No need to be wasteful. Anyway, I could be wrong, but I was always told that Thai stick was just a good way to use male flowers, and I’ve been smoking weed from before the time that sinsemilla became the norm.

Back to the plan. Put the pollen away somewhere safe, dry and dark. Later, when one of your little girls is ready, you can selectively pollinate some or all of her buds with a little paintbrush. You control how mach seedy bud you get, but if you like the strain you have more than enough seeds to keep you going in case your mother plant packs it in or if you don’t want to grow year round. It’s called “sustainability”, or, considering that 10 seeds can cost $100, it’s called “growing money on trees”.

OK, so let’s work backwards again. We want a genetically mature plant we can force into bud for identification purposes. That’s three months plus some budding time (just enough time to flush out the boys). Once we identify the female we want to put it back into veg state and let it recover. That’s another month. Then we want clones, and we want the clones to grow strong enough to go outside without getting too big. If we can start the clones off on the bloom cycle that’s even better, but not critical.

So, June, minus three months is May, April and March. Add a couple weeks for sexing and you’re into February. Add a couple weeks for recovery back into veg and you’re into January. Add some clone time and…you’re planting some seeds in the basement under lights in December.

Look at the calender. It’s December right now. Go germinate some seeds.

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