Got some freakshow and Frankenstein x ppp I wanna try outdoors this year. My grow experience is limited to indoors but I’ve got some space close by that seems like it’d do nicely for a few plants. Final frost is usually end of april, summers get up to the high 90s sometimes and it can be pretty humid. First frost is Late October-mid November usually
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I do plan on sexing via clone before bringing them outside. Also looking at 15gal pots(or larger)
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Best advice I have is waste nothing. Start now clone you couple females give them a foot head start before putting em out. It stops lot of things from killing em off as babies. Obviously hide em from ppl. I like to pre dig the holes about 15-20gallon size and mix good soil with the natural soil 50/50 and add perlite . Then plant em in the holes I’m going for it outside this year here.
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Said it as I was typing it.
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I’m gonna have to wait till I get some stuff harvested before I can start, so probably early march late feb, but yeah now would probably be best if I could.
Check out the local agricultural extension, for example Virginia Tech, and find out what their recommendations are for IPM on outdoor edibles. The local educational scene usually has a really good bead on pests and how to treat them on food crops, which should be how we think about treating medicinal cannabis.
E.g. Integrated Pest Management of Hemp in Virginia | VCE Publications | Virginia Tech
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Here’s some things I’ve learned…
Start from seed and make sure the seed plants are the ones that end up outside. They will grow better than clones. Take clones and sex those to determine which ones get the spotlight. Put them outside on June 1st to avoid reveg. Get at least a 10gal pot but 15-30 is better. Sticking them in the ground is best! You’ll have good results your first time, pots can be tricky at first. I like to start my seeds a month before they go outside, they won’t get so big you can’t manage them. Try to find a strain that performs well outdoors, not all will be good. Something around the 8-9 wks will be good for your first time.
Hope this helps!
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I’m an outdoor grower.
I find it best to plant in ground not pots. Not to say you can’t grow in pots.
Mine go out the last week of May - the first week of June in ground.
I amend my own soil. Let it sit for 30 - 60 days before planting in it, letting it cook.
Here my harvest has to be ready by October, we start to get frost then. So, I have to know how many weeks the plant takes to mature .
I grew indoors for many years. But, love outdoor so much better!
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I have a question, if you don’t mind:
I hope to grow giant plants this summer and would like to know how large of a raised bed it would take to get them to grow large. I can (and probably will) put some in the ground, but will also need to know how how much dirt I should turn over and soften for that.
For the raised beds, I’m thinking at least 3 feet by 3 feet by 12 inches deep. Would that work?
I would go minimum 18" deep on the raised beds, if not 24" to really maximize if you’re looking for large ones. 3’x3’ raised beds with an 18-24" depth would get you some nice plants.
Look into a 30 gallon pot minimum if you’re going to go that route. I pulled 1.7lbs from one of my plants in the 30 gal last season. That was with seeds sprouted on May 1st, planted outside June 1st and harvested in October. Not sure I would do more veg time than that for those size pots. If you started your seeds a month earlier than I did then I would suggest a 45 gallon or larger. Not the most experienced with this but I’ve grown outdoors the last two seasons and that’s been my experience with it.
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I grow trees in 15-30 gallon fabric pots in pure promix bx and feed CONSTANTLY through the season with sterile nutes. I veg out in winter and start any training to put it outside by the end of may with first frost hitting end of Oct.
I also defoliate like a bastard. If you look at my 2021 outdoors thread you can see a start to finish. 
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My ONLY photoperiods for 2022 outdoors. Both UK Cheese cloned from my almost 2 year old mother. This strain didn’t care about the bad weather so it’s earned a place in the yard.
Everything else will be autos with me aiming for a double season by starting round 1 the start of may with them going outdoors the end of May; and then Same in July when round 1 gets chopped and round 2 will run until Sept
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Thank you. I’ll probably go with the 45-gallon pots, since I’ll be putting them in their permanent homes by 1 May, and harvest in late Nov or early Dec. I’m hoping to get clones, putting one in a container with potting soil and the other into the ground just to see what difference (if any) it makes.
Should I top or just let them go?
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Oh so you live in a warm climate where they can stay out a bit longer? If you’re planning a harvest in Dec and you put them outside in June you are going to have absolute TREES on your hands. These can be a lot to deal with for first time growers and require a lot of work and attention. I would just sit down and consider that bc it would be a real shame to make a mistake late in flower and lose the crop. I’ve heard growers that harvest that late in the season speak about not putting their plants out until Mid July! I know you want big plants and I’m not saying you can’t do it I’m just saying it can be a huge effort.
As for topping, I topped one of my plants and it turned out ok but I had to trellis it with bamboo. I’ve heard outdoor growers on podcasts say to leave the natural structure of the plant intact and let it grow how nature intended. Growing it naturally this way is the best structure the plants knows to naturally defend against rain and wind storms.
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It’ll be my first outdoor, but yeah it usually doesn’t start getting cold till mid November. I’m not opposed to them being huge, spots secluded enough and I can camo some stuff
Thanks for the advice. I’m new to this, so there are still a lot of “unknown unknowns.” I’m thinking of growing several plants and trying different techniques on each one. I grow a lot of other plants like basil, roses, peppers, raspberries, blueberries and pretty much anything else I think is cool. I prefer to feed my plants generously and let them do their thing with minimal intervention, so if some go insane I’m OK with that. I also have plenty of time and space for them to do their thing.
I know this sounds a bit weird, but I’d love to start a colony of them on the banks of one of the many creeks here and let them go feral. Frankly, I think cannabis should be available for anyone willing to harvest it in the wild.
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You gonna seed a bunch of folks outdoor crops doin that. We gotta look out for our fellow growers here too.
I’ve looked into this, and there’s a specific genetic quality that needs to be present for it to work the best, which is seed ejection. Not all modern worked strains still push out the seeds and drop them the way a lot of landraces and untended heirlooms do, so that would be something to consider in your choice of potential feral strains. I have considered doing the same with some of the Lolab Valley Afghani that has been worked a bit in Maine by The Guy Downtown since he mentions this specific trait being very active in that line:
“It should also be noted that if left to their devices, they will create a self sustaining population in most environments due to early flowering, quickly ripening seed, and a natural seed auto-ejection mechanism where the bract splits upon ripeness being reached, if this is unwanted vigilantly cull any rogue plants and exclude all males from the area.”
Just make sure none of them are male and that you don’t live anywhere near me 
You answered what was going to be my next question. I was wondering if feral populations did better if they were autoflower or photoperiodic. Ok, thanks, auto or semi-autos that eject their seeds would be a good bet, or that’s what I took from your answer.
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