A short answer
is May, if you can plant tomato plants outside you can plant your cannabis
plants. When growing outside make sure
you are taking these steps:
1. Choose the right strain, make
sure you are choosing a hardy strain for our norther climate try to find one
with a longer flowing time.
2. Find a good location.
Cannabis plants love the sun, try to find a spot with five to six hours of full
sun exposure.
3. Germinate early. Start your
clones or seeds indoors and early to make sure the are sturdy and healthy
before going outside.
4. Ensure you are using good
quality soil.
5. Use Fertilizers. Fish meal,
bone meal, and compost are all great options to feed your outdoor cannabis
plants
6. Control pests. Try surrounding your cannabis plants with Marigolds,
Basil and/or Rosemary. These are natural
pest repellants. Introduce beneficial
insects like Ladybugs and earthworms for aerating the soil. Use Neem oil this oil is one of the most
commonly used pest management products used by organic gardeners. Neem oil is
considered safe and is thought to leave no dangerous residue on soil or plants.
With
care and dedication, you will be enjoying your harvest in late September or
October depending on where in Canada you live.
These are Spider mites. Spider mites are the most common garden pest to attack
cannabis plants. These tiny mites love to make their home on plants living on
their nutritious sap. If left uncontrolled, spider mite infestations can have
devastating effects on the health of your plants and the size/quality of your
harvest. On female spider mite can lay up t 140 eggs per day! Start by
washing down your plants with a strong jet of water. Do this early in the
morning. If possible, try to bring down the pH of your water to about 3-4. You
can do this using vinegar, nitric, phosphoric, or citric acid. Next, opt for a
contact pesticide spray like insecticidal soap. These are safe to use on all
kinds of consumable plants, including cannabis. When using contact sprays,
remember to directly hit the pests and their eggs with the spray (the key word
here is contact). Re-apply your spray according to the label instructions until
all the mites have been completely removed from your plants. This will usually
take multiple applications. Also, remember to switch up the sprays/pesticides
you use. Mites are very good at building up immunity if only targeted with one
specific spray. If you’re opting for a more holistic solution, you can make up
your own insecticidal mite spray using water and garlic (you can even add some
hydrogen peroxide to the mix) and ladybugs love to eat spider mites. Prevention
is the best cure..
IMPORTANT
NOTE: Never use systemic pesticides on cannabis plants. These pesticides enter
the vascular system of plants and can be poisonous to both humans and animals.
Only ever use pesticides that are safe to use on edibles like fruit and veg.
That is a tough question, because there are as many techniques of drying
bud as there are techniques of smoking bud, you need to find what works best
for you and your situation. Many people “Hang Dry” to hang dry you will need
trim your bud while leaving it on the stocks then in a well ventilated slightly
under room temperature room that is about 50% humidity you will suspend these
stocks (generally using lengths of twine) and hang to dry them upside-down.
Ensure no stocks are touching each other.
Many people swear by “curing” after this initial stage of drying the bud
will be clipped into sealable containers like mason jars. Curing is a delicate dance of moisture and
oxygen. Opening the containers several times each day, but
just for a few minutes, lets
excess moisture escape and refreshes the oxygen in the vessel, re-drying after
sweating if necessary. Reaching the
perfect level of curing can take several weeks. As
a larger producer back in the day, taking weeks for the perfect smoke was not
an option. We never hung our plants; we directly trimmed off the bud then laid
the bud out on screens in an optimum room using fans to push heavy airflow and
dehumidifiers to control humidity. When
the buds felt dry, we would seal them up generally using plastic bins or bags
(however I preferred paper bags and cardboard boxes) in order to get he first
“sweat” out of the buds. Cannabis plants hang onto their moisture and even when
the bud feels dry moisture will be pulled out by sweating them. Once the bud feels moist again, we would lay
the bud out on the screens again to dry, once dry to the touch we would repeat
the sweat technique until buds were completely dry this drying style would take
about 5 to 7 days. Any way you choose to
dry you will need to sweat your bud, or you will find your pot too wet to smoke
and it will no doubt be moldy within a day or two. You will know your marijuana
is properly dried when the stems start to snap instead of bend.