How Do I Choose an Outdoor Growing Location?

Smokin Moose

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex Moderator
Security
Do not grow on your own land (unless it is remote), so that you can show that someone could have easily trespassed on your property, and violated your land by planting marijuana. A few plants should be fine, but be careful.

You may never get caught, but there is a constant threat of suspicious neighbors, hunters/hikers and worst of all, cops.

I suggest a secure location where your plants won't get confiscated by the cops or stolen by rippers/hunters/hikers. Avoid heavy traffic areas, popular hiking trails, and recreational roads. At all costs, avoid making paths to your grow location. What seems invisible on the ground may be very apparent from the air. Try a new path each time you enter or exit your location; walking along fallen logs, in dense areas and through streams, etc.

Try to have several locations and not plant all your plants in one spot. If your plants do get eaten, ripped off, or taken by cops it is nice to have plants in other locations to fall back on. These separate locations can be close (5-20 mins hike away) or distant (Completely different areas). Planting inside a dense field of brush is very stealthy.

Fertility and sun exposure
Once you have chosen a secure location, check the area is fertile, with lots of green vegetation. Dark or black topsoil with lots of bugs/worms within the first few inches of soil is an indication of a healthy location.

Valley bottoms tend to be ideal locations because rich topsoil often washes downwards and accumulates. It can be challenging to find good sun exposure at the bottom of a valley. Valley bottoms are the first areas to have frost in the fall.

A very important consideration is sun exposure. The more direct sunlight the better (preferably a southern facing slope). North facing slopes are also a good choice.

Choosing a location near a water source saves the major hassle of having to haul water in by hand. A nearby water source allows irrigation (with pumps and hoses), making watering easy. A drawback is that people are also attracted to rivers, streams, etc and may be nearby.

Having a water source near by is great, as it usually means the tap roots of the plant will penetrate deep enough though the last 1/2 or 1/3 of the season and will not require much, if any, supplemental watering. Fertilizing will still be required periodically.

Note: Scout a location during the summer and fall to prepare for planting the following spring. The site needs to have brush removed, and a suitably sized area needs to be cleared for planting. Preparing the holes the previous fall allows soil time to compost and grow beneficial bacteria.
 
:helpsmilie:does any one know what types of greenhouses would be good for cannabis plants

The ones with Cannabis growing in them. lol I would think the best one would be suited to your areas natural climate.
 
Ok, I have such a place to plant my cannabis. The soil isn't all that great & although it gets some sun, I'm not sure it will get enough. I wont use a lot of chemical because of where I live (by the Lake). Not much foot traffic comes through our area or place; except on the road itself. I only grow for myself, so I want enough to get me through fall, winter & part of spring. How many seeds should I start? I do have access to rabbit poo for fertilizer, but not much else. So, I can use all the help that I can get.
 
Bone meal and cotton seed meal and green sand release nutrients slowly and you dont need to keep feeding. you may want to look into extreme nutrients once and done packs.
 
Bone meal and cotton seed meal and green sand release nutrients slowly and you dont need to keep feeding. you may want to look into extreme nutrients once and done packs.

I would suggest looking into long-lasting nutrients too. I think Heavy Harvest is one I've heard growers talk about as being effective. I haven't had a chance (or a place!) to start outdoor growing, but I'm really happy to read these threads and see what I could start doing.
 
You'll need to water heavily when the summer comes, but it's always better to plant them in full sun, cause it will influence the yield, which is what you're growing it for.
 
out here a lot of greenhouses and outdoor grow use the semi-clear plastic over the top. (Michigan)

The plants do very well without direct sunlight. some growers are picking better hiding spots from overhead surveillance and chosing spots that only get full sun part of the day. Remember - indoors those HID lights at 100,000/88,000 lumens is only a fraction of the sun's lumens - " It is measured in watts which 380 followed by 24 zeros." - How Bright is the Sun?

So a little bit of plastic can cut some of those massive wattages of sunlight - but it could be worth a quality crop if it protects it from rain and dust.

The plastic cover on the top was also important as it controlled when or how it gets watered. Water can seep into the ground from outside the plastic cover or you pipe it in. Near the end of the flowering season - you don't want a lot of rain to rot your buds. You want to control the water sometimes.

Oh yea - since every greenhouse here has this plastic over on it - it means nothing to the police when they see it.

DN
 
I'll include some more ideas on my blog page, but, I would add that I chose southern or south eastern exposures primarily. South western exposures would be a close third. I prefer southeastern for a couple of reasons.

-earlier sun in the morning dries the leaves form dew the night before. This lessens the chance of fungal problems especially during flowering.

-Southeastern exposures gnerally offer some wind or storm protection in my area. In the midwest we often get storms that blow up out of the west or southwest. Again this helps alot when you start putting some weight on your plants.

I agree with Digitalnomad that filtered in direct light offers a couple of advantages. I use cloches or low tunnels these can be made for less than 100 bucks and offer unbelievable plant growth and total concealment. Also if you plant in a filtered light location then at least part of the day your plants are in some light shade. This makes them much harder to spot from the air.
 
I've lived in Colorado for almost thirty years but way before our freedom amendment ended marijuana prohibition here we grew our own. My last four gardens have been right in my back yard but in those days I liked to grow in a swamp where very few people might wander by. There's usually a sand bar in or near the middle of most swamps and that's a really safe place after you've made a few alterations. Sometimes fishermen or kids might find your stash but your biggest nemesis will be deer. I don't think they are too crazy about larger plants but I've lost entire gardens of seedlings to them. That was the last year the deer trumped me though.

Coincidentally enough, the day after I lost an entire batch of promising seedlings to deer, I took Allen, my buckskin quarter horse gelding, on a long trail ride. When we got near the top of a hill Allen started acting strange and didn't want to continue in the direction I wanted him to go. I'm a good enough horseman to overcome such things though. After a few spin-arounds and a couple of yells and slaps on the neck he was heading, however reluctantly, in the right direction. After just a few feet more I realized what was spooking him. My nostrils started filling with the strong smell of death. There was probably a carcass of some animal rotting away, I don't know, he was getting too upset to make him ride closer to that stench. That's when it hit me: "Hoofed animals are afraid of the smell of death!"

My next garden and every swamp garden since have been trouble free from deer and nosy intruders. As soon as I was ready for planting I started collecting road kills and stashing them in my swamp. Sure the smell was rough on me so in the heat of summer when it was the worst I would put some vapo rub under my nose like the cops on the TV shows do. It worked great for deer and even better for humans. I had so many rotting corpses on every possible path that no one with a functioning olfactory sense would dare go near there.

That was before feminized seeds and clones so I had to make daily trips there to sex them. I also learned another trick that may be of help to a lot of folks. Once your plant starts budding it no longer needs its large leaves. I don't know what their correct biological name is but when I worked fields in Humboldt County we called them water leaves. Water leaves are the ones with a stem that grow directly off a main branch. When budding starts we start picking them from the bottom, underneath the boughs, to the top of each plant. DON'T STRIP ALL THE LEAVES! Doing so can put your plant in shock and any harvest in serious jeopardy. Just the big ones at first, once you know what you're doing, you'll know when it's safe to completely strip a plant.

Right now we are harvesting every night just when the sun leaves the overhead sky. Our plants look a bit like Christmas trees with no leaves but we grow the best weed around. We only grow enough for our own use, no one could afford ours if we didn't, this kind of labor can't be transferred to the marketplace.
Just thought I'd post something.
Lemual Poot
 
I am going to grow upstate ny for the first time have a big junk of land and would like to get some advice please total beginner by The way I am growing then already in my house so they are a bit bigger when we go outside in the wild :)

Thanks a lot best benson
 
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