With the new laws in effect for 2012, this marks the first year that caregivers and patients will be able to grow their medicinal marijuana outdoors. Caregivers and patients will still be required to cultivate in an enclosed locked facility, however one of the major changes to the latest amendment to LD 1296 states that a fenced in area qualifies as an enclosed locked facility so long as it is equipped with a lock or other security device. The new amendment will allow patients and caregivers another viable option besides a greenhouse to cultivate outdoors and use the sun’s natural energy to produce their medicine.
The outdoor grow platform helps to eliminate several obstacles for caregivers and patients who have been dealing with small spaces, climate control problems, high electrical bills, and countless other issues that arise with indoor grow rooms.
A successful outdoor grow will present its own slew of obstacles and headaches for caregivers and patients to deal with, however if you fallow some simple outdoor gardening precautions, and don’t shy away from hard work, then producing a high quality harvest this outdoor season should be well within your grasp.
The first thing you should be aware of is the soil you are using. Marijuana can grow in almost any soil, however the soil quality is directly associated with the growth rate and yield of your plants. As soon as you have a location secured you should get your soil tested and find out what if anything needs to be done to it. Check your soil for worms, if you have them then odds are your soil is already nutrient rich and well suited for outdoor farming. Another easy eye test is to observe what else is growing and how healthy the vegetation looks in the area. Soil amendments can be the most expensive part of outdoor growing depending on the quality of the existing soil on your lot. There are countless mixes out on the market as well as the raw ingredients available to you as a consumer to create your own amendment mixes, peat
moss, perlite, worm castings, blood meal, building sand and dolomite lime are
typical ingredients found in in soil amendments.
Another
important aspect to outdoor growing is how big you want your seedlings or
clones to be before putting them outside. Obviously the bigger the plant the
better chance it will have to be a healthy vigorous plant after transplanting.
Every caregiver grow facility is different and some may have more problems than
others with finding ample veg space to get the plants to the desired size. If
you haven’t taking cuttings or started seeds and are planning on doing an
outdoor grow this season than you should do so immediately. I would recommend
that your plants be no smaller than 6 inches tall before putting them outside,
but again the bigger the plant the less attention it will require the first few
weeks in the
ground.
A big factor to any type of outdoor farming is to make sure the natural climate is suitable to your crop. With so many different varieties of marijuana circulating through the medical industry it is important to find a strain or strains that are compatible with the short cold outdoor farming season in Maine. For example if you attempt to grow a 90 day flowering sativa outdoors in Maine you may end up with a situation where you could be forced to harvest before your desired time or face damaging your crop if a late September frost occurs. Try to stick with strains that flower in 65 days or less if you plan to cultivate outdoors in Maine. The now infamous M.O.B. strain which has been circulating around the Maine medical marijuana scene can flower in as little as 50 days, and is said to be originally crossed with the short Maine outdoor season in mind.
Other things to keep in mind for a first time outdoor grow would be to make sure your fence is sufficient to keep hungry deer and rabbits away from your crops, and also make sure that your plants are stable enough to survive an attack from aphids, mites, slugs, or snails before putting them outside.
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