Thought I would share a few tips and tricks I've picked up over the years from other growers, research, and first hand experience. I do not do anything illegal now including cultivating cannabis, nor posess any contraband, so I am not incriminating myself.
Please add your own lesser known growing and usage information so we can have a good knowledge base of the not often convered ins and outs of cannabis use and growing.
Tip #1 Spring Harvest
So the winter is fading enough to not have any freezes at night. You plan on putting out your seedlings in a month or two, right? Wrong. You can place plants outside and have a spring harvest as soon as it stops freezing at night to hold you until your fall harvest, or do it all in the Spring due to its advantages.
Start your seeds or cuttings inside for up to five months before planting time. For me, this is November which is great because it gives me something to do after harvesting those final sativas. Prune or train your plants if you like, or let them grow naturally. During the Spring, there are little to no helicopter flyovers looking for marijuana. Plan your big harvest in the Spring if stealth is not very possible in the fall. You probably will want to stick with containers instead of planting them straight into the ground. You may need to move them inside at night during some late winter freezes.
How does Spring budding work?
Your plants will be inside under 18/6 or 24/0 light periods. The shock from moving them out to short end of winter days will trigger the budding response. The days will remain short enough to get them far enough along into budding to not revert to vegetative mode in longer spring days. Indicas work best for this due to their short flowering period and cold tolerance. Most growers in the US will want to move their plants out in March to allow for 3 good months for the plant to deal with stress and fully flower. I have read that the light hitting the US in the Spring is more UV intense and like a metal halide, whereas fall light could be compared to an HPS.
Sativa buds will stretch due to the long flowering period making them go into late Spring/early Summer. They will still finish though, they may not be the prettiest but they will pack every bit of potency of a fall bud. So it is worthwhile if you want to grow a sativa or two and have the space.
When you harvest your buds, leave the lower portion of the plant with your smallest buds. This will likely cause the plant to revert to vegetative and give you another harvest in the fall.
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