Outdoor growing uses natural sunlight in open ground or containers. Photoperiod plants grow vegetatively through the long days of late spring and early summer and start flowering as nights lengthen in late summer, finishing from early autumn to late autumn depending on cultivar and latitude. Autoflowers ignore day length and can be planted on a rolling basis in warm months.
In practice
Sunlight is free and intense: a clear midsummer day can deliver a DLI of 50-60 mol/m²/day or more, well above typical indoor levels. Plants grown in large beds or the ground can become very large. Key decisions are cultivar choice (finishing before the autumn rains and frosts at your latitude), site (6-8 h or more of direct sun, airflow), soil preparation, and pest and mould management. Late-flower rain and humidity are the biggest risk to the crop through bud rot.
Home growing outdoors is legal only in some places, and rules often cover visibility and plant numbers. Check local rules.
Don't confuse with
- Greenhouse: under cover, often with light-dep and climate control.
- Guerrilla grow: growing on land you do not own or control.
The daily length of light versus dark; photoperiod cannabis flowers when nights grow long enough, rather than at a fixed age.A day-neutral cannabis plant that starts flowering by age, usually a few weeks after germination, regardless of light schedule; the trait is mainly recessive.Daily light integral: the total number of PAR photons a square metre of canopy receives in one day, in mol/m²/day; PPFD multiplied by hours of light.Botrytis cinerea, the fungus behind bud rot or grey mould, which rots dense colas from the inside in cool, humid conditions late in flower.Home grow is growing cannabis for personal use at your residence, permitted in some jurisdictions within plant-count, location and security limits.Light deprivation (light dep) covers greenhouse or outdoor plants with blackout material to give long nights, forcing photoperiod plants to flower earlier than the natural season.A guerrilla grow is cannabis planted on land the grower does not own or control, typically wild or remote ground, a practice that is illegal in most places.Indoor growing is cultivating cannabis entirely under artificial light in a tent or room, giving full control over light, climate and photoperiod.Greenhouse growing uses sunlight under a covered structure, adding varying degrees of control over temperature, humidity, light deprivation and supplemental lighting.Hardening off is gradually exposing plants raised indoors or under a dome to harsher conditions, such as sun, wind and lower humidity, so they adapt without shock.Companion planting grows other plant species alongside cannabis to attract beneficial insects, repel or trap pests, cover soil or support soil life.
