I frequently travel between Philadelphia and Birmingham. I spend one week per month in each city. I also have access to practically abandoned areas where I could plant marijuana with no trouble at all. My friends have a bunch of cannabis clones and I could feasibly start right now. Do I still have time to plant these (August 15-20 in Philly and 22-29 in Birmingham)? If so, what varieties should I try?
You still have time to plant in either location. One problem you’ll find in both locations is trying to get the marijuana plants to adjust to the intense August sun. This is critical and should be done with great caution. First, the marijuana plants need to be sprayed with an anti-transpirant to mitigate the shock of transplanting. These sprays work to clog a plant’s stomach to make sure that it does not transpire as much water.
If the marijuana plants stay in containers, they need to be transplanted to large ones and put outdoors in the shade for a few days. You should also transplant the plants at the end of the day. Loosen the soil around the young plants and water them so that the medium is moistened through and through. Once the marijuana plants have acclimated to the new environment, they should be given a bloom-type water-soluble fertilizer.
Also, make sure you use a light-colored container. It works to reflect the light rather absorbing it as heat. You can wrap the container in cloth, paint it, or place it in a basket. In my opinion, baskets work best for plants grown outdoors because they deal with the sunlight and not the container itself. There is space between the basket and the container, which essentially ensure that the hot air will rise away and the container will stay cool.
The main concern for a Pennsylvania crop would be getting the buds to ripen prior to the onset of cold weather. You should realistically try to harvest this cannabis crop between October 1 and October 15 depending on the micro-climatic conditions.
The plants need to begin flowering and then ripen in around two months. This would best be accomplished with early indica varieties or indica-dominant hybrids. The marijuana plants won’t get that large because they will be induced into flowering soon after adjusting to their new light pattern. They will also not see a great deal of vegetative growth while flowering. Thus, you can space the plants on 2-foot centers.
The Alabama crop will be harvested by November 15. The extra time and more intense sunlight provide you with options when choosing your varieties. Indica and indica-sativa hybrids will begin flowering virtually right after they are put in the ground. They will grow about 25 to 50% taller and wide and will mature 60 days after they were planted.
Commercial varieties that will perform well include skunks, Northern Lights x Haze, sativa-indica hybrids, and sativas. These varieties will mature later in the season and continue their growth during the maturation process. They should be placed about 3 feet apart.
Robert
