Outdoor cultivation requires less equipment, expertise and labour. For the first few weeks of life, outdoor plants need the same care and attention as indoor ones. However, once a few basics have been well established, outdoor plants may be left (in a good, sunny spot) to take care of themselves. They may need to be regularly watered and fed and, occasionally, pruned but most of their development will be accomplished simply by allowing them to grow over spring and summer.
This feature of outdoor cultivation is what makes ‘guerilla growing’ possible. Established plants may be placed outside in remote or wild areas and left to their own devices throughout the growing season. The guerilla grower need only visit them a few times in this period, or even just the once, at harvest time.
Outdoor plants will usually yield more than indoor ones. This is simply because they are able to grow larger. Few indoor setups are able accommodate plants larger than 180cm. Assuming that detection is not a problem, outdoor plants may comfortably grow to 2 or 3m in height. It is possible for a single plant of this size to produce 500g or more of dried bud. Germinating seeds early in the growing season (March or April in the Northern hemisphere) will allow your plants a long vegetative period before flowering is triggered by the shorter days of late summer.
Sun, air, wind and rain are free!
Some people prefer the taste and effect of organically grown cannabis. Many cannabis lovers insist they can easily differentiate between buds grown with soil and sun and those produced with hydroponics and grow-lights. This, however may simply be the result of their smoking over-fertilised indoor cannabis, or even the fact that indoor buds can taste very different, due to their containing an uncommonly high level of THC that is simply not attainable outdoors.
Indoor cultivation allows the grower control over all the factors governing plant growth – light, water, nutrient, heat, humidity, airflow and so on. When these factors are effectively managed the usual result is a more potent crop achieved in a shorter space of time than would be possible with outdoor growing.
Similarly, indoor cultivation allows the grower to decide exactly when to induce flowering, giving more control over the speed and size of the crop.
Grow-lights allow plants to enjoy the benefits of direct, intense light for their entire ‘daytime’ life. This is not possible when growing with sunlight. More direct light generally results in denser, more resinous buds and a more compact plant.
The resin that coats the flowers of indoor plants need not be affected by environmental factors such as wind and rain – which can damage the glands
Indoors, there is a smaller range of pests that may prey on or damage plants. However, the sealed environment of a grow-room also removes the possibility of naturally occurring beneficial insects (which prey on pests) and, unchecked, may result in a far more serious infestation than is likely outdoors.
Indoor cultivation allows the grower to work simultaneously with plants at different stages of growth. This can be achieved by having two or more growing areas, typically one on a 12/12 photoperiod for flowering, the other on 18/6 for vegetative growth. This set-up allows a ‘rolling’ or perpetual harvest (where a number of plants are put into and harvested from the flowering area every week or fortnight)
Perhaps most importantly, having a two-cycle growing area allows the possibility of keeping ‘mother-plants’ and making clones. Cloning enables a grower to retain the individual genetics of one favourite plant for years, if desired. Keeping a female plant in a perpetual 18/6 photoperiod allows it to continue vegetating indefinitely. Any shoots cut from this mother plant can then be rooted and transferred to the flowering area. This means the grower is able to flower many exact copies of the mother while retaining the ‘master copy’ in the vegetative area.
