First time outdoor grow 2025

[elusive]

Next season will be my first real attempt at outdoor growing. I did some autos a year or 2 back in pots, one smoked awesome, one was covered in spiderwebs or webs from spider mites, so that got trashed.

A few questions:

Should I start the seeds outdoors, or should I start them inside, or does it not really matter? When should transplanting/sowing outdoor start (zone 5b if that helps) - basically same as other plants, after dangers of frost?

If sowed/transplanted into the ground, how tall do can they get? I know that might be difficult to answer, but a rough estimate would help.

For bug prevention, would a structure with insect netting be useful with black landscape fabric over the soil? Would like to keep as many pests away as possible.

I think that’s all I have for now.

 

[steamroller]

I start inside and veg 2-4 weeks before placing outdoors just be easy.
I think growing outdoors in pots was the best plan for me.
It allowed me to move them around for sun or whatever.
For pest prevention you need to spray while in veg and pray while in flower if pest are a real issue.
I never treated my 3 girls outdoors this year and they did fine but I am in middle NY.

 

[MiGrampa]

Next season will be my first real attempt at outdoor growing. I did some autos a year or 2 back in pots, one smoked awesome, one was covered in spiderwebs or webs from spider mites, so that got trashed.

A few questions:

Should I start the seeds outdoors, or should I start them inside, or does it not really matter? When should transplanting/sowing outdoor start (zone 5b if that helps) - basically same as other plants, after dangers of frost?

If sowed/transplanted into the ground, how tall do can they get? I know that might be difficult to answer, but a rough estimate would help.

For bug prevention, would a structure with insect netting be useful with black landscape fabric over the soil? Would like to keep as many pests away as possible.

I think that’s all I have for now.

I always start mine indoors in the early spring. I'm in Michigan and I start my plants the first of April. Mine will veg for 4-6 weeks before I move them out to the greenhouse. The greenhouse gives me a couple weeks head start to my summer ... but typically in my area, people don't plant outside until around Memorial day.

One thing to keep in mind when growing outdoors is what kind of climate do you have and how long can you realistically expect your growing season to run. Many people believe that your growing season is from when the ground begins to warm in the spring until it frosts in the fall ... While technically that may be correct, cannabis is well known for mold, mildew, and rot issues and northern growers begin to have trouble once the temperature at night drops into the dew point on a regular basis. Cooler weather and wet plants is what causes this and it happens well before first frost.

How do you get around this? Pick strains that are known to do well in your particular area. In my area that would mean early finishing plants that are resistant to mold/mildew/rot issues.