When it comes to growing cannabis, you need to keep in mind that most cannabis plants need a specific photoperiod (light period) in order to grow and produce the flowers that we’re all after. This means that if you’re growing outdoors you’ll need to do so within the right season in order to obtain the best possible results.
When Does Cannabis Flower Outdoors?
As a general rule of thumb, the flowering period of photoperiodic cannabis plants starts once they begin to receive less light and more hours of darkness. This can be done indoors whenever you want by simply flipping your light schedule to 12h light and 12h dark. However, outdoors this happens naturally over summer at different moments depending on the latitude at which you grow your plant.
If you want to understand when you can still germinate and if you’re in time to plant this year, first you’ll need to differentiate between three different types of cannabis plant:
- Photoperiodic cannabis plants: feminized or regular.
- Automatic or autoflowering cannabis plants.
- Fast version photoperiodic plants.
Photoperiodic Strains
Photoperiodic cannabis plants are strains that depend on the amount of light the receive in order to flower. From germination, and during the first few weeks, these plants only spend energy on growing. Once they’re adults, they’ll keep growing until daylight is reduced enough to cause flowering. Photoperiodic cannabis plants can be both feminized and regular.
Autoflowering or Automatic Cannabis Strains
Autoflowering cannabis strains come from crossing a photoperiodic strain with cannabis plants that contain Ruderalis genes. Ruderalis is a strain from the Caucasus and they’re used to growing and flowering under 18h of light during the short Siberian summers.
Thanks to the ruderalis genes, autoflowering plants start flowering regardless of the amount they receive. This type of strain will start to flower between the third and fifth week of growing, depending on the strain. Autoflowering plants that flower sooner tend to grow smaller and produce less yield.
Fast Version Strains
These strains come from photoperiodic strains that have been crossed with autoflowering strains. The resulting plants are still photoperiodic, although they finish flowering up to two weeks before normal strains; these strains aren’t autoflowering but they do have a much shorter flowering period.
Some seed banks sell these types of seeds under different names like F1 fast Version, Fast Flowering, Early Version and Quick, such as Jack 47 F1 Fast Version, Royal Cheese Fast Flowering, Quick Critical and Quick Gorilla.
Latest Time to Plant Cannabis Outdoors
During the summer, the days begin to get longer until the solstice. From June 21 – 24th in the Northern Hemisphere, the days will begin to get shorter by minutes each day. This won’t affect your plants growth until about a month later.
During the first few days of august, most cannabis strains will begin to flower, although this may vary depending on where you live.
Growing Photoperiodic Plants at the End of the Season
Photoperiodic plants need to grow first in order to flower properly. This means that the longer they’re growing for, the larger they’ll be when it comes time to flower, which makes for an overall better yield. If you germinate at the start of the season you can harvest large yields from enormous plants, although if you germinate towards the end of the season you’ll need to keep in mind that you’ll harvest less quantity per plant.
Germinating photoperiodic plants in June
From June to August there’s two months for photoperiodic plants to grow before flowering. If you’re using large flowerpots (we recommend Smart Pot) or you grow in the soil, make sure to keep your plants stress-free (drought, excess water, root burn etc.) in order to grow decent-sized plants.
By following this method you’ll be able to harvest the same amount from two 2m tall plants as you would from one 4m tall plant. This is a great time to germinate sativas and tall hybrids in balconies, terraces or gardens in which you don’t want your plants to grow over 2.5 m tall.
Germinating photoperiodic plants in July
If you germinate your cannabis plants during the first couple of weeks of July, they’ll grow for about a month before flowering. If you do it in the second half of July, they’ll reach the second half of august before they start flowering. These plants won’t be as tall as others that germinate at the start of the season, although you’ll still be able to harvest a decent amount per plant.
In the worst-case scenario, you may be held back a few days before harvesting, but that isn’t much of an issue. If you’re going to plant sativas and you don’t want them to grow too tall for whatever reason, June and July are the perfect months to germinate.
Germinating photoperiodic plants in August and September
Germinating during these months means that most strains will be ready to harvest in November. In areas with mild winters such as Mediterranean climates in Europe, you can easily grow a plant during these months. In this case, we recommend using fast-flowering plants in order to harvest much earlier.
An example of a strain which is fast-flowering, strong and easily deals with humidity is the amazing Jamaican Dream by Eva Seeds. If you decide to grow a fast-flowering cannabis plants we highly recommend checking out our post about the fastest cannabis strains for outdoor growing.
Growing photoperiodic strains in autumn/winter
Low temperatures at night can cause your plants to stress out and stop growing entirely. This type of grow can only be done in areas where night temperatures don’t go below 8 – 10 °C. It’s hard to give any examples based on experience when you keep in mind climate change over the past few years.
A few years ago, the coldest days of the year were in January, although now it could be February or even March. Growing in a greenhouse or inside using fluorescent lighting and then taking them outdoors can be a great way to grow successful plants during this time of year.
Growing Autoflowering Plants at the End of the Season
Autoflowering or automatic plants don’t depend on the amount of light or dark the receive in order to flower, although they do prefer to be grown under as much light as possible. In the northern hemisphere, the growing period is from April to October, and in the southern hemisphere it’s from October to April.
However, if your minimum temperatures are over 10°C, autoflowering plants can be grown all year long. Keep in mind that if you germinate autoflowering seeds when there’s less sunlight they won’t grow as much as they do during growing season. The best months for planting autoflowering strains are May and June.
Germinating Autoflowering Plants in June
Autoflowering cannabis plants, depending on the strain, have a life cycle that can vary between two months and 100 days. If you plant in June, you should be able to harvest in August, so this is the perfect time to plant autoflowering strains.
Growing advice: if you’re growing on a balcony or terrace, keep in mind that the ground can let off heat and you’ll need to prop your plants up on something so their roots don’t burn. Automatic cannabis plants have a short growth period and can get stressed out over small issues and stop growing.
Germinating Autoflowering Plants in July and August
If you germinate during these months you should be able to harvest around September or October. This is still the growing season, so you shouldn’t have any issues.
Growing advice: make sure to keep your plants safe from caterpillars during this period.
Germinating Autoflowering Plants from September Onwards
It’s super important to take care of your plants so they don’t get stressed out. This can happen in September when it rains, for example. The lack of oxygen can cause stress and your plant may end up slowing down in as far as growth, or even stopping entirely.
This can be fixed in photoperiodic plants, but growth stunting in plants that don’t grow for long is incredibly hard to fix and can considerably reduce yield.
A balcony safe from rain and autoflowering plants can be a great way to get through the winter. They may not grow as much as those planted during the summer, but you can make up for this by planting a few more.
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s still time to plant your cannabis seeds if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. However, you’ll need to keep in mind that:
- Cannabis plants go through a growth phase after germinating, even if there’s few hours of light.
- Cannabis plants of the same strain flower around the same date regardless of when you plant it. For example, a Jamaican Dream or Green Poison planted in May, June and July will all be ready to harvest around the same time, towards the end of September.
- The difference between planting in April, May, June and the first few weeks of July is in the size of your plant. The more weeks the plant has to grow, the larger it will be. You’ll need to play around with this; if you want to grow a large, high-yielding plant then you should germinate at the start of April when minimum temperatures are over 10° C, or start indoors and take it out in June. We don’t recommend taking it out earlier or it may begin to reveg. If you’re after plants that are easier to handle, we recommend germinating later on, and for discreet plants you should germinate in June or July.
So, what are you waiting for? Germinate your seeds!
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