The way you prepare your soil for an outdoor grow can make a big difference in size and quality of your harvest. Unlike most common plants, cannabis soil has a specific requirements that need to be met if you want your garden to be healthy. We have prepared a brief guide on how to make sure everything is in order before you start your outdoor grow.
Cannabis soil: texture and composition
Growing cannabis requires a lot of natural light and good soil that drains water well but also traps some of the moisture. Loamy soil is a great way to help your plants strive outdoors. It’s a mixture of sand, stilt and clay in a ratio of around 40:40:20. Sand is one of the main ingredients in almost any kind of soil, it’s a composition of small rock and mineral particles. Sand grains are very small in diameter and it lets water drain fast. Silt and clay particles are even smaller, so they slow down a drainage of water and allow some of the moisture stay. One of the ways to determine soil composition is shaking a glass jar full of water with some soil in it. After soil settles down, you can have a better grasp of what’s in the soil.
Water drainage depends on the contents found in soil and it decreases as the size of particles in soil decrease. For example, in very sandy soils water drains very quickly, while the clayey soils can get waterlogged because of the high density of clay particles. If you are planning to use your natural soil, you might want to mix in some sand, clay or silt with it, to increase its ability to drain or retain water. You can also mix in some gravel to increase stability of your soil. Since gravel particles are big, you might want to remove bigger rocks from it. Big rocks could create obstructions for roots to grow.
You can also add some commercial soil to your garden soil if it’s poor in quality. You can also add some mulch, bonemeal, bloodmeal, manure. Adding these is a good way to increase nutrients in your soil. You can always grow in the commercial soil alone. You can use it to grow your plants in pots or bags so that their not exposed to your garden soil.
Regulate pH of your soil
Cannabis is a picky plant when it comes to soil, pH range of your soil should be around 6.3-6.7. In this range, your plants are taking up optimum amount of nutrients from the soil. If your pH is higher or lover, all sorts of nutrient related deficiencies or toxicities might begin. When nutrients are not taken by plant in optimum amounts, you might end up with low quality and yield.
However, there is a way to regulate soils pH. If your soil is to acidic, you can add some agricultural lime. It’s one of the most common additives that increases pH of your soil. And if your soil is too alkaline you can ad sulphuric acid to decrease pH in soil to the optimal window that you need.
Sterilize your cannabis soil
One way to sterilize soil is by exposing it to steam. Steam can kill many fungi, insects and bacteria, while leaving number of beneficial bacteria alive. It all depends on what type of soil you’re using. If you are using commercial soil designed for cannabis growing, there’s no need to sterilize it. But if you’re using your own garden soil then you might want to sterilize it if possible. However, this is long and difficult process, that is more than often ignored. If you don’t find this method appealing, there are other ways to deal with this matter. You can also use beneficial insects and microbes. There’s also plenty of plant-based organic compounds that help you get rid of insects and fungus without bringing harm to your plants.
Solarization is another method that can be used to sterilize soil. You might be familiar with this method if you ever had an outdoor garden of any kind. It requires tilling the soil, watering it afterwards and covering it with clear plastic. This allows the increase of heat and sun light under the plastic. This helps soil to reach high temperatures and kill of any harmful microorganisms. It should reach temperature of about 45°C (113°F) and it should stay that way for about a month. You should regularly re-till it check on it to make sure temperature is consistent through out that time.
If you cannot sterilize your soil by using solarization method, because you don’t have enough time, you can always try steam method. It is also time consuming but it will definitely take less than a month. If you’re not doing a large scale grow, you won’t need specialized equipment to do it. It’s possible to sterilize soil with regular household items, like pressure cooker. Anything that produces steam basically. If you have metal grid somewhere lying around, you can use that . Cover it with tilled soil and boil water underneath to let steam pass through soil. Once soil reaches temperature of 80-90°C (176-194°F), it’s sterilized.
Should you plant it in the ground or use pots?
When growing cannabis outdoors, you have plenty of options to choose from. You can grow it in pots, fabric pots, bags or plant it directly into the ground. Any of these methods work well. If you’re planting directly into the ground, you might want to optimize your soil before doing so. Using methods mentioned above can help you do that. If, however, your soil is well optimized as it is, no further modification is needed.
There are few advantages if growing cannabis in pots. By doing so, you can rely entirely on commercial cannabis soil. Which is already full of nutrients that your plants might need and its already pre-sterilized. That means, it’s clear of any harmful pests or microbes that could destroy your grow. The downside of this method is the space your plant will have. Less space means that your plant might now grow as big as there won’t be enough space for roots. You will also need to transplant it and water it on regular basis.
If you choose to plant them directly into the ground, you have the advantage of ground waters. Roots can also grow freely, which helps your plants to grow a lot larger. This way you might also need to maintain it less. Of course, there is a downside to this method as well. You’re exposing your plants to all of the dangers that might lay in the garden, like insects, microbes and all sorts of other harms.
After all is said and done, it’s entirely up to you to make the right decision. Having more knowledge can lead you to make the right decision. That’s why we focus on providing you with as much knowledge as we can. Learn more about growing marijuana outdoors. Keep it green our fellow stoners.