A question of a fellow grower:
I live in Michigan where recreational marijuana is now legal. I can grow up to 12 plants legally. I would like to grow my plants outside to save on electricity, so I just bought a greenhouse which I will set up in the spring. My problem is, I can only expect between 8 and 9 hours of sunlight where it will be located (away from prying eyes). Most of what I read requires 18 hours of light. Should I put up auxiliary lighting in the greenhouse to compensate which I could put on a timer? But the lights themselves might block out some of the sunlight. And what about overcast days? Any suggestions would be helpful. PS. I do have an indoor grow room which I can use for part of the grow.
Sorry i havent grown outside, but autos will grow and flower regardles of light cycle. Thats one thing. But if you want to do ur whole grow outside with photos ull need supplemental lighting. If u start ur grow indoors and bring outside to flower, then u should be alright
There are some things you need to separate from indoor growing to outdoor growing. In an outdoor grow photo plants will usually continue to veg as long as your days are getting longer. Your plants will initiate flowers sometime after the reduction of daylight hours. Also, just because you see people commonly veg under 18 hours of light doesn’t mean you need that much indoor either.
Hey there, I live in Michigan just north of Indiana border. I know folks who have grown outdoors for over 50 years and still get away with it. He grows good pot, has some better years than others depending on the fall and rain. with a green house you can mitigate some of those issues but it really depends on what you want to smoke. The time when Michigan has less than 13 hour days in the fall comes close to the time when we get a frost which really limits your flowering time. Starting inside can help that a bunch. but i have yet to smoke outdoor pot that compares to what can be grown indoors here in Michigan. So if you are going for quality, saving a few bucks on electricity is counterproductive to getting the best buds in Michigan. all us folks in the northern tiers of states have same issues.
I am in Michigan myself.
Last season, I had a White Widow photo seed make it after I thought it was a goner so I ended up planting it outside towards the end of May rather than culling it since I didn’t have room indoors in my tent for it.
I surrounded it with 4’ fence to keep deer out and pretty much left it to it’s own devices. I did give it some nutrients from time to time, but mostly let nature take it’s course. It grew about 5’ tall and did very well. I had a little bit of bud rot caused by insects that I got ahead of with minimal losses.
In the end I grew for 160 days and got just over 6 oz from this plant. Good smoke from ILGM seed for very little effort on my part to care for the plant other than watering occasionally and nutrients here and there.
Having said all this, I agree with @monkman my indoor grows produce better quality without the hassle of hydrogen peroxide rinses and extra work to clean up outdoor plants.