Dear outdoor growers

[RFheavy]

How do you do it? Just thinking about battling mother nature on a daily basis seems so exhausting to me. The pets, the pests, the elements. Have you become a bit more in tune with mother nature? Genuinely curious over here. What unique things from your neck of the woods have you seen, learned, realized from growing cannabis outdoors?

[Toker1]

Fence off your plants from rabbits and deer.
Check the leaves (particularly before bloom), when they are folded over a nasty little caterpillar can creep inside and reek havoc on your buds. If pests get bad, counteract with predator pests quickly.
Go with the largest containers you can afford to maintain.

[gbauto]

Honestly, for outdoor grows are a science project for me. Because the environmental conditions in my cove are not really conducive to growing serious dank, it gives me a bit of practice for my IPM when I'm gardening. I usually end up donating that harvest to various friends/patients for their meds.

[Rwise]

Things have changed since I started growing, old was to go out in the spring, find a place to plant, prep the soil, plant and go home. About 5-6 weeks later go back and pull runts, return in early fall to pull males, and the next trip was to harvest. We got good weed, but would have been more of it had we been able to tend them, damage was expected,,, bugs, deer rabbits, people,,, in tune with Mother nature, well one of the patches was being eaten by grasshoppers, so I called birds to a feeding ground, ya I know you dont believe that, my planting partner does now!
Here in the yard I use predator bugs, and smash as many bad bugs as I can twice or more each day. I also pay attention to Mother Nature and what she is telling me. This year she is telling me to prepare for winter!

[oldjarhead100]

Hey RH ,I have never had deer eat my bud but I have had a porcupine dig up my holes looking for that sweet smell of fish in it,, I've had a bear and moose lay on my plants, lots of plants have had broken stems but they bounce back ,

[SoOrbudgal]

Well for me here in unpredictable weather you just don't go into it unprepared for what ever mother nature decides to do. Get the plants strong before setting them out, have protection ready for bugs, critters or weather changes. I know that if I want to save money it cost money in the beginning to protect my grow. I want my seeds to be the best plant it can be so I try and do the best I can to see them all the way through a healthy grow. It's a long process between 5-7months of tending commitment but it's been worth it to me as I love the plant. I love to garden and what it gives back. During Thanksgiving we'll be looking back on this season and celebrate that we've not needed to spend $$$$ on purchasing something that once learned is pretty damn easy to do. It's a passion and a heartache at times but I dig the heck out of growing weed.