Yield is obviously a very important issue for any outdoor grower. A common question I get all the time is “How much should my plant yield?” The answer to this question depends greatly on growing conditions, nutrients, soil and many other factors. However, this grow journal should set you up for a success by providing a good structure for a simple and effective summer grow. Outdoor grow guide yield coming at you!

Best Time to Plant Cannabis Outdoors

The first step is figuring out when to start your outdoor grow. I am going to quickly cover clones and seeds in the following two chapters. I would like to point out that the following recommendations are for grows with no supplemental lighting. In other words.. sun light only.

If you are growing with clones, you should plan on starting around June. For some sativa varieties, you can probably start at the end of May. Furthermore, your clone start date will also depend on where you live. Northern California growers can start earlier than Southern California growers. There is a good reason why you can’t start clones in April. In April we don’t receive enough light to sustain vegetative growth. Thats because clones are cut from mature mothers that are ready to flower on a given notice. Your clone could be 6 inches tall and it will flower if there isn’t enough light to sustain vegetative growth. If you plant your clone too early, you might end up with premature flowers in July.

On the other hand, seeds can be planted much earlier. Since they take about two months to fully mature, you can plant them around April 1st if you are looking to maximize your outdoor grow.

Raised Beds vs Pots for Cannabis

The next step is deciding how to grow your cannabis. There are a few methods that work really well. Pots and raised beds are my go to, but I have also grown in a few sunken beds.

Pots are great for outdoor grows. If you would like to learn more about growing in pots, check out this blog I wrote here. It talks about pot size for maximizing your grow. But to summarize for the purpose of this blog, I recommend growing in a pot between 20 and 65 gallons. That might seem really big to some, but cannabis requires a great deal of pot space for long summer grows. In short, if I were looking to maximize my summer clone harvest, I would plan on growing in a 65 gallon pot filled with the best potting soil I can buy. This is assuming that I wanted to harvest as much as possible and space was no issue. The reason I bring up space is because cannabis can grow up to an inch a day in the right environment. Your cannabis plant can get really big if you are growing from June to October.

Raised beds are a great place to grow cannabis. I love growing in raised beds because they are better at retaining moisture and keeping your soil cool when compared to pots. They also offer unlimited root space for your plants to stretch out. Some of my best grows have been in raised beds.

Best Soil for Outdoor Cannabis

Soil choice is very important for maximizing your yield. In fact, I do not recommend purchasing cheap soil at all. Not only is it a waste of money, it is also a waste of your time. I have tried many different brands of soil and I have come to the conclusion that cheap soils simply are not worth the trouble. If you plan on growing cannabis, I highly advise you to spend the extra 10 dollars per bag on a high end potting soil. A good bag of soil usually costs between $12 and $18 for a 1.5cu/ft when purchased locally. But they usually cost a little more online. Cheap soils are usually filled with cheap ingredients. Here are a few of my favorite brands: Ocean Forest, Strawberry Fields, Roots Organics, Black Gold, Happy Frog, Mother Earth, Dr. Earth and Bush Doctor. The are more brands that I probably forgot, but this is definitely a good list to start with.

Organic Fertilizers for Outdoor Cannabis

I bet you are starting to see the big picture for maximizing your yield. When you supply the right size pot with great soil, you are setting yourself up for success. The final piece to the equation are the nutrients you will supply throughout your grow. For nutrients, I always go organic and luckily, there are a ton of organic nutrients to choose from. Here is a list of my favorites. For your summer grow, you will need two types of fertilizers. One high in nitrogen for the vegetative stage and one high in phosphorus for the bloom stage. There are also more complete fertilizer lines if you don’t mind the extra work in applying. Some of these fertilizers lines like Fox Farm’s Dirty Dozen have up to 12 fertilizers to apply throughout the growth cycle. But they are definitely worth the extra time. They offer a more complete balance of nutrients.

Water Filter for Outdoor Cannabis

Lastly, I recommend adding a water filter for your outdoor grow. Usually tap water is filled with chlorine and chloramine. You can easily reduce these harmful substances by adding a water filter like the one I linked above. Chlorine and chloramines kill your beneficials living in your soil. These water filters screw right onto your hose and work great.