The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Home Grow Outdoors in Colorado
Colorado is one of the greatest places on the planet. Nowhere else in America can you find the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains, amazing outdoor adventures everywhere, and the constitutionally protected right to grow your own plants. Amendment 64 was historic, as Colorado became the first state to enshrine cannabis rights into its state constitution.
Coloradans across the state enjoy their yearly harvest without an expensive grow setup or lots of tents in the basement – we are allowed to grow them in our backyards every summer! It’s become so common that most HOAs, nosy neighbors, and cops look the other way now. But growing outdoors in Colorado is far from easy with our shifting weather and clay soil.
We are in the high desert, and cannabis is a tropical, fast-flowering annual. We typically only get one harvest season per year, though some commercial operations get multiple grow cycles between April and October by using auto-flowering genetics to stage harvests. For the average cannabis enthusiast, though, this is overkill. There is no particular secret to being successful outdoors, and most of it comes down to planning.
If you can plan ahead for your summer garden, you can grow cannabis! Join the Colorado cannabis community this year and flex your rights! This basic guide with target dates, ranges and recommendations will have you enjoying your home-grown by Halloween.
Beginner’s Guide to Home Grow Outdoors in Colorado
Start Indoors under 24 hours/day of light
In April: Pop seeds in a paper cup of dirt or rockwool cube by April 1st. Once the first set of true leaves emerges (about 2 weeks), plant into a solo cup or ½ gallon pot. Bury the plant as deeply as possible without covering the leaves. If growing from a clone, have cuttings taken by April 1st. They should be fully rooted and ready to transplant into a 1-gallon pot by April 15th. In May:- Depending on size/vigor, transplant into a 2-gallon pot by May 7th.
- Continue to grow indoors under 24 hours of light until May 15th.
- From May 15th to the 25th, take containers outside in the day and bring them back in at night to harden off the plants and acclimate them to the humidity and temperatures of outdoors.
Planting Cannabis Outside in Colorado
In May: Select your planting sites. In Colorado, you can have up to 12 plants in one area (6 per adult, maximum of 12). Make sure your planting sites are about 2-3 feet apart to avoid resource competition or overshading.- By May 10th, prep your outdoor garden space. Select an area that gets full sun during the day but goes into shade around 4-5 pm in summer (if possible).
- Remove all existing plants from the area, and add the following and till in:
- Mushroom compost (3-4 bags)
- Oyster shell (one box)
- Bone Meal (one box)
- At each of the 12 planting sites, dig a hole roughly the size of a 5-gallon bucket. Put 6” of drainage material in the bottom of the hole, such as sand, perlite, pebbles, etc. This is critical in Colorado’s shitty clay, as it will compact and choke out roots if not well-drained. The drainage material will remain for multiple seasons and can be reused if you plant in the same spots.
- Above the drainage material, add another 12” of potting soil or coco coir. This will be eaten each season and needs to be replenished.
- Get everything wet May 10th-11th so that the various additions have time to blend and settle.
- May 25th, plant from 2-gal containers directly into the potting soil/coco. Bury the plants as deeply as possible without covering leaves/branches. Water heavily on the day of planting, then allow the soil to dry out for a few days.
Colorado is one of the greatest places on the planet. Nowhere else in America can you find the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains, amazing outdoor adventures everywhere, and the constitutionally protected right to grow your own plants. Amendment 64 was historic, as Colorado became the first state to enshrine cannabis rights into its state constitution.
Coloradans across the state enjoy their yearly harvest without an expensive grow setup or lots of tents in the basement – we are allowed to grow them in our backyards every summer! It’s become so common that most HOAs, nosy neighbors, and cops look the other way now. But growing outdoors in Colorado is far from easy with our shifting weather and clay soil.
We are in the high desert, and cannabis is a tropical, fast-flowering annual. We typically only get one harvest season per year, though some commercial operations get multiple grow cycles between April and October by using auto-flowering genetics to stage harvests. For the average cannabis enthusiast, though, this is overkill. There is no particular secret to being successful outdoors, and most of it comes down to planning.
If you can plan ahead for your summer garden, you can grow cannabis! Join the Colorado cannabis community this year and flex your rights! This basic guide with target dates, ranges and recommendations will have you enjoying your home-grown by Halloween.
Beginner’s Guide to Home Grow Outdoors in Colorado
Start Indoors under 24 hours/day of light
In April: Pop seeds in a paper cup of dirt or rockwool cube by April 1st. Once the first set of true leaves emerges (about 2 weeks), plant into a solo cup or ½ gallon pot. Bury the plant as deeply as possible without covering the leaves. If growing from a clone, have cuttings taken by April 1st. They should be fully rooted and ready to transplant into a 1-gallon pot by April 15th. In May:- Depending on size/vigor, transplant into a 2-gallon pot by May 7th.
- Continue to grow indoors under 24 hours of light until May 15th.
- From May 15th to the 25th, take containers outside in the day and bring them back in at night to harden off the plants and acclimate them to the humidity and temperatures of outdoors.
Planting Cannabis Outside in Colorado
In May: Select your planting sites. In Colorado, you can have up to 12 plants in one area (6 per adult, maximum of 12). Make sure your planting sites are about 2-3 feet apart to avoid resource competition or overshading.- By May 10th, prep your outdoor garden space. Select an area that gets full sun during the day but goes into shade around 4-5 pm in summer (if possible).
- Remove all existing plants from the area, and add the following and till in:
- Mushroom compost (3-4 bags)
- Oyster shell (one box)
- Bone Meal (one box)
- At each of the 12 planting sites, dig a hole roughly the size of a 5-gallon bucket. Put 6” of drainage material in the bottom of the hole, such as sand, perlite, pebbles, etc. This is critical in Colorado’s shitty clay, as it will compact and choke out roots if not well-drained. The drainage material will remain for multiple seasons and can be reused if you plant in the same spots.
- Above the drainage material, add another 12” of potting soil or coco coir. This will be eaten each season and needs to be replenished.
- Get everything wet May 10th-11th so that the various additions have time to blend and settle.
- May 25th, plant from 2-gal containers directly into the potting soil/coco. Bury the plants as deeply as possible without covering leaves/branches. Water heavily on the day of planting, then allow the soil to dry out for a few days.
After the transition to the flowering phase, you will notice the plants sexing at their primary nodes first. Females will produce two white “hairs” out of a round calyx. Males will produce a light green/white growth at the end of a small stem that will eventually open into a small white flower full of pollen. Eliminate the males as soon as possible to avoid seeds in the crop.
October
October 12th to 15th, stop feeding nutrients entirely. Depending on weather conditions and size of plants, you may be able to reduce watering to every other day. The goal is to hang on until a Halloween Harvest. An early snow may move this date up, and most years it does. Don’t try to limp along/cover plants/etc! It never works out like you hope, just harvest early.How to Harvest Outdoor-Grown Cannabis
Harvesting
Weather permitting, you want to harvest on Halloween. It is important to monitor the weather at this time, as early snow or freezing rain will ruin the product by inducing bud rot. On Oct 20th, prepare your drying space. Each plant will be harvested in 1-4 sections, depending on size, with the goal of uniform size/ plant mass in each section. Your drying space should be well-ventilated, as stagnant or low airflow will ruin the crop.Drying
The ideal drying conditions are 50%RH, 60-65 degrees, for 8-12 days. The plants should be hung on lines or hooks such that they do not touch each other and have free air flow between them. It WILL stink. If you do this in your house or garage, expect it to smell for a solid week or two until the product can be trimmed and jarred.Curing
Once the buds are fully dried, they should be removed from the stems and trimmed as desired. An easy way to mess up this stage is to jar too early. After removal from stems, buds should be loosely placed in paper bags with tops open or other clean containers, no more than ¼ full. These bags should be gently stirred/tossed daily for 3 days. At this point, any final trimming/manicuring can be done as desired, and buds should be jarred in Mason jars with airtight lids. Technically, this is ready to smoke, but longer cures will yield a better product. Jars should be burped once a day and stirred gently for 3-4 more days, at which point they can be sealed and stored long term. If there is a lot of humidity in the air from the weather, you may need to burp jars for up to 2 weeks before sealing. Excess moisture in the jars will rot the buds, so it is imperative to make sure the product is fully dry before sealing the jars. A cheap RH sensor (hygrometer) helps with this step – 45% – 50% RH is a good target in a sealed container.Pests That Target Outdoor-Grown Cannabis in Colorado
Colorado is home to a variety of cannabis pests, including but not limited to- Aphids
- Thrips
- Caterpillars
- Fungus Gnats
- Spider Mites
- Russet Mites (dear heavens, we pray not this one)
- Botrytis Cinerea (bud rot)
- Powdery Mildew (PM)
- Neem oil is a plant oil that contains an insect hormone (azadirachtin) that prevents juveniles from molting. Once flowering has started in earnest (after week 1), best not to use this class of products.
- Citric Acid is a broad-spectrum fungicide that can be used in mid-flower.
- Trifecta is a mix of plant oils (garlic, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon) that works as a pesticide/fungicide. Should not be used after week 3 of flowering
- Green Cleaner is an insecticidal soap mixed with soybean oil, which can be used until week 3 of flowering.
About the Author
Phil is a Colorado cannabis lifter; he was the 22-year-old holding the clipboard for signatures to decriminalize cannabis in Denver in 2006. He got his badge for industry work on the second day that was possible, in the first MED office under the greyhound racing track in Commerce City, and has been growing cannabis commercially ever since. He is a cannabis nerd through and through, and still operates on reputation and handshakes in a highly litigious world. He believes everyone should grow cannabis, and that everyone can.
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