Prepare your outdoor cannabis plants for flowering

The days are slowly starting to get shorter, and Nature is giving us an unmistakable sign that the flowering phase for outdoor cannabis plants is just around the corner. This important period marks the culmination of all the effort and care you've put into your plants, and it's crucial to make sure they're in the optimal conditions to flower in all their splendor and reward you with an extraordinary crop of top-notch buds.

In this article, we want to guide you through the essential steps you must follow to maximize the production of lush and resinous flowers while minimizing potential problems, such as the appearance of fungi and pests. Whether you are an experienced grower or you are taking your first steps in the world of cannabis, with this guide we want to provide you with the necessary knowledge to lead your outdoor plants towards successful and abundant flowering. It's time to take your plants to the next level and unlock their full potential during the flowering phase!

Marijuana flowering outdoors

Normally, most cannabis plants begin their flowering phase +

between the end of July and the beginning of August, obviously speaking of the Northern Hemisphere. When the total daily number of hours of light received begins to shorten, plants understand this fact as an unequivocal signal to begin to form flowers, which will help them reproduce before the end of their life cycle.

If everything has gone well so far and your plants have developed well during the growth phase, now is the ideal time to prepare them for exuberant flowering. As you will see, by following a series of simple steps and taking the appropriate precautions, flowering outdoors does not have to be something difficult to carry out; it's simply a matter of giving your plants what they will need and keeping an eye out for potential problems that may arise during this critical stage of their lives.

Growing outdoors for beginners: 10 tricks to start off on the right foot

Starting an outdoor cannabis grow can be intimidating for someone with no experience with this plant. Today we have set out to make it much easier for you and guide you throughout your grow with a few simple tricks that will help you avoid mistakes and ensure a successful grow, which after all is what every grower wants!

Transplants

If you use pots and do not plant directly in the ground, one last transplant before flowering will allow your plants to develop their buds fully and without restrictions, significantly improving the final yield at harvest time. If possible, doubling the capacity of the pots in this last transplant will be the most advisable; It is sometimes useful to keep plants in relatively small pots during growth to control or restrict their growth a bit, but during flowering any restriction in root development will result in less production, so it is always better to give them some extra space.

Another option widely used by a large number of growers is to keep the plants in pots during growth and transplant them into the ground just before flowering begins, so that, as we have already told you, the plant will not have any restrictions during this stage and will be able to produce enormous buds, regardless of the size they have reached during the growth phase.

Nutrition

As you probably know, cannabis plants consume a lot of nitrogen during their growth, although during flowering these needs decrease, requiring a considerable increase in the contribution of other macroelements such as phosphorus and potassium. If you use liquid fertilizers you can continue with the grow fertilizer until you see the first signs of bud formation, at which point you should switch to the bloom fertilizer.

In the case of using solid fertilizers, it is best to mix them with the substrate that you will use when making the last transplant to the final pot or to spread them on the ground in case you grow your plants on mother earth. Of course, you can complement the nutrition with additives and stimulators for flowering and with PK boosters, rich in phosphorus and quickly assimilated potassium to ensure effective and complete nutrition. As always, and especially if you are using organic fertilizers, an extra supply of microbial life will ensure the correct management of the nutrients that you add to the growing medium, as well as protecting the roots from pathogenic fungi in the substrate, one of the most serious threats to your plants.

Pest Prevention

Although this is something that is not always true, insect pests usually cause more problems in indoor crops, while outdoors what you should really worry about are fungi such as botrytis or powdery mildew. However, care must be taken, because botrytis often appears as a result of a previous attack by caterpillars, which "drill" the buds and, as soon as some humidity accumulates, greatly favor the appearance of this fungus.

As always, we recommend preventing these problems rather than treating them once they appear, so that with just a little luck and perseverance you can save them. Thus, before flowering begins and until you see the first buds already formed, it is the perfect time to apply preventatives against fungi and caterpillars, even if you do not see any signs of attack. If powdery mildew attacks your plants during flowering, you can prepare some fungicide against powdery mildew and apply it with a sponge or cloth on the surface of the leaves, while if you have problems with botrytis in any flower, it is best to remove it carefully and monitor that area for the next few days...you don't want the fungus to continue its infection all over the bud tail!

Pruning

If you need to control the height of your plants, something that is not usually an exception in outdoor cultivation, a good way to do it is through topping. Thanks to this type of pruning, the plants acquire a much more bushy structure, promoting horizontal growth to the detriment of the vertical. Of course, we recommend you do the pruning before you see the first signs of pre-flowering (loss of symmetry in the nodes), otherwise, you can delay the start of flowering itself.

Cannabis plants are easy to prune and react very well to this technique, although if you do not have experience doing it, here is a link where we give you all the details about this cultivation technique:

Pruning Cannabis Plants

Growers use a wide range of different techniques in order to control the height and size of their plants and improve yields. In this article we tell you several pruning techniques so you can get the most out of your grow!

Staking

Finally, and especially if your plants are very large or you know they are going to produce a lot of flowers, a good idea before having all the branches full of sticky buds is to install some type of stake or support mesh to prevent any branch from breaking. once it reaches full bloom. There are different ways to do it, such as using plastic or bamboo canes, mesh, or metal grids similar to those used to build chicken coops.

Of course, and in the same way that happens with pruning, you can also use this technique to control the height of the plants, tying their branches so that they are bent and do not exceed, for example, the height of a fence or wall. , something that is very useful to prevent your garden from attracting prying eyes.

As always, we encourage you to share your tricks, tips, or doubts with us in the comments section, it will be a pleasure to answer you.

Good luck and happy harvest!