One of the major benefits of having a medical marijuana card is that it gives you the ability to grow your own MMJ. If you live in a region that has a warm, temperate climate, you can grow marijuana plants outdoors. Indoor cultivation is a great option for people who live in colder climates.
So how do seasonal changes affect cannabis growth? Read on to learn all you need to know about growing medical marijuana in the fall.
How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home
Medical cannabis growing conditions must be appropriate if you want your plants to thrive. MMJ plants need:
- Sufficient light
- Water
- Nutrients
- Temperate, humid conditions
- Wind
You can cultivate MMJ indoors or outdoors, depending on the climate you live in and the equipment you have. MMJ plants take between 10–32 weeks to grow and flower.
MMJ Plant Life Cycle
MMJ plants go through seedling, vegetative, and flowering stages. The buds grow during the flowering stage.
Growing MMJ outdoors usually involves planting the seeds during spring, allowing them to grow through summer, and then harvesting in the fall. Outdoor-grown marijuana plants will flower in September and October. After about two months of flowering, the plant will be ready for harvesting. Growing outdoors usually means you will have only one harvest annually.
Growing medical marijuana indoors gives you more flexibility, because you’ll be creating an artificial environment and can grow MMJ throughout the year. Growing indoors means you can have multiple harvests each year.
Growing Medical Marijuana In The Fall
To grow a quick harvest of MMJ during the fall, you can use an auto-flowering strain of marijuana.
Auto-flowering MMJ strains can be suitable for growing in the fall because they flower based on age, independent of light hours. Auto-flowering MMJ seeds produce plants that flower on their own after 2–4 weeks of growth regardless of the light schedule.
Some auto-flowering MMJ strains are ready to harvest only eight weeks after they first sprout. Auto-flowering plants are smaller (typically 30–100cm) and more robust than other strains, which makes them great for indoor or outdoor growing during autumn. You can harvest several crops of an auto-flowering strain each year.
How Cold Can MMJ Plants Tolerate?
The ideal temperature for MMJ cultivation is 77–86°F. 59°F is the coldest temperature that plants can generally tolerate. If daytime temperatures drop below 59°F, the plant’s growth processes will slow down or stop.
Can Cannabis Grow In The Fall?
Medical marijuana can grow in the fall provided the daytime temperature does not consistently drop below 59°F.
Tips For Growing Marijuana Plants During Fall
Here are our top five tips for people wishing to grow medical marijuana throughout the fall season…
1. Grow Indoors If You Live In Colder Climes
If daytime temperatures drop below 59°F where you live, you’ll only be able to grow healthy MMJ plants indoors during the fall.
2. Protect Your Plants From Heat
If you live in an area where temperatures routinely go above 86°F, you should protect your outdoor plants by putting them out of direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day.
3. Try Auto-flowering Strains
As mentioned above, auto-flowering strains are smaller and more robust than regular MMJ strains. They also grow and flower much quicker and can produce multiple harvests each year. Auto-flowering strains are ideal for growing MMJ in the fall.
4. Be Sure To Stick To The Legal Amounts
Most legal MMJ states have limits on how much MMJ you can cultivate at home. Make sure you stay on the right side of the law by remaining within the legal cultivation limits in your state.
5. Get A Medical Card, Even If You Live In A State Where Recreational Marijuana Is Legal
Recreational marijuana usually has lower possession limits than medical marijuana. This means that in legal recreational marijuana states, medical card holders can usually cultivate more plants than non-medical cardholders. That gives a big advantage to MMJ card holders, even in states where recreational cannabis is legal.
How To Get A Medical Marijuana Card
You can get an MMJ card by visiting the MMJRecs online clinic and having a telemedicine consultation with an MMJ doctor. Once the doctor has verified your suitability for MMJ treatment, they’ll send you a physician certification form that you can then submit to your local MMJ authorities.
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