Spring is planting time! Or is it? I am not so sure it is when we are talking Cannabis. For the vegetable gardener, spring is indeed an exciting time – from starting early seedlings of tomatoes and peppers to going to ground with all the summer delights like beans, pumpkins, and sweetcorn. For the outdoor Cannabis farmer though, this is a time for patience and planning.
As much as you want to get your seed in the ground and your cuttings rooted, your time will probably be better spent cleaning out the greenhouse, getting your soil medium, composts and fertilisers sorted, and making sure you have your seed ordered or in hand. The ideal planting or sowing date depends on many factors and is open for debate. Our experience has shown that planting too early not only risks our ladies going into early flower, but also produces massive plants that are simply unmanageable in our summer wind.
Our best results with outdoor grows have been with established plants planted out in mid-December. To achieve this, we start renewing our mother plants in June to have decent sized plants to take cuttings from by the end of October. These cuttings are then rooted and transplanted into bags and vegged in the nursery until planting out in well-prepared holes in December. Feedback from our clients and our own experiences tell us the ideal planting window in the Western Cape is mid-November to the end of January. Seed should not be planted outdoors after the 15th of December.
Now all of this can sound very confusing to the beginner, or it is simply too much work for the home-growing executive. That is why we have established Dagga Farmacy in the first place. Our variety of top genetics in a range of sizes gives the grower the luxury of following an easy route to high quality flower. For the experienced grower, we offer just-in-time mother plants and instant replacements for victims of wind, worm, or wpm. Our ready-to-flower plants have saved the season for many.
Whilst you do your planning and grow some food, we are hard at work making sure your season is a success. We’ve selected some new genetics, made sure our mother plants are in top condition and are now fast increasing production to bring our large variety to you in the quantities required. Winter has her challenges and nature teaches us every season. Those lessons are to be shared, and we not only share what we’ve learned in our training courses in conjunction with Cheeba Cannabis Academy, but also through our open days, expo attendance and members’ visits to the nursery.
We are so looking forward to the new season and a bumper 2023 harvest. The Dagga Farmacy team will do what we can to assist you with the best in genetics, nutrients, safe IPM and the hardware and advice that you need to make this your best grow ever.