Growing medical marijuana is legal in lots of places. All you need to do is get the right permits. Once you do you can grow outside. Doing this has some unique challenges, including securing a good water supply.
Medicinal marijuana needs water. If you grow it in a confined space you’ll be amazed at how much water it can handle with good drainage.
This isn’t to say that marijuana likes swampy ground, or that it likes to be wet. It likes being well drained, and can take some drought if it’s prepared for it, but a steady water supply is beneficial.
If you grow close to your house this isn’t a problem. You can drag your hose to the plants. It may be outdoors, but a steady supply of water is convenient.
What happens if your area faces watering restrictions, though? Then you can’t just let the water run. You have to prepare like any other outdoor farmer.
A combination of solutions probably works best. A location close to water is helpful. Soil that retinas water adds to the solution. Water storage is another answer.
Being close to a water source can be as simple as being downhill from a pond, lake, creek or irrigation ditch. Close means within hose length, or within walking distance. It’s even possible to dig irrigation troughs in some areas. It’s all relative.
Water is heavy and takes up lots of space. Carrying it is hard. If you are carrying it you want to be close. There’s nothing low profile about bring found by hikers with ten gallons of water strapped to your back.
Stretching a hose means a water source that is uphill from your crop. Otherwise you need a pump, which means a power source. A gasoline pump is noisy, and noise is bad. An electric pump could be powered by rechargeable power tool batteries, but that requires some fabrication skill. The hose also has to be hidden or removed after watering.
Irrigation troughs can work, but that’s a lot of digging, and the landscape may not cooperate. They are hard to hide. They also run counter to the natural contours of the land.
When the water gets delivered is an important issue as well. A constant drip or leak system is better than flooding the garden from time to time. If you have to always go to water the plants you’ll become a slave to them. Some degree of automation is desirable. It also helps keep the garden inconspicuous.
Two solutions offer themselves to the guerrilla gardener. Containers that store water and release it slowly is one. The other is improving the soil so that it holds water longer.
Storage means containers. Containers must be inconspicuous. They must also handle lots of water and release it slowly, or at least in a controlled fashion. There are ways to accomplish this.
Five gallon buckets work well. They can be moved easily, and hidden easily. They are easy to get. The can be painted to blend into the background. They can be semi-permanent and filled by hoses or moved to the water source to be filled each time.
55 gallon drums are another option. Steel ones work, but lighter plastic ones are also available. They are harder to hide, but they can sometimes be hidden in plain sight as garbage.
These kinds of drums can be hose filled. You can also attache plumbing fixtures to the bottom to control release. Soaker hoses can improve the system, and they can even be buried to make watering slow and steady. If you’re trying to hide them in plain sight you’ll have to be creative, though, because discarded drums don’t have hoses attached!
55 gallon drums with wide open tops will also capture rainfall. This will help by reducing how much water you have to carry to the site. It won;t solve everything, but every little bit helps.
Perhaps the best way to store water is an old waterbed mattress. They can be very low profile, and they hold lots of water. If you can fill it automatically from a creek and let it drip slowly over the crop you’ll do well.
The last method is to improve or alter the soil so that it retains more moisture and water. Farmers across the globe have practiced this for centuries. There are also modern additives that help retain water and release it slowly.
When your plot is on a hillside it will tend to drain more quickly. Terracing the area will help. You can also dig pits lined with plastic sheets to capture and retain rainwater. Mulching around the base of the plants will also retain moisture. Cover the area with prunings and clippings.
Hydrogels, or water retention crystals are now available. They swell up when soaked and hold water, slowly releasing it back into the soil. They are made of polymeracrilides or else of starch, and while their effectiveness is debated I think that they work. When I’ve used them they certainly swelled up when wetted down. I’m sure they’d help plants endure dry times.
Learn about ways to grow marijuana? Castulo Zane knows all about it. If you want to talk marijuana seeds google www.growyourownstone.com.