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After the Longest Winter Ever, Missouri Residents are Ready to Grow Their Own Marijuana Outside in the Springtime Sunshine
With the days growing longer and the sun shining brighter, green thumbs are itching to turn the soil and put their gardens in—and that includes gardeners with a Missouri marijuana card! People all over the state who have been diagnosed with a qualifying condition for cannabis are allowed to cultivate their own marijuana plants with an additional permit.
Getting Started Planting Cannabis in Missouri
The first thing you need in order to legally cultivate medical marijuana in Missouri, is a Missouri marijuana card or a caregiver license. In addition to applying for a license to purchase medical marijuana in Missouri, you will also need to submit an application for a permit to grow your own cannabis.
Our compassionate doctors can help you get started, with convenient telehealth medical marijuana evaluations and comprehensive consultation.
In order to get a cultivation permit, you must be able to attest to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services that your plants will be under lock and key. They must only be accessible by the patient or the caregiver with the permit.
Can I Grow Marijuana Plants Outside in Missouri?
While growing cannabis plants outside may be the safest, least expensive and preferable way to grow for some gardeners, there are a couple of sticking points you’ll need to tackle before you can start reaping the benefits of a home growing operation.
The first issue is that you must be able to secure the plants so that no one has access to them except for you. They have to be locked away and inaccessible from all sides, including the top and the bottom.
The second issue is that your neighbors must not be able to see your plants from any of the windows in their building. This is something that you need to pay careful attention to because if your neighbor has a second or third-story window, they may be able to see more of your yard than you realize.
As long as you can cover these bases, you are free to grow your cannabis in the natural sunlight and rain of the great outdoors.
Ways to Secure Outdoor Cannabis Plants
If you’ve got a fair amount of space between you and your neighbors (or if you know they won’t complain), then you have a number of options for ways to secure your plants.
Hobbyists and serious gardeners have been keeping critters out of their harvest for centuries, and there are plenty of DIY options. You could put up a fence around them and make sure it stays locked with a padlock or other type of secure piece of hardware. You could also put them in a greenhouse with a locked entrance. Those are just a couple of options, and a quick internet search will likely pull up another handful of possibilities.
If, however, your neighbor has a good view of your backyard, you’ve got a little extra work to do in order to legally grow your plants in the great outdoors. Your best bet is likely going to be to go with a grow box. You can follow simple instructions to make your own protected grow space, or you can order a kit online.
There are also companies in Missouri that will help you get up and running, with consultations to evaluate the best use of your space. The Weed Squad is a Missouri-based company that can provide everything you need in order to get started based on your specific needs, and Elite Home Growers offers cannabis cultivation classes and other educational events.
Getting Started With Marijuana Seeds in Missouri
After you get your grow location set up, the next step is to actually start your seeds. Starting your marijuana plants from seed is the same as growing any other plant from seed, and everyone has their own opinion about the best techniques. Are you more of a “throw it into the ground and see what works” sort of gardener, or a “sprout these babies in a cool, dark closet” green thumb?
Both have their pros and cons, and you can visit our Missouri Marijuana Card Guide to Growing page for more details and a free step-by-step grow guide from I Love Growing Marijuana. Additionally, anyone who grows their own medicinal cannabis is generally very happy to share their favorite tips and tricks, and you may be able to get the best advice of all from friends and family members.
Finding the best seeds may just be a matter of asking fellow cultivators to share seeds for their favorite strains. Or you can shop around for a selection of the strains that will address your needs more precisely.
Growers Choice Seeds, for example, offers auto-flowering seeds, feminized seeds, and high CBD medical-grade seed in popular strains like Gorilla Glue, Lavender Kush, and ACDC.
Just Add Water, Light, and Time for Outdoor Cannabis Plants
When it comes to growing your medical marijuana outside, water, sunlight, and time are the most essential ingredients for the best plants around. The necessary amount of any of these ingredients, however, is specific to individual strains.
Overwatering can lead to root rot, but underwatering can lead to stress that will affect THC levels. Make sure you know what growing conditions are best for your plants in order to keep them healthy and potent.
Keep your plants in a spot where they will get plenty of sunlight, or install lights in your grow box to supplement any sunlight hours they may be missing. Again, some of the light requirements will be specific to your strain, so plan accordingly.
And finally, a word about fertilizers and pest control: You want to be careful about the fertilizer or pesticides that you use, because anything that gets sprayed on the plant will eventually be ingested. This goes doubly if you plan to smoke your flower, because chemical reactions are more volatile when used on combustible materials.
Check out our marijuana plant pest management page for more information about what to look for and how to respond if your plants become infested with bugs, mold, or other common pests.
Missouri Marijuana Harvest - Getting the Timing Right
The timing of your harvest is the final important piece of the cultivation puzzle. Check out this harvesting tutorial, to learn more about the perfect timing for the best buds around. Once you’ve picked your harvest, you just need to cure your buds to ensure effects and freshness.
Our guide to curing marijuana should give you all the information you need in order to complete this final step in the process. We promise that the results will be worth the wait.
Take the First Step Toward Home-Grown Natural Relief Today, With a Missouri Marijuana Card
You may plant the best tomatoes around, but there’s something about growing your own marijuana that makes the medicine all the more healing. If you are a green thumb looking for a different kind of challenge, growing your own cannabis plants may be precisely what you need to scratch that itch.
All you need in order to get started is a Missouri marijuana card and a cultivation license. We can help, when you schedule an appointment for a marijuana evaluation today!
Doctors Who Care. Relief You Can Trust.
At Missouri Marijuana Card, our mission is helping everyone achieve wellness safely and conveniently through increased access to medical marijuana. Our focus on education, inclusion, and acceptance will reduce stigma for our patients by providing equal access to timely information and compassionate care.
Call us at (877) 303-3117, or simply book a medical marijuana evaluation to start getting relief you can trust today!
Check out Missouri Marijuana Card’s Blog to keep up to date on the latest medical marijuana news, tips, and information. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to join the medical marijuana conversation in Missouri.