10 Common Mistakes for a 1st Time Grower to Avoid When Growing Cannabis Outdoors

You have most likely planned your outdoor grow and are ready to go. You’ve bought your seeds, soil, pots, and nutrients, and you have the perfect spot. As a beginner, there are plenty of common mistakes to avoid. In this article, I explain those so you can be aware and produce the best outdoor crop in 2025.

Picking the Wrong Strain

You should pick a strain that doesn’t take too long to flower and suits your climate, allowing you to harvest a fully mature plant. Longer-blooming Haze and sativa cannabis seeds, which may not mature quickly enough in more northern states, may have a higher chance of success when grown in a humid subtropical area, as recommended by Dutch Passion.

Overwatering Your Plants

Cannabis plants depend heavily on water to access available soil nutrients and maintain a comfortable level of transpiration from their leaves. Overwatering your plants can be a common mistake many growers make. Avoid pouring large volumes of water into your pots. When watering seedlings and young plants, water around the edges of the pot. Doing so will prevent an oversaturated medium and encourage the growth of aerobic bacteria in the soil.

Using Low-Quality Soil

Deciding which soil is best for cannabis plants can be difficult, especially when so many of them promise the world and are often over-fertilized. Avoid buying cheap soil from a local garden centre, and be prepared to invest in a well-known, industry-hyped brand or soil blends specifically suited for cannabis. Top-quality soil should have excellent drainage and water retention, providing your plants with plenty of readily available nutrients without burning them due to high amounts of fertilizer.

Watering During the Hottest Part of the Day

It can be highly tempting to water your plants when the temperatures are soaring. Between 12 pm and 4 pm is the hottest part of the day, and your plants will be working overtime to transpire water from their leaves. It’s best to water before 11 am or after 8 pm when the temperatures are cooler and there’s less pressure on the plants.

Using Fish-Based Products

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the effectiveness of a good-quality fish-based product. However, it can attract animals to your garden, curious about the aroma. Be careful if you live in an area with stray cats, as they will be the number one candidate for digging through the soil and can destroy the roots of your plants, causing tremendous stress.

Letting Plants Become Root-Bound

Cannabis plants that fill their pots will become root-bound within a short time frame. Root-bound plants do not have the freedom to establish their roots far and wide and have access to oxygen. Try using felt pots, air pots, or planting into a flower bed to give your plants the best chance of growing a prolific root zone without any restrictions.

Underwatering your plants

Not every grower can water their garden at the correct times, often due to busy work or social schedules. Unfortunately, this can lead to the soil becoming too dry and suffering from underwatering. Whilst this problem can be easily fixed, an underfed cannabis plant will still harm plant growth, health, vitality, terpene production, and resin production and ultimately result in a loss in yield, as advised by Atami.

Not Checking for Insect Damage

You’ll be amazed at how many insects can be on cannabis plants. Not checking the tops and undersides of your leaves and thoroughly examining the stems and buds when the plants are flowering can cause insects to eat, damage and lay eggs. Caterpillars can cause a grower mayhem and chew through your beautiful buds. Always check your plants from top to bottom for aphids, spider mites, and caterpillars, just to name a few. Invest in predators to avoid chemical-based pesticides.

Using foul-smelling compost teas

Organic compost teas are incredible for cannabis plants and supercharge the growing medium and soil food web. The goal of brewing a tea dominated by bacteria or fungi is to produce an aerobic tonic packed with beneficial microorganisms. If you notice that your tea smells bad and unpleasant, discard it and start the brewing process again, as this will be a clear sign that it has become anaerobic. Compost tumblers are an excellent addition to any organic garden and will take your compost teas to another level.

Overcrowding

Cannabis plants need a lot of space to grow and can sometimes become massive. Planting too closely together can promote an overcrowded garden, a common mistake to avoid. Overcrowded plants make it difficult to work with, and pathogens such as mould and powdery mildew can affect the plants more easily due to the lack of air and high humidity levels. Always provide plenty of space and create a floor plan to avoid this problem later.

My Final Thoughts

Growing weed plants outdoors is exciting and advantageous for a first-time grower. Keep on top of your garden and check your plants on a daily basis if possible. Cannabis plants love consistency, so try to create a cannabis feeding schedule to prevent over- or underwatering. The best advice I can give is to invest wisely in practical genetics, fabric pots, and organic nutrients, and avoid chemical pesticides, no matter what. Good luck growing the ultimate outdoor cannabis crops this year!

• Provide plenty of room for your seedlings to grow.
• Avoid buying cheap, low-cost, over-fertilized soils.
• Water your plants lightly, and never let the growing medium become flooded.
• Do not water during the hottest parts of the day (12 pm – 4 pm)
• Frequently check your plants for insect damage and signs of insect eggs.
• Fish-based nutrients can attract animals to your garden.
• Avoid long-flowering strains that won’t have a chance to mature.
• Plastic pots can become hot in the sun and promote root-bound plants

Feature photo: These plants have lots of space to grow and can be easily accessed. Photo credit: Bill Sutherland.