by Nebula Haze
This article is all about how to hide your marijuana plants when growing weed outdoors. First, here’s a quick summary of the stealth ideas for outdoor cannabis growers. Click the links to jump right to outdoor tutorial of your choice, or just keep reading the outdoor stealth tutorial from beginning to end. By the end of today’s article, you’ll know the most common tactics and techniques for hiding cannabis in outdoor cultivation. Let’s go!
How to Hide Sight of Cannabis – Visual ways to hide cannabis plants outdoors
- Hide Plants from View
- Camouflage Your Plants
- “Stealth Strains” (Funny-Looking Leaves)
- Grow Cannabis Plants in a Greenhouse
- Change Natural Growth Patterns with Bending
- Watch Out for Anyone Taking Interest of Your Plants
How to Hide Smell of Cannabis – How to hide the fragrant odor of cannabis outdoors
- Low Smell Strain
- Plant Other Fragrant Species of Plants
- Physical Barrier
- Strategic Planting Times
- Wind Direction Awareness
Growing Outdoors in Remote Spot Away from Home
- Scope Out the Spot
- Far from a Visible Path
- Test the Spot for Potential Visitors
- Camouflage Plants
- Low Odor Strain
Bonus: Outdoor Cannabis Growing Tips
- Easy to Visit
- Access to Water
- Lots of Sunlight
- Gentle Breeze
- Consider the Heat
- Consider the Cold
- Provide Your Own Soil
- Don’t Forget Nutrients
Always consider stealth when growing cannabis outdoors! Not only is law enforcement a consideration, it’s common for thieves to steal plants right before harvest time!
Outdoor growing has some incredible benefits, including the availability of free light. Light is like food for cannabis plants and in the flowering stage, the amount of bud produced is directly proportional to the amount of light received by the plant (especially at the bud sites). The plant is converting light energy into buds.
Sunlight provides free energy for growing cannabis plants. No need to spend money on electricity to power your grow lights!
Indoor growers have to provide all their own light, typically by using specialized grow lights. However, grow lights produce heat and use a lot of electricity (how much electricity does it take to grow weed indoors?), and indoor grow rooms need a space that’s easily hidden to visitors yet has easy access to water.
When it comes to outdoor growing, instead of setting up a grow room, your job is to pick the perfect place to grow weed. This is one of the most important things you can do not only for plant health, but also for stealth and security!
Not only is this extremely not stealthy, light from the window will likely prevent the plant from flowering (making buds). Light pollution is a common problem when growing outdoors on your own property. Plants need complete darkness at night to start making buds!
Outdoor Stealth – Growing on Your Property
Visual ways to hide the sight of cannabis plants
Growing on your own property is much more convenient than hiking to a remote grow spot, but the stakes are much higher because if the plants are spotted it’s easy to determine that you are the owner. Make sure to take every precaution!
Hide Plants from View
Think about looking into your yard from outside the grow space. You want to go outside and make sure that plants are not visible from someone’s window, from the street, a neighbor’s yard, etc.
Keep plants shorter than your fence to help hide them from neighbors or thieves.
Camouflage your plants!
In addition to making sure no one can see your plants, it’s still a good idea to try to camouflage them so that if someone is on your property for some reason, the plants don’t obviously stick out.
This grower actually cuts the tips off all the leaves of their plant in order to make them look less like typical leaves. This is pretty effort-intensive, but there’s no doubt they look less like cannabis plants!
Plant bright flowers nearby, so it looks like the cannabis plant is producing the flowers.
Consider planting your cannabis in a decorative planter or container that causes it to grow in non-typical growth patterns. Adding flowers to some of the empty pots would complete the illusion.
This marijuana plant has been placed in the middle of an area that naturally has lots of trees and other types of vegetation.
Even having a few plants nearby will make a big difference compared to growing the cannabis plant all by itself.
One cannabis plant peeks up above many other types of plants.
Stealth Strains with Funny-Looking Leaves
There are some interesting “stealth” strains that naturally don’t look like typical cannabis plants, which can also help increase the illusion.
Learn more about “Ducksfoot” and other “Duck” and Stealth Strains.
This is a Frisian Duck plant in the vegetative stage. “Duck” or “Duckfoot” strains have 3-finger leaves which makes them look less like cannabis leaves. As a result, these strains can look like other types of plants at first glance.
Grow Cannabis Plants in a Greenhouse
Some growers put plants in a greenhouse or other outdoor structure that lets light in but obscures the inside from view.
A greenhouse can not only help keep plants warm in cool climates, they help obscure the plants. Some greenhouses are built opposite this one, with opaque sides and a clear top so sunlight comes from above yet plants can’t be seen from the sides.
However, consider that a greenhouse might look suspicious if it’s all by itself in the middle of the yard, especially if you don’t typically do a lot of yard work or gardening
This outdoor cannabis grower used tarp to allow sun to get to these autoflowering plants, while also hiding plants from view.
Change Natural Growth Patterns with Bending
Consider bending or otherwise altering the overall shape of the plant so it has less of a “Christmas Tree” shape, which is the most typical shape for cannabis plants grown naturally. This change of shape can cause the plant to look less like cannabis overall. You can also use bending to prevent plants from getting too tall.
Low stress training can be used to grow marijuana plants in any size or shape. This grower trained his outdoor cannabis plants to grow flat like hedges by training stems to grow along a ScrOG net.
Watch Out for Anyone Taking Interest of Your Plants
Be aware of anyone looking over the fence or otherwise spending time hanging around your property.
Even if it’s not someone who will report you to law enforcement, they may still be a problem. They might tell a friend who reports you. Or even worse they may be a thief. Nothing is more heartbreaking than growing plants all summer and then losing them to thievery…except jail.
Remember, even if a person doesn’t take your plants right away, many experienced thieves who understand the life cycle of cannabis plants will wait until just before harvest before they steal your plants.
This plant does not have any buds to steal now, but thieves may take note of your plant and come back in the fall when they know it’s getting close to harvest time. Stay vigilant!
How to Hide or Mask Cannabis Smell – Be a good neighbor!
Consider that people might be able to smell your plants. Some plants smell a little “weedy” in the vegetative stage, but by the time your plant is flowering and getting close to harvest, the smell can be overwhelming, especially with certain “high-smell” strains.
Grow Smaller Plants
I know that many growers want to get the biggest yield possible. But at least for your first grow outdoors, sometimes it can make things a little easier on your to grow somewhat smaller plants. For example, if you keep plants in 5-gallon pots, they can still produce many ounces, but won’t grow into giant monsters.
You can still get excellent yields on smeller plants with careful planning. This grower used manifolding to get his plant to grow like this.
This beautiful purple outdoor cannabis plant of LSD-25 didn’t smell much, in part because it’s small. Additionally, it doesn’t have the traditional “cannabis” skunky smell, which further helps keep it from immediately giving away the presence of weed to the neighbors.
Low Smell Strain
Choose a low odor strain for outdoors that stays small if you’re looking for something very stealthy. Auto-flowering strains can be a good choice because they’re easy to grow, won’t get very big, have a quick time-to-harvest and there are several stealthy looking and low-smell varieties that are suitable for growing outdoors. Auto Duck is an example of an auto-flowering strain that is great for outdoor stealth growing due to its smell (or lack thereof), growth patterns and quick time-to-harvest. Some examples of photoperiod strains that stay small and low-odor include Northern Lights, Papaya (smells tropical), Jock Horror, Ice (smells like jet fuel), and Blue Mystic. Smells are usually more intense when things get hot and humid.
Read about Low Odor cannabis strains.
This Chem Dog cannabis plant was surprisingly low smell.
Plant Other Fragrant Species of Plants
Plant lots of other types of plants nearby, especially ones with bright and smelly flowers. Some companion plants are smelly and may even help cannabis plants grow better. This may detract attention away from both the appearance and smell of a typical cannabis plant.
Physical Plant Barrier
If you plant a row of tall, dense plants that act as a physical barrier, it not only helps hide cannabis from view, but acts to help contain the smell within your yard.
Greenhouse with Carbon Filter
A greenhouse isn’t just great at hiding plants from sight, it also helps you contain the smell of plants. If you put a carbon filter inside of a greenhouse, it’s possible to have a smell-free grow right in your yard.
This DIY structure was meant to protect these cannabis plants from the rain, but it also helped to contain the smell. Add a carbon filter in there, and you would further reduce the smell.
Strategic Planting Times
Align your growing season so buds don’t develop during the hottest part of summer. This is easiest when growing autoflowering strains, as they let you time your outdoor harvest. Cannabis plants tend to smell the most when it’s hot, and also heat tends to lower the quality of buds (maybe partly because their smell is evaporating away into the air). However, if you have a warm spring where you live, you can time your harvest to happen in late Spring or early summer where it tends to be cooler.
Wind Direction Awareness
Be mindful of the wind directions in your area. If possible, plant your cannabis downwind of your neighbors to direct the odor away from their homes.
Growing Outdoors in Remote Spot Away from Home
What if you can’t grow on your own property, and need to grow in a more remote spot? A good outdoor grow spot has a few important factors….
This remote outdoor cannabis plant is living its best life.
Outdoor Stealth – Choosing a Safe Place to Grow Outside Your Property
Scope Out the Spot
Check out any possible grow spot at least 3 different times, and on both weekdays/weekends to make sure you never see hikers or other people in the area.
Far from a Visible Path
Stay far away from any path, and make sure not to leave tracks or marks when visiting plants – if you make a visible path, other people might follow it to see where it goes.
Test the Spot for Potential Visitors
I‘ve heard a grower say to securely leave a twenty-dollar bill in a few places around the chosen area, where they can be easily seen by a human but won’t blow away. If they are still there when you get back after a week or two, it’s unlikely there are many people passing by because they would have picked up the money.
Camouflage Plants
Even if you’re certain no one will be around except yourself, you should still try to camouflage your plants as best you can by using the tips given above.
Bonus: Outdoor Plant Health Tips
These factors are important to making sure your outdoor plants grow as fast and healthy as possible. They don’t necessarily contribute to stealth, but you must make sure to consider these factors if you want your outdoor marijuana grow to be successful! Since this article is all about picking the right spot for your cannabis plants, I thought it was important to also touch on this.
Easy to Visit
You should be able to visit the spot at least once a week to tend to your plants.
Access to Water
Plants need to drink, but water is way too heavy to carry long distances. Therefore, you’re looking for a spot with easy access to fresh, clean water. If there’s no hose, you’re looking for a brook or stream with moving water. Some growers collect rainwater near the grow site. Don’t use water that looks or smells bad to you.
Lots of Sunlight
The spot gets 8+ hours of direct sunlight each day (the less direct the light, and the fewer hours a day, the smaller the plants and buds will be).
Gentle Breeze
A gentle breeze provides airflow and cooling, which helps prevent heat stress, mildew, bud rot and bugs compared to the plant living in stagnant air. You’re looking for leaves that are rustling. There shouldn’t be enough wind that plants are waving around.
Have a Way to Protect Plants from Rain
One simple way is simply to make a barrier. Another option is to plan your harvest time (especially with autoflowering strains) to get it so buds are ready to harvest before your local rainy season.
This grower made a makeshift greenhouse for his plants protect his plants from the rain.
Consider the Heat
If it gets very extremely hot where you live, you want to consider making sure there’s a way to at least partially shade your plants on the hottest days. Learn how to care for heat-stressed outdoor marijuana plants.
Consider the Cold
Will your plants be ready to harvest before it starts getting cold and/or rainy where you live? High humidity, rain and temperatures under 60°F (15°C) are the leading causes of bud rot, which can take out an entire harvest in just a day or two! Frost and freezing temperatures will actually kill some plants (though some strains are more resistant than others). Make sure that you can protect your plants from cold or rainy conditions, or even better, make sure you get a strain that will be ready to harvest before your local bad weather begins!
Auto-flowering strains can be a good choice for growers with short summers because they are typically ready to harvest just 3 months from germination. However, there are also many ‘standard” (non-auto-flowering) strains with short flowering periods that only need 3-4 months before they’re ready to harvest.
Provide Your Own Soil
Even if the ground soil appears to be a good quality, you’ll often get the best results by providing your own soil which has been formulated for a plant like cannabis. This will contain the right ratio of nutrients so plants grow fast and buds get as big as possible. Many growers put their plants in containers with soil, which makes it so plants can be easily moved around. Some growers will dig a hole in the ground and fill it with good soil, though raised beds often perform better because the plant will use the “good” soil for longer, and it can be easier to water the plants.
What kind of soil is good for growing cannabis?
Don’t Forget Nutrients
Cannabis plants should have an adequate amount of nutrients. Although high-quality soil will typically provide everything your cannabis plant needs for nutrients during the vegetative stage, it’s typically a good idea to provide the plants with extra plant food during the nutrient-intensive flowering/budding stage! Plants need a surprisingly high amount of nutrients to produce the biggest buds!
Learn everything you need to know about cannabis nutrients.
