Low profile on the balcony in Spain

After 15 years of growing my own indoors, I’ve finally gotten my very first outdoor grow under my belt. Growing marijuana outdoors in the sunlight is not possible under the grey skies of Dublin. So when I moved to a tiny mountain village in the south of Spain, I was on a mission to get my grow on in the sun. I was lucky enough to come across a bargain penthouse apartment with a decent size terrace. Being on the top floor ensured I had some privacy from the public, providing my plants height was less than 1m and the odor not too pungent, then the neighbours wouldn’t notice either.

After careful consideration of many varieties, I cracked open a pack of Devil Cream Autos by Sweet Seeds and germinated two beans in a lunchbox with damp paper towels. 48 hours later and it was time to pop them into root riot cubes and my outdoor adventure was beginning. Using a 5L plastic water bottle as a homemade propagator, this was very much back to the basics.

As soon as the seedlings got a decent root mass I planned to transplant them into final containers filled with Atami Light mix. I’ve always preferred organic weed so of course this was going to be a 100% organic crop, grown as natural as possible. For fertiliser I got the BioBizz outdoor range and a bottle of growth technology liquid silicon from the local grow shop. On a trip to the local supermarket I came across some locally produced, high quality almost honey like molasses. Nothing fattens buds like molasses so in the shopping cart a jar went.

Although it was early in the season the weather was already fantastic. Daytime temps of 23C with 50% RH is right in that sweet spot that I so often aim for with my indoor crops using a host of fans and environmental controls. Here in Spain Mother Nature was taking care of the environment for me and providing 14 hours of light and moderate nights with temps never below 15C.

So perfect, I was compelled to germ a few more auto fem seeds. After all variety is the spice of life, so I did. So I added two more Cream Mandarins, again germed in paper towels but for a change I used 6oz Styrofoam cups filled with light mix and housed them in another homemade propagator. Emboldened with confidence due to the rapid development of the Devil Creams and Cream Mandarins I decided to add one MediKush Auto to the line up.

An all auto garden was another first for me; having grown only a handful indoors over the years with mixed results, I was doubling my experience with these varieties in a single crop. The lightning fast performance erased any lingering doubts by the end of the month. During the month of May I transplanted all five plants into a variety of containers from a smart pot 15L to a modified plastic pot 7.5L. I decided to cut out the base of two of the pots and replace it with a colander to improve drainage and let some air at the roots.

As the weeks rolled by I became more and more impressed and increasingly confident I would actually produce a fantastic outdoor crop. I stuck to a simple feeding schedule alternating Feed-Water-Feed-Water being careful not to over-fertilise as Autos really don’t require heavy doses of fertiliser. Gradually working up my dose of nutes with each week, all three varieties grew vigorously and by mid-May required staking with Bamboo to keep them stable in the breeze. The first signs of purple bud caught my eye on the morning of day 35 on both of the Devil Creams.

This was an unexpected bonus. I was absolutely on track for that 8 week finish as promised by Sweet Seeds. Initially I was sceptical of this claim when I bought the seeds and it was the promise of potent purple bud that motivated me to select this variety more than anything else. Although the Devils looked different, one almost twice the size of the other and not very branchy, they got frosty fast. Looking like impressive skunky hybrids.

The Cream Mandarins were racing to finish too. They grew like clones, almost identical Indica phenotypes. Both stayed squat developing juicy main colas and a few chunky side branches. No purple here but perhaps twice the production of the Devil Creams and nice frosty bud too. Surprisingly it was the MediKush I actually consider the pick of the litter.

During the month of May this plant turned into a wonderful bush. Prominent side branching on this plant really impressed me, in fact I’ve had indoor Indica varieties that didn’t develop this well! Throughout May Daytime temps ranged from 25C-28C and the nights a pleasant 18C with cool mountain breezes. Fortunately all the plants stayed out of the line of sight of the neighbours and although there was definitely a fragrant odor the cool mountain air carried it far away, I assume. At time of writing it’s the night of June 9th and I’ve just harvested the smaller of the two Devil Creams.

I can hardly believe it but just this morning I harvested perhaps 15g of delightfully lemon scented frosty purple weed. I’m feeding the remaining plants molasses tea (approx one teaspoon in a cup of hot water then added to 5L of water) to fatten up the buds and hopefully ensure a sweet taste. I’ll follow that with a good flush of water and with a bit of luck I’ll be in for a pretty decent harvest over the next fortnight. True I could have left the plant I harvested perhaps one more week to reach 100% potential. However temps are getting a touch too hot going over 30C since June and I’m all out of weed too.

While I’ve been really lucky and succeeded with my grow, plenty of other expats have been less fortunate and ran afoul of either the law or lawless crop thieving bandits. Most cannabis cultivators are being forced indoors in Spain as a result. This is shame in a land blessed with such ideal climatic conditions for marijuana. Unfortunately cannabis is still in a kind of semi-legal grey area in Spain. What one copper deems a personal grow not worth busting can just as easily be a major seizure for an unenlightened pig.

But let’s finish on a high note. This Irishman pulled it off. My buds are drying inside the wardrobe of the spare room and I look forward to lazy sunny afternoons recreationally smoking on the balcony not harming anybody and in perfect harmony! Note: The local grow shop owner from England was arrested last weekend and is effectively being run out of town by local police.

Foreign young stoners are routinely stopped by police, searched and arrested for tiny amounts of weed. A local Welsh grower was caught with a few grams(literally enough for a few joints), arrested and then his home searched! His grow show was destroyed as it was deemed to be for commercial purposes, even though it was like 10 plants for him and his girlfriend. It just goes to show that Spain is def not a safe country at all for any home growers! Author: Top Shelf Grower