3.3.2 Outdoor Cultivation
Cannabiscultivated outdoors need full sunlight to grow profusely. The outdoor
cultivation ofCannabisin Mississippi starts at late March/early April, when the
weather starts warming up, and could last till November or early December
depending on the variety. Starting from seeds, plants may be raised in small
biodegradable (2’jiffy) pots and the selected healthy seedlings (or seeds directly)
may be planted in the field. Male flowers start appearing within 2–3 months
(around middle of July) followed by femaleflowers. Male plants are generally
removed from thefields for several reasons; (1) male plants contain less THC as
compared to female plant; (2) to avoid pollination within a variety which produces
seeds in mature crop and results less yield of biomass and ultimately less THC as
compared to the seedless (sinsemilla) mature plants; (3) to avoid cross pollination
(if different varieties are grown in close plots) among the varieties. Due to allog-
amous nature of this species, it is difficult to maintain consistency in chemical
profile of selected high THC-producing genotypes underfield conditions if grown
from seeds. Therefore, vegetatively propagated cuttings of a screened and selected
mother plants (based on its chemical profile) are used to cultivate biomass batches
consistent in its chemical profile. Similar to propagation from seed, cuttings can be
raised in biodegradable jiffy pots and well rooted cuttings are planted directly in
field using automated planter (Fig.3.10).
Fig. 3.10 Outdoor cultivation ofCannabis sativa,a–cvegetative stage anddflowering stage,
plants ready to harvest
94 S. Chandra et al.