How to Grow Huge Cannabis Plants in a Short Growing Season

7 Feet by Late July: How to Grow Massive Outdoor Cannabis in Short Seasons

I have grown a ton of cannabis plants in the last 50 years…most of it as The Ghost. And, I have grow huge cannabis plants in some short growing seasons.

When growing virtually all these plants I have always concentrated on size…pushing the plants with fertilizer during the veg window of growth to reach the maximum size the genetics is capable of. And I have grown some beasts over the years.

This years grow up on my off grid property Stony Oasis Farms is no exception. I have always been one to feed my plants when I water them…but for this grow I decided (since I have my e35 Bobcat excavator) to create a hugelkultur growing bed…not a mound however, but a depression…a dryland hugelkultur if you will. I also included super soil…you can read about the setup here…How to Grow 10lb Cannabis Plants Off-Grid: The 2026 Super Soil & Dryland Hugelkultur Guide

The plan from the start was to grow some huge cannabis plants in the short growing season up at SOF using some of my favorite genetics…so I chose some of my favorite regular photo cannabis strains…namely… D’Qar, Tahoe OG, BadAss BB’s, Kona Gold, Sugar Haze, KickAss White OG, Black Tiger, and The Black. I sprouted these plants indoors around the 1st of March…you can read about that here…Dryland Hugelkultur Cannabis Grow Central Washington

The early spring weather up on my off grid property was pretty rough this year, lots of wind, and cold rainy weather. My plants just sat there…even getting eaten on by squirrels. I wondered how it would work out…as I discuss here…Early Summer at Stony Oasis: Hugelkultur Cannabis Grow Update

Then finally summer hit…the wind began to let up a bit, and the sun began to shine! The plants began to grow…Mid-Summer Explosion: How the Hugelkultur Bed is Feeding My Cannabis Plants…also you will want to enter my ‘How tall will the tallest plant get?’ contest. Read to the end for the contest rules.

Finally my plants are growing! They are beginning to impress…Can You Grow 10lb Cannabis Plants in the Mountains? My Dryland Hugelkultur Experiment

Look at these plants! you will not find a yellow leaf on them anywhere, and I only topped these plants once. The richness of the super soil is turning them all into bushes…huge bushes! Even the runt has made a comeback…it is now not the shortest plant of the bunch.

The Hidden Danger of Explosive Growth: When Cannabis Grows Too Fast

Is there a downside to growing huge cannabis plants too fast? The short answer is yes, they can, and they will be weaker because of it. Here is what can happen….

• Pith & Cell Structure: When nitrogen and water uptake are cranked to the maximum in living soil, cells expand faster than cell walls can properly lignify (harden).
• The “Celery Stalk” Effect: Branches get thick and green quickly, but they remain flexible and fibrous rather than woody, leaving them vulnerable to splitting right at the main stem union.

• Wind Stress: Dense 7-foot canopies act like sails. Rapid, soft growth won’t stand up to late-summer gusts without support.
• Pest Preference: Sucking insects like aphids and mites love soft, sap-heavy new growth because it’s much easier to pierce than hardened plant tissue.

Practical Prevention & Fixes

• Silica & Calcium Support: Mentioning silica (or bio-available potassium silicate/horsetail tea) and calcium helps reinforce cell walls during rapid expansion surges. All this is in my hugelkultur bed, and hopefully give the plants the streghth they need to survive the mountain weather.
• Wattle Fencing: You can support the plants…although I was wanting to show the absolute toughness of cannabis plants…so opted out of support…except for a Wattle Fence.
• Wind Stress (Stem Toughening): Letting the natural breeze flex the stalks to trigger ethylene production and bulk up stem diameter. This is how cannabis handles this on it’s own

When you’re growing in a zone with a short summer, every single week of veg counts. Most folks assume short seasons mean settling for modest, 4-foot bushes before autumn settles in—but if your soil structure is built to feed and protect the root zone, you can push monster growth in a fraction of the time. Here we are at the end of July, and the tallest plants in the row have officially cleared 7 feet…that being the Indica dom BadAss BB male.

Cannabis Plants Get Bigger Faster….The Bigger They Get!

Think about it…the smaller the plant, and the smaller the root system the slower the plant can consume nutrients and grow. The bigger the plant, the bigger it’s root system, and the faster it can utilize those nutrients and turn them into visible growth.

“A healthy outdoor cannabis plant can easily average an inch of new growth a day during peak veg. But when you get the microbial life in a hugelkultur bed humming, these plants can easily push out 2 inches or more daily.

These plants are pushing the extremes, and we will see how that turns out…I am hoping their vertical growth will have enough strength to hold up to those mountain winds. Time will tell.

Planting Fruit Trees at Stony Oasis Farms

I got a deal on fruit trees I simply could not pass up. 2-3 year old potted trees for only 10 bucks apiece! I bought about 70 of them…thanks to you guys….your seed money is what fuels Stony Oasis Farms.

I gave my finger 10 days, got the stitches out (I got 8 stitches from a chainsaw cut) and went up and planted the 50 trees I had left, along with building a hot fence around them all. That was alot of work for a 73 year old guy in just 2 days. But I got it done, and will concentrate on finishing my solar install now.

Some of these trees already have apples…which means they are already several years old. I cannot wait till my 100 fruit trees all begin making fruit! I have about 12 varieties of these trees…we will see what can produce up there every year, and what can only produce on certain years…late frosts are common there.

Sunflowers Love it at Stony Oasis Farms!

I am basically in the process of planting lots of different cultivars up on my property and seeing which like it there. And one plant I found that loves it there is sunflowers. They grow well produce those huge flowers for the pollinators, and produce tons of seeds for winter food for so many creatures. So what to do….plant a ton of them of course… You can see them beyond the cannabis plants in this photo.

My property is becoming a pollinators dream…as I am introducing a ton of flowering plants. I do plan on a few bee hives down the road…although I am thinking about perhaps raising leaf cutter bees, and perhaps mason bees in the future…perhaps even for resell…as I have just learned the solitary bees are much, much, better pollinators then the honey bee.

This will become more important as I plan on a big vegetable garden this next summer…and now that I have some experience with a hugelkultur bed…I am also thinking about incorporating those into my veggy garden…we will see.

Conclusion

I just took a look at the guesses for the tallest plant contest, and sorry…but those of you who have chosen under 10 feet will likley not be winning. These plants are likley about as big in circumference as they will get, and I expect some serious upward growth now….just hope those big ‘sails’ can withstand the mountain winds they will be exposed to. I do plan on increasing the height of the waddle fence to break that wind up a bit. But still plan on no other support…hope that is not a mistake.