Volunteer Cannabis Plants

Have you ever had cannabis plants just randomly grow where you did not think there should be any seeds?

I get volunteer cannabis plants every year it seems?? Usually I simply pull them and that is that.

This year I have one that actually got kinda big before i saw it, and I decided to let it grow. And it is not disappointing, it is showing impressive vigor, and has some big leaves!

This will be an ongoing post documenting the life of this volunteer cannabis plant, lets all see what it can become!

The big question in my mind is….male or female? Looks like a male to me…but time will tell.

Here are a few images of it, I will share more as it matures…

Update…5/28/23… Hmmm, I was doing some yard work, and low and behold I found a brother or sister to my volunteer cannabis plant. Looks feminine to me….

Unfortunately I am going to cull number two volunteer plant, as I never want to have more plants then the law allows here where I live. I am going to stick with the first one I came across. And here she is…I hope it’s a ‘she’…today…

Update…6/8/23… Well the plants is still looking male-like, but that is not a certainty. It is very vigorous for sure. I have been aggressively topping it in order to try to keep it short, but, as many of you likely know this can be a losing proposition, as with some plants they are just going to keep getting taller.

The thing is it is close to the front of my house, and could be seen from the road, I will likely just put up some kind of temporary barrier to prevent it being seen. It is about chest high now, and here is an image….

Update…6/15/23…Well, this plant is changing my mind. It was growing so tall, and vigorously at first I thought it must be a male. I think I am mistaken, I am thinking it is now a female, and and somewhat impressive one at that.

I keep topping, and it keeps growing determined to be seen from the street. I had plants in front of it that were taller, but no more. Will have to block it’s view in another way.

It is only the middle of June, so this plant could get over twice as tall as it is now.

And, if it is indeed a female, I am thinking I will have it produce some seed. I will call them Ultimate Volunteer Cannabis Seeds, or something like that. I would imagine some of you who have followed the story would like to grow it out…maybe make it a new freebie, with the story of it’s life…to tell the tale.

Update…6/24/23… I am continually topping this plant to try to keep her (Yes, I think it is a her at this point) down a bit. Without the topping this plant would have grown into the normal Christmas tree type of plant, and likely been over 10 feet tall. I have trimmed up her under story a bit, and here she is today…

I have decided I will breed her to my male Sugar Haze plant I am growing for the one gallon grow challenge. Here he is on the right.

This is especially for any of my customers who follow along with my writings.

I may give them away as freebies, complete with this story of their growth.

She would seem to be a hybrid, and a very vigorous one at that. And, the Sugar Haze I have grown out already, the mother plants were about 12 feet tall, with nice, well cyrstalled, chunky buds.

I am not sure if the Sugar Haze plant will last long enough however, time will tell if the Sugar Haze plant re-vegges, and still flowers in a few months as she likely will.

Update…7/2/23…I have definitely decided this is a female plant! I keep topping, and she keeps growing! I just fed her some of my bird guano, and I expect even more of a growth spurt.

I am going to really try to have a boyfriend for her this fall. I think I will offer the seeds with this blog post as a selling point. All I know for sure is she is a hybrid, looks somewhat like a Sugar Haze. So think she is possibly a Sativa dominate hybrid.

She is out where I am growing plants for my Permaculture Food Forest, and unfortunately somewhat visible from the sidewalk in front of my house. I will have to put something up to block the view of her, as I expect her to grow several feet taller, despite my best efforts to top her.

She is getting big around, and about 5 feet tall now, and will vegatively grow for a few more months, and even when in flower will get a bit taller.

Here is an image of her today…

You can see the side shoots getting a chance to ‘catch up’ because of me continually pinching the top most shoots.

You can also see how those side shoots are a bit bigger and greener…I have been actively feeding her of late, and she is loving it!

She should be a real beast in a few more months!

Update…7/16/23… I am feeding my volunteer plant most every day. If you want your cannabis plants to get BIG, this is the way to go about it.

She is getting big, and I have put up a temporary screen to block the view of her from the sidewalk. She has shown some pre-flowers, so she will likely remain a female (I have seen plants show female pre-flowers then become male)

Also most males simply will not get this big and bushy.

Here she is today…

She still has a month or so before the onset of full flower, so interested in just how big I can get her to grow. I have been pinching the tops off every 2nd or 3rd node, trying to keep her down, but from my experience if you are growing a very vigorous plant, this is a losing proposition.

I would imagine she will still get around 10 ft tall even with my best effort to keep her shorter.

She is definitely a hybrid, and because of the leaf size, I would say a Indica dominate hybrid. I am wanting her to make seed, and this article will be their selling point, documenting the entire life of the mother plant. If I can get her fully seeded, I can see another contest in the future….guessing how many ounces of seed she will produce.

First I will have to have a male maturing at the correct time. For those of you reading this, what strain of the seeds I carry do you think would be a good father for her seed? I would love to know your thoughts in a comment.

Pruning the lower part of your cannabis plants. Should you? Why would you?

I usually prune the under-story of my cannabis plants, especially if they are getting big like this volunteer plant.

Why would you want, or need to do that?

The main reason is for air flow, and this becomes even more important if you live where it is humid.

Here in the eastern part of Washington state the humidity is low in the summer. But, when fall begins to make an appearance the temperature can plummet, and the humidity can rise. Creating the perfect environment for molds and mildews.

And in some parts of the country the summers can be very humid as well. Opening up the underside of your cannabis plants by pruning, and creating more air flow can help prevent mold and mildew problems.

There are a few less obvious reasons as well. The under-story does not receive much sunlight, so will produce little bud.

The air flow will help your plant stay cooler in the heat of summer. Having leaves touching the ground only invites the problems discussed above.

The plant will be able to send more energy to the top growing shoots, the ones that will produce flowers. While you may have fewer flowers, they will likely stack up much bigger. Who doesn’t like huge colas?

Here is the volunteer cannabis plant all pruned up…

Also, you might notice I have simply put all the pruning’s down about the base of the plant. You will read online that you should always clean these up and discard them, because of disease they say…but in this situation I would disagree.

You know what is the perfect food for a cannabis plant? Well, that would be part of a cannabis plant! Cannabis pruning’s have everything in them that a cannabis plant needs nutritionally. The perfect food.

Update…7/21/23…She is continuing to grow and get bigger. I will continue topping her, and I put up a temporary barrier to hide her from the road.

It is amazing how big these plants can get, given enough food.

I have been feeding her every day, lots of compost, and fertilizer tea. She just sucks it up and grows, she will likely need support if her buds start to get too big.

Wonder how many seeds she will make?

Think I will have a contest and let you guys guess at how many ounces of seed she will produce, if I can get a male there with her to make them.

Here she is today, getting wide, and she is about 7 ft tall….even though I topped her many times.

I just wanted to touch base a bit on cannabis plant manipulations.

The cannabis plant is a strong and very vigorously growing plant generally. This lends it’s ability to withstand some pretty serious manipulations. Such as…topping, super-cropping, FIMing, LST/SCROG, Lollipopping, Cordoning, to name a few.

I generally only super-crop, and top my plants. I pretty much only super-crop, if I want to keep the plant down for sure, like under lights if I want good light penetration.

Topping is a way to make the plant shorter, and bushier. Topping can be done a time or two, or you could literally top ever second node ( an experiment I would like to try.)

I do remove bottom growth as well at times, as discussed above. And, this is a serious manipulation as well. These manipulations usually require the plant to heal from the wounds you have inflicted. And, most cannabis plants are quite capable.

With this volunteer plant, pictured above, that grew in a small side garden at my house, I have topped it about 10 times already. About every second node for many of the toppings. I did this in an effort to keep it as short as possible. If the cannabis plant you are growing is very vigorously growing plant like this one, that is a losing proposition. Unless you are brutal, you will only keep it to say half it’s height if grown normally.

When you top a cannabis plant, you are creating two growing sites where there was just one. The more you do it the more bushy the plant will become.

Every stem growing up toward the light on your cannabis plant is reaching for that light, and, they all want to be the tallest stem! It is literally a competition.

Topping a cannabis plants top growth site, gives shorter stems a chance to catch up. Top enough, say every second node like this plant, and you will turn your plant into a bush with many bud sites, as all the side buds begin to display their dominance.

This well generally ultimately result in more, but smaller buds, and more weight, then a plant allowed to grow in it’s natural Christmas tree shape…in my experience.

I have decided to begin topping her yet again, I think she enjoys it as it only makes her more successful in her ultimate life mission….to abundantly procreate.

Lets see just how big and bushy she can get. She gets a daily watering with compost teas, and you will not find a yellow leaf on her anywhere. This is the way I like to grow seed plants…full of all the nutrition they may need.

One more thing to add, there are no real pre-flowers to be found. SHE, could still be a HE…but, I seriously doubt it. Too big, too bushy I am thinking. The inter-nodes are getting closer, which is a sure sign of maturity, and the likely onset of flowering. I want her to flower soon, as that will assure her ability to mature her seeds completely outdoors.

Looking at her, and she is a beauty, of all my strains she looks like one of these 3…Santa Marta Colombian Gold, Sour Plums, or Sugar Haze….

Update…7/31/23…I love cannabis plants that show this kind of vigor when grown! She is becoming a beast! And, she is still in veg, so she will only get bigger. I will introduce a male plant to her when she begins to flower, as she is impressive, and I may as well make seed from her.

Tell me what type of plant do you think I should cross her with? Chosen from the strains I carry…Give me your thoughts on that in a comment, I would love to hear from you. I am thinking about The Black.

She makes me want to do a grow in the ground, of the 15 plants I can grow, but an all summer grow that I push for size, just as I am doing with her. If you want to grow huge cannabis plants, all it really takes is the correct genetics for it, and to feed them all the nutrients they can use. Concentrating on nitrogen during the veg state. She has consumed her share of cliff swallow guano for sure…

Also, a cannabis plant will grow exponentially bigger, and faster, the bigger it gets. This is basically because of the huge root system big plants can develop.

Here is a image of her from yesterday…

Update…8/10/23…She continues to fill out, and get even bigger! I am curious just how big she can get. I will be planting some more plants soon to find her a mate. I think even a very small male plant will seed her fully. Time will tell.

You can read alot of hype online about growing quality cannabis using only water, my take on this is this plant would be no where near her size if I had only given her water with no food at all. She is such a beast simply because I feed her nearly every time I water….which is every day.

I will likely top her again today….

Here is an image of her today… the wall you see behind her is a bit taller then me, I am 6′ 3″…..

PopPop came up with a name for this plant…Wild Thing! I love it!

When I finally get up to my property I am going to grow my 15 plants (the number I can legally grow here), but I am going to try to grow them huge like the 10 pounders one can see online. Even bigger then the Wild Thing.

I have grown some huge plants in my day, but wonder if I have ever actually grow a 10 pounder…

Looking forward to seeding plants that are that big!

But, I regress, the reason for this little update is I realized Wild Thing even has her own song. I was 13 in 1965 when this song first came out (yeah, that old!). Sung by a British band called The Troggs (Britain sure turned out some highly talented musicians!)

So take a few moments and give the Wild Thing’s song a listen…

Update…8/22/23…The Wild Thing just keeps on getting bigger! Sadly though she (I do so hope it is a she!) is still not wanting to begin to flower.

I am hoping soon, or we will begin to run out of time. She is not a plant I can move indoors!

She is about 8 ft tall now, and the nodes are beginning to shorten, which is generally the first sign you will see of the onset of flowering. I have my fingers crossed, as I really do want to make some seed from her.

I have just planted some more Sugar Haze plants (100% germination BTW 🙂 in order to get a male to make those seeds.

I could try to figure out a way to cover her if she runs on into fall, and we begin to have some frosts. Time will tell.

Here is an image of her today…

Well, as can happen, I have grown and nurtured this plant all summer, and the longer it grew without showing sex the more convinced I was that I had a female plant. But no….nature had it’s way and finally maleness ensued….

This can be a deal breaker for one trying to grow sensimilla, but for me, I will just grow out a small female(s), and make some seed. One must realize that a plant grown from seed has half of it’s genetic makeup supplied by the mother, and half by the father. If either are impressive plants the offspring is likely to be impressive as well.

I am going to just offer these seeds as freebies for anyone interested in growing a Wild Thing Jr. Here is a short vid of Sir Wild Thing going into full bloom….

Update…9/11/23…this date brings back some awful memories, doesn’t it?

Sir Wild Thing is now in full flower, so if any of you want to know what a male cannabis plant looks like in full flower, here you go. The block wall under him is just over my head, and I am 6’3″. So he is about 10 feet tall, and producing copious amounts of pollen!

If only he were a she! I have some small Sugar Haze plants I am growing to hopefully make some seed from him, which I plan to give away as freebies.

And, he will produce enough pollen to pollinate likely thousands of plants if exposed to him.

Here is a new image of Sir Wild Thing today…