By Max Sargent

Depending on where you live, and who lives around you, growing cannabis might be a fairly comfortable practice, or it might need to be conducted in relative secrecy.

If you autumn into the latter category, then this article is for you. Here we look into different methods to disguise a cannabis grow outdoors, on balconies, and in greenhouses, to help you create a safe and hidden cannabis grow.


How to Protect Your Outdoor Grow

If you grow cannabis outdoors, then it’s likely that it will, in some way, be visible to prying eyes. Depending on the space available to you, you have two options: hide it away somewhere so you have a fully hidden outdoor grow, or camouflage it so that even if it's in sight, people won’t notice it.

Below we’ll outline some stealthy outdoor grow ideas to protect your plants, and you!

Hide Your Weed in the Garden

One of the simplest ways to camouflage your outdoor garden is simply to grow companion plants alongside your cannabis plants. Not only can this help to hide them away, but the right companion plants can also invite beneficial insects into your cannabis garden and help to ward off predators!

You can opt to grow plants that look similar to cannabis plants, or simply grow enough other plants that your cannabis is shielded from sight.
Potential companion plants are:

  • Tomatoes
  • Stinging nettles
  • Lupines
  • Pride of Madeira
  • Staghorn sumac
Companion plants for Cannabis
Companion plants for Cannabis

Choose a Hidden Spot

Alternatively, to protect your outdoor grow, you can simply grow weed where there’s already lots of cover. Grow in pots, and place your cannabis behind or among other plants. Also, try to look at your garden from the perspective that neighbours or those on the street might see it. A spot that looks hidden to you from your kitchen window might be clearly visible to someone else.

Though you’ll want to choose well-covered areas for your weed plants, make sure that these spots are still appropriate for growing weed. Namely, do they get at least eight hours of direct sunlight per day? If not, then your stealth grow might turn out to be fairly unproductive.

Be Careful Who You Tell Your Secret To

It will be tempting to tell friends and maybe family about your weed grow. And while you know best who is safe to tell, always bear in mind that people love to talk—and growing weed is still considered exciting gossip by many!

Maybe you’ll show or tell someone who doesn’t judge you, but they might pass the information on to someone who will. If you let the secret out, you lose control of it. So be careful who you tell.

Moreover, be extra-careful who you invite into your home. If you have builders in for some reason, try to ensure that they don’t go near your weed grow.

Keep Your Weed Plants Short and Bushy

An easy way to create a stealth weed grow is to keep your cannabis plants small and bushy. A 2m-tall cannabis plant with one fat cola at the top is going to attract a lot of attention—and it will quite clearly be cannabis. However, a 60cm, shrub-like plant will blend in much more easily.

A very simple way to achieve smaller plants is to use smaller pots. If the root systems can’t grow very large, then neither can the plant. Use 3, 5, or 7-litre pots if you want to keep your plants low.

Alternatively, you can use training techniques such as LST. This way, you can grow larger plants but tie them down so that they grow horizontally. You’ll still achieve a large yield, but the plants will appear bushy, rather than tree-like.

If all else fails and your plant is growing very large, you can just chop the top off. If you go for this option, do it when the plant is still in the vegetative stage, else you could lose most of your harvest.

LST training
LST training

Genetics for a Stealth Grow Outdoors

Some plants naturally like to grow tall, spindly, and stinky, while others like to grow low, bushy, and—while not entirely odourless—less stinky.

In general, indica or indica-dominant plants are best suited to stealth grows as they grow lower and thicker. There are even certain cannabis plants out there that don’t look like cannabis at all. These unusual strains tend to have leaves that are differently shaped compared to regular cannabis leaves. If stealth is absolutely essential to you, these strains are a good option.

Camouflage Your Plants

You can take things to the next level by dressing your plants up. Consider buying fake fruits and flowers and hanging them on your weed plants to make them look entirely different—at least from a distance.

Use Green Mesh Fencing

You could also place a green mesh fence around your cannabis plants. This will simply stop them being visible from outside, but won’t stop light from getting in.

Bear in mind that, depending on how you do this, it could in itself look suspicious. Ideally, a green mesh fence won’t look out of place if there’s lots of life in your garden. But if your garden is otherwise empty, it might look strange if a section of it suddenly gets hidden from view—especially if it then starts to smell like weed!

Green mesh fence to hide your plant
Green mesh fence to hide your plant

Disguise the Smell

Cannabis smells; it’s well-known for it. And there’s only so much you can do to hide this, especially in an outdoor grow.

One way to cover the smell slightly is to grow other fragrant plants alongside your grow. However, if you pick a very smelly strain, this is not going to cut it.

Therefore, the best bet is to grow low-odour cannabis plants, such as our Epsilon F1 hybrid. This, plus distance, is your best friend when it comes to hiding the scent of cannabis. The further you can get your plants from prying noses, the better it will be!

Be Discreet

If you behave strangely, this could be what draws attention to you. First, remember that there is nothing unusual about gardening. Going outdoors with gardening tools, fertiliser, and watering cans is not in itself suspicious. So when it comes to normal tasks, go about them as though you’re doing something normal. If you’re seen sneaking off to a corner of the garden, this will raise suspicions.

On the other hand, be discreet when it comes to cannabis-specific practices. For instance, don’t leave “cannabis fertiliser” lying around in plain view. And if you have to discard parts of your plants, do so in a way that doesn't leave five-fingered cannabis leaves clearly on display.

Finally, make friends with your neighbours. This way, they’ll be less suspicious in the first place, and even if they do discover your secret, it’s more likely they won’t say anything. Plus, making friends with people is worthwhile by itself!

How to Hide Cannabis on Your Balcony

It may be that you live in a city and don’t have a garden. If this is the case, you might be wondering how to create a stealth grow on your balcony.

Some balconies are pretty tucked away anyway, in which case you need only really worry about the smell. If this is so for you, follow the information from the sections above.

If this doesn’t apply for you, there are some other factors to bear in mind. First, higher balconies tend to be more private. If you don’t have a high balcony, there are steps you can take to disguise your grow. To start, consider using companion plants.

Also, use planter boxes along the edge of your balcony to create a shield. Then, in most cases, if people look at your balcony, it will be this layer of plants they see. A small cannabis plant or two hiding behind will most likely go unnoticed.

Also, try to determine from where your balcony is most visible, and account for this. Most likely, those higher up on the other side of the street will most easily be able to see what is going on.

Hiding Your Stealth Grow in a Greenhouse

If you have a greenhouse, these are fantastic environments in which to grow cannabis. They offer the protection and control of indoor growing with the benefits of outdoor growing—specifically sunlight.

On top of these advantages, greenhouses also offer a great environment for those who want to keep their cannabis grows hidden. Many greenhouses and polytunnels have translucent walls that blur the contents. And even if your greenhouse doesn’t, you can use mesh or companion plants to help disguise your cannabis.

Hide your plants in a greenhouse
Hide your plants in a greenhouse

A greenhouse that only contains cannabis plants will be much more obvious compared to a greenhouse that contains a mix of plants. Place your cannabis amongst numerous other species, and it will quickly disappear.

A great advantage of greenhouses is that you can use natural light. However, some people supplement with artificial lights. While not a total giveaway, if your greenhouse starts emitting light during the night, people might wonder what you’re growing. So, if possible, only use natural light with your greenhouse grow.

Finally, another advantage of growing in a greenhouse is that you can instal a carbon air filter, which removes much of the odour of cannabis plants. This means that you can grow pretty much any strain you want and not worry about the smell alerting nearby, sensitive noses.

Build an Underground Bunker or Convert a Shed

Lastly, you can convert a shed or build an underground bunker or greenhouse!

All of these options immediately hide your plants from view, allow for control over the smell, and offer other benefits such as environmental control and pest control.

A converted shed simply acts like an indoor grow, as does an underground bunker. An underground greenhouse is a little different. This involves creating a pit in which your plants will grow, and then covering the top with glass. This means that sunlight can get in, but those without access can't see what’s growing inside (unless they’re directly above).

Underground bunker
Underground bunker

Grow Indoors!

Finally, if you desperately need to keep your plants hidden and you can’t make yourself a bunker (few can), perhaps consider growing indoors. Using a grow tent with LED lights and a carbon filter will make your grow basically impossible to detect unless someone comes into your house and snoops around.

Creating a Stealth Cannabis Grow: Work With What You Have

Hiding cannabis plants is about looking at what you have available and working with it. If you have a greenhouse, great! If not, what can you do? Grow companion plants? Or is there a corner of the garden that’s already pretty crowded, where a cannabis plant or two wouldn’t attract much attention?

If nothing else works, grow indoors using a cannabis grow tent. And, most importantly, be safe! Assess whether the risk is worth it, and act accordingly.

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Privacy Policy - Royal Queen Seeds

To ensure a safe online environment and guarantee adequate data protection, we strictly comply with all legal requirements. In this privacy statement, we provide information about how and for what purpose data is collected, safety measures, storage periods and contact details.


COMPANY NAME: SNORKEL SPAIN, SL (hereinafter ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS)

C/ Vilar d'Abdelà, 5 (nave 1) CP: 08170 de Montornès del Vallès

+34 937 379 846

support@royalqueenseeds.com


The present Privacy Policy sets out the terms on which we will treat personal data at ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS; this includes any personal data collected through our website https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/ as well as any other data we process in the course of our business activities.

ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS collects the following personal data for the purposes listed below:

SECTION 1 – PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

1.1 Account purchases

Account purchases can only be made if you are in possession of a personal account. When you create an account or purchase something from our shop, as part of the buying and selling process we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

This information is required for delivery. In addition, when you browse our shop, we automatically receive the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. Based on this information, we can optimise your online experience and at the same time protect our online environment.

Purpose of data collection

We collect and store account-related data for the following purposes:

(a) to carry out obligations arising from any contracts between you and us, and to provide you with information, products and services that you may request from us;

(b) to set up, manage and communicate with you about your account and your orders;

(c) to conduct market research and analysis;

(d) to confirm your age and identity, and to detect and prevent fraud.

1.2 Newsletters

With your explicit permission, we may send you newsletters about our shop, new products and other updates. We send newsletters based on your explicit consent. In the event that you purchase a product, and in accordance with current regulations, we may send you commercial communications in accordance with the legitimate interest of our company, always about products or services similar to those you have purchased or contracted. In any case, you may exercise your right of opposition through the channels announced in this Privacy Policy. The following information is collected in relation to the newsletter:

We do not need to know the sex of the person in order to send the newsletter (data minimisation: by law we must ask for data that is strictly necessary to provide the service, and in this case knowing the sex is not necessary to send the newsletter).

Purpose of data collection

The data collected is used to:

(a) personalise our emails, including your name and gender;

(b) provide gender-specific content.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter or the contact information provided in section 2.

1.3 Customer service and contact form

In order to provide appropriate support, our customer service employees have access to information related to the account. Consequently, their support will be highly effective and friendly. The data provided in our contact form is used by our CRM provider, SuperOffice. We will only use your details to respond to your message.

SECTION 2 – LEGITIMATE INTEREST

If you have purchased any of our products, please note that we may process your personal data for promotional purposes, based on Royal Queen Seeds' legitimate interest only to offer you products or services from our company and about products or services similar to those you have purchased. You may exercise your right to opt out of future messages by the means set out in this Privacy Policy or through any notification you receive.

2.1 How do you withdraw consent?

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your consent for us to contact you for the purpose of collecting, using, or disclosing your data at any time by reaching out to us at: support@royalqueenseeds.com.

SECTION 3 – DISCLOSURE

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or if you breach our Terms of Service.

SECTION 4 – HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

At Royal Queen Seeds, we will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data; however, the longest period we will normally hold any personal data is 10 years.

4.1 Account information

Data relating to the account remains relevant for as long as the consumer is in possession of an account. Therefore, the data remains documented for as long as the account exists. When our customers delete an account, the associated data will be deleted within a reasonable period of time. Requests regarding the inspection or correction of stored personal data or the deletion of an account can be sent to support@royalqueenseeds.com.

4.2 Newsletters

In the event that you give us your consent to inform you about our products or services, we will keep your data until you express your wish not to receive any further communications from us. However, we regularly (every month) carry out a relevance check. Registered customers (and their personal information) will be deleted whenever customers do not reply to our request. In addition, our newsletter mailing has an opt-out feature. Consumers can withdraw their consent by using this opt-out feature.

SECTION 5 – COOKIES

Cookies are small information files that notify your computer of previous interactions with our website. These cookies are stored on your hard drive, not on our website. Essentially, when you use our website, your computer displays its cookies to us, informing our site that you have visited before. This allows our website to function more quickly and remember aspects related to your previous visits (such as your username), making your experience more convenient. At Royal Queen Seeds, we use two types of cookies: functional and analytical.

5.1 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies are used to enhance your online experience. Among other things, these cookies track what is added to your shopping cart. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

5.2 Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used for research and market analysis. The data collected with these analytical cookies is anonymous, making it unusable for third parties. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

SECTION 5 – THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Third-party services are required to conduct transactions and provide our services. In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to enable them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the information we must provide to them for your transactions.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these providers so that you can understand how these providers will handle your personal information.

In particular, certain suppliers may be located or have facilities located in a different jurisdiction than yours or ours. Therefore, if you choose to proceed with a transaction involving the services of a third party, your information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service of our website.

Web analytics service (anonymous data)

On this website we have integrated an element of a web analytics service (with anonymisation functionality). Web analytics can be defined as the gathering, processing and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. An analytics service collects, among other things, data about which website a person came from (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages they visited or how often and for how long they visited a sub-page. Web analytics is mainly used for website optimisation and for a cost–benefit analysis of internet advertising.

Courier service

To complete deliveries we use a courier service. This courier service carries out the delivery between our company and the consumer's home. To complete these logistics, the company requires access to the consumer's name and address information.

Mailing service

Royal Queen Seeds uses a third-party mail service provider to send its newsletter. This provider has access to limited account information related to opt-in consent (e.g. email address).

Marketing services

Royal Queen Seeds has the support of a company that specialises in marketing and communication activities. Their access to personal information is very limited and mostly anonymous.

Payment services

At Royal Queen Seeds we use external payment services to handle our transactions (e.g. credit card payments).

SECTION 6 – SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard best practices to ensure that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored using AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional industry standards that are commonly accepted. Information related to the account is protected with a hashing method. This method transforms the information into a generated hash. As a result, confidential information is protected and invisible, even to us. In addition, our databases are exceptionally protected against unauthorised access. For example, access to the database is only possible and permitted via approved IP addresses (e.g. from Royal Queen Seeds headquarters). Other attempts and addresses are rejected at all times.

Furthermore, data is anonymised as much as possible, so it cannot be directly linked to a specific consumer. With this data, however, we may be able to carry out market research and analysis. In addition, the third parties concerned (e.g. mailing service) are examined prior to our collaboration, comply with the GDPR from the EU and receive a processing agreement. Within Royal Queen Seeds, employees are assigned different access permissions. Specific permission provides access only to information that is strictly required to perform a task. Digital security measures are subject to change and must meet high requirements to ensure the safety of online customers. That is why, at Royal Queen Seeds, we appoint a security officer. Regular verification and improvement of security measures (where necessary) are part of the role.

SECTION 7 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please check back regularly. Changes and clarifications will be effective immediately upon being published on the Website. If we make substantial changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so you will know what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

SECTION 8 – YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO: