Best Strains For Outdoor Growing — 603 Varieties Matched to New Zealand Conditions
603 varieties chosen for growing outside in this country. The season opens when soil holds above about 15°C — October in the north, November further south — and closes with the first frost, which can mean May in Auckland and April inland in Otago. Between those two dates, the risk that actually materialises is a wet March rather than a cold one. The group runs 186 sativa-leaning, 417 balanced hybrid.
Also worth a look: autoflowering indicas to finish ahead of an April frost, autoflowers for two crops in one season up north, and high-yield genetics for plants with room to spread.
603 strains available
What this shelf holds
603 varieties sit on this shelf right now, and the THC figures on their listings run from 1% up to 33%, with the middle of the group at 21%. Counted from the catalogue when this page was built, so it matches the grid below.
- Photoperiod, all female: 602 of them (100%). You choose when they flower, and they carry the most weight per plant.
- Sativa-leaning: 186. Taller, later, and worth the season length only where you have it.
- Balanced crosses: 417. Somewhere between the two, and generally the easier grow for it.
- First three alphabetically: $100 OG, 13 Dawgs and 24k Gold. The grid below filters on finishing time, height and type.
Best Strains For Outdoor Growing — Browse All Strains
What Is Actually in This Category
Of the 603 varieties here, 186 lean sativa (31%), 417 sit as balanced hybrids (69%). None are autoflowering — all 603 need shortening light to start flowering, which outdoors happens on its own as the New Zealand summer ends. The mean listed THC across the group is about 21%, which is a genetic ceiling rather than a guarantee — the figure a plant actually reaches depends on light, feeding and harvest timing. These counts are read from the catalogue when the page is built, so they move when stock moves and cannot drift away from what is listed below.
Region Makes More Difference Than Strain Choice
Thirteen degrees of latitude separate the top of the country from the bottom, which is why a single national growing calendar is close to useless here. Auckland gives you mild winters and a long season, usually grown on small urban sections where plant height is the limit. the Waikato, by contrast, gives you heavy autumn dews and morning fog that sit in dense flower long after sunrise. Read the flowering window on any variety you plan to grow outside against your own first-frost date, not against a national average. What actually costs people a crop here is a damp March rather than a cold one: moisture sitting in packed flower is where rot starts, and spacing plants properly is a cheaper fix than anything you can spray on afterwards.
Planning a New Zealand Outdoor Season
The New Zealand outdoor season runs roughly October to April, and the two dates that matter are your last spring frost and your first autumn one. Photoperiod plants go out once soil temperatures hold above about 15°C, flower as the light shortens from late January, and finish somewhere between March and May depending on latitude. Autoflowers ignore all of that and simply need warmth. Wind is the underrated factor — staking before a plant needs it is far easier than after — and a cheap cloche or greenhouse frame extends the usable season at both ends more cheaply than any other intervention. All 603 varieties in this category work this way; none of them will flower on age alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Ordering These
Prices are in New Zealand dollars with GST included and no card surcharge. Orders over $150 NZD ship free, everything goes out in plain unbranded packaging with NZ Post tracking, and we ship to New Zealand addresses only.
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