how to grow in the tropical regions discussion ..

[guest123]

thought this was a good topic and one many folks in those regions often scratch their head s wondering what is the best thing for them ,, and what will work ,, how to do it etc ,,,
open discussion on how to grow in the tropical regions .....

 

[vod]

I was thinking of a perpetual outdoor equatorial guerrilla grow last night.
I was testing my new pipe and ended up dreaming about buying a 6x6 Tatra truck and spending 2 years camping, planting, traveling and harvesting...
What are the strains that will finish on the equator in 6 months from seed?

 

[guest123]

well really i can only speak of experience on a latitude similar to jamaica ... my experience is also at altitude ,, and i know its quite different on the coast even where i live ...
i just tried a lot of strains in my backyard and a friends place for a few years to see what grew best ,, and would flower without reveging on our longest days .. we had quite large gardens , so were able to try a llot of things ..
our days vary during the year from 11 hrs to 13 hrs .. and i guess the cooler months due to the height of the grow also determines what will and wont work ....
anyhow heres a few strains ive found grew well for me , they are all either c99 or crosses of it ..
i know thats not the only strain that will suit , just the one i found that i liked and worked for me ....
i suggest testing a few things at home or somewhere u can keep an eye on them .. as for something that will grow in 6 months ,, ive like the ones that can be out in 16 weeks or less .. youll find things are faster in the tropics ..

 

[Guest]

Wish I lived in the tropics!

Some cheap secondhand Tatras 6x6s here:

http://www.russianmilitary.co.uk/details.php?id=94

 

[guest123]

well its not all good bh ,, to take advantage of the best times u really need to power grow your plants so to speak .. dont forget the tropical regions experience the monsoon , and it reaks havoc on your cannabis ..
i always thought the varieties that flowered later did on purpose to avoid being in full flower during the wet period ,, kinda stands to reason natural selection would kill off the earlier flowering ones due to the intense wet time they would attempt to flower ....
i found around 50% of the local sativas will flower early here , but they do not really finish properly and will reveg before they are properly finished , they are often not worth growing a second time unless u cut them down for a fresh batch of growth and refert as though u were starting a new plant ...

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

I saw a nice pic of a mate in the mountains in Jamaica sitting next to a 3' tall Northern Lights plant... so got into the idea of bringing plants indoors for the night to veg up, then leave out to flower, nice and small.

My friend spends a lot of time in Costa Rica and is always asking me for info on exactly this subject, Wally [and hopefully others....] your information is greatly appreciated.

FWIW.... A lot of tropical places have a lot of humidity, so rot proof plants are a priority, my lines of thought were drawn to genetics from Transkei, S.Africa.... I have heard it is a mountainous rainforest area and that it's plants are the most humidity resistant of all the S.Africans. Kali Mist also survives a lot of dampness ..... where insects have not damaged it.

 

[guest123]

yep chaos , the tropics is hell during the wet times , thats why i try to avoid them and grow during the dry ,, its a bit harder to do , but beats the hell out of a mould ridden harvest ...
i watched around a week ago as 6 inches of tropical rain dumped on my 8 ft sativas in 3 hrs .. they were smashed into the ground literally ,, its not nice to see a nice fat cola in the red mud .. lol ..
so i try to avoid that time of year , the dry is fairly predictable in the tropics ,, sun sun sun , and no rain till the end ..
the extra effort it needs to grow that time of year is well worth it ,, even if u have to make the seeds to suit ..
the hash i make from the wet season herb is nothing like the dry season stuff .. that says a lot i think ...

 

[guest123]

im thinking seeds from papua new guinea would have to be pretty mould resistant , those guys get an average of close to 10 metres annually .... i wonder how long they have been growing cannabis there .. they are amazing gardeners , and have been for thousands of yrs apparently ...

 

[vod]

I thought of the equator coz I like the idea of planting and harvesting constantly year round like in an indoor perpetual set up just outdoors in the bush in many guerrilla spots.
I would need to have a look at the weather conditions in the many possible places, but Ecuador sounds good. Maybe PazVerdeRadical can find a moment and write more about the growing conditions (and population density) in the tropical Andes.

@B_H
yeah, this is the site that inspired this idea of mine. but i can't find prices in there :/ probably would have to contact them and inquire.

I don't have the capital for such venture yet, but I'm sure it will be possible one day. Get a crew of 3 or 4, buy two Tatras, spend a year or two in a jungle he he, grow some weed and don't have to work for the rest of my life (if I don't end up in jail or bankrupt that is ).

 

[Guest]

Hey wallyduck. Youre almost living my dream man. A greenhouse on the equator at 8000 ft. Id be flowering my precious indicas all year long. Your'e closer to it than me.

And that is always the fly in my topical ointment, I love indica's. 100% indica and tropical growing. Is that an oxymoron Wallyduck?

sb

 

[guest123]

I thought of the equator coz I like the idea of planting and harvesting constantly year round like in an indoor perpetual set up just outdoors in the bush in many guerrilla spots.
I would need to have a look at the weather conditions in the many possible places, but Ecuador sounds good. Maybe PazVerdeRadical can find a moment and write more about the growing conditions (and population density) in the tropical Andes.

@B_H
yeah, this is the site that inspired this idea of mine. but i can't find prices in there :/ probably would have to contact them and inquire.

I don't have the capital for such venture yet, but I'm sure it will be possible one day. Get a crew of 3 or 4, buy two Tatras, spend a year or two in a jungle he he, grow some weed and don't have to work for the rest of my life (if I don't end up in jail or bankrupt that is ).

\
id say u certainly could do that , it is what we do here , or try too .. an indoor set up and greenhouse would be a huge advantage also , we used to veg cuttings to flower outdoors and it worked well ..
one problem though with your plan could be moving to new areas and doing suspicious things that could connect u do growing , even seemingly unpopulated areas are pretty closely watched from what ive noticed . definately scope your area well and access needs to be totally unseen .. it can take years to venture into such things and proper planning is a must ...
you would be surprised how difficult it is to live in the jungle , darn place seems to try to get rid of humans every way it can ,, hehehe
at the moment im nursing so many scratches , cuts and leech and tick bites i look a mess .. nope , its not kind on humans .. hhehe

 

[guest123]

Hey wallyduck. Youre almost living my dream man. A greenhouse on the equator at 8000 ft. Id be flowering my precious indicas all year long. Your'e closer to it than me.

And that is always the fly in my topical ointment, I love indica's. 100% indica and tropical growing. Is that an oxymoron Wallyduck?

sb

hehehe , heres an example of an indica in the tropics silverback .. i think your gonna have to learn to enjoy sativas and hybrids more ,, lol ....

 

[Guest]

I have no doubt the jungle is friggin horrible, my uncle did 3 years in Burma fighting the Japanese and he told me enough to make me never want to go near a jungle, he said just the noises at night can drive a man mad, all the crazy animal sounds that sound like people shouting, then the Japanese would start shouting pretending to be wounded allied soldiers. The huge leeches sounded bad too, the phrase 'peeling the leeches off your knob after crossing a stream soon gets to be annoying' sticks in my mind.

The worst bit was that in 3 years they never took a single Japanese live prisoner, after the first icidents with Japs hiding hand grenades then pretending to be dead or surrender soon put paid to any idea of following the rules of war. My uncle said the first live Japs he saw that he didn't shoot were so thin they were like skeletons, they had been abandoned by their officers weeks before and had been living on the dead bodies of Allied soliders and even their own comrades, by that time they had lost any thought of fighting and were in rags.

He said only two things scared the Japanese - the Gurkhas and the local headhunters. He reckoned the locals smoked loads of ganja in bamboo pipes, he knew all about their smokign as he'd been in India before Burma and learnt about ganja culture there. He said they didn't cultivate it in fields, it grew everywhere so no need to. I bet up in those Burmese hills there are some amazing undiscovered sativas, but it's one of the most inaccessible parts of the world. When they carved the Burma railroad through the jungle the Japs allowed the Indian prisoners to smoke ganja, they just picked it from the jungle.

Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are also two of the most innaccessibel and unexplored areas, they find new species of plants and animals there al lthe time, the last discovery of a new large mammal species was a water buffalo in Indonesia I think. I imagine in these remote regions there still exists very ancient sativas completely untouched by the hand of man, I don't buy the theory that ganja was spread by man, I reckon birds and animals played just an important a role, seeds stick to fur or feathers or are shat out after the stoned animal ate the buds.

 

[XyZ]

well really i can only speak of experience on a latitude similar to jamaica ... my experience is also at altitude ,, and i know its quite different on the coast even where i live ...
i just tried a lot of strains in my backyard and a friends place for a few years to see what grew best ,, and would flower without reveging on our longest days .. we had quite large gardens , so were able to try a llot of things ..
our days vary during the year from 11 hrs to 13 hrs .. and i guess the cooler months due to the height of the grow also determines what will and wont work ....
anyhow heres a few strains ive found grew well for me , they are all either c99 or crosses of it ..
i know thats not the only strain that will suit , just the one i found that i liked and worked for me ....
i suggest testing a few things at home or somewhere u can keep an eye on them .. as for something that will grow in 6 months ,, ive like the ones that can be out in 16 weeks or less .. youll find things are faster in the tropics ..

lovely garden wally! show us some more from your big duckfoots (imo it's the most funny sativa i ever saw

 

[vod]

id say u certainly could do that , it is what we do here , or try too .. an indoor set up and greenhouse would be a huge advantage also , we used to veg cuttings to flower outdoors and it worked well ..

Thats where the Tatras come in handy. Could transport a diesel generator and the necessary equipment. As sexing so many plants scattered over a huge area seems not feasible, I thought of using some clones or sexing the plants (if I couldn't veg enough mothers and clones) in containers under a lamp. I thought of setting camp at a place for a month or two, starting the plants, building a temporary generator operated growroom, plant and move on to another spot. Then come back, plant some more, harvest what's done, take some care of what isn't and continue the roadtrip.

one problem though with your plan could be moving to new areas and doing suspicious things that could connect u do growing , even seemingly unpopulated areas are pretty closely watched from what ive noticed . definately scope your area well and access needs to be totally unseen ..

Sure that is one of the main issues. This is why I thought of the 6x6 Tatras. They will get where no other vehicle will. And when someone wants to follow the tracks (which btw one should try to hide as well as possible) on foot or horseback for a week I can't do much about it.
Posing as a film crew (and actually filming in the time between gardening work) would provide some cover for the suspicious behavior as well as some funding.
Also I'm sure it can be avoided growing fields. Scattering the plants over an area, working them into surrounding vegetation, would make them hard to see from the ground and impossible to spot from the air. Or at least hide the scope of the whole thing.

it can take years to venture into such things and proper planning is a must ...

Most definitively. It would require proper scouting of the possible area, some local advise/help, some fundrising, lots of issues to solve... I don't think anyone expects (in any business venture) to make profit without expenses. To set oneself up financially for the rest of ones life is worth spending a few years working on a project. And I don't think it can be done any other way really.

you would be surprised how difficult it is to live in the jungle , darn place seems to try to get rid of humans every way it can ,, hehehe
at the moment im nursing so many scratches , cuts and leech and tick bites i look a mess .. nope , its not kind on humans .. hhehe

That's actually my biggest concern (apart from moving the product back to Europe)
One would probably need to get acquainted with the jungle first, before setting out on a mission like that. I know that jungle kills and I have yet to acquire necessary survival skills and knowledge.

A project like that is a lifetime adventure. Lot's of hardship to overcome I suppose, but people do it all the time

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Do you ever use lights daily for a few hours outdoors to keep them in veg until you stop the lights and let them flower under natural photoperiod? Works great with Indica/Sativa hybrids that are mold resistant.

-SamS

 

[Guest]

Poor Wally,got devistated ay mate???

MAN DO I KNOW THAT FEELING YOU HAVE 10x fold.
YOu know my (box) i grow in outdoors,well i had that sucker
FULL of 8 foot skunk plants just starting to bud and the RAINS CAME?
ANd they came every single day for 3 weeks like a FIRE HOSE style rain!
Needless to say my whole 100lbs crop was stunted beyond belief????????
That was an easy 100lbs dry DRY i lost........got 40lbs mids..still not bad!

Before that i had 60 blueberry girls in 5 gallon pots,not shure what the yield
would have been but they where a good 3 to 4 footers all lost to rains......
Didnt even get one joint to smoke,that was another summer grow very bad?

After that i really started to brake my back and just watch the weather to see
the arriving fronts and take every bliming pot into my tents and sheds............
But guarrilla grows are not attended so thats out???????
Believe me when i say FIRE HOSE STYLE RAINS HERE in F fuckin L.............
Your best bet is to find strong stemmed tall late flowering indicas!!!!!!
Or sativas that are known for mold resistance,if your lucky the trichomes
may still be there after rains??????.........HARD CALL WALLY?
Love to help,and with BH's help an others im on the way to find good sativas
that may be ok for the tropics!!
Tents that can pop up quickly is your best bet,with a little help from a friend!
Maybe?......if your not to far from the site ofcorse........
Another small option is to plant slightly under tall trees,so that the tree takes
the brunt of the storms and the plants can take a few drops gently falling on them?

 

[Guest]

Im curious about flower triggering as well. Even most of the sativa's on the market are photoperiod responsive. Do all hybred strains begin to flower immediately under that tropical daylength? Kali mist for example. Starts here in Sept when light is still well over 12? What do you think Wallyduck?

 

[Tropical]

I haven't had a problem with the heavy rains because I mostly avoid growing in the summer. I veg indoors and then flower outside in the winter, when the weather is cool and dry. I hate all the mosquitoes and other pests that are more abundant in the summer.

Also, I'm just a small-time grower. I don't have to worry about the massive fields like you guys who grow big-time. When I put plants outside, I just have a couple small plants and put them next to a sunny wall, under an overhang. That protects it somewhat from winds and heavy rains. Here are some pics. The batch in the first photo grew a little smaller than I expected. I didn't veg them at all. I just planted a pack of LUI and put them outside in December. The wine bottle shows scale.

 

[Tropical]

Im curious about flower triggering as well. Even most of the sativa's on the market are photoperiod responsive. Do all hybred strains begin to flower immediately under that tropical daylength? Kali mist for example. Starts here in Sept when light is still well over 12? What do you think Wallyduck?

A few years ago, at OG, I was very active in the Florida growers thread. People kept asking me when to start plants outside here. I started an FAQ looking for contributions from everybody. I'll dig it up and post it here for you.

When to start MJ Outdoors in Florida

what is the very earliest in the year i can start vegging my plants outside? I know its somethin like late april/early may, but can't i do it any earlier? thanks

I see people keep asking about when to start outdoors in Florida. There are more questions asked on this topic than any other in this thread. I think it's time for us to write a detailed FAQ on it and paste it into one of the first posts in the thread.

I’ll get this started and then you guys can review my draft and make comments to improve it. First, we need to see what’s already in the OG on this. As far as I can tell, the only FAQ related to this topic is one that lists the average first and last frost days for a few selected cities. It shows Tampa usually gets their first and last frost in January, and Miami is frost free. [faq]1445[/faq]

The most important points to keep in mind are:

• Genetics determine how much darkness a plant will need to flower. The number of hours of uninterrupted darkness each night that will induce blooming is called that plant’s “critical night length.” This is usually around ten to eleven hours. So, indoor growers keep the limit the dark period to six hours to keep plants in veg, and switch to twelve hours to induce flowering. That probably covers 99% of the plants.
• The longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is in late June, and the shortest day is around Christmas.
• The closer you are to the equator the less fluctuation there is in day length. It’s 12/12 every day of the year on the equator.
• Plants wont start to flower until they are sexually mature. This can take a couple months and the exact amount of time is affected by the plant’s genes. Clones will have the maturity of the mother. So, young seedlings will stay in veg even when given long nights, but mature clones will start to flower when they are given long enough nights. I think there’s an FAQ on how to tell when a plant is sexually mature.
• I’ve seen several plants flower right through the longest day of the year (shortest night).
• The shorter veg season we have here is actually an advantage in many ways. The plants stay shorter, so they’re more stealthy. The lower yield can be compensated by planting more plants and having more flowering seasons. The longer you leave your plants outside, the more you expose them to loss due to pests, pestilence, poachers, or police.
• Frost isn't good for Cannabis plants, so, if you live someplace that gets cold in the winter, you should put up some kind of temporary greenhouse on the cold days. I've seen some clear pup tents that are made for this purpose and I posted a link to them in the previous Florida growers thread. Or, you can rig something yourself with a clear plastic tarp, like Visqueen.

I keep moms, clone, and veg indoors and then treat the great outdoors here as a huge flowering room. That way, you keep most of the odor and heat away from your home and you take advantage of the powerful free grow lamp in the sky. Find a couple stoner friends who have sunny backyards and put one small bush or bed of tiny clones out there each month. That will give you and your friends plenty stash to keep everybody happy.

So, in my inexperienced opinion, you could probably start outdoors twice a year, April and October.

Yes, April is a good time if you want your seed plants to veg a bit outdoors. Start sexually mature clones a few weeks later. What do you mean about October being a good time to start?

...if you start in oct. outside you end up with a 8inch bud, or a male! great to flower outside but needs the longer daylight to veg in or will go into flower as soon as she is old enough...

That’s right. Just remember that 8 inch buds aren’t bad if you have enough of them.

Can you speak more slowly? I'm not following. What's with the male thing?

Well, he’s just saying that a male wont give you an 8 inch bud, it will just give you a few balls.

What times of year are normal for starting outdoors (and staying outdoors)?

What do you mean by normal?

I also thought starting a bit later might contain the size a bit.....

Bingo!

1st outdoor grow, many years ago, was Jamaican Sativa.

My first outdoor grow was Jamaican sativa too. I put two mature plants out in March and they started to flower right away, producing about six ounces. The second round went out in June and they flowered right through the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Those plants must have had some indica in their genetics to flower early like that.

well sitivas will stretch and grow bigger outdoors but really I found May to be a good month to start here! some of my aprils flowered out! it will definatly contain the size...

Yes, many strains will flower here no matter when you put them outside.