how to grow in the tropical regions discussion ..

[Tropical]

...Do all hybred strains begin to flower immediately under that tropical daylength?...

By the way, the short answer is yes, if the plant is sexually mature and you are talking about the equator. I think they need around 13 hours of daylight to stay in veg. The equator is always 12/12, of course.

Here in south Florida I've seen sativa dom strains flower right through the summer solstice. I have heard of pure sativas staying in veg from May through July and into August. I think even Skunk, which has some indica has been known to veg here.

 

[guest123]

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

yes we do sam ,, though it has to be closer to home to do such things , i have a friend doing it now with some skunk plants , its the only way he will be able to get any size from them particularly this time of year with the hours dropping ...

 

[guest123]

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?

well i watched the local sativas here and how they grow and respond to the light hours changing ,, as its been mentioned on other threads , and id definately agree ,, most australian sativa has been heavily influenced with asian strains ..
so if u were to plant some of these australian sativa seeds in june here ,, our shortest time of year ,, and we have daylight for 11 hrs .. they will grow quite happily generally , and try to flower aswell , some of the plants can get large even though the days are short ... around october many will be in full flower , but they dont quite finish and begin to "ratstail" as they call it around here .. i think its a combination of the days getting longer , and the heat aswell as the fact we receive our first storms that time of year , and everything bursts into new growth .. at this point u really have to cut the plants that have flowered down to reveg or the bud they have on them will rot in the rain ... they always seem to grow better from fresh canes ...
the older woody stems dont seem to produce as good a bud as the fresh canes will , and theres enough vigour in those sativas that u will still get an 8 ft plant ...

of all the seeds ive gotten from seedbanks , only one plant showed signs of reveging outdoors here , it was a haze from tom hills seeds , and was very similar to the local mango sativa here ....

as for the flowering on hybrids here ,, they do seem to veg for around a month , normally they will take 16 weeks from seed , but u really have to "grow em hard" as they say to make them perform .

 

[guest123]

hey tropical ,, on the jamaican plants ,, some sativas will flower earlier than others , perhaps yours did have some indica in it recently ,, but its also possible it was just an earlier flowering one .. as i mentioned ,, we have many flower early while others show barely a sign of it ... just the nature of the beast it seems ...

i found a strain that happily flowered without signs of reveging on our longest day ,, it also yeilded quite well , around half a pound .. so i used it to make hybrids for my outdoor grow ,, because id prefer to do what u do tropical ,, grow in the dry times when the hours are a bit shorter , but the weather is perfect ..
heres some i veged first and put outdoors in the middle of our winter ....

 

[Londinium]

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.

I have to agree with u CC. The Transkei Sativa I have expereience of was grown in quite a humid environment but were planted with plenty of space in plots of 50 to 100,usually in clearings and enclaves with a little canopy cover. They were quite a mission to reach the bigger plots but many folks in the area grow in thier backyards as well.None of the growers mentioned Budrot but seemed well aware of pest's and root problems so I'm sure would have mentioned it.They are also the least thirsty plants I've grown so are quite hardy.
When I grew it Indoors I never had a problem with rot or mould with the Transkei or the crosses I did with it(a few seeds of which I'm germing now from some '95 F1 &F2 hybrid's). Its a great strain with a delicious taste and better IMHO than Swazi Gold or Malawi Cob and it was much more Sativa in its Traits and high than all other SA weed I've grown. I love it personally and wish I had my Pure Trance-Sky seeds still but will have to find some thing in F2 or wait till I go back to the wild coast. JBo
\/TranskArctic=(Transkei x London White)

 

[guest123]

hey lou , yep avoiding the rain in the tropics is just part of growing there that time of year ,, its what ive been trying to avoid , but sometimes u have to do what u have to do .. lol ...
londinium , sounds like good mould resistance , i notice too its pretty critical here to keep the grow area clean of weeds and as open as one can ,, if u do everything to avoid mould , then only areas where plants are touching each other , or the ground will be problem areas .. if u coupled that with the mould resistance like what u speak of londinium then perhaps a wet season grow will not be as foul and mould ridden ..

 

[Naun Briones]

Here's some of my sativas grown in Quito, Ecuador at lat. 0
Pics. 1 and 2 are colombian purple or purplehaze
The others are peruvian reds.
Only very sativa strains works for me outdoors due to 12/12 yearound. They grow so big that I only need 3 or for plants to hve enough personal stash for a year and a half.

 

[Guest]

Hey welcome Naun Briones!!!!!!

Very cool spot you have there.........
Court yard with some nice trees in it!!!!
Please bring us more exotic pics soon man!

You can grow indicas that are very tight at the tops.......
The storms may wash off the tips but under their BIG FAN LEAVES
the mid section buds are protected,depending on the type indica top?
My old mexican indica use to be like that and (bullet bud )was the name!!

Talk about humidity,here sometimes ive had crops under plastic tents and still
the bud rot was every where and plants totally soaked in water droplets..........
Did some old threads here with my skunk plants under the tents before??
Outdoor farming you have to deal with different shit every year,never fails?

 

[Tropical]

hey tropical ,, on the jamaican plants ,, some sativas will flower earlier than others , perhaps yours did have some indica in it recently ,, but its also possible it was just an earlier flowering one .. as i mentioned ,, we have many flower early while others show barely a sign of it ... just the nature of the beast it seems ...

It's good to know that a pure sativa can flower early like that. I have heard of early flowering sativa dom strains, like TFD Early Durban, but I didn't know if they needed any indica to do it.

The reason I thought my Jamaican plants had indica in them was because they also had the leaf shape and the fat calyxes, so they looked indica.

...i found a strain that happily flowered without signs of reveging on our longest day ,, it also yeilded quite well , around half a pound...

Wow, half a pound from one plant in the winter? Did you have to veg indoors it until it was four feet tall to get that yield?

...so i used it to make hybrids for my outdoor grow...

Well, if you can get half a pound from seed plants in the winter, then you need to get those seeds on the market. That way, I could grow a few pounds in a winter and then not even think about growing for a couple years. I hate having to keep mothers all the time. It doesn't allow me enough freedom to travel and do other things I enjoy.

 

[Tropical]

Here's some of my sativas grown in Quito, Ecuador at lat. 0
Pics. 1 and 2 are colombian purple or purplehaze
The others are peruvian reds.
Only very sativa strains works for me outdoors due to 12/12 yearound. They grow so big that I only need 3 or for plants to hve enough personal stash for a year and a half.

How much weight are those plants producing? How long do they take to finish from seed? They look huge for a 12/12 grow. I need to try seeds like that here and see how they do in our 11/13 fall/winter. Thanks for sharing. I'm learning a lot in this thread.

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

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 .....

hello wallyduck, good thread indeed, it was needed imo.

there is so much information about growing that has been released since a few decades ago that relate to the nothern hemisphere conditions, and these adapt well to those in the southern hemisphere, similar photoperiods, but for the many of us in the equator and tropics a lot of the important details about growing do not match with those relating to the nothern or southern hemisphere; and often times we find ourselves in awe as to wtf is going on
I don´t even know where to start with this, I can agree with wally on tons of points, like here we find that things finish a lot earlier, and that there are indeed special plants out there that can become huge trees good yielders and well-adapted to our tropical climates.

vod was asking about the tropical andes, and here you can find tons of very different micro-climates; depends on elevation, to which direction is the mountain you are on facing, or whether you are in a valley or high plains, what kind of forests/jungles are around you thus what type of soils, whether it is occupied by the REAL guerilla growers or not..., you know vod, you could not pull that driving around and growing cannabis thing down here, a friend tells me you´d get kidnapped before you know it, I dunno what to tell you, he may be right though

anyways, wally, so how many meters above sea level r u at? do you remember aldous? he was at 2600 mts above sea level, tropical andes, and grew some monsters sativa plants, funny thing was that the seeds came from lowland hot and humid colombian plains rather than bogota kind of weather...


















where are the african growers at? colombians? chime in please,

much peace all,

pvr

 

[guest123]

hey naun ,, man i dont think your missing much by the looks ,,, great pix ...

 

[guest123]

hey tropical , u know i always share the seeds i make for my grow ,, thats where my seeds come from ,, stuff i ve made for myself to grow , i found it was best to make my own seeds to suit where i wanted to grow ...
im making some at the moment for the next grow and the secret is add something pretty sativery ,, im adding ssh , i think its going to work out good ...

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

Here's some of my sativas grown in Quito, Ecuador at lat. 0
Pics. 1 and 2 are colombian purple or purplehaze
The others are peruvian reds.
Only very sativa strains works for me outdoors due to 12/12 yearound. They grow so big that I only need 3 or for plants to hve enough personal stash for a year and a half.

salud Naun, que plantas tan enormes y de buena pinta, de donde sacaste esas semillas? beautiful plants man!

peace

 

[guest123]

hey paz , yes i thought most of the info was directed at the north and south hemispheres , and they seem to leave us in the dark somewhat ... if we share a bit of info im sure we could all make better with our grows and like u said at least we all wont be going wtf ,, hehehe ...
yes i remember aldous , im a little higher in altitude than him ,, 3000 ft ,, and the grow space is at 3300 ft ... i know what u mean about microclimates ,, seems one valley can have quite different weather to the next ,,particularly where rain is concerned .. one of the lovely things about mountainous tropical areas ... i guess this is also how there came to be many sativa strains of varying nature in those kinda places .. each suiting its own little microclimate ...
yes id love to hear more from african and south american growers ...

 

[Tropical]

hey tropical , u know i always share the seeds i make for my grow ,, thats where my seeds come from ,, stuff i ve made for myself to grow , i found it was best to make my own seeds to suit where i wanted to grow ...
im making some at the moment for the next grow and the secret is add something pretty sativery ,, im adding ssh , i think its going to work out good ...

So that was a seed plant that gave you half a pound in the winter? You didn't have to veg indoors first to bulk it up?

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

brother wally, you mean you are at 3000-3300 feet above sea level? aldous is at 2600 meters, so he is around 8000 feet high atm i am at 1900 meters a.s.l. that is only like 6000 feet, not so high in terms of the andes.

this is 4000 meters a.s.l, 12000 feet



this is at 1400 meters, 4400 feet + o - thai/mexico x bhangi

ht

tp://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/7904thaimexxbanghij18-thumb.JPG

 

[guest123]

hey tropical ,, no i didnt have to veg that plant indoors to get half a lb , just made sure it was very healthy during all its life , .. i grow in rich red volcanic soil ... that particular plant i mentioned was planted into soil that was full of ash from a large fire , it yellowed a little when it was younger ,, but took off like a rocket soon afterwards .... i like potash for making the flowers fuller and fatter ...

 

[guest123]

brother wally, you mean you are at 3000-3300 feet above sea level? aldous is at 2600 meters, so he is around 8000 feet high atm i am at 1900 meters a.s.l. that is only like 6000 feet, not so high in terms of the andes.

this is 4000 meters a.s.l, 12000 feet



this is at 1400 meters, 4400 feet + o - thai/mexico x bhangi

ht

tp://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/7904thaimexxbanghij18-thumb.JPG

wow that is quite a diff ,, my eyes are fully enough open to read properly it seems , hehehe ,, only getting worse after that bong too ...
now that would be some different growing for sure paz , i notice how different my grow is to the coast here so u guys would be way different at that kinda altitude ,, how cold does it get ?? do u get frosts ?? and what kinda daylight hours do u get there ???

 

[Tropical]

salud Naun, que plantas tan enormes y de buena pinta, de donde sacaste esas semillas? beautiful plants man!

peace

Hola, Paz. Yo tambien me gustaria probar esas semillas.