Any hardy ACE sativa that can handle cold well?

Hi Everyone!

I am a regular reader/lurker on this forum, but haven't really posted much. This forum is special with all The knowledgable posters that generously share information. Not to mention dubi's involvement which is top notch!

I have a question, but will give a short presentation first.

I live in northern Europe in a very cannabis hostile country. I've stayed away from cannabis for around 20 years, I had a few very special experiences in my teens but since there is really hard prohibition going on in my country I have abstained since then. I had a couple of puffs since then but never had any good experiences those times.

Suddenly my intuition told me three years ago that I needed to explore cannabis again, I really dont know why. I have since then done three ACE centered grows, where I've tried many strains. My favourite of the ones I've grown would probably be Panama x Malawi with its super clear refreshing high.

My intention with using was for recreation and for helping my wife with her PMS. However, soon after I started growing I got affected by a serious mental, physical and emotional exhaustion due to prolonged stress related to my daughter having cancer. I couldnt even get of the bed for the first months. Cannabis has greatly helped me in this regard, in combination with rest and pulse balancing acupuncture. Anyway, both my daughter and I are well now!

I regard cannabis as a life saver in my case. In addition to the help it has given me with my illness, it has also greatly enhanced my life. It has washed away all stress from my body and provided me with a new perspective on life. Both me and my wife feel that we are are simply content and satisfied with our situation. That is a great feature of our beloved plant!

Now for my question. I am in the process of developing a stealthy strain based on Australian Bastard Cannabis, or rather subterfuge#1 which is a refined version of ABC with regards to THC levels. I want to cross this with a good sativa that can withstand a bit of cold, rain and wind. I've been thinking about the Danish strain Pibeurt which should be able to handle somewhat harsher climate.

Does ACE have any suitable Sativa in this regard? Or indica?

I am thinking of doing 3 lines, a sativa, an indica and a CBD line. I am considering ErdPurt for CBD and something else for indica.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Hey frassekongo, nice to hear you and your daughter are well...
For a sativa cross I would look at bangi haze. B.h.can withstand low temperatures and generally bad weather.

Hi Consolidated!

Thanks for that! Will read up on the Bangi Haze. Its on my wishlist anyway, but I didnt know that it can stand cold so well, thats great!

Purple Haze x pck also you need that Freakshow

Thanks rolandomota! Good to know about the purple Haze x PCK! And it is goodlooking too in the garden.

Yeah Freakshow, thats the one that looks a bit like fern? That could add to a nice stealthy cross

The "sativas" originating from Nepal and the India portion of the Himalaya mountain range are cold tolerant. At those high altitudes it can get cold during the growing season.

Definitely look at Ace's Nepal Annapurna. And also Nepal Mist. Nepal Annapurna seeds are attractively priced too.

As most sativas come from tropical regions, the Himalayans may be the best place to look.

There are also a few other sources for good Himalayan types. The type known as Nanda Devi is well regarded and comes from a cold desolate high altitude zone.

Welcome frassekongo!

Thanks for your kind words and for your interest in our work.
I'm sorry to hear about all the suffering you had to go through.
I'm glad you and your family are doing much better nowadays and that cannabis greatly helped you to deal with the stress and bad moments, providing relief and different and positive points of views to your life. Happy to know you have been growing our genetics since then and that you have enjoyed Panama x Malawi so much, it's a great sativa F1 hybrid, and quite potent, so you can tolerate quite well strong effects.

I don't know the specifics of your climate or latitude, neither i have experience growing or breeding with subterfuge#1 or ABC, but i will try to give some tips for your 3 scenarios.

PCK is a great hashplant indica choice for breeding in harsh cold climate as it contributes with excellent cold and mold resistance to its hybrids, faster flowering and very appealing terpenes and colors as well. If your climate is wet then i would try to avoid Afghani strains for breeding.

Regarding the CBD breeding route, i think the 3 CBD rich strains we offer can we very helpful in one or other way .... if you want to add maximum CBD content to your lines then CBD #1 is the best choice. Lebanese is perfect if you are looking for a CBD rich landrace sativa, she adds great vigor, yield and CBD chemotypes to its hybrids and its semi autoflowering is a very useful tool to develop early flowering strains in northern latitudes.

For the THC rich sativa project, i would recommend more tamed sativa dom hybrids like Auto Zamaldelica, Bangi Haze, Congo, Nepal Jam, or if you think you can work with longer flowering times then pure Nepalese sativas like Annapurna o Nepal Mist are also great sativa choices for colder rainy climates as musigny23 correctly pointed out.

Let me know if you have any question or point that i didn't cover in my reply.
Have a lovely day

Hi Musigny23 and dubi!

Thank you for your comments!

A good and interesting point about selecting short flowering sativas. I am at latitude 60N, so that seems valid.

Anyone knows this? When growing outside with a decreasing daylength after summer solstice. Around when (at what length of Day) do eg. PCK or Bangi Haze start to flower? Does it occur at the autumnal equinox (ie 12/12) or at an earlier point when the days gradually get shorter? And what about semiautoflowering strains like lebanese and erdpurt?

Mostly depends on phenos and other environmental factors, my guess is ealry-mid august for pck and mid-end august for bangi haze at 40-45°N.
The earlier varieties like erdpurt should start sometime in early-mid july.

Cheers

Thanks Koondense!

What Koondense said should translate into around 15-16 hours daylength for PCK and Bangi Haze and around 14 hours for erdpurt (if I'm not mistaken).

frassekongo said:

What Koondense said should translate into around 15-16 hours daylength for PCK and Bangi Haze and around 14 hours for erdpurt (if I'm not mistaken).

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At 40 degrees n.l. the days doesn‘t even get to 16 hours
My estimation would be more like 13 to 14 hours for PCK, Bangi and 14 to 15 for the Erdpurt.

frassekongo said:

Anyone knows this? When growing outside with a decreasing daylength after summer solstice. Around when (at what length of Day) do eg. PCK or Bangi Haze start to flower? Does it occur at the autumnal equinox (ie 12/12) or at an earlier point when the days gradually get shorter? And what about semiautoflowering strains like lebanese and erdpurt?

Click to expand...

I agree with koondense, pck outdoors should start flowering around mid to late august, give or take (if you were growing in Pakistan). 12/12 has nothing to do with flowering outdoors; it is an indoor standard because this D/N ratio will flower most strains. Many strains grown outdoors begin to flower in the 13-ish hour daylight range.

Outdoors in mid-August in Chitral Valley Pakistan, the photoperiod is around 13.5/10.5 (day/night). At the end of Aug, its ~13/11. At Mid-October, it is ~11.25/12.75, and by the end of October ~10.75/13.25. Flowering is initiated well before the autumn equinox arrives.

So for PCK, look at a photoperiod chart for your lat. and see when the 13.5/10.5 and 13/11 marks fall,...that will give you a general idea of where the flowering initiation window is likely to be where u are growing. You can do the same for other strains, but first you have to work back from the harvest date in the home region (given the average flowering duration) and match the home region photoperiod to the photoperiod to your lat).

Brickweeder and Sarayidoja, thanks for your insightful comments and pointers!

You should have started from there, much easier to recommend you correctly

Autoflowering strains are the right choice at your latitude.

frassekongo said:

I am at latitude 60N.

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Right now I am growing out a few versions of the ABC strain:
5 subterfuge#1 (photodependant high THC version of ABC by Hybritech)
3 autobastard (Hybritechs auto version of above)
2 original ABC's (received as bonus with the purchase)

The autobastards are slower growing than the others, maybe because I put them in bigger pots from the start?

The ABC's have red stems, the other green stems.

I suspect the smoke of subterfuge and autobastard will be on the indica side, but we'll see.

I will watch how they develop during the summer.

In the fall I will make crosses. I will cross with Bangi Haze, PCK and Erdpurt. And probably go the auto route also.

This is a subterfuge#1. Banana for scale! The leaves are tiny.

Tiny leafs you say? Looks like the size of my Lolab Valley Kashmiri gotten through Ace. I wonder if the dwarfing genes are similar within these morphologies.

Growing a pure Tropical Sativa outdoors in the North won't work too well.
Maybe, it's a greenhouse with light deprivation that you need and even
then it's no guarantee they'll ripen on time.

brickweeder said:

I agree with koondense, pck outdoors should start flowering around mid to late august, give or take (if you were growing in Pakistan). 12/12 has nothing to do with flowering outdoors; it is an indoor standard because this D/N ratio will flower most strains. Many strains grown outdoors begin to flower in the 13-ish hour daylight range.

Outdoors in mid-August in Chitral Valley Pakistan, the photoperiod is around 13.5/10.5 (day/night). At the end of Aug, its ~13/11. At Mid-October, it is ~11.25/12.75, and by the end of October ~10.75/13.25. Flowering is initiated well before the autumn equinox arrives.

So for PCK, look at a photoperiod chart for your lat. and see when the 13.5/10.5 and 13/11 marks fall,...that will give you a general idea of where the flowering initiation window is likely to be where u are growing. You can do the same for other strains, but first you have to work back from the harvest date in the home region (given the average flowering duration) and match the home region photoperiod to the photoperiod to your lat).

Click to expand...

This is a good explanation of how it works for most strains. Unfortunately, it is not so simple. The further from the equator you go the faster daylight changes, both increases, and decreases.
The spring/fall equinox brings approximately 12 hrs of daylight everywhere on the planet. It is the drastic changes between these times that make it so hard to finish most strains in the far North.

I'm at 55 north and most strains do not finish here properly before freezing. Like Dubi said I would suggest auto or semi-auto strains as you are even further north. You can use brickweeders method to figure out when your strain of choice will finish. I'll put money on it most will be well past a killing frost at 60 North.

Best of luck with your project.

Peace GG