Growing Cannabis in Cold Climates
Growing cannabis in cold climates is easily done, but you have to know how the plant works to harvest nice quality buds. If not doing any research you could end up with a really big healthy plant with almost no bud - or tiny buds.
To be able to harvest mature bud in cold climates you can grow early/fast flowering photosensitive strains. You can grow modern potent autos. You can grow regular strains that will finish a little late, but have good resistance to mold - or you can grow any kind of exotic strain and force it to flower early. I will try and give you my best advise in this article.
Cold Climate Strains
Fast and early strains
Some strains and types of cannabis work much better in cold areas. For instance in Denmark we have Pibeurt - a pure sativa that has been grown outdoors every year for more than five decades. It will finish by mid September in Denmark.
But also a lot of fast strains are coming up these days - crosses of Photos x Autos. They are all photosensitive, but will finish very early due to the auto genetics. These are also a great choice for the cold climate growers.
Automatic strains
Autos have had a somewhat bad reputation. They are the result of breeding modern indica and sativa strains with the third kind - ruderalis. Ruderalis will initiate flowering just after sexual maturity - about a month or so after sprouting the seed. So they will start flowering independant of longer nights like our regular photosensitive plants.
Years back the first autos were not very potent and were very unstable.. Luckily this has been fixed due to intensive breeding. Today modern auto strains are top quality. In very cold climates they rock because you can plant the seeds in May and harvest in July - way before winter or early cold fall will take the plants due to mold.
Autos are much smaller than photos. But you can grow more plants in small patches to give a better yield.
Mold Resistant Strains
Most cannabis strains can take a little cold and even frost. But many strains will get mold/bud rot very easily. Other strains can handle this better and will not mold quite as easily as others. The smaller sativa buds will often be less prone to mold.. but often they will ripen very slowly. Indicas will ripen faster, but thick dense buds do not allow much air change and can sometimes mold away from inside. A hardy strain that will handle cold climates very well is Matanuska Thunderfuck - a hybrid heirloom from the Matanuska Valley in Alaska. It will not finish early, but handles the weather and cold very well.
Light Deprivation
If you want to grow regular exotic photosensitive strains outdoors in cold climates, you could use this technique to trigger flowering early. The trick is to cover the plant in the night and some of the day to give the plant 12 hours of TOTAL darkness. Start doing this in the beginning of July and keep on doing it for 3 full weeks. After that the plant will keep flowering naturally due to the longer nights and fall coming.
It doesn't really matter how you do this as long as the plant doesn't get any light for 12 hours every night for 3 weeks starting in the beginning of July. Some people cover greenhouses with light proof plastic covers. It's a lot of work if the setup is not done in an effective way. But with the right tools this is a way to grow an exotic strain outdoors in a cold climate. Done like this most strains will be ready for harvest around mid September like fast strains...
Tips for the Outdoor Grower
Air flow
Make sure your outdoor plants don't have stagnant air around them. Clear weeds and branches that are close to the plant. This will lessen the humidity around the plant and make it less prone to bud rot.
If the plant is very dense you can remove some of the bigges fan leaves. Some people actually remove a LOT of those bigger leaves. It sounds like a bad idea, but in fact this will give much more air flow and sun directly to the bud sites. On the other hand leaves are solar panels, so the plant uses them to grow bigger...
Keep it dry
If you have the option to make a roof over your plant, this is a great way to keep it dry and less prone to bud rot. Don't make an entire greenhouse, but just a top to take the worst rain. A greenhouse can actually have a bad effect as humidity can get very high in there. If you grow in a greenhouse, make sure to have doors and windows open and try to keep it as dry as possible in there.
When to harvest
Sometimes when growing in cold climates you won't be able to harvest a fully ripe plant. It varies from season to season. Sometimes the late summer can be wet and cold. When you see bud rot on a plant you need to keep a very good eye on the plant. Remove all bud rot and plant material that has surrounded it. At some point, you might see bud rot in several buds... At this point harvesting the plant is mostly your best choice. An immature plant is better than no plant.
When the frost comes
If your plants have experienced a little bit of frost, you can save them from getting damage on the leaves by misting a little bit of water on the frozen fan leaves before sun hits them. If the sun hits the frozen leaves, they will get black damages.
Growing big plants
To grow a really big plant outdoors in cold climates, you can start a fast/early strain indoor under artificial lighting. Keep it in veg by prolonging the day making sure you have lights on from 4 am - 10 pm. And don't plant the vegging plant outoors until May 20th. And remember you have to get an early flowering strain like Pibeurt or another fast strain in order to harvest in time. If you do this with an exotic photosensitive strain you'll still not be able to harvest buds in time... unless you do light deprivation.
Thanks for reading this far.
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/Mike Green