High altitude and shorter days

[magpie]

hi all, I live in a valley at 8300 ft, the day light was just over 12 hours at solstice here because of the mountains, and now its getting shorter fast, plus its really cool at night, in low 50s. I have a few plants outside just to see what they will do, some in pots I move, and some in the ground. One ground plant is going nuts, I bent her and keep bending her over and she just keeps growing, she would be 4 ft tall at least by now if I hadnt bent her, but she isnt starting to bud yet. One in a pot is starting to bud, nice short wide little girl, the rest of the ground plants are just sort of sitting there. what are the effects of too short daylight, and too cold at night? I guess I will find out soon enough, and it will probably frost before they are ready. Does a light frost hurt them? I have a decent veg state grow room going and would like to put some of them outside as its getting so crowded, and bring them in and out with the daylight. Its sure hot and sunny enough during the day, but would that just be too confusing for them?
Thanks so much for any input, I wish I could move!

 

[hightime58]

Re: high alltitude and shorter days

try to keep them on the cycle like they were inside,give them some superthrive that'll help with the shock,and try to find some of those heaters that they use in the grape fields to prevent the frost from taking over,frost will kill mj like other vegetables I have a friend who lives in the sierra in nevada and it grows outside and bought a few of those heaters,but he grows quite a bit of mj for his patients ,maybe goggle it hopes this helps.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Re: high alltitude and shorter days

Some will not mind. Some will die. Sorry for the general answer but you didn't mention which strain. Some will turn purple/red/etc. from lower nighttime temperatures.

Equatorial sativas would be pretty much a lost cause, I expect.

Here is a seedbank description for one strain:

The Real Seed Company Mazar-i-Sharif is grown around the desert towns of Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif and Sheberghan in the far north of Afghanistan, close to the modern borders of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This Mazar-i-Sharif strain produces the legendary hashish known as ""Shirak-i-Mazar"" and ""Milk of Mazar"". The people of these regions are a patchwork of Turkic, Tajik, Afghan and Pashtun tribes, and the history of Mazar-i-Sharif strains is likely to be equally complex. In fertile and well-irrigated soils these vigorous giants are capable of reaching 4 metres in height or more, and will produce a similarly immense yield of intensely resinous flowers. Traditionally harvested in the first half of December with the onset of the brutal Central Asian winter, Mazar-i-Sharif plants will enjoy cold conditions, including snow, and will turn a deep blood red in low temperatures. Growers favour leaving harvest as late as possible, sometimes into early January. Sieved ""Milk of Mazar"" garda is very resinous and so can be hand-pressed to make charas. Mazar-i-Shariff has a distinctively pungent, sweet aroma and a dreamily mellow high. Over-indulgence produces a mind-warping, immobilising and narcotic effect.

If it is a local strain that has been naturalized to your climate, you might be ok.

 

[magpie]

Re: High altitude and shorter days, nettles

Thank you! I have no idea of the strain, and they are all different looking. I just realized the little pale one is a male, pulled that, but another big one is a male. If I let him pollinate the girls, will the resulting seeds be more likely to grow plants that can deal with this climate? Maybe in a few generations? I cant get any heat lamps down there for frost protection, neighbors would definetly see that, but thats a good idea.
I have 5 growing in stinging nettles. Both plants look alot alike but now the nettles are going to seed, and their seed heads look alot like big tall buds! so Im gonna cut the nettles back and let them go to seed again. Nettles and MJ look alot alike, but the MJs will get alot taller than the nettles, so I bent the plants over. Nettles are good food, 40% protein, like spinach, just steam them, yummy!!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I would at least separate the male (with a physical barrier - bag or something) from the females unless you want hundreds of seeds and the resulting seedy bud.

If you continued to breed plants, and each succeeding generation planted only seeds from parents (male and female) that had the best frost-/cold-hardy characteristics, then that would be a reasonable expectation. FBR you'd want a large population to draw from instead of a few - barring spontaneous mutation, you'd have to be able to select for traits that were already in the genetic makeup in some form (dominate or recessive) to begin with, and with a small sample that may not be the case.

You'd want many plants of both sexes, a way to collect the pollen from each male and keep it separated from all of the others, excellent record-keeping skills... And you'd want to hand-pollenate in as many combinations as possible and harvest the seeds as soon as they were mature. Then when you later saw which plants seemed to live the longest when the weather turned, you'd know which seeds to keep and which to toss. The pollen from the most cold-hardy males could be carefully kept for later back-crossing.

Along the way, of course, you would likely also be selecting for other traits as well. It can get "a little" complicated, but it is a worthwhile pursuit.