Humid Temperate Colombian Andes Greenhouse Organic Grow

good morning all. I have not had time to go to the farm, so my farm manager sent four pictures.
I think this is Northern Light CBD sativa pheno (because I recognize the pot).

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I think this is Dr. Seedsman because I recognize the leaf yellowing (from when I watered them too much before).
It looks like all of the leaf yellowing is older. (I do not see any new leaf yellowing.)

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I'm not sure who this is, but from the size of the planting hole, I am guessing Mango Biche (Green Mango).
These plants are supposed to turn into monsters.

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And i'm not sure who this is, but it looks kind of like one of those two sativa Pineapple Kush plants.

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Probably they are sending me pictures of the four best looking ones but if they're all looking like that then I'm happy for now.

If they have all the maintenance, then I'm thinking my big job is just to make sure that the soil is optimized, and find the best genetics. So I will plan to watch the leaves carefully as they get older.
It will be nice to go visit them sometime, when I get time.
So far everything is going more or less according to plan… 😂
So far everyone looks healthy…
 
UGH!!!!
I was looking at the pictures my manager sent earlier, and I wondered if perhaps they were going into flower.
So I wrote to ask him for some pics of the colas, and they are going into flower. :-(
At least they look healthy?!?! 😂
I have no idea which plant is who, from here.

Full nanners here.

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Whoosh. Pistil city.

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I do not see pistils on this one? Not sure why.

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WHOOSH!!
I thought the contractor said he already knew how to grow cannabis, and keep the plants from flowering??
If he knows about growing cannabis, then why are the plants flowering, and he said nothing????
...Big sigh....

A long time ago I watched a documentary about the "lost city of the Cauca" where they put up cheap 100W equivalent LED bulbs (maybe 1 per plant) and ran them for a couple of hours either at dusk, or in the middle of the night.
I do not know if I can find the movie again, but the lights were not that strong.
It seems the party lights are not strong enough????

I THOUGHT I had a full schedule today, but it looks like I will need to go to the farm, check out the greenhouse lights, and fix up some kind of enhanced light system to put everyone back in veg.
I have timers and LED lights, so we should be able to rig up something.
Bummer deal.

This is really a pain, because the contractor said he knew.
The workers here just say stuff they know is not true, and then when it turns out that they do NOT know, they still expect you to treat them with dignity and respect (when they basically lie to you, and tell you that they know things they do not).

I cannot afford to lose the contractor, because he is doing our crops well (and we have to pay our bills).
So, I will have to take many deep breaths, and go over there and "make sure we clear up any confusion" today, and get them under some real lights.

I guess my party lights are not cutting it??
I will try to send a more detailed report after the visit.
:-(

At least all the green looks green and healthy!

20241226_143617.jpg
 
What do you think, I'm going over to the farm right now. I can easily take six lights with me and try to hook them up and turn on a one hour timer at midnight. Is that going to be enough to stop flowering?
 
Ok, well, I went there. Oy. It was a mess. (I was not impressed.)
All of the plants had had major transplant shock, and a couple were still recovering.
He did NOT maintain the tags as to what strain was what, although I specifically asked him to do that, and he said that he would. (Not cool at all.)
It was not noticed that the European girls were all going into flower, and that there was a European male already starting to spew pollen, that was ALSO getting eaten by bugs, and NO sprays applied! (On this plant it is not a problem, because I pulled it. But these girls are not getting a lot of care.)

IMG_5421.jpeg


(Uhh, I thought he said he knew how to grow cannabis??? I just need to keep focusing on the fact that he is good with the cash crops. Because we need the help.)

We put up six LED 1250W or 1500W equivalent indoor LED lights on timers, and they will come on for one hour around midnight. I programmed them to come on in between 11:30 PM and 00:30 AM (or thereabouts). Then we did a test just to make sure everything would light up. It doesn't look like much in the daytime. If it is not enough to stop flowering I can go back and add more lamps.
We will re-string the party lights around the perimeter at about three or 4 feet of height to stop flowering on the backside of the plants.
I will have them send me pictures every week.

IMG_5424.jpeg


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Hopefully six full on LEDs should be enough to wake the plants up about midnight, and disturb their REM preg-o sleep!

This is a bummer! It takes a long time for them to flip back into veg and recover. But hopefully we'll recover.

I am not very impressed or happy with my contractor right now, but he's good with the cash crops, so I'm going to adjust.
He said they do have tropical sativa CBD in the Cauca and offered to go get some seeds or starts for me. I told him that was nice, but I thought I would look online first to save time and resources. And also because they probably have a selection online.
...And because the reality is, I have no idea the quality he's talking about. It does make sense that they would adapt CBD to the local sativa strains, I just don't want any old genetics if I can find some quality seeds online.

(PS on a positive note, the soil looks very good. It is fluffy and light and stays just slightly damp. And not a lot of insects. So that part was good!) :thumb:
 
Ok, I have been writing all sorts of people.
I wonder if there are key terms to use in Spanish to look for tropical Chemotype 3 and a resistant Chemotype 2 (2:1 CBD:THC) seeds?

After mucho searching I found one company called Breeders, which seems to have the best reputation. They publish data sheets on their seeds, and pheno profiles.
They make a Chemotype 3 and a Chemotype 2.

The Chemotype 3 is Sativa CBD, 14% CBD and low THC.
Haha, how is your Spanish?
Myrcene
Cariofileno (whatever that is)
A-pinene
B-Pinene

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The Chemotype 2 is Calima, 14% CBD and 7% THC.
(Sounds pretty good!)

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I asked the Breeders rep if they are tropical genetics, such that they will grow without lights in winter and flower automatically in the fall.
He said they are photoperiods, but that they grow fine outdoors without extra lights. (Huh???)
However, he also said that the plants get much bigger if you put lights??
(I need to learn more about the tropical flip mechanism.)

"She is a photoperiod. But she can grow just fine without light.
"It's a rapid flowering, 75 days of flowering and two months minimum vegetation. However they get much bigger if you add light.

"Yes if they have 18 hours of light they can get bigger and more branching. Without the light they will reach a certain point of growth and start to flower. But she will develop well either way, with light or without light."

I asked him to verify, and he said yes.
I would not normally believe someone telling me that here, but Breeders has the best reputation, so if their rep says so, probably it can. Worth a try I guess.

For now we will see how we do with 1 hour of night interruption lighting. I already have a lot of seeds, and an hour of night interruption lighting should not cost much.
I just need to watch and see if the six lights and the perimeter lights will put the girls back into veg.

I need to run right now.
Everything is looking good so far.
This was a small bump. I had other plans for the day, but it was good to get this handled, and to learn where I can find seeds that will grow without additional lighting, if and when we get to that point.
:surf: :thanks:

PS, hey, that sure would be a lot easier to buy their seeds, than to try to breed my own!! 🤣
 
Hey Med, I will reply to your other posts as well.

Ok, I have been writing all sorts of people.
I wonder if there are key terms to use in Spanish to look for tropical Chemotype 3 and a resistant Chemotype 2 (2:1 CBD:THC) seeds?

After mucho searching I found one company called Breeders, which seems to have the best reputation. They publish data sheets on their seeds, and pheno profiles.
They make a Chemotype 3 and a Chemotype 2.

The Chemotype 3 is Sativa CBD, 14% CBD and low THC.
Haha, how is your Spanish?
Myrcene
Cariofileno (whatever that is)
A-pinene
B-Pinene

1735335365081.png
Lots of pinene, nice. The other two are mycrene and caryophyllene. Other than the pinene, this is looking more like an indica pheno.

As for the 14% CBD... who knows, I would ask them for a lab test result for cannabinoids.

The Chemotype 2 is Calima, 14% CBD and 7% THC.
(Sounds pretty good!)

1735335467490.png
Strangely also listed as exactly 14% CBD. I followed the links and compared the two terpene profiles, and found them to be remarkably similar. Both have high alpha and beta pinene. My guess is that Calima is just a different phenotype of "Sativa CBD".

I asked the Breeders rep if they are tropical genetics, such that they will grow without lights in winter and flower automatically in the fall.
He said they are photoperiods, but that they grow fine outdoors without extra lights. (Huh???)
However, he also said that the plants get much bigger if you put lights??
(I need to learn more about the tropical flip mechanism.)

"She is a photoperiod. But she can grow just fine without light.
"It's a rapid flowering, 75 days of flowering and two months minimum vegetation. However they get much bigger if you add light.

"Yes if they have 18 hours of light they can get bigger and more branching. Without the light they will reach a certain point of growth and start to flower. But she will develop well either way, with light or without light."

I asked him to verify, and he said yes.
I would not normally believe someone telling me that here, but Breeders has the best reputation, so if their rep says so, probably it can. Worth a try I guess.
All of the strains except for possibly your local landraces (Mango Biche, etc.) will do this... they will start to flower as soon as they are mature, because of your tropical photoperiod cycle. This is because your night length is always long enough to initiate flowering.

If you use night interruption, you can prevent flowering and veg for longer, hence the plants get bigger. Then you turn off the lights and this will initiate flowering.

With Mango Biche grown outdoors, it appears to take a long time to mature, and then requires very long nights to initiate flowering, and so it flowers at a specific time of the year.

For now we will see how we do with 1 hour of night interruption lighting. I already have a lot of seeds, and an hour of night interruption lighting should not cost much.
I just need to watch and see if the six lights and the perimeter lights will put the girls back into veg.
All you need is a few minutes of light in the middle of the night. I recall that you don't have your lights on a timer, and they are solar lights, so you are relying on them staying on from dark until midnight, or something like that.

Keep in mind that night interruption is an absolute thing... if the light doesn't go on, for example because there wasn't enough sun during the day to charge up the little solar battery on your lights, this is bad. Best is to have a small solar power system, and then LED bulbs on a timer that goes on briefly in the middle of the night.

This was a small bump. I had other plans for the day, but it was good to get this handled, and to learn where I can find seeds that will grow without additional lighting, if and when we get to that point.
Again, all the strains will require night interruption, otherwise the plants will be very small.
 
Full nanners here.

20241226_143605.jpg
Male Mango Biche?

Whoosh. Pistil city.

20241226_143356.jpg
I'm guessing your night length is right around 12 hours now. This means any cannabis will go into flower without night interruption lighting. They just need to be mature enough. Some strains, such as tropical landrace sativas, will take a long time to mature. That's my understanding.

I do not see pistils on this one? Not sure why.

20241226_143255.jpg
Maybe it's a Mango Biche female, and she'll take a long time to mature, then she'll begin flowering.

WHOOSH!!
I thought the contractor said he already knew how to grow cannabis, and keep the plants from flowering??
If he knows about growing cannabis, then why are the plants flowering, and he said nothing????
...Big sigh....
Night interruption will stop any cannabis from flowering, except for autoflowering.

A long time ago I watched a documentary about the "lost city of the Cauca" where they put up cheap 100W equivalent LED bulbs (maybe 1 per plant) and ran them for a couple of hours either at dusk, or in the middle of the night.
I do not know if I can find the movie again, but the lights were not that strong.
It seems the party lights are not strong enough????

I THOUGHT I had a full schedule today, but it looks like I will need to go to the farm, check out the greenhouse lights, and fix up some kind of enhanced light system to put everyone back in veg.
I have timers and LED lights, so we should be able to rig up something.
Bummer deal.
Do you have electrical power there, or are you relying on strings of solar lights that have their own little solar panel and battery?

This is really a pain, because the contractor said he knew.
The workers here just say stuff they know is not true, and then when it turns out that they do NOT know, they still expect you to treat them with dignity and respect (when they basically lie to you, and tell you that they know things they do not).

I cannot afford to lose the contractor, because he is doing our crops well (and we have to pay our bills).
So, I will have to take many deep breaths, and go over there and "make sure we clear up any confusion" today, and get them under some real lights.

I guess my party lights are not cutting it??
I will try to send a more detailed report after the visit.
:-(
It depends when they go ON and for how long. This must be 100% dependable.

At least all the green looks green and healthy!

20241226_143617.jpg
This looks like a female starting to flower, and she's too young. Needs night interruption.
 
Ok, well, I went there. Oy. It was a mess. (I was not impressed.)
All of the plants had had major transplant shock, and a couple were still recovering.
He did NOT maintain the tags as to what strain was what, although I specifically asked him to do that, and he said that he would. (Not cool at all.)
It was not noticed that the European girls were all going into flower, and that there was a European male already starting to spew pollen, that was ALSO getting eaten by bugs, and NO sprays applied! (On this plant it is not a problem, because I pulled it. But these girls are not getting a lot of care.)
What I said 10 days ago...

If you just let your contractor guy grow a single crop of Mango Biche for you, and get a good harvest, that would be a nice accomplishment... probably quite a quantity of buds. And it sounds like he could pull it off.

All the other stuff sounds like a bit of stretch to me, given the high altitude location, distance from where you live (yeah?), no electric power, and all the intricacies of lighting or not, night interruption or not, tropical/local genetics or not, cloning, isolating pollen-bearing males or not, breeding, planting in the ground or not, etc.

A male. Mango Biche?

We put up six LED 1250W or 1500W equivalent indoor LED lights on timers, and they will come on for one hour around midnight. I programmed them to come on in between 11:30 PM and 00:30 AM (or thereabouts). Then we did a test just to make sure everything would light up. It doesn't look like much in the daytime. If it is not enough to stop flowering I can go back and add more lamps.
We will re-string the party lights around the perimeter at about three or 4 feet of height to stop flowering on the backside of the plants.
I will have them send me pictures every week.
OK, so to run those high-wattage LEDs, you must have a power source now. What I recommend are low-wattage LED bulbs and a lot of them, so that all plants are getting the light, and from different angles. I use eight 13w daylight spectrum bulbs in my little greenhouse. These are not "grow lights", they are just inexpensive 13w LED bulbs.

I recommend midnight, 2am, and 4am, for about 3 minutes each. If you can't program your timer for 3 periods, I would pick 2am. Just 3 minutes.

This is a bummer! It takes a long time for them to flip back into veg and recover. But hopefully we'll recover.
Should be OK as long as the lighting is dependable.

He said they do have tropical sativa CBD in the Cauca and offered to go get some seeds or starts for me. I told him that was nice, but I thought I would look online first to save time and resources. And also because they probably have a selection online.
...And because the reality is, I have no idea the quality he's talking about. It does make sense that they would adapt CBD to the local sativa strains, I just don't want any old genetics if I can find some quality seeds online.
My general sense is that you probably won't find high quality genetics for CBD down there in Colombia, from local breeders, type II or III. They may claim 14% CBD, and you might be able to believe it if they show you a valid lab test result or results. It could very well be that only some phenos (and who knows how rare) will actually reach 14% CBD. If I were you, I would just wait and get seeds from GTR.
 
Hey Med, I will reply to your other posts as well.
:thumb:
Lots of pinene, nice. The other two are mycrene and caryophyllene. Other than the pinene, this is looking more like an indica pheno.

As for the 14% CBD... who knows, I would ask them for a lab test result for cannabinoids.
Right.
This is Sativa CBD: Basically the same as Calima except no THC.
1735431212578.png

No incidence of botrytis or mites.
1735431236998.png



This is Calima Diesel. It has almost the same CBD but 6-7% THC. (Better deal.)

1735431296164.png

1735431331358.png


Strangely also listed as exactly 14% CBD. I followed the links and compared the two terpene profiles, and found them to be remarkably similar. Both have high alpha and beta pinene. My guess is that Calima is just a different phenotype of "Sativa CBD".
Yeah, that makes total sense.

All of the strains except for possibly your local landraces (Mango Biche, etc.) will do this... they will start to flower as soon as they are mature, because of your tropical photoperiod cycle. This is because your night length is always long enough to initiate flowering.

Yeah, ok. Thank you.
I guess I have to retrain my thinking about how tropical landraces know when to flower. Here they start to flower around September (Fall Equinox), and then they flower for four months.
If you use night interruption, you can prevent flowering and veg for longer, hence the plants get bigger. Then you turn off the lights and this will initiate flowering.
Got it. Thanks.
:thumb:

With Mango Biche grown outdoors, it appears to take a long time to mature, and then requires very long nights to initiate flowering, and so it flowers at a specific time of the year.
Yes, it starts to flower in late September, after the Equinox (when our "summer" begins).
So maybe MB is photodependent--but just waits until the day and the night are equal length before it starts to flower??
Or do tropicals have another way to know when the weather changes from summer to winter?

I am still not getting why Breeders would say that their strains are photoperiod, but they need no lights.
Me not get.
:nomo::reading420magazine::hmmmm:
All you need is a few minutes of light in the middle of the night. I recall that you don't have your lights on a timer, and they are solar lights, so you are relying on them staying on from dark until midnight, or something like that.

Keep in mind that night interruption is an absolute thing... if the light doesn't go on, for example because there wasn't enough sun during the day to charge up the little solar battery on your lights, this is bad. Best is to have a small solar power system, and then LED bulbs on a timer that goes on briefly in the middle of the night.
Yeah, I was thinking the party lights would work better. Actually they are strung right above the MB, and the MB are the only ones not flowering (and it is time for them to flower, so it works).
But all the European girls were flowering, so I had to do something.

Again, all the strains will require night interruption, otherwise the plants will be very small.
Thanks again for clearing that up.
:thumb:
 
Male Mango Biche?
No, actually, none of the MB is flowering yet. I am not sure if that is because the party lights are strung directly over the MB (but maybe).
I'm guessing your night length is right around 12 hours now.
Yes, it is about 12 minutes all year round. It varies 9 minutes between summer and winter.

This means any cannabis will go into flower without night interruption lighting. They just need to be mature enough. Some strains, such as tropical landrace sativas, will take a long time to mature. That's my understanding.
Ok. I was told that they do not use lighting here in the valley, but just put the seeds in late March or early April, and the plants know to veg all winter, and then automatically flower starting about September, and they go on for four months.
I asked to verify and was told yes, but I do not know.
I will probably ultimately grow all of the landraces here, just to do it. I have MB now, and hope I get some seed. I ordered Santa Marta de Oro (Colombian Gold) and eventually we will probably pick up Punto Rojo.
Maybe it's a Mango Biche female, and she'll take a long time to mature, then she'll begin flowering.
Yes, now that I think about it, this was MB (female? not sure) which were directly under the party lights, so no gender showing yet.

Night interruption will stop any cannabis from flowering, except for autoflowering.
:thumb:
Do you have electrical power there, or are you relying on strings of solar lights that have their own little solar panel and battery?
Well, the party lights have a little solar panel, but they were not working, so we brought a mess of power cords and LEDs, to get a tourniquet on the bleeding. If there is a better solution that would be great, but I already have a mess of these lights, and growing outdoors is the goal, so if these will work for night interruption for now, that would seem to be a "recycle" or repurpose situation.

It depends when they go ON and for how long. This must be 100% dependable.
Yes, well, we are back on electric power now with the LEDs.
Sometimes the electric does go out, but that is usually during the day (I think because they shut things before doing any splicing work).
I think we will use LED and timers for night interruption for right now.
This looks like a female starting to flower, and she's too young. Needs night interruption.
Wake her up! She will get taller! Haha.
:thumb:
 
I guess I have to retrain my thinking about how tropical landraces know when to flower. Here they start to flower around September (Fall Equinox), and then they flower for four months.
There are two main controllers of flowering for photoperiod plants: 1) the plant needs to be mature enough to begin flowering (think sexual maturity), 2) night length needs to be long enough.

Tropical landraces are sativas, and they have long life cycles (veg and flower). So it makes sense that it takes a long time for them to be mature enough to flower.

Yes, it starts to flower in late September, after the Equinox (when our "summer" begins).
So maybe MB is photodependent--but just waits until the day and the night are equal length before it starts to flower??
Or do tropicals have another way to know when the weather changes from summer to winter?
Mango Biche is a long life cycle tropical sativa. What I said above... it just needs to be mature and then for the night length to be long enough. Then it flowers. I don't think there's another factor in play, such as temperature.

I am still not getting why Breeders would say that their strains are photoperiod, but they need no lights.
There are really only two types of cannabis: photoperiod and autoflowering. (Ignoring for now those that are semi-autoflowering.) If you are growing outside, no photoperiod strains actually "need" lighting at night—people use the lighting simply to control flowering, and thereby allow the plants to get bigger in veg.

However, with a tropical sativa landrace (e.g. Mango Biche), one could say they "don't need lights" (i.e. they don't need night interruption lighting) because they inherently take a long time to mature (and they get big). Then they just flower naturally.
 
Ok. I was told that they do not use lighting here in the valley, but just put the seeds in late March or early April, and the plants know to veg all winter, and then automatically flower starting about September, and they go on for four months.
For the local tropical sativas, I think what's happening is just the maturity of the plants. They veg for a specific period of time, and then they are ready to flower.

If you are growing some other hybrids, they will need night interruption, otherwise the plants will be very small. I'm guessing the locals concentrate on the tropical sativas and avoid the hassle of lighting.

I asked to verify and was told yes, but I do not know.
I will probably ultimately grow all of the landraces here, just to do it. I have MB now, and hope I get some seed. I ordered Santa Marta de Oro (Colombian Gold) and eventually we will probably pick up Punto Rojo.
👍
Yes, now that I think about it, this was MB (female? not sure) which were directly under the party lights, so no gender showing yet.
Remember, MB takes a long time to mature, before flowering. That's my understanding. Yours however are still very young. This being the case, the lights don't matter at this point.
 
What I said 10 days ago...
Well, I appreciate that, but these are the clones and seedlings I have. And they were already in the ground ten days ago.
I already did one seed-replacement :-(
To plant different seeds at this point would mean throwing away the plants I now have to plant 20 MB??? :-(
I get the idea that MB from this valley should be a cinch for him to grow. But... 20 each monster all-THC plants??? Mercy!! And what CBD would I put with it??? (Because THC without CBD is not the best for me.)

I put 9 Dr. Seedsman CBD, because they are only small little bushes.
I also put (I thought) 6 european 1:1s (but only 5 of them are fems, and one was an unknown male that is now dead).
There were 2 Northern Light CBD sativa (and I wish I had put more)
2 Pineapple Kush sativa (no CBD, no idea what mold resistance--we have to see if it survives) :-(
1 Cream & Cheese 1:1 sativa (super mold resistant. No idea how it tastes.)
5 Mango Biche 3-4 meter all-THC monster regulars, we will see how many male and female, but those will all need to be paired with CBD, and I only put 9 little CBD bushes.
(After this last week, I plan to involve myself with collecting MB pollen and seeding a branch on the best MB seed mothers, and then destroying the males. And I think I need to oversee that personally, or I will end up with a seeded crop.)
(I think long term, once I get settled, I might take back over my cannabis garden... But for now he can grow.)

A male. Mango Biche?
Nope. European. This was that "volunteer mystery" seed that came up, and due to a combination of factors, I thought I would grow it out and try it, just in case (long story). But it was a male, and the bugs were eating it, so whatever it was, it is gone now. (At this point I am not sure why I chose that.)
(Onward and upward.)
OK, so to run those high-wattage LEDs, you must have a power source now. What I recommend are low-wattage LED bulbs and a lot of them, so that all plants are getting the light, and from different angles. I use eight 13w daylight spectrum bulbs in my little greenhouse. These are not "grow lights", they are just inexpensive 13w LED bulbs.
Thank you!
I understand the concept of 13w bulbs.
At first I thought of the solar party lights, because it sounded like there would not be electrical power, and I wanted to try an off-grid solution.
It seems like the party lights might be suppressing flowering on the MB (because it is flowering time now), because the lights are directly over the MB. But not suppressing anything else.
Anyway, the party lights are too weak!

Thankfully, there is electric power. They put the greenhouse about maybe 50-60 yards/meters away from the contractor's house, probably so they could deter theft. (People do wander onto the farms at night, and stuff can come up missing.)
I figured the China-special LED light panels would bring the flowering under control quickly (like a tourniquet), and then we could come up with a better solution long term.
They are nominal 1500W or 1250W, in reality they draw like 150W or 125W.
There are six of them.
The plan is that when the contractor's son returns from his winter break, he will route the party lights around the perimeter of the greenhouse. But probably it would be better to put a string of the 13W lamps, like you have, because the reality is that the party lights are not nearly as bright as I thought.
(Nice try, no blunt.)

I went searching for the dimensions of your greenhouse.
Would you please tell me the dimensions again? (It looks like a good setup.)

1735433859480.png

Eight each 13W daylight spectrum bulbs for how big by how big??


I recommend midnight, 2am, and 4am, for about 3 minutes each. If you can't program your timer for 3 periods, I would pick 2am. Just 3 minutes.

Ok, well, oy.
Shed sent me a Kannabia article before on Gas Lantern Routine. It said 1 hour for best results, so now I am not sure.

I understand that the idea is to disrupt the sleep cycle, meaning to wake the plant up, so that they do not sleep long enough to produce the flowering hormone. (Haha, they do not get their pregnancy sleep.)

Are you saying that the plants really need just a few minutes, and that is enough to wake them up?
The minimum increments on my timers is 15 minutes.
Like, would like two shots of 15 minutes work good? That would be half as much energy as an hour.
Or would one shot of 15 minutes work?

Should be OK as long as the lighting is dependable.
The power does go out, but for some reason it is usually during the day.
My general sense is that you probably won't find high quality genetics for CBD down there in Colombia, from local breeders, type II or III. They may claim 14% CBD, and you might be able to believe it if they show you a valid lab test result or results. It could very well be that only some phenos (and who knows how rare) will actually reach 14% CBD.

I like your thought that Sativa CBD and Calima Diesel are really just two phenos of the same strain. That makes total sense.

The Breeders rep said their numbers were from a lab test.
Sativa CBD sounds good at 14% CBD, but I think I prefer the idea of Calima Diesel, which has almost as much CBD (13%), plus 6.8% THC.
(2:1 always works well for me. I always like to see a 2:1. And it is a diesel flavor...)

1735434682137.png


If I were you, I would just wait and get seeds from GTR.

Hahaha, I think I may ALSO get seeds from GTR! 😂

I have lots of seeds for the moment, but I WAS thinking about cloning...
Only, after seeing the way things run this past week, I wonder how well the contractor and his son can be relied upon for cloning at all.
I say that because first, he almost killed the transplants. He did not follow my instructions at all. And it seems that he cannot recognize a FLOWERING MALE in his grow? And he cannot recognize that it is ALSO getting eaten by bugs (and his son probably never even sprayed it once???
Oy, I am not convinced he knows anything about cannabis, or cloning, or that it will be done right.

I kind of need to keep the contractor because of the cash crops, BUT:
If I have to run night interruption lights one way or another, then I think I should go ahead and start the seeds myself the start of March, and then bring him the seedlings when I come to remix the soil.
And then we run night interruption all winter, so the girls get good and big.
And then just hand him more fem starts each March. And let him grow those out with night intteruption, and pull the lights in September.
It will cost some in seeds, but I have plenty of seeds right now. I just need to grow all of those seeds out.
And if I ever take the garden back over once we get settled, then I can run a proper clone and male tent.

I have enough seeds to run for several grows, actually. I can let the contractor grow those seedlings out.
If I ever take the garden back over, then I can run a proper clone tent, and a proper males isolation tent, etc..
But I think if I try clones and males tents with this guy, I will just end up unhappy, with a ton of seeded weed from one strain.
At a purely medical level that works--but the reality is that different strains work for different situations for me. It is better to have more than just one kind of strain. And it does not seem like this guy wants to understand that.
So I will just hand him seedlings each March or April...
Once I use up the ones I have, then I will buy more. And hopefully I will be in a situation where I can clone by then, so I can maintain the GTR seeds. Because Sour Hawaiian Haze and Sour Lifter sound very good!
I am looking forward to Harlequin CBD, and Charlotte's Dream (Charlotte's Angel x Blue Dream). I loved Charlotte's Angel CBD Auto, just that the auto stocks are not always mold resistant.
Anyway, GTR is definitely on my purchasing radar! I just need to discipline myself, and grow out what I already have first. Haha, because I love buying cannabis seeds too much!
Haha, is there a 12-step group? Haha.
 
There are two main controllers of flowering for photoperiod plants: 1) the plant needs to be mature enough to begin flowering (think sexual maturity), 2) night length needs to be long enough.
:thumb:
Tropical landraces are sativas, and they have long life cycles (veg and flower). So it makes sense that it takes a long time for them to be mature enough to flower.
:thumb:
Mango Biche is a long life cycle tropical sativa. What I said above... it just needs to be mature and then for the night length to be long enough. Then it flowers. I don't think there's another factor in play, such as temperature.
Right.
Except the difference is really not very much.
June daylight is 9 minutes longer than winter (December), but it is COLDER. And this is when the locals veg their cannabis (without lights). Slightly longer days, but colder.
In contrast, December has days that are 9 minutes SHORTER than June, but the weather starts to get WARMER between September and March. The local tropical strains choose to flower starting about the "Fall" Equinox.

1735437752510.png



But the tropicals start to flower without lights at the Fall Equinox.
That is also when it gets warmer (and wetter).

Since we are 1 degree north of the equator, we actually cross the equator twice in a year, so the start and end times of the days change slightly twice, making the daylight length look kind of wavy.
But still, total daylight is shorter after the "Fall" Equinox (when the tropicals bloom automatically).

1735438487183.png




There are really only two types of cannabis: photoperiod and autoflowering. (Ignoring for now those that are semi-autoflowering.) If you are growing outside, no photoperiod strains actually "need" lighting at night—people use the lighting simply to control flowering, and thereby allow the plants to get bigger in veg.
Got it.
Delayed flowering = bigger plants.
:thumb:
However, with a tropical sativa landrace (e.g. Mango Biche), one could say they "don't need lights" (i.e. they don't need night interruption lighting) because they inherently take a long time to mature (and they get big). Then they just flower naturally.
I was told that the locals plant their seeds in late March or early April (after the "Spring" Equinox, when the days are technically getting longer), and that it will start to flower on its own in September, which seems suspiciously about the same time as the "Fall" Equinox.
Also, after the "Fall" Equinox we go into "summer" here, where it is warmer (and wetter)--and the plants seem to like to flower in the summer. I think they take about 4 months they said. They said that is one reason they get so strong is that they are flowering a long time, but I do not know that.

If it is not the "Fall" Equinox that trips flowering here, I am not sure what the mechanism could be.

I wonder if African tropical sativas will grow here. (I would think yes.)
 
For the local tropical sativas, I think what's happening is just the maturity of the plants. They veg for a specific period of time, and then they are ready to flower.
Hahaha, like autos??? 😂

If you are growing some other hybrids, they will need night interruption, otherwise the plants will be very small. I'm guessing the locals concentrate on the tropical sativas and avoid the hassle of lighting.
Yes, that would be my first guess as well.
Only, when I first got to the area, I was buying ziploc baggies of meh sinsemilla weed that allegedly came from this valley. If I recall, it was Moby Dick, Gelato, and Sweet Afghan Delicious (SAD). I think those would need lighting.
As I recall, the quality was kind of low. No crystals, not much taste.

I remember trying some Mango Biche from the same supplier, and asked about availability. They did not have flowers but seeds were possible, so I got those. They were older seeds. They took a long time to come up.
I will be happy with this grow if we see what survives outdoors in a greenhouse, and if we get some good seeds from this Mango Biche. And then just whatever else we get mold-free, I will be glad to have it.

👍

Remember, MB takes a long time to mature, before flowering. That's my understanding. Yours however are still very young. This being the case, the lights don't matter at this point.
Ok, that could be. I think the MB are not that much younger than the European girls, but that could be a possibility. Or it could be that the party lights were directly over the MB. I do not know.

Anyway, I guess as long as I oversee soil prep, and hand him the 20 mold-and-bug resistant seedlings I want for the year, probably this will still work.
I need to order a string of those lights sockets, so we can put some 13W bulbs in there.
What do you call that kind of light string?
 
Shed sent me a Kannabia article before on Gas Lantern Routine. It said 1 hour for best results, so now I am not sure.
I'll write more, but just wanted to respond to this. (Gotta go outside and do some land work right now.)

Technically you only need a flash of light in the middle of the night, meaning 1/2 way through the dark period. This "resets" the flowering hormone instantaneously. The light just needs to be bright enough, and include the red part of the spectrum, so it's best to use "daylight" spectrum or "full" spectrum LEDs.

For good measure, I use 3 minutes each at midnight, 2am, and 4am. Been doing it for years and it works perfectly.

Each plant needs to be bathed in the light, all sides and top. (If some of the very lower areas on a plant don't get enough light, then they'll go to flower, which isn't a problem.) You can do this by simply stringing the lights above the plants. Closer is better if you have small plants. I use paracord strung above, and then the cord for each light bulb can be clipped onto the paracord with clothes pins. This makes the height of the light bulbs somewhat adjustable.
 
I'll write more, but just wanted to respond to this. (Gotta go outside and do some land work right now.)

:thumb:
Technically you only need a flash of light in the middle of the night, meaning 1/2 way through the dark period. This "resets" the flowering hormone instantaneously. The light just needs to be bright enough, and include the red part of the spectrum, so it's best to use "daylight" spectrum or "full" spectrum LEDs.

For good measure, I use 3 minutes each at midnight, 2am, and 4am. Been doing it for years and it works perfectly.

Ok, good to know!
I might turn the timers down to 15 minutes (which is the smallest increment).
And I need to get some 110V light strings like you have.

Each plant needs to be bathed in the light, all sides and top. (If some of the very lower areas on a plant don't get enough light, then they'll go to flower, which isn't a problem.) You can do this by simply stringing the lights above the plants. Closer is better if you have small plants. I use paracord strung above, and then the cord for each light bulb can be clipped onto the paracord with clothes pins. This makes the height of the light bulbs somewhat adjustable.
Excellent idea. Thanks. 👍

What do you call that kind of drop light?
I am searching for it on the River, but I do not see anything that looks like those.
I tried "outdoor adjustable drop lights"
and "outdoor 110V electric light strings", etc., but I do not get those.
 
What do you call that kind of drop light?
I am searching for it on the River, but I do not see anything that looks like those.
I tried "outdoor adjustable drop lights"
and "outdoor 110V electric light strings", etc., but I do not get those.
15 ft cords with socket and ON/OFF switch

Bulbs

:ciao:
 
Hahaha, like autos??? 😂
Yeah, a bit like that. The difference is, when the MB is mature enough to flower, you can still stop her from flowering using night interruption.

Yes, that would be my first guess as well.
Only, when I first got to the area, I was buying ziploc baggies of meh sinsemilla weed that allegedly came from this valley. If I recall, it was Moby Dick, Gelato, and Sweet Afghan Delicious (SAD). I think those would need lighting.
As I recall, the quality was kind of low. No crystals, not much taste.

I remember trying some Mango Biche from the same supplier, and asked about availability. They did not have flowers but seeds were possible, so I got those. They were older seeds. They took a long time to come up.
I will be happy with this grow if we see what survives outdoors in a greenhouse, and if we get some good seeds from this Mango Biche. And then just whatever else we get mold-free, I will be glad to have it.
👍

Ok, that could be. I think the MB are not that much younger than the European girls, but that could be a possibility. Or it could be that the party lights were directly over the MB. I do not know.
What I mean is, being a landrace sativa, the MB has a long life span... probably much longer than your other strains. So, when I say "young", I mean relatively young because of their long life span. So without night interruption, your other strains will go to flower sooner than the MB. Probably much sooner. Actually, it looks like it's already happening.

Anyway, I guess as long as I oversee soil prep, and hand him the 20 mold-and-bug resistant seedlings I want for the year, probably this will still work.
👍

I need to order a string of those lights sockets, so we can put some 13W bulbs in there.
What do you call that kind of light string?
answered in my last reply. ⬆️
 
I was told that the locals plant their seeds in late March or early April (after the "Spring" Equinox, when the days are technically getting longer), and that it will start to flower on its own in September, which seems suspiciously about the same time as the "Fall" Equinox.

Also, after the "Fall" Equinox we go into "summer" here, where it is warmer (and wetter)--and the plants seem to like to flower in the summer. I think they take about 4 months they said. They said that is one reason they get so strong is that they are flowering a long time, but I do not know that.
This is basically the same crop timing as the northern latitudes... plant in spring, harvest in fall.

The difference is that the landrace tropical sativa (Mango Biche) has a very long lifespan, probably at least 6 months. If they start flowering in September, four months later is in January. That's 17 weeks in flower, which is super long... maybe the longest any sativa is in flower, I don't know. If we guess 4 months in veg, which is also super long, then the seeds are planted in May, and 4 months later is in September.

I just read that some Thai strains have a lifespan of over a year!

If it is not the "Fall" Equinox that trips flowering here, I am not sure what the mechanism could be.
RE: tropical sativa landraces
As I said, the mechanism is simply that they reach sexual maturity, and that's when they flower. Which apparently takes 4 or 5 months. So, the plants are getting big over the course of months in veg, and then they show their sex.

It's not the sun or the climate that triggers flowering. That's my understanding.

Your year-round night length of 12 hours ± 9 min is basically a constant. The 9 min isn't doing anything in terms of triggering flowering. That's my understanding.

I wonder if African tropical sativas will grow here. (I would think yes.)
Yeah, especially ones from a similar latitude and elevation.
 
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