Hi All. First time grower here. Have a balcony grow with 4 plants. 3 are male. 1 female. 2 of these are younger (they were sprouted June after an unfortunate squirrel attack : ) Will post pics soon.
I have used a very simple feeding plan with them and am very happy with them so far. My 2 younger plants may need more time and feeding before harvesting. My concern/question is that the temps now ( ie. overnight 14 degrees celsius) are such that I can’t really water as much. Any ideas or things I’m not thinking of? I’m not too keen on bringing plants in overnight…
Heat pad under containers at night may help as will dark containers during daytime. Keeps soil temps higher if that’s what you are aiming for. should dry them out quicker. Dont put pots directly on heat pad or bottom roots could cook.
Sounds good. @Upstate. Will probably just go with the good old outdoor inputs. Was considering using big containers of water to get a heat sink effect. I know that I am probably over thinking it a bit. @Grease_Monkey. I have separated the males. And they appear to have hermie d. The way things worked out my biggest and most mature plants are male so I am going to use them for butter or hash etc.
The female should be OK as its well away from the males…
The males wont make enough thc to bother with hash etc… sadly unless you’re looking to make seeds, you’re best off to kill em. You don’t want em to get a sneaky bang in thst knocks up your lady lol
I just thought of something else that may work to help hold in some heat. Your water idea made me think of this, (and I know they sell those water jackets to protect young plants early in the year.) What if you put whatever pot you are growing in, inside a larger dark pot. Much larger perhaps. Fill the void with sand, which will hold onto the heat throughout the night. I’m at 42 North, but in a very cold spot. Frost by mid-september every year, and quite often earlier. We had a killing Frost June 15th this year. I never did anything for my plants in containers. They will finish just fine, but I suppose yield could be hurt. When root temperatures go below 60, things will slow down a bit. But by this time of the year, your plant will have stored much of what it’s going to use for the flowering. Anyway, thanks for posting, I think I taught myself a new trick LOL I might use that sand myself, not this year but next.
I had 1 hermi sack knock up a whole plant in my tent with immature seeds… downgraded some damn good weed lol… yet when I purposely try to pollenate stuff it fails miserably
I agree with what @Upstate said… place a sealed plant heating mat under the container to warm the medium and allow the roots to perform for the plant.
These mats normally keep temperatures approximately 10° - 15° above ambient temperature.
14°C/57°F is a little too cold for cannabis roots to function at the level the plant needs them to during late flowering. The plant will also use more of its stored nutrients during late flowering, causing it’s foliage to fade.
Plant canopies can endure much cooler temperatures if their roots have proper warmth to work with. Your soil microbes also work much more efficiently when the medium is kept at a comfortable temperature.
I know phosphorus is hard for a plant to take up when the roots get cold, but do you happen to know other nutrients that are hard for the plant to get out of Cold Soil?
In India, Coco genes witnessed plants in Pulga Village go through a month of snow and ice and continue growing. He said the locals heavily mulched The Roots. I have done this during the summer time, but usually by the Fall time the microbes have eaten all of it , and since the plant leaves shaded the ground I wasn’t worried about weeds, so I didn’t replace it . From now on I’m going to do a heavy layer of shredded leaves for mulch in the fall. Check out Coco genes website and look up Pulga. Crazy crazy pictures, and more on Instagram. These plants were literally completely encased in icicles.
When i was in a house and posting on OG 22years ago…i ran 300ft of plastic garden hose in the ground around my plant bed and back to the drum.in my shed i had a 50gallon drum filled with water.i used 2 aquarium heaters to heat the water and a submersible pump in the drum to pump the water through the hose and back to the drum.let me grow sativas in to december in Toronto Ontario,even with frost and snow days it let them girls grow…ran the hose the same way you would run hose for radiant floor heating…dont see why it could not be modified for containers you could wrap the garden hose around each container 5 or 6 times and then wrap each container in insulation and foil.
No kidding! What were the temperatures outside that late? Just by keeping the roots warm it kept going that late? That’s incredible. Please give me a few more details. What were you growing exactly and how did the buds develop during those cold, short days. Were they under plastic I’m guessing? Above 32F?
Daytime temps are 22. So that means around mid-70s Fahrenheit? You’re probably down in the 50s at night, maybe even low 50s? Temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5degrees C)slow down growth. I have read that 50° (10 Celsius) is the magic number, but experience tells me 40. What you need to look out for is drastic temperature change. If it goes from 80, down towards freezing in 24 hrs, the plants could be stunted for a week or two. If they gradually cool down they can handle it no problem, unless you’re growing a fussy tropical sativa.
Yeah I hear you about the males…lol…