Colorado Greenhouse 9300' (Seasonal and Year-around)

[highcountrygrow]

this is my 8th or 9th year doing greenhouses up here and I have made the mistake in prior seasons as far as how unpredictable the climate is up here. The temp diff/swings can be 40 degrees in the matter of a couple hours, hail/snow can happen any month of the year (so if you grow outside you'll at least need a shade cloth to prevent hail damage), we also have some of the craziest wind storms in the country (sometimes over 100mph gusts) being only 5 miles from the continental divide so thats why I build reinforced greenhouses with atleast triple pain polycarbonate plastic.

Also genetics, one of the first motivations in my breeding career was to find strains of cannabis that can grow up here at this elevation and short season. And actually get a finished product. My research led me to ruderalis indica hybrid crosses. Basically hemp plants are very hardy and grow at very high latitudes and have frost resistance. Hybridize that with a high resin producing hardy indica and select the progeny that show the hardyness (frost resistance etc.) from the ruderalis(hemp) and the resin production from the indica. There are infinite hybridizations out there that can produce some amazing results.

 

[highcountrygrow]

to 710420 I am always interested in new gentetics. I run a seed company and breeding operation here in the mountains of colorado. We should be on the market soon. Look out for Original Gardeners soon...

What type of strain are you looking for? I have thought of doing custom breeding for people if they want to produce seeds or hybridize their strains? Id have to look into the money/cost of this operation and service

 

[highcountrygrow]

to milkyjoe, thanks for the compliments. I have F1s available of the shiva skunk x Hawaiian sativa.

 

[highcountrygrow]

GROW TIP: IF your growing in this climate with the big temp swings, then put 55 gallon drums of water around your greenhouse to help regulate the temp at night. Remember thermal mass is key for temp regulation and water holds heat very well.

 

[oceangrownkush]

Very cool looking greenhouses. Do you have to manipulate light hours at all in CO to achieve flowering? Or are there any times of the year where supplemental light hours are necessary?

Big ups

 

[710420]

to 710420 I am always interested in new gentetics. I run a seed company and breeding operation here in the mountains of colorado. We should be on the market soon. Look out for Original Gardeners soon...

What type of strain are you looking for? I have thought of doing custom breeding for people if they want to produce seeds or hybridize their strains? Id have to look into the money/cost of this operation and service

When I went to Amsterdam my favorite strain I had was amnesia haze. I would love to cross that strain with ummm I don't really know. I do know what I want to name her. Its not the usual names out there but I know it is unique and would be fire!

After thinking it over I remember my boy having some pineapple express and that bud was sooo tasty. I put that in a dutch and was up all night on the internet just surfing. I knew then that this bud is a sativa dominant (I think it is)

I would love to get a strain named. Please pm me is needed and we can see what we can work out. Serious inquiry.

 

[highcountrygrow]

Very cool looking greenhouses. Do you have to manipulate light hours at all in CO to achieve flowering? Or are there any times of the year where supplemental light hours are necessary?

Big ups

Every strain is going to start flowering at different times as the days get shorter in the summer. Most kush's will be the first to start. Also the rate and time it takes each strain to go through its stretching period also comes into play (sativas tend to have a long stretch period before they produce any budding sites). Then the length of flower is different between strains.

Supplemental light starting at the end of september or cloudy days through may up here. Im putting gavitas in my GHs as supplemental with the gavita controller that will dim the lights down if its really sunny/hot.

 

[highcountrygrow]

When I went to Amsterdam my favorite strain I had was amnesia haze. I would love to cross that strain with ummm I don't really know. I do know what I want to name her. Its not the usual names out there but I know it is unique and would be fire!

After thinking it over I remember my boy having some pineapple express and that bud was sooo tasty. I put that in a dutch and was up all night on the internet just surfing. I knew then that this bud is a sativa dominant (I think it is)

I would love to get a strain named. Please pm me is needed and we can see what we can work out. Serious inquiry.

Breeding is quite the process. Especially if your trying to produce stable seeds of phenos. I have grown over 300 different strains in my career and if there is one thing that is amazing about cannabis is its diversity of characteristics. thats why when your looking for the keepers its best to have as many numbers as possible. Their are many traits to consider when your breeding as well and some arent as obvious as other. For example, its important to produce strains that have heightened resistance to certain disease that are prevalent in cannabis horticulture (PM, bud rot, mites, aphids, etc.). These are some things to think about with breeding.

 

[highcountrygrow]

starting to really get chilly up here. Leaves on the aspens have all turned and are now falling off the trees. Just have to finish the insulation and hvac in the new GH and ill be ready for winter )))

Ill post some pics soon of the chemdawgs, airborne OGs, white rhino, aliendawg in they other GH. They are all about 5 and half weeks in with the chemdawgs winning the race. Should be starting the harvest around the second week in October.

Oh also adding the gavitas in soon as days are getting shorter and the sun is becoming less intense as it slips farther south in the horizon.

 

[milkyjoe]

You don't happen to have anything mixed with c 91 do you?

 

[highcountrygrow]

You don't happen to have anything mixed with c 91 do you?

i just have alien dawg (alien OG x chemdawg) atm but im planning on doing some crosses with my c91 in the next 6 months

 

[milkyjoe]

How is the alien dog? Decent yield?

 

[Maina]

How cold does it get there in winter ? How do you heat in winter?

 

[highcountrygrow]

How is the alien dog? Decent yield?

This is my first run of the aliendawg so I should know how she yields in a few weeks. I will say that her vegetative growth rates are not that fast. She stays stalky, short, and bushy throughout her growth processes.

 

[highcountrygrow]

How cold does it get there in winter ? How do you heat in winter?

Winters are some of the harshest in the country. We are on the eastern slope of the divide, so we get some of the most wind days above 50mph in the country and gusts can get above 100mph in bad storms. And it is very cold here from december through February, daytime highs will rarely be above freezing for a couple months.

I heat my greenhouses from my natural gas furnace in the bottom of my garage which is adjacent to the 2 year-around greenhouses. So I just crank that furnace up as need be.

This is still the first time ive tried to do this year around in the new GH which is a stand alone GH (more exposed to the elements). My other year-around GH is built off the side of the garage so it gets a lot more thermal mass and temp regulation from the building.

 

[Maina]

Where I am gets the high wind pluss -40 bellow

 

[highcountrygrow]

Where I am gets the high wind pluss -40 bellow[/QUOTE

yes it gets that cold here but usually not for extended periods, maybe a week

 

[highcountrygrow]

Where I am gets the high wind pluss -40 bellow

do you grow GH in these -40 conditions? or do you just grow indoors?

would love to see some more ppl in a similar environment/climate with a GH grow. Honestly havent seen many truly custom reinforced GHs on here

 

[stoned-trout]

how are you heating em..must cost a fortune..when I ran year round I invested in a hydronic system as I had free wood...spent like 15k setting it up tho

 

[nephrosis]

You should set yourself up with a mass rocket heater/gasifier!!! If you have alot of shit you can burn as extra material then do this!!!!! you can make your mass rocket heater heat up a whole room/house if you have the heating tubes set up correctly along with free energy from the gasifier.... check it out!!! i would love to see people try and go almost 100% green on their grow! when i move i plan on trying this, not only to cut down heating costs but it helps the environment!