Effects of latitude on cannabis

[Yacub]

Hello, friends!
My name is Yacub. I am new here. I have some experience with growing cannabis a very long time ago, and since we recently legalized possession and limited cultivation in my state (yahoo!), l have grown one crop outside. My ignorance is vast, and l bow to your experience and knowledge.

I live in what is called the high desert, at 4,000' /1200 m elevation, at 31° N latitude. Right now l'm interested in pure sativas, and would like to grow an outdoor strain that simply becomes part of my garden from seed every year, along with the kale, beans and tomatoes.

This last year l grew a S African 'sativa' that did very well, though l grew it from seed so it didn't have a chance to attain all of its pure sinse glory. But it's promising, and l like the effect. So...this strain - 'Kwazulu' from World of Seeds, specifically - is from 29° S Latitude, as far as l can tell. As far as photoperiod goes, 'Kwazulu' seems already adapted to the daylight regime we have here, which may account for how well it did here...

But l'm interested in crossing Kwazulu with another African sativa with greater potency, let's say from Mozambique at 19° S. If l tried this, what effect would the great change in native latitudes have on any F1 kids? I have heard that latitude changes like this might produce hermaphrodites. And maybe l'd need to do a cross like this indoors, where l could induce flowering at the same time for both strains?

Years ago, my partners grew some Thai and Colombian plants alongside some Afghans at 49° N, and l remember that of course they flowered WAY later than the Affies, but not how the buds turned out (they weren't my plants).

l will add that we can only legally grow six plants at a time here, and so it seems to me that real breeding for new stable strains would be hard to do. But l still want to try!
Thanks for your time! I really appreciate it.

 

[therevverend]

Lucky you, you're at a perfect latitude and altitude for cannabis. You don't need to worry about the latitude causing equatorial strains to hermaphrodite; it's usually stress or genetics that cause this to happen. Some equatorial landraces tend to go herm because they come from places that farmers never culled the males. They're used to having seeded stuff so the herm trait was never selectively bred out of it. That's part of the challenge of adapting landraces to your environment.

The Mozambique strain will probablyu trigger to flower later then your South African strain. A lot depends on your local climate but as long as you don't get a hard frost you should be fine as far as finishing your crop. The bigger problem is breeding two strains that aren't 'synched up'. You want your pollen to be ready to go when your females are receptive. If your males haven't flowered or your females aren't receptive you'll have trouble. You can dry your male flowers and store them in the fridge for a month or two if the males flower too early. But the fresher the pollen the more active it will be.

This last year l grew a S African 'sativa' that did very well, though l grew it from seed so it didn't have a chance to attain all of its pure sinse glory.

Outdoors plants grown from seed will usually be more vigorous then clones. This is why I prefer seedlings for my outdoor crops. If your crop ended up seeded it's because you had loose pollen. Either from unculled males or hermaphrodites. What I do to keep my crop sinse is to apply the pollen carefully to a female plant with a q tip or paint brush. Or you can carefully tie a bag full of pollen around the branch. Then you label the branch so you know what type of pollen you dusted it with. When selectively breeding you always label and keep track of which mother plants were used. That way if one turns out hermie or makes poor progeny they can be culled.

As far as your plant limits, maybe if you put your males off in the bushes somewhere, far from your females, the authorities won't notice or care and you'll be able to grow 6 females? I don't know how tight the regulations are but sometimes a few extra seedlings or males can slide so you can have 6 large yielding females. It's very hard to selectively breed with such small numbers but that's the breaks in a post-prohibition world..

 

[Yacub]

Rev,
Thanks so much for your reply! My writing may have been confusing. This year l deliberately seeded all my plants because l wanted seeds. And did l ever get seeds...thousands, along with way smaller buds. Next year l intend to grow the males separately, harvest pollen and pollinate the girls with a brush. And right, selectively breeding with such low numbers is kind of out the window, but heck, l'll try it anyway. Too, around here we don't usually get a killing frost till the second half of November, and the last frost is usually in the first half of March, so the growing season's fairly long.
Thanks again!