Outdoor Growing in the California Desert. Is it possible?

[X15]

Your plants look great from the last harvest! Glad you could get something going nicely after that heat incident.
As for over winter growing in the High Desert…. May the force be with you! It’s a very tough thing to do where I’m at. Above ground pots won’t work as it’s too cold at night. So I’d plan to put them directly into the ground… but even that is a stretch as the soil temps for my location hover around 54-56 degrees in January and really don’t start to warm up until March. There’s things that can be done to try to improve those temps but it takes a lot of planning… like growing in a green house in ground with tons of compost around to aid in soil warmth. Even then you will have very shallow roots as 6-8 inches down will be very cold. Hope the genetics you are using can handle the cold. I’ve got stuff I can put out in March but it’s slow going for a while with a harvest coming in July.

Makes me think of the cold af golf course days when I had 22 acres of putting greens to manage. It was always a task keeping temps up within the 12” of soil profile. Every green had its own drainage system with a gate valve at 12 and 6 o’clock. Had blowers we would hook up at 12 o’clock during the warm times of the day to help charge the profile with some warm air. Then at night those gate valves would get closed and you’d just pray that warmth would stay throughout the night. But once things got away from ya and the soil temps dropped all growth would stop completely.

Good luck Bud!

 

[Verdant Whisperer]

Hey gang, I just moved to the Palm Springs area from why oh why Ohio and I would love to do an outdoor grow. Quite frankly, my new condo simply does not have a place to grow so I am hoping for an outdoor opportunity.

I see the hours go 12/12 about October 1st. However, the 2 months before that have a ton of 100+F days. It's been my experience that pot does not do very well over 90F and under 60F. So, the veg period would be pretty darn hot. I could use shade screen to help a little or maybe there are ways I don't know about yet. But, that's not the worse part.

Even worse, during the flowering months, the temps often go down into the 40s and 50's. Again, below the optimal 60F that pot seems to like.

I have been a grower for over 50 years and it's always been my favorite hobby. It kills me to think I am done. I moved from a 4200 SF condo to a 1400 SF condo and there is not a single place where I could have 12 hours of absolute dark. Fuck, there's only 4 rooms in my whole fucking place. LOL I set up a 3x3 tent in my room but I live in this room and there's always going to be light leaks. I worry about hermies. I hate to be relegated to growing autos the rest of my life.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

PS. I fucking love the desert.

I don't know if your into african sativas but i ordered one from eastern kenya called kwale its from a region thats semi arid and recieves less rainfall and recieves high daytime temperatures and cold nights, the kwale is more coastal theres another strain im interested in from eastern kenya where it is semi desert but highlands and experiences colder nights called the kambi sativa. im interested in running these strains as a late season strain in central america because there acclimated to dry weather and are semi-autoflowering in the sense they take 4-6 weeks before flowering. they should arrive soon, ill keep you updated how it goes if your interested. there are probably some other good landraces from desert like conditions similiar to yours in asia as well.

 

[BrassNwood]

Pic is 10 days old so a bit more growth, I'm sure. Took a tray of cuttings / clones on the 1st but not seeing any roots yet. Not ideal conditions when they come road tripping with me.

 

[Janborrego]

Hey gang, I just moved to the Palm Springs area from why oh why Ohio and I would love to do an outdoor grow. Quite frankly, my new condo simply does not have a place to grow so I am hoping for an outdoor opportunity.

I see the hours go 12/12 about October 1st. However, the 2 months before that have a ton of 100+F days. It's been my experience that pot does not do very well over 90F and under 60F. So, the veg period would be pretty darn hot. I could use shade screen to help a little or maybe there are ways I don't know about yet. But, that's not the worse part.

Even worse, during the flowering months, the temps often go down into the 40s and 50's. Again, below the optimal 60F that pot seems to like.

I have been a grower for over 50 years and it's always been my favorite hobby. It kills me to think I am done. I moved from a 4200 SF condo to a 1400 SF condo and there is not a single place where I could have 12 hours of absolute dark. Fuck, there's only 4 rooms in my whole fucking place. LOL I set up a 3x3 tent in my room but I live in this room and there's always going to be light leaks. I worry about hermies. I hate to be relegated to growing autos the rest of my life.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

PS. I fucking love the desert.

Not true I live in the desert in Southern NM. We just had the hottest summers on record we had 46 consecutive 100+ then a99 and another 20 plus days. I only had one strain that did not like the 100 plus heat. The 2 plants that were Santa marta x columbian gold and santa marta x burnt sugar cookies. They were budded but couldnt stand the heat I took them down dried them puppies and turned them into edibles. The 2 immature plants made a 1/2 gallon of canna oil for edibles. I did use more plant matetial that Normal but they needed at least another 6 weeks. It was either chop and try for edibles or lose them all together.
The Sugar Haze and my Black Apple X Tangerine kush loved the heat and so did the Bad ass Bbs. I also grew some mystery seeds. Only the Santa Martas didn't like the heat everything else thrived. I do use 7-10 gallon pots so if I need to move them I can. I didn't really need to. I attached pis of the plants I grew I started with 24 my dog at 2 of them 5 or 6 were males which I culled. I did not want to ruin things for others outside. 2 pulled early and ised for efibles. The rest I am smoking and it’s fire weed too. I did have to water morning and night.

 

[BrassNwood]

Not true I live in the desert in Southern NM. We just had the hottest summers on record we had 46 consecutive 100+ then a99 and another 20 plus days. I only had one strain that did not like the 100 plus heat. The 2 plants that were Santa marta x columbian gold and santa marta x burnt sugar cookies. They were budded but couldnt stand the heat I took them down dried them puppies and turned them into edibles. The 2 immature plants made a 1/2 gallon of canna oil for edibles. I did use more plant matetial that Normal but they needed at least another 6 weeks. It was either chop and try for edibles or lose them all together.
The Sugar Haze and my Black Apple X Tangerine kush loved the heat and so did the Bad ass Bbs. I also grew some mystery seeds. Only the Santa Martas didn't like the heat everything else thrived. I do use 7-10 gallon pots so if I need to move them I can. I didn't really need to. I attached pis of the plants I grew I started with 24 my dog at 2 of them 5 or 6 were males which I culled. I did not want to ruin things for others outside. 2 pulled early and ised for efibles. The rest I am smoking and it’s fire weed too. I did have to water morning and night.

For years I grew in the San Gabrial valley in So Cal where the temps would hit 113 for 2 weeks in a row mid-summer and as long as I kept them watered, they did just fine. In-ground can usually stand higher temps. I'm down at the beach now with far more moderate temps.

 

[Ringodoggie]

I don't have anything outside right now. I am still going through the desert grow learning curve and I wasn't ready.

Meanwhile, I am getting ready for my Spring outdoor run. I have 16 nice Alien Gorilla clones in the tent getting ready. I hope to put these outside the first of March. That gives harvest around mid May. I have a handful of seeds I'll also have ready by then. I hope to have about 20 outdoor plants this year. Half will get the morning sun and half will get the afternoon sun (I can't fit them all in the morning sun).

Quick pic of the Alien Gorilla clones.