Question for tropical GH grow

[Thighland]

I'm in tropical southeast Asia where the heat and humidity are extreme. Soon I will start my grow, just waiting on seeds ordered. The strains I have are Mandala Fast N Glorious, Mandala Kalichakra and Frisian Dew. All chosen for heat tolerance and mold resistance.

My question is whether I should use supplemental lighting to control flowering. Daylight hours vary little annually here, so I'm not sure when they would flower, but if it happens in the rainy season I think I'll loose everything. Rains end late October. I was wondering if it's worthwhile using lights to bring it to 18 hrs a day and then turn them off early Oct, so flowering would begin in a couple of weeks.

Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[revegeta666]

I'm in tropical southeast Asia where the heat and humidity are extreme. Soon I will start my grow, just waiting on seeds ordered. The strains I have are Mandala Fast N Glorious, Mandala Kalichakra and Frisian Dew. All chosen for heat tolerance and mold resistance.

My question is whether I should use supplemental lighting to control flowering. Daylight hours vary little annually here, so I'm not sure when they would flower, but if it happens in the rainy season I think I'll loose everything. Rains end late October. I was wondering if it's worthwhile using lights to bring it to 18 hrs a day and then turn them off early Oct, so flowering would begin in a couple of weeks.

Any thoughts? Thanks

Yes, you can use a light to prevent your plants from flowering until the conditions are better for you. I am not super familiar with the weather in your area but if rain is a problem in the summer and you are worried it could ruin your buds, by all means do it. Having them at 18 hours of light and suddenly switch to 12h like we usually do indoors, should help them start flowering a little faster. You don't need much either, just a little lamp. I grow my clones indoors in the spring at 18h of light, and I take them outside whenever I want, just making sure I still give them 18h everyday with supplemental light. When I want them to flower I just take the lamp away.

The thing I would pay attention to, is how much do the light hours vary from october on in your area. If it's enough for the plants to "feel" like the daylight hours are increasing everyday, they might start reveging.

You don't say if you're north or south of the equator. If you are north, hours of light should be naturally decreasing in october. Even if it's not much difference, it should encourage the plants to flower.

If I were you I would check online how mcuh variation there is in exactly your area, and plan my flowering cycle avoiding periods where there's an increase in daylight hours.

 

[Thighland]

Thanks. I'm in Thailand, southeast Asia, so northern hemisphere. No real winter to speak of, rarely gets below 30c.

Day length only varies about on hour through the whole year. What do you think would happen if I didn't use lights? When would they flower?

 

[revegeta666]

Thanks. I'm in Thailand, southeast Asia, so northern hemisphere. No real winter to speak of, rarely gets below 30c.

Day length only varies about on hour through the whole year. What do you think would happen if I didn't use lights? When would they flower?

Thailand of course, I should have guessed from your nickname haha.

If they grow for the whole cycle at around 12/12 hours, commercial plants should start flowering as soon as they are mature sexually. This happens when you can see the preflowers, and when the nodes start alternating instead of growing symmetrical. For most commercial plants that should be between 4-6 weeks.

If I lived in Thailand I would try to grow the strains they have there though, tropical plants are already used to the photoperiod and usually don't care about rain or humidity. It's a no brainer in my opinion. Maybe you could grow your mandala plants like you were saying, preventing them to flower during the rainy season, and also have a few thai, colombians, jamaicans, etc. which should thrive all year long.

 

[shiva82]

run some tropical subtropical sativas as mainncrop under natural light , and the hybrids keep in extended light cycle until preflower stage and when you want to flower them, even though the light difference of an hour , maybe you should time it for when the light is decreasing , however small , just to keep plants happy and like revegeta says , to stop chance of revg.especially the sativas. thai from ace seeds looks decent and some haze hybrids would be fun , panama is great too. i think you would be able to do two sativa grows and 2 or three perpetual hybrid grows once you plot everything

 

[Thighland]

Thanks. I'm in Thailand, southeast Asia, so northern hemisphere. No real winter to speak of, rarely gets below 30c.

Day length only varies about on hour through the whole year. What do you think would happen if I didn't use lights? When would they flower?

Dy0u878888889889⁸988809i0988880087980i0989989888998088i898889889808888989⁸888⁸

 

[Thighland]

I've tried local strains from weed I bought and alll were male or hermie. Others have similar stories. The government claim they have Thai Stick and Squirrel Tale varieties, but there's also ppl claiming plants with 60% THC. So I won't rush to plant local strain.

The Kalichakra strain is out of stock, I need to pick another. Can anyone recommend something that copes with heat and have good mould resistance?

 

[revegeta666]

I've tried local strains from weed I bought and alll were male or hermie. Others have similar stories. The government claim they have Thai Stick and Squirrel Tale varieties, but there's also ppl claiming plants with 60% THC. So I won't rush to plant local strain.

The Kalichakra strain is out of stock, I need to pick another. Can anyone recommend something that copes with heat and have good mould resistance?

I have never seen anyone mentioning a 60% THC plant. By the way, all the weed you bought was male? Pressing X to doubt here.

As I said before, any plant that is grown in a tropical climate will thrive where you live. Colombian, Guatemala, congolese, Malawi, Ethiopian, jamaican, Laos, indian, vietnamese, pure haze hybrids...

All the long flowering, pure sativas most of us woul kill to be able to grow where we live, but can't because of the weather being forced to grow hybrids instead. You actually have the chance to successfully grow them. I think that's a priceless opportunity. I personally would never look back to the commercial scene if I lived in Thailand, much less to grow western hybrids that try poorly to recreate the real thing compromising quality of smoke for adaptability to the places they're not supposed to be grown in.

If I moved to a different country, I would eat their food, learn their language and grow their weed. Especially if the weed is some of the most legendary sativas in the world.

By the way Mandala's shop is closed until October.

 

[Donald Mallard]

even without lighting ,
if grown well, hybrids can do ok where you are ,
especially in a green house ,
the normal turnaround would be 12 to 16 weeks for most hybrids ,
some sativa dominant ones might go a bit longer ,

you could veg them in a tent or somewhere for a while before allowing them to flower ,
they will get a shock and flower fast once the days are shortened ,

im also in the tropics and found vegging cuttings in a tent until they were half a metre or so ,
then planting them into beds outdoor , did quite well ,, 6 ounces , 8 and sometimes even 10 per plant depending on the variety,
and they were done in 8 to 10 weeks max ...

 

[Thighland]

Revege, yes all seeds I've planted were mostly herm, with some male. Professional growers I know have reported the same thing, they would love a Thai sativa but haven't been able to find anything suitable like the old days. There are ppl saying similar things on this forum. The 60% is a silly claim, I was using it as an example of why I'm wary of what's claimed by some in Thailand.

I speak the language, often eat the food, but it's not so healthy so I also eat hybrid food. It's similar with weed, some hybrids are especially good for sleep or nerve pain. I am not convinced the legendary sativas are easy to come by, but will try a couple. Other seed banks sell Mandala.

Don, can you recommend a strain that does well in heat and is mold resistant?

 

[revegeta666]

Also I forgot to mention, take a look at ace seeds website, in the strain descriptions they mention if the strain is resistant to mold, heat, etc. Even if you don't buy from them you can get an idea of which genetics will be more resistant so this can help you with your research.

 

[revegeta666]

An example from this seedbank just because I grew many of their strains and I know it pretty well. They have this Pakistani indica, the pck:

Pakistan Chitral Kush regular seeds. PCK purple indica. Ace Seeds

Pakistan Chitral Kush regular. Pakistan Chitral Kush regular seeds. PCK seeds. cannabis Pakistan seeds. Chitral seeds.variedad pura. Landrace seeds. landrace strain. Landrace Pakistan cannabis seeds. Regular seeds. ACE Seeds

www.aceseeds.org

As you can see in the description it's highly resistant to funghi caused by high humidity.

This indica has been used a lot by this seedbank and others, to bring down flowering times and add moisture resistance to its crosses. Ace themselves have used it in many hybrids, my favorite if them might be Congo. It's a cross between another one of Cannabiogen strains, and the pck. Very resistant to mold at least in my Mediterranean coastal climate. Other seedbanks have used the pck for many crosses even if they don't give credit to cannabiogen.

The main thing that makes some hybrids prone to mold is because most of them are made with afghan indicas, for production, taste and fast flowering. Afghans don't like moisture though.

There are some breeders like ace and mandala who don't use many afghans in their crosses, so I would keep looking at breeders like this for mold resistant hybrids.

 

[Thighland]

Reveg, many thanks, that's very helpful info. Where I am is so humid at time that rolling papers become glued together in the pick. This is the monsoon season. Once it's over humidity isn't too bad, but there's a chance of one or two heavy rains during the dry season, so faster flowering varieties will help avoid this.

The PCK looks great, I have credit with Attitude and unfortunetatly it's out of stock, but I will keep it in mind for the future.

 

[revegeta666]

Reveg, many thanks, that's very helpful info. Where I am is so humid at time that rolling papers become glued together in the pick. This is the monsoon season. Once it's over humidity isn't too bad, but there's a chance of one or two heavy rains during the dry season, so faster flowering varieties will help avoid this.

The PCK looks great, I have credit with Attitude and unfortunetatly it's out of stock, but I will keep it in mind for the future.

Keep in mind the pck is highly inbred so it may not be the most vigorous plant. Outcrossed with other strains is where the hybrid vigor should come back.

 

[shiva82]

maybe try thai , from ace seeds, near zero hermies and is thai.pck is an afghan indica.

 

[revegeta666]

Not Afghan but Pakistani.

 

[shiva82]

pakistan is only 70 years old, but yeah man. forgive me . a kush region indica. a mold resistant starin hermie free , for thailand. my suggestion would be thai from ace.

 

[revegeta666]

pakistan is only 70 years old, but yeah man. forgive me . a kush region indica. a mold resistant starin hermie free , for thailand. my suggestion would be thai from ace.

No need to ask for forgiveness. I just think the distinction is fair and worth making. Chitral is so far from Mazar i Shariff and other afghan cannabis producing regions that the climate becomes an important factor. There's a reason you don't see afghan and mold resistant in the same sentence often if ever. And that's without taking into account that the PCK has pakistani genetics but was bred and worked in northern Spain. Rainy atlantic climate, closer to that of the UK than Afghanistan.

Edit - I'm not trying to be an asshole by the way , my intention is to steer @Thighland away from afghani hybrids because they are so prevalent, maybe 90% of the commercial market, and most of them are not a good idea if mold is an issue in my opinion.

 

[shiva82]

i never realised cbg was in northern spain , and yeah i agree. the afghan was a slip of the tongue . my point was identical to yours, and ibl kush region indica isnt ideal for humid thailand regardless of distance to the u.k. lol. peace

 

[revegeta666]

i never realised cbg was in northern spain , and yeah i agree. the afghan was a slip of the tongue . my point was identical to yours, and ibl kush region indica isnt ideal for humid thailand regardless of distance to the u.k. lol. peace

There was more than one breeder in CBG at least at some point. You made me doubt though and after checking I have to correct myself, it was the Bangi Haze among others that were bred in Galicia (north Spain), according to Mustafunk. The PCK was I guess bred somewhere else in Spain but it is still well known for being one of the few pure indicas able to finish in this northern rainy climate.

About the Bangi Haze (also a good option for a hybrid @Thighland, the indica in this one is Nepali, which also seems to be less prone to mold than afghans).

This line is an original hybrid from CBG, it was bred by Estai many years ago in northwest Spain, a former member of the seedbank. He made a big batch of 3000 seeds to be sold at ACE years ago. It's his favourite strain, he still grows it every season! Charlie was the founder of ACE too so obvioulsy many of his works were offered through the collective as well.

I guess if CBG eventually decided to get his strains back to their catalogue it's because they are the original creators. CBG stopped breeding but others have used in the past and will keep using their strains. Last ones joining the bandwagon were Dutch Passion, offering S1s from a famous cut of Destroyer.

It's the same story, few people work hard, take the risks and have the passion for the plant while a big bunch are leeching. But hey, it's cannabussiness...

A little snarky lol but always informative.