I realize it's barely January, and winter should be far from over, but I've got a strange feeling that it's going to be warm and I could start my plants now and get away with it. I live in coastal Virginia. I could bring the plants inside on nights that would be too cold. How cold can marijuana survive? I know different strains and all, but a general range? I've found that growing other plants (veggies and stuff) they always tolerate way higher and way lower temps than they are supposed to. Would it be a fools errand to start plants now?
i tried it myself last year , or year before hahah planted a seed in my raised bed, the plant did very well and i only had to cover it twice if i remember right, have pictures around here somewere , but right about the time the soil got heated up , the thing flowered , then it took about 6 weeks for it to reveg, made the ugliest plant ive ever grown , by first of april i pulled it , because of unwanted air traffic in my area. so give it a try and see the outcome , i doubt it will do much good but hey might just be your weather will corporate with you. i planted mine christmas of 2021 , i think that pic is in the orgainc section mosenumb was the thread starter if that help, good luck finding it that thread is pages and pages long hahah
when growing plants in shit weather the deal really is the root temps anything below 18c/ 72? at the root, is slow intolerable growth, it can be done simply by doing as much as you can before dropping them outdoors, like transplanting a 12 inch plant versus a 4 inch plant. the biggest danger is the 5 mins morning frost, that has a tendency to kill quicker than any bullet. you may have that strange feeling but better to haver a plan to back it up I've grown in late winter snows and have used a fish tank heater with great effect good luck
I like the idea. You could have quite the monster on your hands if you start it now. It would be more of a tree than a plant. You'd have to do the gas-lantern technique to keep it from flowering early like @old shol4evr said and watch out for any frosts.
I wasn't even thinking about it going into flower immediately. Yeah, even if it would be possible, I should probably wait. I've got plenty of bud anyways. Thanks for the feedback.
In actual practice only June and July have long enough daylight hours to hold cannabis in veg state. Everything else is Flower lighting. Here is my current outdoor set. I'll kill the lights this week and let them flower. Harvest will be March 15th 10 weeks from now. As long as you keep the lights on at 15 or higher they will stay in veg. I just run 24-0 and don't have to mess with timers. Cannabis can take down to the mid 30s F. They will slow way down but keep on trucking. I'm in coastal southern California so even a frosty roof is a very rare sight. BNW
My area is private enough, but I don't want to literally put a spot light on it. Plus I'm lazy and don't want to have to buy and rig lights. I got excited about some warm weather, but I don't mind waiting.
Look up gas-lantern technique like DaPhats recommended. I run two 15 watt LEDs for 1 hour in the middle of the night and grow year round. Stupid simple to do. When you want to induce flowering, just turn off the LEDs. I do live in So-Cal near the beach so the weather rarely dips into the 40's.
I kill vegetables every year because of starting early. I just get the itch and can't help myself. LOL. I guess you can say I use those veggies as a test for my bud seeds. Doesn't hurt me to kill a tomato plant or 2, but no way am I chancing killing bud seeds. That is one way of looking at it...... The other way?? If you've got enough seeds and don't care, fuck it. Give it a go!
I have some seeds from some autos that didn't do that well last season. Idk if these seeds will be any good. So I put 4 of those in little starter pots a few days ago. I'll put them outside whenever they fill those containers. If they don't perform, or even if they die I won't have lost anything. So it will be a good test to see how well starting this early goes.
If I was completely faithful to the plan I would have put them outside about a week ago, but it was definitely too cold. I was going to put them out today because the air temp was finally warm enough to survive, but all the dirt in my pots was frozen So hopefully they can be transplanted tomorrow. Then I'll see how they do. Only 3 sprouted
Southern California never freezes so I never stop growing outside. 4 Harvests per year. Aug 1st = Take clones Oct 15th = Harvest. Set out veg plants, Take clones Jan 1st = Same March 15th = Same June 1st = Harvest, Set out veg plants.
You could grow them outdoors with a raised bed & straw, a dome or some other method, but if they are photo plants they will go into flower cuz of the short days. check for the photo periods for your area, probly around march?
I goofed. I checked the weather at 11 and it was only supposed to get to 37 so I was lazy and left my seedlings outside thinking they would survive. It got down to 30 and they are all dead. The three pot plants are fine, but time to start over 15 pepper plants
So far so good, mostly. Plants have not grown too much. The one plant was already pretty badly root bound, and the other two were somewhat bound up. I tried and mostly failed at breaking up the root balls. So idk how much of the slowed growth is from weather and how much from the transplant. They look fairly healthy though. All three plants have pointed their leaves downwards since being put outside full time. The leaves are firm, not wilted, but they are all bent down. I'm guessing this is a response to it being cold. The plant trying to hold its own warmth closer, but idk
if you had a way to circle the plant with some pex and dig into the soil a bit , you could heat the ground a bit then supplement lighting to have at least 18 a day