Time to plan for next season. I’m going to include Durban Poison in my mix next year. This sativa landrace is reputed to grow quite tall. I camouflage my weed plants in my vegetable garden which is visible from the street. I plant behind a row of tomato plants, which grow to 6 feet.
It occurs to me that if I start my plants later, germinate in early June, they will not grow so large before flowering starts in August. I usually grow much more than I need, so volume is not a big issue to me.
I am a 100% outdoor grower. These will be in the ground from their 3rd or 4th week. The Low Stress Training is a good idea. I have 5 seeds, so I’ll try different things. But one of them will definitely be LST. Thanks!
Topping will help keep the plant shorter. You don’t want to transplant or germinate in the June heat as heat stress can easily kill seeds and seedlings (depending on where you live that is. In norcal we’re already in the 90s/100s by then.) If it’s still cool there like mid 70s to low 80s disregard and go ahead and plant later, but I still suggest toping even with planting later so you can compensate for the smaller plant with extra colas. Happy growing.
Same here in Michigan. But everyone I know up here waits till around may/June depending on how its been that year to put their plants out, but june here we were 90-100 degrees F this year.
Some strains can handle the heat better than others. I know sativa strains and sativa dominant hybrids can handle the extra heat but I’m not familiar with the Durban poison strain. It really all boils down to its genetics in the end. I’d say research the strain some more and if you think it can handle being planted later in the season go for it. Just use your best judgment. I prefer to play it safe myself.
Here in Massachusetts, it gets hot (85+F) in July and August, but it’s the rare June day that is too hot. The garden centers tell us not to transplant our veggies until Memorial Day as we can get frost into mid-May. Durban Poison is supposedly a hardy strain. I’ve got 5 seeds, so I’ll space out the planting to see how which plants work the best for being hidden from view behind my wall of tomato plants balanced with a decent yield.
I usually start my plants from seed around the end of April. I then transplant them into my greenhouse on the summer solstice, so they dont go into flower early. If it’s a photoperiod plant then planting late is not a good idea. From what I’ve understood (and don’t quote me one this), but photoperiod plants will veg for 8 weeks before they go to flower. I tried this theory last season and planted my seeds on the summer solstice, thinking I would have smaller plants that were more manageable. Not only did my plants still grow large, they didn’t start flowering until the last week in August, nearly 4 weeks later than they usually do. I ended up not harvesting until the end of November, which was not what I wanted. LST is the easiest way to keep your plants small. Starting them earlier is also beneficial because they will develop a bigger and stronger root ball… Or just get auto flowers and not worry about it at all. Let us know what you end up doing.
I am topping / fimming her and about 3 SFVOGKush…I topped a purple haze and she is doing phenomenal in this heat…yet my Acapulco Gold (and others) is just frying
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Well, I started a couple of plants on May 21. I had the DP in a pot for the first 3-4 weeks. We had a brutal June, a stretch of 90 degree days followed by temps in the 50s them back to 90s. Many of my plants were stunted, but the Durbans did okay. I planted in the ground in late June then topped a couple of weeks later. July has been the wettest on record, rain daily, often torrential. She is healthy but small, just as I wanted. Looking for flower activity in the coming weeks as the days get shorter.
Durban poison is probably my best most reliable producer EVERY year. I call Durban old faithful. Yay Durban poison. My favorite wake and bake. One of the Best outdoor strains. It can pour rain and hold up to Seattle fall wetness with flying colors.
Glad to hear it can take the heat too. I think people forget about Durban poison because it’s not a sexy new cross. Just an “old landrace”. The THC is not as high, but something about all the terps (can I say terp monster?) gives it a special boost. It is like coffee to me 🫕
I crossed my durban to some strawberry cough last year. I am excited to see what I end up w this fall😋
@Noddykitty I love the landraces. The crossbreeding is out of control, resulting in a very confusing landscape of skunk-diesel-cotton-candy-decaf-soy-latte-with-stevia craziness. Durban Poison, Acapulco Gold, Thai, Colombian, all do the job, what more do we need? This is my first season with DP, but not my last!
One more thing I notice about Durban poison. Every time I grow Durban I worry that it is flowering too slow. It is always one of my last strains to show pistols and stack calyxes.
It just does a really slow warm up lap and then even stops to stretch really well. Then it lines up and comes in 1st or 2nd in the 100 meter dash.
It has one of the least linear flower progressions of any strains I have grown. It really fills in the last couple weeks.
My DP just popped…she is in the garden and the apical (got 4 right now) are pretty big…Hoping for a good harvest and SO tempted to either CS or GA or even STS a few buds to feminize her and grab some seeds. She looks like a winner and comparing to other DP grows, this is a special lady…So what do you guys think? Fem her? I got some A&B sts sitting by, just gotta mix. I got 10% GA too. My CS is either lost or too old…
When that happens to me I find that topping again (outdoor trick, probably doesn’t work the same indoor) seems to remind them that it is time to flower. Even if I have a 6 top bush I do all the tops. Don’t hack them, just the top node or 2. But cut the main stem, don’t FIM. This works great on stretch monsters that keep stretching and forget to do the flowering part.
I find putting my girls out around the solstice allows me to have more manageable plants in the garden. Otherwise they overgrow everything else in my garden by feet (even sunflowers) and I loose all discretion. I don’t usually have to top as much and cut as many side shoots on the lower branches.
Instead of popping the seeds around the solstice like you did, I still pop them around new year or Valentine’s Day. I just keep them bonsai style root bound in 3” starter pots and keep them HACKED at 1-2 nodes tall. Instead of raising the lights I just keep them all sawed like a hedge together. I just keep them under the starter light since you force them to stay small.
Bright lights are counter productive for this.
I just use 2-3 13watt LED sprout lights; I used to use a dual bulb T-5. They will grow incredible amounts of side shoots trying to grow around the “hack line.” Like 20-40 depending on the strain. Then I hack these so I only have 5-6 lead branches left. Then when you put them out around the solstice you have upside down umbrella (like how you form a young fruit tree) shaped plant with 5-7 solid branches. And they just take off with a growth explosion.
I do this with clones to ALL my keepers for at least the last 15 yrs. Males and females both. (Do I even have to say label them all?). And any new seeds for the pheno hunt. To this day I am always surprised how well this works for me.
This can work for you too. If I am on it, I will place outside sacrificial clones cut off of the new seeds. If you live somewhere still frozen, a south facing window will work just fine. Or a greenhouse like you have. It is a great way to sex them and make notes (grow log MUST) on how quickly they want to flower. If not on my clone game, I put the original bonsai plant out to sex. As soon as you can see balls or pistil start put them back inside under veg light (I like 20h). They revegetate easy on small plants. The further north you are, the more spring flowering effect you get, good or bad. The hrs of light are still short enough to induce flowering.
Chuck the males unless you plan to make seed (I find seed making my favorite part of growing besides consuming). Happy growing everyone.
This gives you the idea. These are just my keeper males from the last couple years. I hack them (to castrate them) from chucking pollen prematurely. It’s easier to inspect less plant for balls. They always look like they want to die after but they never do. I also slide them out of the lil starter pots and cut off half the roots with scissors at the same time. Pack fresh soil. I never put my males in bigger pots. Pure abuse. That’s why they look so sad here. I keep them near a street light so they want to flower less. I have a laurel hedge near the street I don’t manicure too cleanly (on purpose) so I can nestle them down into a laurel nest pot and all. Weed camo I guess.
My keeper ladies I take fresh lovely clones every year. I don’t treat them so roughly. Those males always look rough after I hack off the plants. If I find a new male from new seeds I just start with a fresh lovely clone. The big daddy in the garden is worthless if it is in a big pot. So my females I always take fresh clones every year from the growing plants. I don’t like to fire up my indoor lights till later in the fall. I usually clone around 1 August. The reason I do this and don’t just run mothers is because of micro climate adaptations. In tomatoes we call this heirlooming for local environment. I found the strains I keep adapt to my local micro climate. If I keep a mother indoor it is not exposed to this specific micro climate. No adaptations. For example my Jillybean and my Durban poison I have worked with (for at least a decade) have shaved weeks off their flower time. They also start flowering earlier.
These are the same original clones.
No Bx or crossing involved. The only reason I know this is impeccable note taking. Grow log is a must.
Ive been saving seeds from the veggie garden for a couple years now - sometimes on purpose (we always have to weed out a few peppers and tomatoes when we use our compost).
I really enjoy reading about your process. Right now my goal was just growing a shit ton of weed for me and my family so we don’t have to spend money at the dispensary. Once we got some jars full I could definitely see myself getting into some projects.
yall got heat & I got rain & high humidity. Let’s trade.
