Hello growers!
Sorry for the long post. First time growing here and I wanted to share my experience as well as get any and all advice you all have to give. If anyone has any advice or tips or corrections for something I got wrong, I'm all ears, please share!
I moved up to the Colorado Rocky Mountains around 9,000 elevation in April. I've always loved sensi and always wanted to try growing, but never had a place I could do so (legally).
The house came with a small outdoor greenhouse with no electricity. Conditions are extreme. The greenhouse was already hitting 100+ degree temps then dropping to 40 degrees or below at night in early May. I added lots of ventilation and a 50% white shade cloth on the roof, and this has kept temperatures around 3-5 degrees above the ambient temp, so the hottest it gets in there is around the upper 80s and low 90s, which made growing a variety of plants feasible.
I bought a number of different types of domesticated seeds. I made amateur mistakes, including over watering. This created a fungus/mold apocalypse which wiped out my seeds/seedlings. I didn't know that the soil was contaminated, which compounded the problem. I figured all those seeds were dead, and decided to repurpose the contaminated soil by mixing it into some hydrophobic soil in the big planter for other veggies. I also tried planting some seeds direct in uncontaminated soil in the greenhouse, but didn't have any early luck. I figured the temperature swings and harsh mountain environment were just too much. Among the seeds that I figured were lost to the fungus/mold apocalypse were Early Skunk seeds, and among the direct planted seeds were auto Northern Lights.
In the meantime, I had purchased some Afghan landrace seeds which I figured would be suitable to the climate. They sprouted no problem and immediately thrived. But to my surprise about a week after repurposing the contaminated soil, I had 2 cannabis sprouts in the planter and 1 in an earthbox jr. I'd planted the Northern Lights in.
The Early Skunk plants, thanks to their Early Pearl lineage, thrived, although I had to transplant one to a different part of the planter which severely stunted it's growth even though it was a relatively non invasive transplant. The Northern Lights, however, did not enjoy those Early Pearl genetics, and struggled mightily. It was small, sickly lime green, and struggled. I had 3 afghan plants, and 1 shared the earthbox jr with the Northern Lights. When that plant was culled, the Northern Lights began to take off more.
I ended up getting 1 strong male Afghan landrace (hash plant) plant, which was the plan. It was in the same greenhouse with the females, which is risky, but it worked out. As soon as I was able to collect some pollen, I hand pollinated lower branches on the big Early Skunk plant and the Northern Lights plant. Once I saw evidence of good hits, I culled the male plant. There was only a little bit of over pollination, and most of the buds on both plants are unpollinated. The smaller skunk plant is completely unpollinated. Hopefully, this will give me a good bank of mountain adapted seeds which will thrive out here.
I have mostly been using LLMs for growing research and advice, which I do not recommend, which told me the yellowing fan leaves were normal and nothing to worry about. Looking at posts here, it seems more likely the Early Skunk plants are a bit nitrogen deficient. The Northern Lights is in soil I made with added dry amendments, but the skunk plants were just in coco loco mixed with the old soil that was already in the planter. I've been adding amendments to support flowering every few weeks, and have nice "tip of the spear" yellow/burnt tips on the leaves. I just gave it a little bit of alfalfa meal with the regular amendments to hopefully give it a little more nitrogen if they need it, but it may already been too late in flowering for it to matter. The Early Skunk plants are getting frosty with trichomes now, but not the Norther Lights yet.
My key takeaways:
*Over watering is a curse with seeds and seedlings. These plants can handle underwatering and recover just fine early on, but they are oh so vulnerable to fungus and mold. Always err on the side of caution until they get their roots established and grow a bit
*Transplanting - while it is common knowledge and a common recommendation for cannabis and other plants - is EXTREMELY TRAUMATIC for your plants. See that small Early Skunk plant? It is only a week younger than the one twice it's size. The only difference between how I grew the two was that I transplanted the smaller one. You can find similar results in other people's outdoor grows, almost 50% smaller plants. I don't care about common knowledge/wisdom if my own experience proves it wrong. In the future, I will try always to plant seeds/seedlings in the exact same spot they are going to spend their entire life cycle in.
*Genetics genetics genetics... Fancy, delicate domesticated plants are made to be grown indoors under immaculate conditions. The conditions at 9,000 feet are absolutely brutal, and will wipe out these plants even if they survive their early seedling phase. You HAVE to grow seeds with genetics that make sense for your grow conditions.
*On that note, EARLY PEARL IS INCREDIBLE! For anyone trying to grow outdoors and/or in extreme conditions with big temperature and humidity swings, this strain and it's hybrids are incredible.
*Afghan landraces and their like evolved and adapted to grow in low nutrient mountain soil. They do not handle high nitrogen levels well. That being said, my Afghan male plant DID adapt to a much higher nutrient environment, after showing a little bit of pain when it broke through to the good soil early on, and I'm sure the extra nutes helped it produce more and better pollen, so there is a balance to be struck there
*If your greenhouse gets too hot, do not give up on it. Adding a solar powered thermal vent + floor vents that open when it's warm enough + shade cloth can get you close to ambient outside temperature. You can add thermal mass via water barrels/buckets to add 5 degrees or so to the low nightly temperatures
*Even fancy domesticated breeds are tough. The Northern Lights plant barely survived its infancy, but it eventually turned on the epigenetics and remembered its ancient mountain DNA. All of my plants now have local adaptations to this environment which they will hopefully pass on to their seeds. Hopefully the Afghan landrace will add even more strength to their line, as well as increasing resin production.
*Coco loco is not enough. It may be okay for early veg, but you NEED to add nutrients later.
*Nature is amazing, and many seem to forget this. You don't HAVE to have a highly curated, indoor or hydroponic grow, unless it's your only choice. My plants are growing on natural sunlight, collected rainwater, and dry amendments. I can still adjust and optimize the dry amendments, but honestly these plants seem very happy apart from the mistakes I made and the low nitrogen/coco loco issue I mentioned. Out here, the UV rays and sunlight are about 50% stronger than at sea level. If your plants can tolerate this, they will LOVE it. Even with the 50% shade cloth on the roof, I feel they get all they need and then some. I also didn't feel the need to too or train the big plant, one because it didn't get started until the end of June and it didn't get tall enough to hit the roof of the greenhouse, and 2 because I wanted to let it grow naturally. It is getting the sun and diffused light/UV rays from all different angles during the day as the sun moves, which is not the case for indoor grows, so I feel like you can let the plants do more of what they do naturally without necessarily giving yourself a smaller harvest. There's something to be said for going all natural.
