Indicas no use in my zone

[leafminer]

I took clones off my Aurora mom 4 weeks ago. Four of the clones died at three weeks and I have two left; they are both pathetic tiny things, in flower. Now the last thing I need is a freaking microgrow!

I pulled the dead clones and found all four had good roots. So it is not my ineptitude at cloning that's to blame. It is the freaking daylight hours!

My problem is that even now in May we are at <13 hrs. And the absolute max is 13.5 hours.
It has become painfully obvious to me that indicas can only be grown indoors under lights in tropical or subtropical zones. I am really pissed. There isn't enough mention made of this - I can't recall seeing any specific advice in most grow guides and this is freaking fundamental to the way of it!

I hope that my backbreed experiment works out because the 70% Oaxaca sativas hopefully will work fine with these lighting hours.

I can't run the grow room xcept in winter because the daytime temps go to 46C ambient during the summer and it would be impossibly hot in the grow room. Air con is simply not an option due to cost.

I think I am going to have to accept that I will have to buy fresh seed for each winter growing season and rely on sativas the rest of the time.

 

[umbra]

When I first starting growing Williams Wonder, 20 years ago...I found the same thing. Flowering had to be induced inside first. Then I saw the same thing in the SSSC catalog. So there is some documentation around...but its pretty old. Some indicas just need 12/12 and 13/11 wont work.

 

[nycdiesel]

what about some of the auto indicas

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

What % of Indica are those Auroras by the way?

 

[leafminer]

The Aurora is 100% indica, a cross between Northern Lights and Afghan.
My problem is getting them to veg.
I think I might try putting the two clones and mom in the grow room with just the 100W of CFLs above them. Set the cycle to 16/8. Then bring them outside when I want them to flower...
What I really need is an automatic conveyor belt controlled by a photocell, so when the day starts the conveyor rolls them out into the garden, and rolls them back in when evening starts. Just dreaming ...

Actually the 50% indica-sativa hybrid is also well into flower and shows no sign of reveg. Since it is already a metre tall that is fine by me.

I've got 5 of the 70-30 backbred hybrids (sativa doms) seedlings going, I am hoping they will be OK because the dominant parent is from a place even further south that has a max day time of less than 13 hours.

 

[Mutt]

Not sure where your located but sounds equitorial. i would say OD yes Sativas would be your best route. but you can go with indicas but would do the cloning indoors. just need a CFL or tube flo to get em rooted and going...then shove outside to force flower. A lil Veg Cab is you can manage one up would be really cheap and at least let you have some degree of diversity of strains. 2'x2'x2' area all i ever need to keep a mom or 2 going and some clones
but I'm biased anyway...if i was in your enviro Sats would be ALL i would grow hell i only enjoy to grow sat doms anyway LOL

 

[BuddyLuv]

If I could I would have sent you these Mekong Haze I had. They would have been perfect for you. They take forever to flower and even when flowering at 12 inches you get a 6 foot plant covered in long foxtail buds. I still have an Aurora Mom I may throw outside, just can't decide what to do with her.

 

[leafminer]

Buddyluv: What you said explains something. I could never figure out why Hick and others are always saying, "plant doubles or triples in height, in flower" - mine certainly do not! BTW how was the Haze? Good smoke?

My Auroras usually start flower about 2 feet tall and don't get bigger than 3 feet at most, when finished. Even my 50-50's start flowering at about 3 feet and end up 4 feet tall.
But the sativas ... ah that is very different. I think Hick and the others must be referring to sativas when they make that statement..

MUTT - I really appreciated your comments and this morning I have gone down that route, I upgraded the CFL assembly to 150 watts and moved the two little flowering clones in there, along with the mom and a third clone that is still alive but very sickly. Maybe it will come through. I've set the cycle to 16/8. I really want to keep my indica line going because it is such a super smoke for the late evening. "Sleep like a baby" haha.

 

[Waspfire]

glad i stopped in to read this cause now i kinda know why my afghan kush is flowering now just checked it today and it has pistils everywhere which is a relief seeing as it went tripod on me.I thought i would get a jump and start it back in april was planning on trying to grow a big monster bush but that plan has gone now that its flowering, i was under the impression it would veg till august then flower but that isnt the case i am going ot start some power skunks and durban poison to see if the sativa's do the same thing hopefully they wont

 

[BuddyLuv]

Buddyluv: What you said explains something. I could never figure out why Hick and others are always saying, "plant doubles or triples in height, in flower" - mine certainly do not! BTW how was the Haze? Good smoke?

The smoke is good. A pound looks like 3 lbs. of Indica bud because it is so airy. Trimming was a total PITA. If you go with a pure Sativa it will stretch beyond belief. Even the Strawberry cough which is heavy on the sativa side grew 3X it's original height. The Mekong grew more like 5X it's height and that was from mature clone.

 

[leafminer]

Wow. The only time I have grown pure sativas was long long time ago in London in a greenhouse and I had no idea what I was doing - but they did get to roof height I recall.

Waspfire, yeah, you're probly a little better off than I, cos I am further south, but with what you're growing there is a pure indica, wants a 16 hour photoperiod to veg properly. I dunno, I mean this is so basic, I want to go:hitchair: