Outdoor Jamaican in the UK?

[Ingwey Gooblebogger]

You'll be pushing it time wise to get them to bud to full maturity, I reckon you'll need 16 weeks to flower them.

True, however, if you can fully cover them (so they have complete darkness), for flowering purposes, then the answer is YES you can get some good smoke. However, this usually requires a fairly elaborate setup.

If you are "gueriila" growing (i.e. simply growing outdoors, in the woods, without any type of artificial darkness), then I would bet that they won't mature in time.

I'd say 16 weeks is on the far end of the flowering time estimate. I would expect about 11-14 weeks flowering time, from my experience growing Jamaican weed and other pure-ish sativas.

When does the first frost typically hit your area? When does the daytime sunshine go to 12 hours or less? These two things can help you to determine if or when you would be able to get them to maturity. If your autumns are fairly dry, then that will also help. On the other hand, if your autumns are fairly wet then, even an airy sativa could be subject to severe bud rot.

Also, as has been mentioned, if they are Jamaican plants, then they will stretch to a large height, so you may want to pinch then or FIM them to keep the size down and/or have more bud sights.

[sh@dy]

got some seeds from jamaica as well, found them in some buds of Jamaica weed. I think 1-2 have spread their wings into the light
will post some pics later...

[Oxcasual]

Good thread & some good advice.

I have never grown before, but its something I've wanted/need to get in to.

I'm in a similar situation as Ash, but I have Thai plants. I currently have 12 plants from seeds I had from some Thai stick last summer. My plants have been growing for 5/6 weeks & currently between 12 & 18 inches tall & look healthy enough. I have them outdoors apart from putting them in a green house when heavy rain is forcast.

I'm after similar advice, whats the likely hood of them matureing & getting a good smoke? Timescale etc? And most importantly, whats the best way of sexing them?
I'm aware that Thai strains are known for being unreliable in sexual consistency & can turn hermaphrodite. I know that they will grow tall.

So any advice you can give me boys & girls will be much apphrecaited.

Next step lights & different strains I think


This pic was taken about 2 weeks ago, they have moved on a fair bit since, I'll get an up to date pic up soon (the small one on the left is northern lights)

[dogstar]

And most importantly, whats the best way of sexing them?

You can sex them when they start to flower - only thing is, I've never grown pure sativa so I have no clear idea of when that is.

My big book of cannabis growing tells me that indica is a N/S hemisphere plant, which ripens depending on the number of hours of sunlight. So when the days get shorter, the light gets less and it's the reduction in light that starts the flowering cycle. Usually flowering starts at about 14/15 hours of light, and takes 8/9 weeks to complete - at least this is my experience. I plant in early March in pots, go outside start of June, flowering starts mid-Aug, finished by mid-Oct.

The same big book of cannabis tells me that pure sativa is an equatorial plant, and grows in areas where the light cycle varies from 11/13 to 13/11 - i.e. there's not enough variation in light to trigger flowering. Typically sativa will grow for 9 months, at which point its plant clock kicks in and flowering begins. The problem with growing in the UK is frost - in that the plant will be flowering at about the same time that everything else is dying for the winter.

The reason that all the hybrids we see today were initially created was so that a plant could be bred that gives a sativa high, but with an indica flowering period.

Having never grown pure sativa, I'd really like to know if the above is true from someone that has.

[dogstar]

BTW - I bought some Durban Poison X sativa and Colombian Gold X indica for outdoor growing this year. The DP is definitely indica, big fat leaves - the CG definitely sativa, long thin leaves. DP is supposed to be over and done by mid Sept, the CG by mid Nov, so we'll see how things pan out. Deffo looking forward to trying the CG

[Oxcasual]

Thanks for the replys Dogstar. Some good info. They are coming along nicely, repotted at the weekend & new leaves appearing daily. Roll on October