Germinating Autos in a Hot Mediterranean Climate

[elunex]

With growing now decriminalized here in South Africa, I want to start some outdoor grows too, however I have no experience in outdoor growing (first hand at least).

I live in Cape Town where temperatures are currently in the mid-20s to low 30s (celcius). The African sun is quite harsh and I am worried about when to move my seedlings out. I don't want them to suffer from shock cause of the sudden harsh light.

With photoperiods, I found the easier thing to do was to grow them in a window for a few weeks. But with autos, I naturally don't want to waste any potential growth time.

I will be planting outdoor in a pot and not in the ground directly, so I do have the option to move it to slightly less sunny places if need be.

When do you guys usually get the seedling outdoors in natural light? My plant has just started poking out of the peat, and while a part of me wants to immediately put her out in the light to get the most she can, another part of me is worried about whether or not it will handle the heat.

The strain is Frisian Dew, from Dutch Passion which is supposed to be a hardy outdoor plant...

Any advice on when I should move it outside would be appreciated. I don't have any T5s to put them under, so they usually go by a window.

 

[the green bandit]

With growing now decriminalized here in South Africa, I want to start some outdoor grows too, however I have no experience in outdoor growing (first hand at least).

I live in Cape Town where temperatures are currently in the mid-20s to low 30s (celcius). The African sun is quite harsh and I am worried about when to move my seedlings out. I don't want them to suffer from shock cause of the sudden harsh light.

With photoperiods, I found the easier thing to do was to grow them in a window for a few weeks. But with autos, I naturally don't want to waste any potential growth time.

I will be planting outdoor in a pot and not in the ground directly, so I do have the option to move it to slightly less sunny places if need be.

When do you guys usually get the seedling outdoors in natural light? My plant has just started poking out of the peat, and while a part of me wants to immediately put her out in the light to get the most she can, another part of me is worried about whether or not it will handle the heat.

The strain is Frisian Dew, from Dutch Passion which is supposed to be a hardy outdoor plant...

Any advice on when I should move it outside would be appreciated. I don't have any T5s to put them under, so they usually go by a window.

Hey man, I'm in Queensland Australia it gets quite warm here also. I have just started a few seedlings myself for this springs grow. I start putting mine out in early morning sun for a couple of hours at a time right after they stand up, I put in dappled sunlight for the heat of the day and then put them in the sun again late afternoon. Just keep a good eye on them for the first few days, if they start showing signs of stress put them in the shade for a while. After a couple of days of morning and evening sun they are usually pretty good to spend the full day in the sun. These girls are all spending the full day in the sun and loving it, yesterday was 36c here and they showed no sign of heat stress. @912GreenSkell has written several articles on growing autos outdoor see if you can find them and give them a good read. I would post a link but I'm on my phone and don't know how. Good luck with your grow!

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[Damien2003gt]

Why not grow a strain native to the climate.... Durban Poison auto?

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[elunex]

Why not grow a strain native to the climate.... Durban Poison auto?

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Unfortunately the Durban Poison genetics being sold these days are so far from the original genetics that it now caters more to northern hemisphere growers than to the original climate. The original DP landrace is for all intensive purposes, extinct.

There is a bit of anger actually down this side, because of the way foreign breeders came, took thousands of DP seeds and then bred out everything that made it DP, so they could market it to other climates.

With that said, I've found that germinating the first 2 to 3 weeks indoors and then moving them outside has given the best results.

Temperatures hitting 38'C here this past week, destroyed a lot of people's outdoor seedlings. Ironically the one of mine that got destroyed by it was a DP auto cross haha

 

[Kinezokyprios]

I live in Greece. Summer here is very hot and very dry, no rainfall basically from April till mid-September. Heat is a major problem since not only it can kill your plants, but also the smoke is affected since over 35 Celsius no THC is produced. Autos are not a wise choice for growing that season. They enjoy the heat and grow huge if you can water them but potency is questionable. You need to start in March when it is still snowing (so usually after the 25th) and finish in early June. then start in mid-August when it rarely goes 40 Celsius and finishes sometime in October when it gets really cold. Of course, your winter is the opposite season, but you get my point.

Photoperiods are a safer choice for such a season since you can plant end of March and it starts flowering around the end of July until sometime in October Something similar in terms of climate and temperatures but at different months applies to your place I guess. It is better to try an African Sativa landrace, like Malawi or Swazi, which better fits in your environment. You need something that can withstand a minimal daytime humidity environment, so avoid indicas and sativas from Latin America and South East Asia, they need a lot of humidity in the air although they have no problem with the heat and the sun in general if you water them regularly. Do not fear the sun as long as you water regularly. All cannabis species love it!

Autos in our climates can do well if you avoid the hottest summer period (over 35 degrees Celsius) during flowering, culminating to the harvest. Your productive time slots are a) end of winter/early spring to early summer and b) late summer to early winter. You can also try in winter if it is a mild one in your place. Autos are made for Northern Europe outdoors. Summer over there is short but it is quite cold in comparison to us, it is a very humid area and at summer daytime is between 20 and 24 hours per day, most of the time sunny. They can withstand cold so they best fit this kind of places or indoor growing.

Since Greece has a very cold winter with lots of rain and snow, I take advantage of this trait that autos have, to start outdoors very early, sometimes end of January. I do have a stress to have enough weed for the Easter vacations in spring, every year, so apart from indoors, I grow some extra plants outdoors. I have found a remote area by the sea, where there is no frost and at the seaside temperatures are higher than inland and I plant my first autos of the season. Autos are short so they better-fit guerilla grows, plus the police is not aware of their existence or they cannot believe you can have a harvest before the end of autumn.If your winter is mild you can try and perhaps you can add a third slot to your productive periods.