Experiment growing in the winter

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BigMike415

Member
Hey folks, thanks for reading. I need your thoughts on this. I decided to experiment with growing some autos in the winter. Fast buds, autoflower gorilla cookies, 3 gallon pots. I planted them late October. The big one is the only one that actually took off with some nice growth. Unfortunately it hasn't flowered. It looks like it wants to, the tops of all the stems are showing signs like it really wants to, but I'm almost 100% sure it's because of the cold weather here in San Francisco as of the last 4 months being the reason why it's not doing anything. As I mentioned it's just an experiment. My question is, if I don't chop it down and just keep watering it regularly, when the weather gets warmer and sunnier will it eventually start to flower? Or has it just ran its cycle without flowering and will eventually die? Photo attached20230119_085102.jpg
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
Cold weather will slow growth, but somethings weird, if they're truly autos, they should of flowered by now (day length and temp don't really effect flowering in autos, though it will affect size), and if they're photo's they should of flowered by now, because we're only getting about 10-11 hours of sun a day in the SF area. It should start growing better when the day length increases and the weather warms. Hard to say what it will do in the future, but it's definitely worth continuing your feeding/watering and see what happens.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Phytoplankton said:
Cold weather will slow growth, but somethings weird, if they're truly autos, they should of flowered by now (day length and temp don't really effect flowering in autos, though it will affect size), and if they're photo's they should of flowered by now, because we're only getting about 10-11 hours of sun a day in the SF area. It should start growing better when the day length increases and the weather warms. Hard to say what it will do in the future, but it's definitely worth continuing your feeding/watering and see what happens.
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Thanks for your feedback. You are correct when it comes to autos, but I think you're incorrect about the temperature thing. It's my understanding through reading various other online forums and whatnot that extreme cold for prolonged lengths of time, even for autoflowers will cause them to be stunted. It's my understanding that it's time to doesn't necessarily have to do with growth in height but can also happen with a maturity cycle with flowering. Most of the articles I've read mention that extreme cold can also do this to auto flowers. There is a period of about 3 weeks where a week and a half of that three it was in the '30s range temperature wise, and then afterwards was sort of in the '40s. The autos that I grew prior to these during the summer came out beautiful and produced quite a bit. So I definitely think it has to be the cold. Hopefully when it gets warmer they'll do something. .... But yeah, thanks again for your input. Much appreciated. I just think in extreme cold autos don't do much
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
BigMike415 said:
Thanks for your feedback. You are correct when it comes to autos, but I think you're incorrect about the temperature thing. It's my understanding through reading various other online forums and whatnot that extreme cold for prolonged lengths of time, even for autoflowers will cause them to be stunted. It's my understanding that it's time to doesn't necessarily have to do with growth in height but can also happen with a maturity cycle with flowering. Most of the articles I've read mention that extreme cold can also do this to auto flowers. There is a period of about 3 weeks where a week and a half of that three it was in the '30s range temperature wise, and then afterwards was sort of in the '40s. The autos that I grew prior to these during the summer came out beautiful and produced quite a bit. So I definitely think it has to be the cold. Hopefully when it gets warmer they'll do something. .... But yeah, thanks again for your input. Much appreciated. I just think in extreme cold autos don't do much
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Everything I've read says temps make no difference as far as when autos flower. it's age based. The SF area could hardly be considered very cold, even in winter, I live near Napa, and we've only had frost a hand full of times this winter, daytime temps are mostly in the 50s to low 60's during the day, night time, low 30's to 40's.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Phytoplankton said:
Everything I've read says temps make no difference as far as when autos flower. it's age based. The SF area could hardly be considered very cold, even in winter, I live near Napa, and we've only had frost a hand full of times this winter, daytime temps are mostly in the 50s to low 60's during the day, night time, low 30's to 40's.
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I live on top of a mountain here in SF, twin peaks, one time it dipped below freezing, and for about a week and a half it was and the '30s. I don't know what I could have done wrong. The two previous plants using the same type of soil following the same type of watering routine that I normally did and they turned out fine. Maybe it's just one of those things
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
BigMike415 said:
I live on top of a mountain here in SF, twin peaks, one time it dipped below freezing, and for about a week and a half it was and the '30s. I don't know what I could have done wrong. The two previous plants using the same type of soil following the same type of watering routine that I normally did and they turned out fine. Maybe it's just one of those things
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Strange stuff happens, but I think in your case, it's GOOD strange stuff. The plant looks very good for an outdoor in the winter. I'll be really interested to see how it turns out, keep us updated.
 
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Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
BigMike415 said:
Hey folks, thanks for reading. I need your thoughts on this. I decided to experiment with growing some autos in the winter. Fast buds, autoflower gorilla cookies, 3 gallon pots. I planted them late October. The big one is the only one that actually took off with some nice growth. Unfortunately it hasn't flowered. It looks like it wants to, the tops of all the stems are showing signs like it really wants to, but I'm almost 100% sure it's because of the cold weather here in San Francisco as of the last 4 months being the reason why it's not doing anything. As I mentioned it's just an experiment. My question is, if I don't chop it down and just keep watering it regularly, when the weather gets warmer and sunnier will it eventually start to flower? Or has it just ran its cycle without flowering and will eventually die? Photo attachedView attachment 5251383
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Did you ejaculate on them or something?
 
Southernontariogrower

Southernontariogrower

Well-Known Member
Looks good if they make it to summer going to be huge, best of luck. My auto mixed strain comes up in late March early april. And it's still very cold up here. With rhuderallis all bets are off, never know what they can do.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Phytoplankton said:
Strange stuff happens, but I think in your case, it's GOOD strange stuff. The plant looks very good for an outdoor in the winter. I'll be really interested to see how it turns out, keep us updated.
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Thanks. Yeah I've done a little further research on the whole cold thing. Yeah, autos definitely far out a lot better in the cold than photos. But there's a few pages I came across where they were mentioning prolonged cold at around freezing temperatures can definitely screw things up. I actually have another plant and it's pretty similar to the one I showed in the picture. The leaves ended up clawing all curled down and nasty, but the funny thing is they're not discovered or anything It's like they've become this way but stayed healthy at the same time. I know for a fact that I'm not using too much nutes and I'm not overwatering as well. The only possible answer has to be the cold. I just don't see what else it could be. In part the reason why I say this is because there's an area of my backyard where there's somewhat of a 2-in puddle that's about 3 ft long and 2 ft wide. I'm quite a few occasions for almost two weeks I would check on them and find that puddle frozen which means they were obviously subject to the same temperature. So it has to be the cold. But yeah, I'll definitely keep you updated
 
Wizzlebiz

Wizzlebiz

Well-Known Member
Southernontariogrower said:
Looks good if they make it to summer going to be huge, best of luck. My auto mixed strain comes up in late March early april. And it's still very cold up here. With rhuderallis all bets are off, never know what they can do.
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Nah something wrong here. I don't see summer mattering.

Even if they aren't auto flowers they would have flipped due to lack of daylight. We are getting about 10 hours a day atm in the bay area.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Wizzlebiz said:
Nah something wrong here. I don't see summer mattering.

Even if they aren't auto flowers they would have flipped due to lack of daylight. We are getting about 10 hours a day atm in the bay area.
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I don't understand what you mean about summer not mattering. When I grew during the summer time they grew great. Nice and healthy, good buds. Late October and early November is when I started my new crops. They grew about 10 in and then I got super cold, for about 2 weeks it was in the '30s and a few days it was actually freezing. I know this because a couple of little pools of water had frozen up. I haven't been using the nutrients too strong. I haven't been overwatering. Essentially I didn't change anything from summertime to winter when it comes to how I grow or water. Also my seeds came from fast buds so you know they're legit. .... I understand that autos can withstand cold temps, but I really think it was that 2 weeks where it froze a couple times and then sort of lingered in the '30s that sort of damaged them. That has to be it because literally nothing has changed from how I grew them in the summer. Even in the picture shown you can tell that the plant is healthy. I just think internally the freezing weather damaged it. Keep in mind the plant is obviously filled with water so that would have freezing with the freezing water outside as well. The cold has to be the best answer I can come up with so far, but thank you for your input
 
Wizzlebiz

Wizzlebiz

Well-Known Member
BigMike415 said:
I don't understand what you mean about summer not mattering. When I grew during the summer time they grew great. Nice and healthy, good buds. Late October and early November is when I started my new crops. They grew about 10 in and then I got super cold, for about 2 weeks it was in the '30s and a few days it was actually freezing. I know this because a couple of little pools of water had frozen up. I haven't been using the nutrients too strong. I haven't been overwatering. Essentially I didn't change anything from summertime to winter when it comes to how I grow or water. Also my seeds came from fast buds so you know they're legit. .... I understand that autos can withstand cold temps, but I really think it was that 2 weeks where it froze a couple times and then sort of lingered in the '30s that sort of damaged them. That has to be it because literally nothing has changed from how I grew them in the summer. Even in the picture shown you can tell that the plant is healthy. I just think internally the freezing weather damaged it. Keep in mind the plant is obviously filled with water so that would have freezing with the freezing water outside as well. The cold has to be the best answer I can come up with so far, but thank you for your input
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What I meant by summer not mattering is about flowering.

Even if they were photo period plants instead of autos they would began to flower already due to less than 14 hrs a day of sunlight. It's what triggers flowering in non auto plants.

So my point is regardless of the type of flowering plant it is it should have began flowering by now.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Wizzlebiz said:
What I meant by summer not mattering is about flowering.

Even if they were photo period plants instead of autos they would began to flower already due to less than 14 hrs a day of sunlight. It's what triggers flowering in non auto plants.

So my point is regardless of the type of flowering plant it is it should have began flowering by now.
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Thanks, but what I'm trying to say is, regardless of summer, hence the title in the post "experiment growing in the winter" , is that the reason why I think they haven't flowered is because the cold has sort of ruined them. ... I went to the fast buds website and even they say that anything below 55° for their autos probably isn't going to be too good. For almost 2 weeks it was in the '30s, maybe low 40s where I'm at and then afterwards it lingered in the '40s for quite a while. I'm pretty sure the freezing temperatures caused cellular damage and sort of put a stunted the flowering capability, then when it slightly warmed up The plant has remained in somewhat of a gray zone. Not flowering, but not dying. Just living. The reason why I mentioned the summer is because in the summer it was warmer therefore making more sense that I had success with growing my seeds from fast buds the previous year. I have a feeling come around April when it's warmer when I start a new batch I'll have the same success I did last year.
 
Wizzlebiz

Wizzlebiz

Well-Known Member
BigMike415 said:
Thanks, but what I'm trying to say is, regardless of summer, hence the title in the post "experiment growing in the winter" , is that the reason why I think they haven't flowered is because the cold has sort of ruined them. ... I went to the fast buds website and even they say that anything below 55° for their autos probably isn't going to be too good. For almost 2 weeks it was in the '30s, maybe low 40s where I'm at and then afterwards it lingered in the '40s for quite a while. I'm pretty sure the freezing temperatures caused cellular damage and sort of put a stunted the flowering capability, then when it slightly warmed up The plant has remained in somewhat of a gray zone. Not flowering, but not dying. Just living. The reason why I mentioned the summer is because in the summer it was warmer therefore making more sense that I had success with growing my seeds from fast buds the previous year. I have a feeling come around April when it's warmer when I start a new batch I'll have the same success I did last year.
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No it should stop it from flowering. I have grown test plants in the winter with both auto and photo period. It's get below 40 at night over here and they all flower. It just takes forever for them to finish.
 
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BigMike415

Member
Wizzlebiz said:
No it should stop it from flowering. I have grown test plants in the winter with both auto and photo period. It's get below 40 at night over here and they all flower. It just takes forever for them to finish.
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Forever for them to flower? My plant is going on 5 months now. I got a feeling it's not going to complete any flower stage anytime soon. Just saying
 
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