Losing the battle - freezing temps vs immature harvest

S

stookin

Member
Morning all,

Looking for some opinions or ideas.

We're getting mostly freezing overnight temps for the foreseeable future, and possibly straight through to actual winter now. Day temps are just above freezing so plant "development" is pretty much halted from what I've read so far.

I'm faced with early harvest and seeing what the curing produces in terms of final product vs leaving it in the hoophouse and worrying about frost kill and other problems due to high humidity. (My dehumidifier doesn't run at the colder temps and the ceramic heater is not making much of a dent in the colders temps now).

I'll attach a few pics from a couple days ago, showing what they look like now. I know it's way too early for proper harvest time, just wondering what (if anything) can use-ably be salvaged from the mistakes/learning of this first outdoor grow.

Thanks for any feedback.
 

Attachments

turbobuzz

turbobuzz

Well-Known Member
That's a shame. Unless you can figure out a way to keep them warm, I'm afraid you're screwed.
 
70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
You need a hoop house so you can start them earlier next year. A hoop house will also hold a little more heat in the fall and help them ripen faster/better.
 
JimmiP

JimmiP

Well-Known Member
He has a hoop house. Have you tried a lp ready heater? You can run them on a thermostat. As a bonus they produce o lot of CO2. That could warm it up enough for your dehumidifier to work as well.
 
printer

printer

Well-Known Member
I doubt you have to worry about humidity problems, at low temperatures mold does not do much. If you get some heat in there the relative humidity goes down. I was going to leave a couple of my plants out but with the cloud cover it is not worth it. I was going to make a vapor barrier 'tube' wide and high enough to fit over each plant and have a small heater keep the temperature up.
 
S

stookin

Member
Thank you all for the replies. It means a lot.

It is a shame indeed. They are such lovely plants, I learned a lot and really enjoyed watching them flourish outside with very little attention. Big lesson was don't pop photo's late in spring thinking they are auto's. Especially with the tiny outdoor window/season we have here.

I do have them under a hoop house now, relatively tightly sealed but I'm not generating enough heat from the little ceramic heater I have. I will look into a larger heater around here to see what is available.

Any suggestions on something small enough to not overheat a 5x12' base hoophouse?
I also need to balance the risk of leaving a heater running all day unattended as well.

We are getting lots of overcast days now too - will the plants still ripen with heat under cloud cover?
 
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printer

printer

Well-Known Member
I think they might ripen although they might not get as plump as if clear skies. I brought mine in last night, a blanket of snow this morning.
 
S

stookin

Member
I picked up a Mr. Heater Big Buddy and it's sitting at a cozy 70-72f now. Dehumidifier can do it's job now too with warmer interior temperature.

Thanks again for the help here. I was about to chop and resign myself to using it for cooking, but the heater has given me some additional time now.

With the rough ride they've have in colder temps I won't break any records to be sure, but they have a fighting chance again to finish strong.
Let's go ladies!
 
S

stookin

Member
printer said:
I doubt you have to worry about humidity problems, at low temperatures mold does not do much. If you get some heat in there the relative humidity goes down. I was going to leave a couple of my plants out but with the cloud cover it is not worth it. I was going to make a vapor barrier 'tube' wide and high enough to fit over each plant and have a small heater keep the temperature up.
Click to expand...
I built my hoop house with 6mil poly, 10' 1/2" pvc tubes and some scrap lumber I had around. Tuck tape works great on the poly to join sheets and close up gaps. I'll be redesigning it a little if I grow outdoors again, but it's not bad for revision 1 tent. It's also a little more discrete and limits the delightful odor from spreading a bit. Probably would of been cheaper to get a premade off Amazon but I had fun puttering while building the tent around the ladies.
 
S

stookin

Member
Checking in again with updates. How do they look?

I probably don't have "two more weeks", but I might get another 5 days if the forecast is right.two.jpgthree.jpgone.jpg
 
kroc

kroc

Well-Known Member
stookin said:
Thank you all for the replies. It means a lot.

It is a shame indeed. They are such lovely plants, I learned a lot and really enjoyed watching them flourish outside with very little attention. Big lesson was don't pop photo's late in spring thinking they are auto's. Especially with the tiny outdoor window/season we have here.

I do have them under a hoop house now, relatively tightly sealed but I'm not generating enough heat from the little ceramic heater I have. I will look into a larger heater around here to see what is available.

Any suggestions on something small enough to not overheat a 5x12' base hoophouse?
I also need to balance the risk of leaving a heater running all day unattended as well.

We are getting lots of overcast days now too - will the plants still ripen with heat under cloud cover?
Click to expand...
id recommend one of those oil radiator heaters, safer than the electric space ones ime. they generally have 3 settings around 300w, 600w, 900w. I use one to heat a two car garage just fine.
 
atxlsgun

atxlsgun

Well-Known Member
MrToad69 said:
Atxls...
You must be living in Southern Alberta, if not elsewhere to have had such a finish? Where about is this? We had a few more weeks before the cold set in over last year in central Alberta ..and I too ran into this situation for the few photoperiods I had. What strain?

Cheers
Toad
Click to expand...
Live in Colorado I had 2 clementine and 2 lucky charms the LC was done the clementine could have gone another couple weeks. Put them out in june was running behind on clones which is why there were only 4 next year gonna be 12 maybe all blue dream I might put a couple of different strains in there but mainly blue dream
 
HighlanderMan

HighlanderMan

Member
I live in Trail, BC, Canada, and last week when the temperature dropped below zero I made some changes and added an oil heater into a covered tent and I am supplementing during the daytime (limited sunlight) with a 600W grow light I just bought. I have four plants that are grounded and weeks away from finishing. I feel they will be ready by October 30. I might have to harvest sooner. The photos I take daily are at a good trichome level and darker hairs. I have been drying some buds from a broken branch and tonight I decided to have a go and sample it. This is my first outdoor grow and I have been buying what is supposed to be good cannabis by the once, and what I have managed to grow is far superior. I have a nice buzz happening and no sciatic nerve pain. It is so sad that those that got caught with freezing cold weather and early snow, try your best to salvage what you can. It may be better than what you think.
 
killian123

killian123

Well-Known Member
HighlanderMan said:
I live in Trail, BC, Canada, and last week when the temperature dropped below zero I made some changes and added an oil heater into a covered tent and I am supplementing during the daytime (limited sunlight) with a 600W grow light I just bought. I have four plants that are grounded and weeks away from finishing. I feel they will be ready by October 30. I might have to harvest sooner. The photos I take daily are at a good trichome level and darker hairs. I have been drying some buds from a broken branch and tonight I decided to have a go and sample it. This is my first outdoor grow and I have been buying what is supposed to be good cannabis by the once, and what I have managed to grow is far superior. I have a nice buzz happening and no sciatic nerve pain. It is so sad that those that got caught with freezing cold weather and early snow, try your best to salvage what you can. It may be better than what you think.
Click to expand...
I'm in th interior and again I woke up to -5. Very happy I built a shitty greenhouse this spring, its saving my ass.
 
Nizza

Nizza

Well-Known Member
A good way to end the growing season earlier that I didn't see anyone mention is light deprivation

I've heard things about chitin as well but be careful with this stuff!

The key next year is forcing them to flower 4 weeks earlier about?

So right now its oct 20th , subtracting 60-70 days puts us at mid august. This means mid-late july or early august, if you start to deprive the plants of light manually, you will get the harvest in the window you need!
after the natural light cycle goes down to around 12-14 hours a day you can stop depriving light remember that unless you build something crazy for blocking out light automatically your gonna have to be there at the same times every day to deprive their light

GL!!
 
Nizza

Nizza

Well-Known Member
HighlanderMan said:
I live in Trail, BC, Canada, and last week when the temperature dropped below zero I made some changes and added an oil heater into a covered tent and I am supplementing during the daytime (limited sunlight) with a 600W grow light I just bought. I have four plants that are grounded and weeks away from finishing. I feel they will be ready by October 30. I might have to harvest sooner. The photos I take daily are at a good trichome level and darker hairs. I have been drying some buds from a broken branch and tonight I decided to have a go and sample it. This is my first outdoor grow and I have been buying what is supposed to be good cannabis by the once, and what I have managed to grow is far superior. I have a nice buzz happening and no sciatic nerve pain. It is so sad that those that got caught with freezing cold weather and early snow, try your best to salvage what you can. It may be better than what you think.
Click to expand...
I always love my outdoor plants. Something about sunshine grown natural buds blows it all away!
I don't go all in on them though.. all In on the indoors. Outdoors is special though definitely!
 
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