Hey guys
I love this thread, alot of great info here. Thank you norwegian for opening it up and thanks to all for participating in it
. I guess i should contribute maybe by summing up some of my experiences and thoughts after last years grow and maybe say a little about my plans and thoughts for the upcoming seasons.
Experiences from last season, first outdoor guerilla grow at lat 70 north... These are just general pointers and thoughts from a new guerilla grower to the next, you will have to think for yourself whether or not what im saying is relevant to your conditions and challenges.
The climate this far north was extremely challenging but it also brought a few benefits, this far north mold is not as big of an issue because the cold dry arctic autumn nights kills it off. I should point out that the climate in my region which is arctic Scandinavia is unique, the gulf stream makes all of Scandinavia considerably warmer then all other places at comparable latitude. But Scandinavia is quite a large region and it has a substantial variety in climate from end to the other. The Scandinavian peninsula covers a huge distance from north to south and there is both dry inland climate and wet coastal climate, there are mountainous parts and there are flatlands. My first experience after growing in Scandinavia is that there are great limitations to where one can successfully grow cannabis, even automatic cannabis.
You just cannot grow it anywhere so choose your spot wisely, very wisely!!!
So once we realize that north of the 55th parallel (Europe), we can only grow in small pockets of space where the microclimate and sunarch is just rightl We cannot grow in just any random spot, it has to be the right spot or we are doomed to failure. We realize that we are at a disadvantage so we must look at what we can do to help the plant out even further to cope with the climatic challenges.
Norway, Sweden and Finland has somewhat different climate, its dryer in Sweden and Finland. Especially the coast of Norway sees a lot of rain. Ill cover some tips on how to find a good spot in Norway, i dont know the other countries like Canada and Russia well enough to give tips about them, hope you dont feel left out on that account.
In general we can say that a dryer inland type of climate is much to be preferred before a wet coastal climate because of mold and rot issues. In Norway much of the rain is left in the mountains along the outer part of the coast. Get one or two hours by car inland from the outermost coast and its amazing how much less clouds and rain there is. Dont be a lazyass, if you want to grow in an extreme northern climate and your valley is not optimum, then make the drive over the next valley where its a little warmer, dryer and sunnyer in the summer. Personally i drove 2 hours from where i live last year to the part of my county that is normally warmest and dryest.
Its very important to plant in a southward facing spot when in the far north. If you are facing just a little too far westward you will loose the morning sun in the autumn. This is extremely important, the morning sun is more important then the evening sun.
Prevegging inside or in a greenhouse will help tremendously, if we cannot preveg inside its possible to make a small greenhouse in a sunny secluded spot in the woods. We make the greenhouse simple with wood from the forest and just some transparent plastic, make sure your construction is not too big and too easily spotted. The seedlings will then get some cover from the cold northern spring weather and you may get a head start on the ground frost. Autos are short, it may be possible to set up a transparent plastic roof of some sort over your plants in the autumn if you are in a wet coastal climate. Only if one feels secure the construction will not easily be spotted ofc. Personally i prevegged under 400w hps to make them stretch a little up off the ground. I prevegged for 3 weeks in square 1 liter pots until they showed sex. At lat 70 north, in Norway i sowed my beans between may 15th and 21st, they were transplanted outside around midsummer june 22nd. At that time they had showed sex and were still in their 1L pots. The thumb rule for when your autos are ready to go out is that they are ready to go out at the same time as the farmers plant their potatoes in your area. At that time you want to be ready with your prevegged plants. If you are somewhere in the south of Norway and you plant out prevegged plants say around may 15th or so, you will have over 3 months to finish them off before the cold autumn rains. That would save you a lot of mold issues.
Plant next to big rocks. Rocks will capture some of the heat from the sun during the daytime and release that heat in the night.
Autos dont yield much pr plant so plant many enough pr spot and remember that some spots are bound to go to shit so make more then one but dont have too many so you end up walking and driving too much.
Its very important that they are exposed to wind as little as possible, find a spot that is sheltered from winds. Winds are cold and will prevent growth in cold climates, winds will also make the wet leaves rub against the buds in the autumn causing mold.
Trim your plants, remove dead and dying leaves and remove branches or leaves that are rubbing against buds. Any leaf lieing on top of a bud or anything rubbing against a bud will cause rot and mold. Removing fanleaves that are shading too much and leecher growth that gets no light is no big deal just dont overdo it. You'd want to do this cautiously and efficiently only a few times, dont be constantly picking at your plants and dont yank fanleaves with your hands, use a scissor and cut the stem of the leaves a cm or two from the branch. Yanking fanleaves may leave open wounds that leek moisture, moisture = rot and mold. Dont cut branches too close to the main stem, leave a tiny nub.
Remove the wild growth immediately around your plants, remember that forest plants quickly will grow a lot higher then they are in the spring. Dont plant too close to bushes or anything that may be dripping water down on your plants.
If the ground frost stays very long in your area, you may want to consider building a mound. A mound will be raised up off the ground and will drain better and heat up quicker in the spring and autumn. You can fill your mound with all kinds of compost and goodies. A downside to a mound is that its more easily spotted.
This was just some general information on guerilla growing in the far north based on my experiences from last year. Any little thing one can do for the plants helps in extreme climates.
Im currently looking for a safe addy so i can receive a few interesting strains that would be very interesting to use in breeding and to try to acclimatize further to arctic conditions. These are thin leafed, wide leafed and hybrid varieties. Any strain acclimatized to arctic Norway should be extremely resistant to cold climate but i figure its going to take some work. We need to do a LOT of testing to find specimens that are suited for breeding up here so im hoping to cover as many strains and spots as possible this year. Im certain there will be a lot of different crosses as a result of this.. We hope that some time arctic beans may be available to others, but that whole thing has to happen behind the scenes unfortunately. Things are not always as easy at they may sound in a conservative backcountry minded place like this. ~shhh..., i was never here, wasnt me!
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This post is already way longer then it was supposed to be, so i think ill get back to you later on
I hope some of what ive written may be a little helpful to someone out there. Remember just a few years ago, growing north of the 55th parallel was utopia, today its not only possibility its reality. Every day is about learning and every time you grow an auto you are helping out the testing and future development of this ecotype that is just barely in its infant stage yet.
peace all
