Help Keeping an Outdoor Plant Alive Through Winter

[Delta9Haze420]

Hi all -

Now that harvesting season has come upon us (for those growing outdoors), I am interested in the perpetuation of a particular lady and several of her clones. The problem lies in the fact that there is currently no indoor grow setup available to help keep these ladies alive throughout the winter. Once harvesting is complete with the mother, it will be trimmed and prepared for perpetuation as per the F.A.Q. section. In addition, she has several small clones that will not mature before it begins to freeze (and several more are planned from the youngest growing tips). The following resources *are* available, however they are by no means ideal or even well suited for indoor growing. The hope is simply to keep the plants from dying until spring, at which point they can start to fully veg again in an outdoor environment.

** Exterior shop with insulation (temp stays at least above 50-55 deg F even during freezes).
** 3 CFL's with enough light output to sustain 3-6 small/medium plants (larger than clones)
** Timer to control lighting
** Soil / pot setup (no hydro)

There is a big problem in that the CFL's won't be able to be run for more than 12-16 hours a day (if that) - so no 24 hour light will be available as would be ideal. The idea is to expose the plants to natural light when it is available through a window with a reflecting mirror (it should provide 11-13 hours of light per day), then run the CFL's for another 12-16 hours a day (half before dawn, half after dusk), giving them a dark period of about 5-8 hours.

*Key point - the location is *not* very well light insullated, which means that limiting the amount of light escaping during the night to "normal" waking hours will be important. It should appear that the lighting coincides with the sleep/wake cycle of the average person so as not to draw attention from anyone who happens to catch a glint of light from a high window at 1am (which is why the lights will probably shut off at about 11 and come back on at about 6).

Does anyone have any ideas on how to improve the plan further than as already stated to keep these lovely ladies from perishing during the winter? I don't think the main concern will be temperature, but the fact that the clones and mother plant have already started a flower cycle (or are about to), and the less light they get, the more they will want to flower. So most of the effort as I see it should go to increasing the light available to them as much as possible to put them back in veg. Keeping them in veg is key - or at least keeping them from trying to flower.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

-D9-

Delta9Haze420 Reviewed by Delta9Haze420 on 09-17-2007. Help Keeping an Outdoor Plant Alive Through Winter Hi all - Now that harvesting season has come upon us (for those growing outdoors), I am interested in the perpetuation of a particular lady and several of her clones. The problem lies in the fact that there is currently no indoor grow setup available to help keep these ladies alive throughout the winter. Once harvesting is complete with the mother, it will be trimmed and prepared for perpetuation as per the F.A.Q. section. In addition, she has several small clones that will not mature before Rating: 5

[stone_sensation]

Bit tricky this.

You will want more CFL's and they are on a few $$ from your local store.

I would try and lightproof the bits that the people may see because you are going to need 24hr light or atleast 18/6 to veg them through winter. Baring in mind they will be big by the time winters over.

Thats a start. I don't live in the USA or grow outdoors so I can't help you much more.

Hope this helps .