Cold climate growing. Any tips for growing outside in Alaska?

I live in Alaska and have quite a bit of room to grow( the whole forest!) Can anyone give out tips for cold short seasons? I'm planning to grow several indica strains and breeding with a pure auto flowering, and ruderalis indica.

i would indoor it over outdoors imho.
but the hoop houses seem to be popular for growing in the summer (at least other plants)

Yeah makes sense. I'll have to invest in some PVC and plastic too. Thanks

,i am in a cold climate too , i like outdoors vs indoors,its amazing what a plant can do in a cold climate even if it only gets 3months of in the ground time , if you know someone ( preferably not a stranger) that you could get some clones from that would be your best bet, usualy the clone going arround in an area are arround because they are suited for your location ( outdoor clones ) proven specimens,, if you really cant find any buy seeds online, look for early finishers,, autoflowers in my experience dont yield for the price of the seed outdoors

Ahhh good food for thought. You think I should plant them in the ground after they are big enough?

You plant them in the ground when you see all the neighbors planting theyr garden ,, ask an ol fellaw when is the date to safely plant a garden (vegetable garden of course ) , the old timers had certain dates when everybody planted theyr garden ,, over here it was anytime after victoria day ( last few days of mai) , Thats a safe bet ,, and wisely use a few dollars to buy dscent soil like pro-mix or fox farms wtv in your neck

Thank for the great advise, much respect.

This should help

http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/AK

redeyedfrog said:

This should help

http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/AK

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Where have you been ?

" I can see Russia from house ".

I agree with Sunni, go indoors. I've grown outside, cheap greenhouse, and indoors in AK. Depending on where you live, out is hard and greenhouse can be too. Indoors is easiest.

I recommend keeping them in pots. TOo many weather variables and using pots allows you to bring them into a warmer/dryer space if needed. Typically the ground stays colder, and pots are warmer. Plus since the grow season is short, you probably won't be growing trees, and so can get away with smaller pots. 7 gals have been plenty big for me.

Of course its a big and warming state so new options exist all the time. Be prepared tho that its not easy to finish plants as days get colder and 30+ minutes shorter every week in Anchorage, just as you're trying to finish flowering!

Good luck- where are you?

And welcome to RIU!

We have an Alaska section in Medical, it used to get lots of traffic but has been mighty quiet lately...

plantsinpants said:

,i am in a cold climate too , i like outdoors vs indoors,its amazing what a plant can do in a cold climate even if it only gets 3months of in the ground time , if you know someone ( preferably not a stranger) that you could get some clones from that would be your best bet, usualy the clone going arround in an area are arround because they are suited for your location ( outdoor clones ) proven specimens,, if you really cant find any buy seeds online, look for early finishers,, autoflowers in my experience dont yield for the price of the seed outdoors

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There's a pretty big difference between cold climate and Alaska daily weather though
I'm from cold Canada and growing outdoors is nice
I would indoor here in Alaska over outdoors

It's just a totally different climate cold here is different really
Hard to explain

Am sure people outdoors it here in summer though

Vegg indoors for two months. Through them outdoors when it warms up. Grow in Hoop houses, and force flower. Finish early with chunky yield.

There's a pretty big difference between cold climate and Alaska daily weather though[/QUOTE]

Is there... I dont think so.. Some people think theres snow year round in alaska and northern canada , they actualy have nice summers, frost might come a litle early but there will be strains that are suited for this climate

Ok grow them inside big. Dig a hole add good soil but if you have good land use that. But what i would do is plant them in a big wide pot or the felf one dig a hole then put the pot inside it. Cool for when it 90+ and warmer night. But you need to be there tocover it each night then uncover. Its a pain in the ass. But indoors is the way to grow up here

Are there any strains in seed form that don't mind the cold nights? I live on The southern kenai peninsula, and the only real problem I forsee is cold nights shocking or killing them.

Pure indca can stand colder temps so look in to that but colder than 67 will hurt them abit

itBUDtime said:

Pure indca can stand colder temps so look in to that but colder than 67 will hurt them abit

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Well I know below 67 insnt going to kill them. It'll slow growth but in my small green house I put them out in the GH when temps around 62 f and they don't seem to mind it at all,( especially when the suns on them), right now I get them in there around 11 o'clock and they stay till 7 pm now.

Well being a stoner, I forgot to move a seedling from the greenhouse inside yesterday. It dropped below 26 last night and this morning I go to check the temp and its facing the sun like nothing happened! I'm so surprised, never thought a seedling barely with it first set of leaves developing could survive such a frigid night.

Akghostbuds420 said:

I forgot to move a seedling from the greenhouse inside yesterday. It dropped below 26 last night and this morning I go to check the temp and its facing the sun like nothing happened!

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Wow. What's the strain?