High Altitude Master Kush

[Altitude High]

I'm at 9200' and am attempting my first crop in a very long time. I started 5 Master Kush plants in the spring and moved them outdoors on June 1st. So far my plants have thrived and are just entering the flowering or perhaps preflowering stage. I'm concerned about the quick end we have to our growing season up here. We can sometimes make it into late Oct without snow but could also get our first snow in late Sept. Any advice on growing in these conditions would be appreciated.

 

[hank123]

I hope your in Colorado. If you dont have a greenhouse then cover them when it gets cold at night.

Treat like a tomato plant.

 

[Altitude High]

I hope your in Colorado. If you dont have a greenhouse then cover them when it gets cold at night.

Treat like a tomato plant.

Good suggestion, I'll try to find a wrap that doesn't stand out too much and start with that once we get to some cooler temps. I am in Colorado.
As I said this is my first attempt at growing for several years and never at this altitude. The MK is a lot shorter then any Indica or Sative I've ever grown but from what I've read this is the norm. My tallest plant is around 4 feet as of now and may get a little taller but all 5 of my plants are very wide and loaded with branches and leaves but just a few hairs so I'd call this in a pre flowering stage. I've started with my first watering using a high phosphate bloom fert and I haven't done any defoliating. Any suggestions to promote the flowering stage or shorten the duration? It's a crap shoot with mother nature up here, I might still get 8-9 weeks before frost and snow or might only get 5-6. Most of my flowering plants in my garden seem to make it into mid Oct on the norm as long as temps stay out of the 20's.

 

[Altitude High]

One other thought is that I have an indoor area where I might be able to save my 2 best plants if need be but it's not a large enough area for all 5. I could pull this off at the first of Oct. Has anyone tried this with good results?

 

[hank123]

Care to say what part of Colorado? A big difference between 9200 from part to part of the state.

I have a small greenhouse so I should be able to let stuff ripen to mid November.

Build a small green house if you can. Or look for an early semi ripe cut. Autos maybe better if your not on the low lands.
Autos are great! I love them. So easy to grow.

 

[Altitude High]

Care to say what part of Colorado? A big difference between 9200 from part to part of the state.

I have a small greenhouse so I should be able to let stuff ripen to mid November.

Build a small green house if you can. Or look for an early semi ripe cut. Autos maybe better if your not on the low lands.
Autos are great! I love them. So easy to grow.

10 mile range area.
I've never tried autos but I was considering it for next year. I'll have to do some more research first.
I'd really like to try Northern Lights next year as well. I always grew outside in the midwest in my youth and wanted to try it where I live now. I wanted an Indica and all I could come up with in time to plant were some Master Kush clones which seems to be a reasonable choice for the it's cold tolerance and flowering time from what I've read but I've never grown it before. The big question is how much cold it can take. In Oct you can count on lows in the low 30's but it's only for a short time in most cases and you still get intense sunlight with highs in the 50's during the day. By late Oct lows will get into the 20's as a norm.
I have the plants in a protected area surounded by trees with no wind. I'm going to set some steaks in the ground around the plants and get some tarps ready. If this MK is as heardy as a rose bush it should survive into mid Oct., but I have no basis to compare in this environment.
Any thoughts on promoted flowering or should I just let nature take it's course?

 

[Conradino23]

Get these two indoor, you're gonna get sth out of it at least, and monitor closely the other three. If there's an early frost, you can use horticultural fleece and pack some straw and leaves at the base of the plant to keep it warm.

 

[Altitude High]

Get these two indoor, you're gonna get sth out of it at least, and monitor closely the other three. If there's an early frost, you can use horticultural fleece and pack some straw and leaves at the base of the plant to keep it warm.

As I try to plan this and look at the upcoming forecast I think you and Hank are right in that I'll have to finish these inside. I think I can buy myself some time outdoors and I don't see a likely frost for a few weeks, but I still can't buy enough time outdoors to finish these right. I was hoping to pull this off outside but this is my first attempt at this altitude it doesn't look possible based off what I'd project as the first frost and what I think it will take to finish these with the MK flowering time and if Master Kush won't get it done outside then I doubt if I find a non auto that will.
I do want to keep these out as long as possible since they're thriving so well and I'm afraid that I may shock them when I dig them up and I need time to prepare my indoor area. However, when I look at it I may be able to bring them all in once it's ready. I'm starting on this today with the plan to be able to dig them up and get them in short notice if needed. I have my pots and extra soil in my garage now. I guess at a very worse case scenario I could even bring them into the garage at night and outside during the day until the indoor area is ready. I guess even the hardiest indica isn't grown at 9200' outdoors in it's natural habitat.

 

[Altitude High]

When I look at this in more detail this is not going to be any fun when I do it. The plants range from just over 3 feet to just over 4 feet high but I couldn't get my arms around any of them and I doubt if 2 men with their arms outstretched could get their arms around the bigger ones. It's going to take some clearing and be a challenge to get them out of the area they're in without breaking them but an even bigger challenge easing them through the door into my house. I'll just take my time and do my best not to break any branches or tops off. I think I'll fill the containers after I get them in due to the weight. So far we've been in the mid to high 30's at night several times but the plants show no sign of distress. This is a little cooler then normal and we have a warm front moving in Friday which will put us in the low 70's as a high for the next week and low 40's at night. I'm just going to keep a close monitor on things for now.

 

[Conradino23]

Mature plants can easily survive temps around 30-40F if they are not constant throughout the day. Hmm, it's really freezing up there, innit? Here I get 60s at night and 80s during a day.

 

[WildRosebud]

Good suggestion, I'll try to find a wrap that doesn't stand out too much and start with that once we get to some cooler temps. I am in Colorado.
As I said this is my first attempt at growing for several years and never at this altitude. The MK is a lot shorter then any Indica or Sative I've ever grown but from what I've read this is the norm. My tallest plant is around 4 feet as of now and may get a little taller but all 5 of my plants are very wide and loaded with branches and leaves but just a few hairs so I'd call this in a pre flowering stage. I've started with my first watering using a high phosphate bloom fert and I haven't done any defoliating. Any suggestions to promote the flowering stage or shorten the duration? It's a crap shoot with mother nature up here, I might still get 8-9 weeks before frost and snow or might only get 5-6. Most of my flowering plants in my garden seem to make it into mid Oct on the norm as long as temps stay out of the 20's.

"Any suggestions to promote the flowering stage"
Wait it out it is up to the plant and her internal clock. You mentioned cold temps a lot like I have here but at higher elevation my elevation is 2400 feet lol but same sorta issues with cold. Temps dropped to -2'celsius a few times or colder.

I think this is neat and I like your strain selections

 

[Altitude High]

"Any suggestions to promote the flowering stage"
Wait it out it is up to the plant and her internal clock. You mentioned cold temps a lot like I have here but at higher elevation my elevation is 2400 feet lol but same sorta issues with cold. Temps dropped to -2'celsius a few times or colder.

I think this is neat and I like your strain selections

In reading your other post it sounds like you're in conditions just as tough or tougher then mine. I'm just trying to learn all I can about cold temperature tolerance and want to keep these ladies in the ground as long as possible. Once we hit 32 or are forecasted for lower, I'll pull them. Last night we hit 35 and we've had heavy rain everyday for the past 5 days with rain in the forecast today and Sunday. Today starts a week long warm front so it should give me some time to breath, we have a high of 73/43 forecasted for Wed. I'll just keep a close eye on the forecast and be ready to dig them up and get them in pots on short notice. I may get into the first of Oct. or I may have to pull them up next week, we'll see.

 

[Altitude High]

I've kept a very close eye on forecast for the past couple of weeks but it got a little colder then forecasted last night. I woke up this morning to 30 degrees and frost. I looked at my plants before heading off to work and thought I may have lost them but they looked fine when I was able to check them in the early evening and the temp was up to 59. I decided to start the process of bringing them inside and managed to get 3 in tonight. The location requires being a bit covert and rushed in moving them which combined with the weight makes it difficult to be delicate. I lost 6 lower branches so far but I can live with that. I just placed the plants in the locations I'll be keeping them in and watered them for tonight. The room they're in has windows in every direction and 2 sky lights so I don't think I need to add any artificial light. I plan to bring the other 2 inside Tuesday morning and just keep them covered at night until then.
Any advise on helping these make the adjustment to a greenhouse type of environment would be appreciated.

 

[Altitude High]

It looks like I've made a major mistake in moving my plants inside. Of the 3 that I moved I think I'll lose 2 of them. The 2 plants that I covered outside are still making it but we reached 28 last night and even covered it looked like I might lose them, however when I checked them in the afternoon they look great. I did a double covering for tonight and the forecast is for only 34 so I'm hopeful that I have a few days to take action on those 2. My problem with what was 2 of my best plants wasn't cold, I think it was heat. The temps reached 68 during the day today and I had them in a room with a lot of direct sunlight but no windows open. I would think that it may have exceeded 80 in their today which I think created a shocking effect on the plants that were used to much cooler temps. The smallest of the 3 plants was placed in a spot that didn't get direct sun and was likely much cooler and it still looks fine. I watered them all again and will try leaving some windows open tomorrow but I think it's too late for the 2 shocked plants. They're drooping over and look terrible. I'll see how things look for the inside plants late Sunday and if the smaller plant still looks fine I'm going to try to move one of the remaining outdoor plants inside. This time I'll try to control the temps better to see if that was the issue, hopefully I'll have better luck and can move my last plant inside on Tuesday. If I can save 3 of these I'd still be happy but it's a real drag to lose them so close to the finishing point after all the hard work I've put into them.

Any further advise before I make my next move would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Altitude High]

 

[Altitude High]

O.K. that worked. Now for a few more pics of the overall plants and buds.

 

[Altitude High]

I've been indoors now for about 5 weeks. Of my 5 plants I lost 1 right away and finally gave up 2 days ago and harvested another that had always struggled. I have 3 decent plants remaining that I hope to net some bud from. Of these the smallest is struggleing somewhat. The first pics I posted are of some dead leafs of which came from the smaller plant. I've had a few like these on the other 2 plants but not as many. The other pics in the second post is just to show the overall plants. I have these indoors in what was an unheated area. I started heating this about 2 weeks ago as temps at night started reaching into the mid 20's outside. The humidity is quite low at below 20%. I've put these in very large pots and have been watering every other day and doing a bloom fert 1 time per week. Do the dead leafs look like they were caused by frost bite or under watering? They aren't turning yellow, just dark green and drying up and dieing. Overall I still have plenty of leafs, maybe too many on the 2 healthier plants. Is this loss of leafs normal at 4-5 weeks into true flowering. I just need to get these girls to hand in there for a few more weeks. From what I've read Master Kush completes in 8-10 weeks of flowering. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Conradino23]

It's har to say from these pics, you need to post some with better focus.

 

[Altitude High]

It's har to say from these pics, you need to post some with better focus.

I'll try again with these. I thought close ups would give better detail. As of today the 2 plants I have that are thriving show no other dieing leafs but the one smaller plant that is struggleing is showing really bad signs. I'm doubting if I will get it to pull out at this point. I've moved it to another location where it will get a little more sun and I think it might be warmer there at night. This plant was next to a window that may just get much colder at night but I don't notice anyting significant about that during the day when I care for them but my first thought at this point may be cold damage or frost bite. Let me know what you think and if you think there is any hope for this one to finish.
This is about as clear as I can get with the camera on my phone. If this doesn't work I'll try another camera.
Thanks

 

[Conradino23]

Yes, they are definitely dying, man.