If cannabis can thrive in most non extreme climates, why do people set up complex...

hatrickpatrick

...growing operations?
Hearing a story of another "grow house" busted in Ireland recently got me curious about the natural habitat of cannabis, and after a bit of Googling I was surprised to learn that it can pretty much grow in any climate as long as it's not too extreme, such as a desert or arctic area.
With that in mind, why do people set up these grow houses with complex heating arrangements, not only costing them electricity but also apparently making it easier to get caught (supposedly, the spike in electricity usage tends to be what alerts authorities to such growing operations)? If the stuff can grow naturally without the need to create an artificial environment for it, why don't they just grow it in fields, greenhouses, etc? If my reading of it is correct, this would be less likely to be found out as it wouldn't have the telltale carbon footprint of an artificially powered grow house.

Am I missing something here?

Note to mods: I have no intention of setting up such an operation myself, everyone knows my particular vice is the Long Island Iced Tea

o1s1n

Growing it in fields, out in the open, where everyone can see?

Just think about that for a moment...

Obvious legalities aside and issues with people just strolling across your giant ganja crop, you'd have far less control over the environment, and therefore their yield.

Tefral

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

...growing operations?
Hearing a story of another "grow house" busted in Ireland recently got me curious about the natural habitat of cannabis, and after a bit of Googling I was surprised to learn that it can pretty much grow in any climate as long as it's not too extreme, such as a desert or arctic area.
With that in mind, why do people set up these grow houses with complex heating arrangements, not only costing them electricity but also apparently making it easier to get caught (supposedly, the spike in electricity usage tends to be what alerts authorities to such growing operations)? If the stuff can grow naturally without the need to create an artificial environment for it, why don't they just grow it in fields, greenhouses, etc? If my reading of it is correct, this would be less likely to be found out as it wouldn't have the telltale carbon footprint of an artificially powered grow house.

Am I missing something here?

Note to mods: I have no intention of setting up such an operation myself, everyone knows my particular vice is the Long Island Iced Tea

Crop yields I'd say. The bigger the investment in the hydroponics the bigger the crop! THC content is surely affected also

Boombastic

it gets too cold at night and it's some pain moving big plants in and out

seamus

As mentioned above, you're hardly going to grow it out in the open, so the growing environment by definition is going to be artificial. So you're going to need to make it as productive as possible to justify the expense.

kneemos

Need the heat for potency afaik.

wendell borton

I think there was a story a while back about an elderly uk couple who unwittingly had a cannabis plant growing in their garden.

Bongalongherb

Those damn spider-mites will ruin a persons crop growing outdoors. Better to grow indoors. Growing outdoors in Ireland's climate won't work, as it is too cold and too wet and cannot work. Even though the cannabis plant is a weed, it still has too many problems trying to grow here. I suppose it might be possible if we had a very good summer like last year, I'd say it would work in that case.

The obvious reason it is grown indoors is the fact that you can use very high intensity lighting, and this is really what a cannabis plant needs, more thc the higher lumens the lighting has, and also good heat a nice 25°C or higher. The better and more powerful the lighting, the faster and stronger the growth of the plant will be.

Humanbean

My parents apparently brought back some seeds from a holiday they'd been on, and "had no idea what they were but planted them anyway" - the plants spread like wildfire around the garden until they decided they needed to be controlled, and of course, the best way to get rid of them was to have a big bonfire (and invite all their friends). So it seems it does grow quite happily outside. This was many years ago though!!

Fukuyama

There was plant found growing out the back of Sundrive Garda station in Drimnagh a while back. It'll grow anywhere undetected and it often does. They're called 'guerrilla grows'.

In the US the feds us helicopters to spot organised ops that'd pretty much look like farms in the middle of a forest from the sky.

In Ireland, we have lots of wide open spaces where you'd stick out like a sore thumb tending to your pants in the middle of a bog. However, it has been done. There's a documentary about Ming Flanagan on YouTube (made in the 90's AFAIK) and a part of it shows him in a bog planting young seedlings.

Also, the amount of effort involved would be huge. Perhaps for just one plant which will likely die or get eaten by animals or stolen by a happy hiker. Not to mention the thought of pulling up to a garda checkpoint with a big bag of smelly cuttings in your boot!!! :eek:

However, I bet there's plants growing all over rural Ireland. It's be fairly easy to throw down a few small plants at the bottom of a piece of land.

The reason it's unheard of is because you'd be an idiot to brag about your grow op down the pub even if it is for personal consumption. Pretty sure it's mandatory prison time for growing, no matter how small the plant.

beano345

Its piss easy to grow in a green house Ireland even has the right amount of day/night hours for it to flower

ScumLord

It needs a lot of sunlight to be done properly, what grows easily in Ireland is hemp for industrial use. Cannabis would grow too you just wouldn't get as good of a crop that you'd get under high power lights.

It's also about a controlled environment over the wilds. Out in the wild the plants get eaten by things, wind is encouraging it to grow stronger stalks taking away from it's time injecting thc into buds, it might not get the right amount of water. When you're growing cannabis for it's thc content the more controlled the environment the more control you have over the final product.

Bongalongherb

Ireland is too wet of a climate for cannabis to grow. Like I said, if we had a good warm long summer then of course it would grow, but other than that not a hope. There's just too much wet weather.

steddyeddy

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

Boombastic

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Ireland is too wet of a climate for cannabis to grow. Like I said, if we had a good warm long summer then of course it would grow, but other than that not a hope. There's just too much wet weather.

you'd be suprised

Bongalongherb

Don't forget, if an outside grow doesn't get enough sunlight you are going to have a large amount of male cannabis plants and they are absolutely no good to anyone, well unless you plan on making rope

Bongalongherb

steddyeddy wrote: »

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

Of course it depends on light wavelength as this is what indoor growers know, bright white for seedlings and then red light wavelength for the flowering part of the grow, or even better using all white and red wavelengths will give a much better crop. Warm white/blue wavelengths as well even better.

mulbot

my cousin,he grew some in a glasshouse,it grew properly,didn't get big buds and it wasn't as strong as the hydroponic indoor stuff but my cousin really liked it,was kinda like the old fashioned stuff

dj jarvis

cronin_j wrote: »

Crop yields I'd say. The bigger the investment in the hydroponics the bigger the crop! THC content is surely affected also

thread in a nutshell , amount of product and strength of said product , and less open to wildlife and infection.

steddyeddy

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Of course it depends on light wavelength as this is what indoor growers know, bright white for seedlings and then red light wavelength for the flowering part of the grow, or even better using all white and red wavelengths will give a much better crop.

My mate is also an expert witness in cannabis trials (on the users side) and says most don't have a clue. How many even read scientific papers on it?

Bongalongherb

steddyeddy wrote: »

My mate is also an expert witness in cannabis trials (on the users side) and says most don't have a clue. How many even read scientific papers on it?

Hardly anyone reads on the scientific part of it I agree, they just purchase the lights and tent and extractor and grow it. Some of the smoke is terrible/bad. So I agree most don't grow the plants properly, also they don't clean/flush out chemicals (if they use them) before harvest and this surely results in terrible weed.

Steodonn

Growing weed is easy growing good weed is hard.

Outside you have no control over it and while it still could grow its leaving down to chance where as inside you can give it the perfect conditions every time

RaidII

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Ireland is too wet of a climate for cannabis to grow. Like I said, if we had a good warm long summer then of course it would grow, but other than that not a hope. There's just too much wet weather.

Dunno about that, look at the size of this that 2 old pensioners inadvertently grew in England

theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/08/cannabis-plant-elderly-couples-garden

Bongalongherb

RaidII wrote: »

Dunno about that, look at the size of this that 2 old pensioners inadvertently grew in England

theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/08/cannabis-plant-elderly-couples-garden

That is completely different than to Ireland. Certain parts of britain especially cornwall and london and around those areas get a lot better summer weather than us on the atlantic and can grow good cannabis in a field even. The problem we have here is the amount of rainfall we get as well as it is not as warm here than there in summer months.

The plants those pensioners grew was probably very low in thc and could have been male plants. You can grow male cannabis plants easily enough but that is not cannabis in the sense of a female plant of what people smoke. No-one would smoke a male plant.

Titzon Toast

steddyeddy wrote: »

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

In all fairness, the ESB would only notice if you were running a commercial operation in a private house. The electricity needed to grow one or two plants wouldn't raise any red flags.

desultory

steddyeddy wrote: »

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

Any evidence for that?
The ESB shouldn't care who is using what electricity as long as they pay for it in full and on time. They only tend to get involved when it's being stolen (as is the norm for most big operations)

SaveOurLyric

beano345 wrote: »

Its piss easy to grow in a green house Ireland even has the right amount of day/night hours for it to flower

Do you know what kind of growth rates you can get and what are the best fertilisers to use ?

srsly78

As mentioned already giving the optimal level of light and heat increases yield. Also there are several different strains. Some CAN grow in even arctic conditions, the Ruderalis strain is supposed to have originated from above the arctic circle in Russia. It has strange genetics that can thrive under a 24 hour light cycle. This property has been used to breed modern autoflowering strains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoperiodism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoflowering_cannabis

tl;dr: Plants in tropical climates grow bigger and faster!

Wibbs

Depending on your microclimate they should grow here easily enough. West Cork would be a good area I'd say. Though as has been noted although we're generally milder in the winter months compared to the southern UK we don't get as much of the heat in the summer so... I did know of someone who grew one outdoors for years in such a microclimate and it got to a crazy size. Like large shrub, 6 feet in height kinda size. They grew it as a joke though(they were soooo not potheads ) and they lived in a fairly isolated spot. I'd say it was a male plant too. Might be still around? How long do they live? I suppose it depends on the (sub)species. I would have thought of them as annuals, or biannuals?

crosstownk

Steodonn wrote: »

Growing weed is easy growing good weed is hard.

^^This.

I grew it outside many years ago and while it grew to over a meter, the yield was pitiful. I just popped a few seeds in the ground to see what would happen and one sprouted.

One side of the plant faced a streetlight and never flowered; the other side flowered but dismally. It smelt right but it didn't smoke right. Just a wee bit more stone than the rose bush.

I haven't smoked a joint since.

donegal__road

I knew a guy who used to grow 'plants' in a clearing in the middle of whin bushes. You would need a heavy coat and gloves to make your way in through the prickles.

Whin bush

JJJJNR

Friend of mine stuck some plants behind a pain of glass in a south facing garden and the results were very good in a very short time.. 6 or 7 weeks.

Antar Bolaeisk

Worst thinly veiled "help me grow weed" thread ever.

Only way to do it is with a personal nuclear power plant and underground lair.

There are probably reasons why people don't just grow it out in the open but I can't think of why right now.

Wompa1

On an interesting side note, I was in Seattle over the weekend....very odd. The smell was all over the place. It kind of sucks getting into an elevator and smelling a reek of Pot (multiple elevators)....I assume the smoking laws would still ban it from places that people work in?

I was out and about around 6:30am and there was a guy walking around with a plastic box tied around his neck, selling loose 'cigarettes' the cops came by but didn't seem to mind. Which is fine but I would think even selling cigarettes out on your own would be illegal...but in fairness. Seattle was a major hipster, artsy type of city beforehand anyways.

Titzon Toast

As a general rule.
Good dope = bad rope
Good rope = bad dope!

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Ireland is too wet of a climate for cannabis to grow. Like I said, if we had a good warm long summer then of course it would grow, but other than that not a hope. There's just too much wet weather.

No it's not.

Grayson

The main reasons for growing inside are

1) Cops dont see it.
2) you can grow more than once per year.

RDM_83 again

steddyeddy wrote: »

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Hardly anyone reads on the scientific part of it I agree, they just purchase the lights and tent and extractor and grow it. Some of the smoke is terrible/bad. So I agree most don't grow the plants properly, also they don't clean/flush out chemicals (if they use them) before harvest and this surely results in terrible weed.

The lights must be some money spinner for the head shops and retailers considering the prices. Been years since I studied Botany but I have the feeling you could probably use a lot of CFL's because they have a decent Red to Far Red ratio AFAIK then throw in another light source to promote the reproductive stage and you would have a cheap but slower system (this could all be cr@p not checked anything)

pragmatic1

Bongalongherb wrote: »

That is completely different than to Ireland. Certain parts of britain especially cornwall and london and around those areas get a lot better summer weather than us on the atlantic and can grow good cannabis in a field even. The problem we have here is the amount of rainfall we get as well as it is not as warm here than there in summer months.

The plants those pensioners grew was probably very low in thc and could have been male plants. You can grow male cannabis plants easily enough but that is not cannabis in the sense of a female plant of what people smoke. No-one would smoke a male plant.

I've seen a video of a wild cannabis field in Ireland. There was acres of the crop.

My friends parents used to grow it in rainy Donegal too. They had bags of the stuff.

catallus

pragmatic1 wrote: »

I've....[..] They had bags of the stuff.

Yes, but bags of what?

It has already been said; the control of the wavelength of the light which causes the plant to grow is the reason people set up indoor "complex growing operations"; it is in fact not that complex, it is really easy.

seamus

Titzon Toast wrote: »

In all fairness, the ESB would only notice if you were running a commercial operation in a private house. The electricity needed to grow one or two plants wouldn't raise any red flags.

No, but it can add up. Even a small growhouse in a closet running 24/7 could suck up a lot of power. Ones taking up an entire attic space do indeed consume a lot of power. If you seem to suddenly be consuming twice the amount of electricity you would normally, and you continue paying your bills without raising a query with the ESB, yes they will tip off the Gardai.

This is why big operations use huge diesel generators using diesel they import from across the border.

http://www.herald.ie/news/gardai-resume-search-of-1m-cannabis-farm-27941684.html

What happened in this case is that a neighbour noticed that the farm was getting deliveries of tanker loads of diesel in the dead of night. Revenue assumed they were getting dodgy diesel from across the border to fuel their vehicles, but when they went in with Gardai they discovered an enormous growhouse.

leeroybrown

It's a simple answer - control and speed. Someone who knows what they're doing with the right growing lamps and hydroponics can produce multiple crops of product from the same small space annually with very good quality control. Even in countries with near ideal growing conditions for cannabis plants you'll find many producers using indoor setups for at least part of the process.

Overheal

Granted I'm sure a few people have taken to using a heating oil generator. Only makes sense really. Nobody questions the fill, and nobody in the op really need live in the house. Plus the plants get all their heat from the lighting

My dad has several times pondered getting natural gas piped to the house: plenty of people Midwest not only use natural gas for heat and cooking but include taps in their garages to tank up cars fitted for the stuff

You could also try solar but the sheer lack of efficiency, especially in Ireland, would be crippling. Makes more sense somewhere like Nevada where they get record solar energy per sqft

srsly78

seamus wrote: »

Even a small growhouse in a closet running 24/7 could suck up a lot of power.

125W is a lot power in Cavan maybe... Have you heard about these new-fangled "energy saving" lightbulbs?

desultory

seamus wrote: »

if you seem to suddenly be consuming twice the amount of electricity you would normally, and you continue paying your bills without raising a query with the ESB, yes they will tip off the Gardai.

Again, any evidence for this?
It seems likely but I've never seen or heard of anything of the sorts happening.

renegademaster

steddyeddy wrote: »

Good question. A friend of mine is a lecturer in botany and he says they're wasting their time pumping that amount of power into it (The ESB will also report anyone using insane amounts of electricity). It's not the heat or intensity of light it's the wavelength that's important.

it grows well under low wattage energy saving light bulbs!! i seen it with my own eyes and this would defo not set off any alarm bells

steddyeddy

I don't smoke the stuff (I have previously and ate it in Holland) but I find it f-ing mental they way possession of a plant is illegal. Ridiculous.

Bongalongherb

Chase Ashy Mineral wrote: »

No it's not.

Well if a person tried to grow some seedlings in this wet climate out in the open it will drown the plant completely. It just won't work to get a good female cannabis plant with buds of decent thc. If you mean growing a male plant then what's the point ? who wants male plants...No-one.

Bongalongherb

RDM_83 again wrote: »

The lights must be some money spinner for the head shops and retailers considering the prices. Been years since I studied Botany but I have the feeling you could probably use a lot of CFL's because they have a decent Red to Far Red ratio AFAIK then throw in another light source to promote the reproductive stage and you would have a cheap but slower system (this could all be cr@p not checked anything)

You can grow cannabis female plants with these, but the lumens need to be high for the plants to make decent thc.

desultory

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Well if a person tried to grow some seedlings in this wet climate out in the open it will drown the plant completely. It just won't work to get a good female cannabis plant with buds of decent thc. If you mean growing a male plant then what's the point ? who wants male plants...No-one.

Those that aren't interested in smoking it's flower would want a male plant..


So yeah no one.

Bongalongherb

renegademaster wrote: »

it grows well under low wattage energy saving light bulbs!! i seen it with my own eyes and this would defo not set off any alarm bells

Yes a male cannabis plant will have no problem growing under CFL lights with very low lumens for power, but if a person wanted to grow one so they could enjoy a relaxing smoke, then they obviously want a female plant which produces a reasonable amount of thc, otherwise it will be like smoking a lettuce.

Lumens - one lumen is equal to the amount of light emitted by one candle that falls on one square foot of surface one foot away.
Watts – A measure of the amount of electricity flowing through a wire. Watt hours measure the amount of watts used in one hour. A kilowatt/hour (KWH) is 1000 watt/hours.
Light Spectrum – In simplest terms – Blue (425nm – 460nm, think a 6500k CFL or MH) & Red (630 – 660nm 2700k CFL or HPS). Blue wavelengths are associated with vegetative growth, and reds with rooting & blooming.

The Pro-Grow 260 takes over for the 600w HSP...

Growing indoors and employing L.E.D grow light technology is one of the newer methods employed in growing your plants effectively indoors. This form of light is completely different than the standard (HID) high-pressure sodium and (MH) Metal Halide variety of grow lamps in many respects.

Plants convert light energy into plant energy via photosynthesis. There are two primary compounds that achieve photosynthesis: Chlorophyll A, and Chlorophyll B. These compounds absorb blue and red light, while nearly all other spectra are reflected away from the plant and into the nether. There is a term called the “absorption peak” which is the point at which Chlorophyll converts light energy into plant energy the most efficiently. These absorption rises can be measured in units called nanometers (nm).

L.E.D’s (LED grow lights) are light sources that emit narrow wavelengths of light, and can be tailored to nearly any nm that you as a grower desire. By using L.E.D’s at the same nm as each of the absorption points for Chlorophyll, high-quality systems (like the Pro-Grow series we use) convert light energy into plant energy much effectively than HIDs, a Pro-Grow 180 LED lamp is easily comparable to a 400 watt HPS.



Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the herb is so delightful
And since we've got no place to go
Let It grow! Let It grow! Let It grow!!