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

hatrickpatrick · 20-05-2014 05:26PM #1

...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 · 20-05-2014 05:28PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:28PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:29PM

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

seamus · 20-05-2014 05:31PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:37PM

Need the heat for potency afaik.

wendell borton · 20-05-2014 05:37PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:43PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:44PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:44PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:45PM

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

ScumLord · 20-05-2014 05:49PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:50PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:54PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:55PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:56PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:59PM

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 · 20-05-2014 05:59PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:01PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:09PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:15PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:20PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:24PM

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 · 20-05-2014 06:30PM

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 · 20-05-2014 07:11PM

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 · 20-05-2014 07:15PM

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 · 20-05-2014 07:18PM

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 · 20-05-2014 08:24PM

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 · 20-05-2014 08:34PM

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 · 20-05-2014 08:39PM

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 · 20-05-2014 08:40PM

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

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

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