Sowing in the Tropics | Planting - By: Enrique Dominguez

Since it's Halloween season, I'm going to tell you what could be a real horror story… Growing marijuana in Puerto Rico during hurricane season gives me the chills. Here on our beautiful island, this is precisely the most active part of hurricane season, and when you have plants flowering, it feels like a mix of anxiety and fear that I can't even begin to describe. As we've discussed in other posts, to grow good quality cannabis, in addition to good practices, you need good environmental control. And specifically, you need to maintain an uninterrupted photoperiod. Cannabis is a photoperiod-dependent flowering plant, and this flowering stage is triggered once the amount of light per day is restricted to a maximum of 12 hours every 24 hours. During the next 12 hours, the plants must be in total darkness.

That said, Puerto Rico is a fucking paradise and incredibly awesome because of its beaches, forests, culture, the quality of its people, etc. (The quality of its people excludes the politicians). But what's truly awful is experiencing a hurricane in PR, because of all the consequences these kinds of disasters bring to every sector and industry, because it's an island with infrastructure like something out of El Chavo del Ocho, but paying for something like the Jetsons. And the cannabis industry is no exception, whether it's a mass production grow, a basement, a room, or a closet in a house. Here are some tips on how to prepare, minimize losses, and have a better time.

GENERATOR

If you have any money invested in lights, air conditioners, energy bills, etc., you should definitely have a backup plan in case of a power outage. Even if you have a generator with less capacity than you need, you can manage by turning off a couple of lights and other equipment so that, while it won't be the same, you can continue and finish the cycle without interruption. (Always try to maintain a balance to keep the environmental conditions as close to normal as possible. For example, start by turning off some lights. This will reduce the amount of light reaching the plants, which in turn will lower the temperature of the area or cause the air conditioners to use less energy, since lights generate heat and consume energy.)

OUTDOOR

Another much cheaper option, but with more risks in every sense, is to put out all the plants you want to continue flowering or start flowering. You have the advantage that in our tropical paradise, you always have 12 hours of sun a day, so if you put them outdoors, although you will have to sacrifice quite a bit to fight against the relative humidity, temperature, fungi and insects (Find a place where there is a good wind, and the sun shines directly for most of the day, but where they don't receive a single ray of light when night falls; you can cover them with a small awning or canopy).

For plants that you want to remain in a vegetative state, you can take them outside during the day, but at night you must give them light for at least four additional hours beyond the twelve hours of sunlight, since for the cannabis plant to remain in a vegetative state it must receive light for at least sixteen hours a day.

TANK

Just like with a generator for electricity, ideally you should have a water reserve available so you never have to solve any of the following problems:

1) Rainwater! It's normal for it to continue raining for several days after a storm. So, start collecting rainwater to feed your plants. You don't have to worry about chlorine or minerals that might be present in well or spring water, which could alter the proportions of your nutrients; you just need to adjust the pH and you're all set.

2) You could collect water from one of the tanker trucks that the government uses as oases, but you must remember that you should at least let it sit for 24-48 hours so that as much chlorine as possible evaporates. Also, remember that tap water still has some dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium, which plants like, but we shouldn't overfeed them with these minerals, since most foods contain the necessary amounts of them.

In short, it's all about providing the environment that plants require as closely as possible, with the resources we have available, and trusting our instincts and the great connection of love that unites us with GAIA.

I hope this has been of some use to you and will save you some unpleasant experiences should you find yourself in a similar situation.

ENRIQUE DOMINGUEZ

@earthgiftkike