Kaya Gold in the Rockies.

Well it seems like every couple of years I come back to this site with a new grow. Although I have never been able to get any of my indoor grows to come to fruition, I am determined to make this my first successful crop.

All of my indoor grows have been with bag seeds, some of which I was told were Big Bud and Northern Lights though I have no way of telling if that was true or not. This season I am going to be doing an outdoor grow with some Kaya Gold purchased from Nirvana. I am going to be using standard seeds, no fem, no autoflower. I have read that it is a better idea to start with clones outdoors because that way you know they are all female, unfortunately I do not have the luxury of clones at the moment, but I do plan on taking some clones of any females that may be in the mix and possibly growing them indoors in constant veg (reclone etc.) so I will have a supply of fems for the next season and possible some small indoor grow this winter.

I am very excited to get started on this grow. I purchased the seeds today so I will eagerly be awaiting their arrival.

In the meantime, I thought I would start off by giving a description of the climate that I will be growing this lovely hardy strain in. I live thousands of feet above Denver (already a mile high). The air is dry, and we don't get much rain during the summer. We are still experiencing periods of frost so I figure by the time the seeds are ready for transplant outdoors the weather will finally be right for them. While I am waiting I will be preparing a nice plot of land for these plants. Rototilling up the hard dirt we have and adding perlite and some decent soil to make up for the lack of nutrients in the area.

In Colorado we are now allowed to grow up to 6 plants at any time, with no more than 3 flowering at any given time. I am just going to go ahead and grow as many females as there are in the 10 seed pack I bought though because I live in a pretty remote area, I am not too worried about LEO's.

I also live a decent distance from a lot of people, so even in plain open view I am not concerned about rippers.

I plan on growing until late September and trying to harvest somewhere around October 1st. I have been reading up on some outdoors grow experiences with Kaya Gold and these plants get tall. Some people were reporting 10+ foot tall plants. I am very excited about this, but I may top them so I can tarp over their enclosure in the event of hail.

I already have a nice area fenced in for them, with a door that I can lock.

I guess my only real question at the moment, is if there is anyone out there that is growing at high elevations. I read somewhere that the light intensity is higher at higher altitudes, I am not sure if it is really high enough to make a significant difference. I would like to get some people in here talking about their experiences at high altitudes and if there is anything special I might need to do to ensure a healthy harvest this fall.

Thanks for stopping by, I will be adding pics when the seeds come in, and ever step of the way once they are germinating.

Alright alright alright. I must look like a huge flake for writing that enormous intro, but I assure you I didn't flake. Life got kind of crazy around here and with all the new marijuana laws in colorado it is sort of like waiting for smoke to settle. So I didn't grow the 6 I had planned on, instead I grew 3. Unfortunately, one of them didn't want to grow until about 3 weeks ago (stayed small so I left it in a pot and then recently it just exploded up about 8 inches) and another big beautiful plant turned out to be a male, so he is dead now R.I.P. That essentially leaves me with one plant for the season.

I should mention that I started these plants about two months later than I had planned as well so they didn't even remotely reach their potential, however I am extremely pleased with what I have from my first outdoor grow. She and her tiny twin are still growing although I think they may only be a couple of weeks til harvest now.

I will attach a pic of the bigger plant and maybe later I will attach a pic of the smaller plant. Let me know what you think. I literally grew it in potting soil for the first month of it's life, and then stuck it in the ground. I gave it nutes twice, last week, and that is all of the nutes I have used since I started.

Just a little update: I think we got about a week left til she is done. The weather is getting cold so I don't want to overdue it, but she didn't flower until later than I was hoping. I decided to take some clones off of the plant even though she is flowering and to my surprise they all have root bumps growing on them. I just took the cuttings 4 days ago and am just cloning them in water with nothing special. Very surprised by this. I am going to keep one of the clones and make her into a bonsai mother to keep over the winter. I love this strain, it's very hardy and grows well in the high altitude and want to get an early start next year with the same genetics. The mother of these clones grows substantially from day to day and I think she might yield more than I originally had predicted. Next year I am expecting some 10 foot tall plants as they will have had time to grow for about 4 months before they are transplanted outside. Very excited.

Glad I found you on the forum. I was hoping to find someone with an outdoor grow in the Rockies. I was thinking mine needed maybay 1 more week before I pull them and now after reading your post, you just valided by thinking that 1 more week is probably right. I got mine tarped and bundled because of the possibility of cold tonight. Good luck with yours.

Do you have any updated pics? From the ones you posted on the 17th I would say they have another 4 weeks from that point which would put you into mid october

Unfortunately it got too cold and windy and I felt I had no choice but to chop my ladies. That was about 6 days ago. The humidity here is so low that they were dry by yesterday and are now trimmed and in a jar. It smells fruity. I decided to give it a try to see how much potency I managed to save and let me tell you, knocked my ass down. Off of the two plants I had (one about 2 1/2 feet tall, and the other just over a foot tall) I managed to get 20 grams. I am pretty pleased with this as it was mostly a test to see what I could get out of this harsh environment. Next year I will be growing 6 or more plants, haven't decided yet. I will post pics later showing the end result. Cheers.

20 grams out of two plants outdoors???? Damn not to sound rude but that's awful. They should have been a lot bigger than a couple feet tall. What did you use for nutrients if any?

You got something good to smoke out of the grow on top of the experience. I say that is a win. Especially if you started 2 months later in the season than you planned. I know what it is like to try and grow in the mountains and other truly harsh climates. You did well for a first time grow.

Way to go!

There are a lot of people that live in places that are very temperate (even thought they think it is harsh) and don't have any real idea how harsh a place can actually be. Don't worry about it. Next year will be that much better.

Thanks guys, I know it was a lot less than I had hoped for, but one plant didn't get but half the height of the other and my main plant was only a couple feet tall.

This year will be much better. I kept some clippings from my main female from last year and am in the process of making one of them into a bonsai mother plant. I will post some pics later today, it is really beautiful. The first couple of months of it's life I just kept it alive under some small CFL's, so no real growth, then about 2 weeks ago I stuck it under 2 fishtank CFL's that are 65 watts each and it pretty much exploded.

It went from maybe 1/2" planted height, up to about 9 inches in the last 2 weeks. I have topped it twice, but being a clone it actually grew a couple of tops out of the blue and now I am afraid it might be overcrowding itself, so I am probably going to take some branches off and clone them too and they will be the plants I start this new season with. I will not miss my mark and I will plant nearly 2 months earlier than last year, with well established plants rather than seedlings, so I cannot see a reason why this grow won't go tremendously better than last years grow did.

On last years harvest: I didn't get much, but what little I got was really good. It has no skunky smell, actually it just smells like really good orange juice, which has been a hit among my friends. It is really dense, and we can usually get 4 or 5 hits from our one hitter, so it didn't way much, but it has lasted. I am nearly out now, and am jonesing to get this girl back outside, I can't wait for this grow season.

If anyone is wondering how I cloned my plants, I just stuck the clippings in water and I had probably 90% success out of the clones I took. Of course I tossed all but the healthiest one I had, but that has to be the easiest method I have ever used to clone a plant. I am actually cloning the top that I took from this plant a week ago using the same method. I couldn't bring myself to throw that beautiful top away. Still looks as healthy now as it did when I cut it, so here in a week or so it should be ready to plant.

Pics to come , I will be updating this post throughout the winter highlighting the experience I am having growing a beautiful little bonsai mother.

Cheers.

edit: here is the pic of my bonsai mother. still in the process of bonsai(ing) her.

So I have an update. I am eager for this outdoor season. My bonsai mother has graciously given me 4 healthy clones (and tons of cuttings so far that I didn't have room for) and the clone I took from my small plant last year has given me 2 beautiful clones as well.

I have a total of eight plants, and will be giving quite a few away. The bonsai hasn't gotten over a foot tall as I cut it every time it does. The leaves are small now, and it has a nice woody stalk. I have transplanted the bonsai 3 times so far, into the same pot every time cutting about 1/3 of the root mass off each time. I have done the same on the other original clone I took, and it is about the same size.

Needless to say I will be starting out this growing season with at least 4 plants that are each a foot or two tall. I find it hard to think that they won't become monsters outside, even with our shorter summer season here in the Rockies. They grow a few inches a week under this fluorescent light, and keeping them small has been a rewarding chore. I think I get a good 8 clippings a month right now off of the bonsai, more if I am more stringent about her height.

They are all such beautiful plants, I can't believe I have had this strain alive for almost a year now.

I expect much larger yields this year, and once the outdoor season begins up here, I will try my hardest to post at least weekly updates.

This has been a real experience, not without it's challenges, but you just have to listen to your plant, and she will tell you what is wrong. Trust the plants, give them what they want, and they will reward you like nothing else on this planet.

That's all for now, cheers!

your description of where you live sounds like paradise, really blessed! why not ad another strain that is known for finishing early in a climate similar to yours? if she didn't finish last year likely it will still finish the same time.


you will certainly have a bigger harvest this season, definitely put the bonsai out she will have hundreds of tops from so many cuttings. get a large pot and some good soil let her grow to her max. I just hope she finishes for you.