My Outdoor Garden-2010

[RPsmoke420]

I need to know a few things, before I start spouting off.

How mature are your males and females?

Very young. Only three almost four weeks old. Just getting ready for this outdoor season. I am asking now, but don't plan to start anything until the plants are ready. I will not force early flowering unless I need to. I would wait until fall.

Next year I plan to use more of your methods and try for a double harvest and seeds much like you do now.

This is for future reference. Many plants will go into the ground, but some will stay in large pots/totes. These will be what I use for some "breeding" of sorts. Basically move them clear across the yard. LOTS of space.

Have you ever seen how males develop and release pollen?

I have seen males grow, but killed before they released any pollen.

I have had hermie plants pollinate before. But as you can guess, I didn't notice the male part...

How many strains do you have, and have you selected which crosses you want to make?

I have a lot of strains. Too many to list. If you are really interested, then I will. Let me know.

I have thought about crossing a Chruch with an A-train. Or maybe a Purple Train Wreck with some Black Domina. But a lot of this depends on what males turn up.

I also got 15 autoflower seeds for this year. This will stay in pots/totes and not waste ground space. I have 10 diesel ryder seeds, and 5 ak47xlowryder seeds.

Now... I am thinking maybe taking one or two males from the Autoflowers. Cross these with a normal cannabis plant I have. Say Church... And then harvest those seeds. I wonder what will happen. What differences would I get... some be auto and some be normal? Increase yield or resin for the auto? Or decrease resin and yield for a regular? I don't know. I have them... so figure I'd play around and see what happens.

Labeling is VERY important. Be sure to include dates.

I label, date, time, everything. I then rewrite it all into a corrisponding calendar/journal.

Since I have everything I need, I'll probably do a short tutorial on my breeding methods, this afternoon.

Most strains require 4-5 weeks to finish seed maturation.

When trying to judge seed maturity, look closely at the seed pods(calyxes). When seeds are near maturity, many calyxes will split to show a sliver of the seed, inside. With a 10x loupe, you should be able to see the seed's color. Shiny brown, mottled or black coloring indicates a mature seed.

Pollinate lightly. Fewer seeds mean bigger, more vigorous seeds, as a rule.

More, later.

Thank you very much. Look forward to reading more.

 

[veggiegardener]

Thank you very much. Look forward to reading more.

OK, I took a bunch of photos that should show enough to get you started.

The reason I asked about strain numbers involves the need for segregation.

I'll try to cover that in the tute.

 

[veggiegardener]

Here's the skinny on how I make seeds.

I start by watching my plants, carefully.

Once a male begins to bloom, I look it over daily, removing open and ready to open flowers, as they ripen.

The pictures show small jars with flowers and pollen that has already been collected.

 

[veggiegardener]

I use tweezers to remove open and ripe flowers, placing them in jars, segregated by strain.

Hopefully you can see what open and ripe flowers look like.

You can often find pollen on leaves below open flowers.

It's amazing how much pollen one of these tiny flowers can contain.

 

[veggiegardener]

After I've harvested the day's pollen, I place the jars in a dark, dry place that has little air movement.

I leave them open, making sure there is no chance of confusing labels.(See the first post in this tute.)

This allows the flowers to dry.

When I reclose the jars, I give each a vigorous shake, loosening more pollen from the flowers.

When the flowers seem dried, I carefully remove them, taking care to leave as much clean pollen in the jars as possible.

Included are random pix of a variety of males.

 

[veggiegardener]

I take care to dry the pollen as I go, to prepare it for freezing.

Undried pollen molds easily.

Before freezing, I pollinate various plants as they produce female flowers.

I like to pollinate a bud when a dime sized cluster of pistils(hairs) are available at each node.

Sometimes, as in the case with the Magic Carpet Ride(MCR) female, she is slow to produce flowers, so I'm pollinating what is available. A few dozen flowers.

I take great care to be sure I check the tags and labels to insure I've got the right plant, and jar of pollen.

I then make a tag, BEFORE I pollinate the bud or branch, and tie it loosely just below the buds I intend to pollinate.

 

[veggiegardener]

Normally, I take each female plant outdoors to pollinate it, well away from other girls.( It has been cold and wet, so most of these pix were taken inside the boy's greenhouse.)

After a few hours, to a day, I give the pollinated plant a shower to wash away, and destroy any loose pollen.

The third pic is of a female whose male counterpart is in the same pot. She'll produce a lot of seeds.

Some males will produce very few flowers, but if even one shows visible pollen, that is enough to make dozens, or even hundreds of seeds.

 

[veggiegardener]

A couple more pix, showing my fine technique!

When the seeds ripen, in four or five weeks, I'll take pix of the seeded buds.

Many growers find doing their own breeding an unhappy experience. Usually, they are easily disappointed, because they expect perfection with every try.

I currently have several hundred crosses in my collection, but most will never have seeds planted. Sometimes mother plants prove to be mediocre.

Sometimes hermies show up in a strain(compost).

Breeding is an adventure.

I started doing it out of necessity to keep fresh seed, quite a while back, before Amsterdam seed houses started.

I have about 40 IBL strains, and try to get fresh seed from each at least once every five years.

I also have two hybrid strains that are VERY promising.

A caveat:

There are several things going on that are going to make the lives of growers miserable, IF they don't make their own seeds.

Feminizing seeds removes your ability to breed seeds, if something happens to your sources for seeds(Holland bans seed sales?)

More and more seed producers aren't completely honest about the strains they sell. Anybody can call their seeds "White Russian".

Even if the seeds are the result of male and female White Russian plants, the offspring aren't from THE original parent stock.

I know that backcrosses don't necessarily breed true. I select those offspring that resemble their parents most closely.

Yes, there is some drift in the genetics, but it still beats reordering a strain, only to find out THIS batch ain't the same.

There are a lot of folks doing breeding willy nilly, keeping poor records, and with no real goal. Just hoping to get lucky.

Too often, this leads to potent, but muddy, unfocused highs. This is another reason most of my crosses won't reach soil. They aren't what we like.

I hope you find this useful, and as always, I'll try to answer any questions.

Now for a little Starburst. If I ever sell seeds, this one is gonna be expensive.

 

[toquer]

veggie, awesome read...just caught up on all 25 pages...
got a question about re-veg as it's too late for 4 plants outside, i was able to finish some, but not all of them.

1 bubba, 2 maui's (3rd generation for me) and a sour diesel. At what point would i trim back the plant? they've been out since sometime in January and weren't able to finish. I'll get picks tomorrow if you like, but the maui's have serious nugs on them and would have another month to finish. It's begun growing curly leaves out of the buds and the leaf structure has changed a few weeks back. we knew it was going to not finish, but i didn't want to stop it's growth. it'll be an awesome fall harvest. The Diesel is easy to figure out as it doesn't have the bud weight that the maui's do. the bubba will be an intersting one though, it was close enough to harvest but i like taking her all the way to amber before harvest so that she goes well with coffee and ice cream!! and i've never revegged her so it will be a good experience.

i think there was a question in there.

 

[veggiegardener]

Thanks for taking the time to read the whole thing!

I think you're wondering about the optimum harvesting time, and how much to take?

Once a plant begins to reveg, just remove the best buds, leaving 1/3 to 1/2 of the vegetation. Try to preserve healthy sun leaves.

On larger buds, you can cut them back, leaving a few new leaves at each node, near the main stem.

Before hacking away, decide whether you want to reveg the plant straight up, or use Low Stress Training to spread the canopy. It will affect how you prune the plant. At least it makes a difference to me.

If you do a good cure, even the immature buds should be good smoke.

If not, make Cannabutter.

 

[mariapastor]

i figure when my plant is 4 weeks inn, its the best time to breed 'cause seeds take about a lil over a month to ripen right???or would pollenating slow the flowering process veggie? another question ??, after pollinating would re-vegging affect the seeding proccess..... if i were a month in and polinated my plant and if it reveged would the seeds stop produce?????

 

[WheresWaldosBUD]

i had a question for you veggie as soon as they show sex can i plant them outdoors or do i graudualy up the light cycle in my growroom or do i switch to 14-16hrs right away

 

[veggiegardener]

i figure when my plant is 4 weeks inn, its the best time to breed 'cause seeds take about a lil over a month to ripen right???or would pollenating slow the flowering process veggie? another question ??, after pollinating would re-vegging affect the seeding proccess..... if i were a month in and polinated my plant and if it reveged would the seeds stop produce?????

In my experience, the seeds will finish, but will be harder to find, with the new growth. The tags are very important in that situation.

 

[veggiegardener]

i had a question for you veggie as soon as they show sex can i plant them outdoors or do i graudualy up the light cycle in my growroom or do i switch to 14-16hrs right away

If it is warm enough, you can plant outdoors, immediately. In California, April 1st is about the time you can set young plants out to veg.

 

[toquer]

so on my maui that looks like the plant below, you'd probably say take at least half of that off? i'm almost at the mindset of getting a refridgerator box or a washing maching box and covering her half of the day. but i think for this one it's too late, the one next to her is more hidden from the direct light and hasn't totally gone like this.

 

[veggiegardener]

Nice heavy looking plant!

If you don't need the smoke, you could just let her revert, but if it were me, I'd take the two taller branches and the terminal bud off the rest of the branches.

This speeds and encourages revegging, in my experience.

 

[mariapastor]

if i leave all the pop corn budz would it revert to reveg veggie??.. or if more like 2/3rds off the plant work just the top heavy buds

 

[veggiegardener]

Yes, leaving the popcorn buds will work. Preserve as many healthy sun leaves as possible.

 

[Sure Shot]

If it is warm enough, you can plant outdoors, immediately. In California, April 1st is about the time you can set young plants out to veg.

Ever have a plant go into flower from this?
I've been hearing most gardeners say Around May 1.

 

[veggiegardener]

Ever have a plant go into flower from this?
I've been hearing most gardeners say Around May 1.

I'm at the 38th parallel, and have never had a vegging plant revert to flower after April 1st, although some strains will show a few flowers. They just never get serious, but continue vegging.

In my opinion, that is about the earliest that a clone(sexually mature plant) can be placed outdoors.

In a warm location, seed can be planted as early as March 1st, based on the fact that seedlings take a minimum of a month to reach sexual maturity.

Weather in most of the United States would prohibit such early plantings, rather than day length.

Waldo is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the weather is very even, with frosts a rarity.