Greetings!
A little quick background... I used to grow back in the 90's down in San Diego. We got our genetics by driving up to BC (Marc is the man!) or through clone trades with other growers. Now that I am setting up a new room (finally bought a house with a basement!
), I'm trying to decide which genetics to purchase. I recognize a few of the seed companies from "back in the day" such as Sensi Seeds, Dutch Passion, Sagamartha, and Serious Seeds. Some others sound familiar as well, but there soooooo many breeders and strains now!
I'm looking for feedback about what is your favorite strain from a growers perspective. While I'm not as large scale as some of the projects I was involved in previously, this is a commercial project, so yield is important. I know there are lots of threads asking which strain to grow, but most of the responses seemed to be focused on the smoke. While that's important, I feel just about any strain will be a pleasant smoke if grown well. Sure there are personal preferences and different ratios of THC & other canibinoids. That's why I'm planning to have 3-6 mothers.
Initially I wanted some Jack Herer as it's one of my favorite strains I've smoked. I remember being really impressed growing Blueberry and Hindu Kush back in the day too. Most of my growing friends liked Northern Lights for the yield, but I was never a fan of that strain. Most of the Jack Herer family of strains are really expensive! While I am OK spending $20 a seed for some of these prized genetics (it's a one time investment after all), I'm not sure the old adage "you get what you pay for" applies in this situation.
There are way too many breeders listed on the seed sites. I'm leaning towards making my purchase from Herbie or Seedman. I'll also consider Nirvana or Attitude, but if there is another seed bank you think is the best, let me know why you prefer them. I'm in the US, so reliable/stealth shipping are important.
So I'm looking for a variety of 3-5 strains. Not particular about the breeder other than having some preference to the ones I've heard of from the 90s. I would like a high yield plant that will lend itself to SOG, ie shorter plants with short flowing period (9 weeks or less ideally). One last requirement, and I'm not flexible on this one, I want regular seeds. I don't trust feminized seeds. I think any seed that is the result of self pollination is more prone to self pollinate again (ie hermie). I always had the worst luck with our bag seed plants turning into hermies. We never had a problem with the strains we bought from Marc.
If it helps, I will explain the plan for the new grow op. I'm starting with a 6'x12' flowering room with an ebb & grow bucket system. Since I'm starting from seeds, I'll be growing at least two crops of bushes. I'll be germinating around 30 seeds. I'll have to grow out every sprout until I sex them. Since I have 24 buckets, I'm hoping 30 seeds will yield 24 strong plants.
Of those 24, I'm anticipating 12 males. The goal is to flower out 12 bushy (ie not sog) plants. I'll be vegging all 24 plants for a couple weeks or so. A week or so after I change the photoperiod, I'll take 4-6 clones from each plant (keeping track of which are which of course). From experience, I know that cloning a plant already in flowering mode will work, but it takes longer for the clones to root and start new growth. This is fine since I can't use them until the first batch is harvested. Once the plants show their sex, I'll take the strongest male of each strain, and move them into a separate area. I'll let the males finish under some fluorescents to harvest the pollen for future breeding. I will cull the remaining males, and perhaps some of the weaker females if I have too many.
The remaining females will be finished out. I will keep the strongest clone of my favorite phenotype (perhaps 2 if they exhibit very different, but still desirable, traits) of each strain, and grow those into mothers. All the other female clones will then be transferred to the flowering room when the first batch are finished. At this point I may switch to sog, but I may need to do one more "bush" harvest before the mothers are big enough to sustain sog.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions. Work has begun on the new room. Started buying the hardware, so need to get my hands on some software (yes, I work in the IT field hehe). Sorry this ended up pretty long
I am planning to start a journal for the project. I've been taking pictures during construction in anticipation of putting them in a journal later on.
A little quick background... I used to grow back in the 90's down in San Diego. We got our genetics by driving up to BC (Marc is the man!) or through clone trades with other growers. Now that I am setting up a new room (finally bought a house with a basement!
), I'm trying to decide which genetics to purchase. I recognize a few of the seed companies from "back in the day" such as Sensi Seeds, Dutch Passion, Sagamartha, and Serious Seeds. Some others sound familiar as well, but there soooooo many breeders and strains now!I'm looking for feedback about what is your favorite strain from a growers perspective. While I'm not as large scale as some of the projects I was involved in previously, this is a commercial project, so yield is important. I know there are lots of threads asking which strain to grow, but most of the responses seemed to be focused on the smoke. While that's important, I feel just about any strain will be a pleasant smoke if grown well. Sure there are personal preferences and different ratios of THC & other canibinoids. That's why I'm planning to have 3-6 mothers.
Initially I wanted some Jack Herer as it's one of my favorite strains I've smoked. I remember being really impressed growing Blueberry and Hindu Kush back in the day too. Most of my growing friends liked Northern Lights for the yield, but I was never a fan of that strain. Most of the Jack Herer family of strains are really expensive! While I am OK spending $20 a seed for some of these prized genetics (it's a one time investment after all), I'm not sure the old adage "you get what you pay for" applies in this situation.
There are way too many breeders listed on the seed sites. I'm leaning towards making my purchase from Herbie or Seedman. I'll also consider Nirvana or Attitude, but if there is another seed bank you think is the best, let me know why you prefer them. I'm in the US, so reliable/stealth shipping are important.
So I'm looking for a variety of 3-5 strains. Not particular about the breeder other than having some preference to the ones I've heard of from the 90s. I would like a high yield plant that will lend itself to SOG, ie shorter plants with short flowing period (9 weeks or less ideally). One last requirement, and I'm not flexible on this one, I want regular seeds. I don't trust feminized seeds. I think any seed that is the result of self pollination is more prone to self pollinate again (ie hermie). I always had the worst luck with our bag seed plants turning into hermies. We never had a problem with the strains we bought from Marc.
If it helps, I will explain the plan for the new grow op. I'm starting with a 6'x12' flowering room with an ebb & grow bucket system. Since I'm starting from seeds, I'll be growing at least two crops of bushes. I'll be germinating around 30 seeds. I'll have to grow out every sprout until I sex them. Since I have 24 buckets, I'm hoping 30 seeds will yield 24 strong plants.
Of those 24, I'm anticipating 12 males. The goal is to flower out 12 bushy (ie not sog) plants. I'll be vegging all 24 plants for a couple weeks or so. A week or so after I change the photoperiod, I'll take 4-6 clones from each plant (keeping track of which are which of course). From experience, I know that cloning a plant already in flowering mode will work, but it takes longer for the clones to root and start new growth. This is fine since I can't use them until the first batch is harvested. Once the plants show their sex, I'll take the strongest male of each strain, and move them into a separate area. I'll let the males finish under some fluorescents to harvest the pollen for future breeding. I will cull the remaining males, and perhaps some of the weaker females if I have too many.
The remaining females will be finished out. I will keep the strongest clone of my favorite phenotype (perhaps 2 if they exhibit very different, but still desirable, traits) of each strain, and grow those into mothers. All the other female clones will then be transferred to the flowering room when the first batch are finished. At this point I may switch to sog, but I may need to do one more "bush" harvest before the mothers are big enough to sustain sog.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions. Work has begun on the new room. Started buying the hardware, so need to get my hands on some software (yes, I work in the IT field hehe). Sorry this ended up pretty long
I am planning to start a journal for the project. I've been taking pictures during construction in anticipation of putting them in a journal later on.
Get that grow going!
