Emeraldo's 2021 East-Facing Balcony Grow

Emeraldo

Emeraldo

Well-Known Member
Maybe I'm jumping the gun here, posting about an outdoor grow in the middle of January, but I do miss that grow I had last summer. There was never a dull moment. Now, with the ground covered in snow, I can hardly wait to get started.

So, what kind of dreams am I having about this? Let's have a look at what pot seeds are available in the seed pot. Some of these are two years old, like Jamaican Pearl. Others, the Afghani #1 and Durban, are from last year. Not all of the seeds here are in sexy packaging, but a few of them are. Here's a peek.
IMG_2556.jpeg

IMG_2556.jpeg


However, the full inventory is a bit more extensive:
Jamaican Pearl - Sensi (3)
Durban - Sensi
Afghani #1 - Sensi
Spliff's Strawberry
Arjan's Strawberry Haze - GHS (second time buying this one, in 2020)
Sativa's Sour Diesel - Nirvana
Black D.O.G. - Humboldt freebie
White Widow x Bubblegum - Canna Seeds freebie
"Wet Dream Mix" - Canna Seeds freebie

Jamaican Pearl was excellent weed from my 2018 grow, euphoric and strong, I have 3 seeds left over and would like to try it again.

Durban and Afghani#1, both Sensi, are new. Durban is one of three "parents" of Mexican Sativa, I think more of the cerebral sativa side.

I also loved the Strawberry Haze of GHS, and thought a "comparison grow" of that with Spliff's Strawberry would be an interesting experiment comparing the two.

Sativa's Sour Diesel from Nirvana. Had these seeds for at least two years. I had grown Humboldt Seed's "Sour Diesel #2" in 2017, but haven't grown out this Nirvana strain yet. Nirvana's version claims it is a cross of Aurora Indica with Sativa Mexicana, so there I go again...

Then there are few freebies that came along with numerous orders. One of those is "Wet Dream Mix" I received as a gift from Canna Seeds when I had a whole package of Jack Flash #5 fail to germinate. It's a great gag. All fem. The photo of the dominatrix in her black leather outfit is a wonderful way to market Blue Domina. I like that name Orange Venus too. Long Jack Silver sounds like a haze, some kind of Jack and Super Silver spinoff, but you never know. I wonder why they called it Long. Long-lasting stone? I never really took a shine to Jessica Parker or her show, but I do not judge strains from their name.

Anyhoot, please stop by, and your comments on my available strains are welcome.

Emeraldo

:green_heart:

IMG_2557.jpeg

IMG_2557.jpeg

Wet Dream Mix
 
Great stuff Emeraldo, I can see you are champing at the bit to get into it!
Your available strains look a very interesting selection to choose from, pictorially enhanced by the lovely Canna Seeds freebie - haha. I look forward to seeing you get it underway, your last grow was a blast.
:ganjamon:
 
Ideas from the Seed Pot for 2021:
Jamaican Pearl - Sensi (several still in original package from 2018)
Durban - Sensi (got these in 2020)
Afghani #1 - Sensi (got these in 2020)
Spliff's Strawberry (2020)
Arjan's Strawberry Haze - GHS (2020)
Sativa's Sour Diesel - Nirvana (2018)
Black D.O.G. - HSO freebie (2017)
Blueberry Headband - HSO (2017)
OG Kush - Dinafem (2017)
White Widow x Bubblegum - Canna Seeds freebie
Blue Domina (from "Wet Dream Mix") - Canna Seeds freebie
Chrystal - Nirvana regular (originally from 2011), pollinated by Chrystal male grown for seeds in 2016
Mexican Sativa (S1 from 2018) (x PM?)
Purple Maroc (F1 from 2017, S1 from 2017, 2018) (x MS? JP? PM?)

I went digging in various seed pots for pot seeds and found more. So the list got a bit longer. Won't need to buy any new seeds for a while. The last three on the list would make a grow all by themselves!

I am happy I still have one S1 seed off the Mexican Sativa from 2018. Actually, I'd forgotten about it, but am still not sure how that happened. Mexican Sativa was a few feet from Purple Maroc during flowering, and was not far from the Jamaican Pearl. But I did not see any hermies on any of the plants. So it is a mystery how the Mexican Sativa was pollinated. In any event, there is one clue, and more about that below. I am hoping to germinate the one seed, if she is a cross maybe it will show. Since I only found one seed on the Mexican Sativa and none on Jamaican Pearl, most likely it is a cross Purple Maroc x Mexican Sativa. That looks even more likely because there were several S1 seeds on the Purple Maroc herself.

Indeed, I harvested about 10 seeds off the 2018 feminized Purple Maroc herself. These are S-2s, and are one further generation away from the original feminized seed. As between S-1 and S-2 stability, I'd guess the S-1 seeds from 2017 are the better bet. Because they're "closer" to the mom genetically. The story goes on, the Purple Maroc I grew in 2018 was herself grown from selfed seeds I had from my first Purple Maroc grow in 2017, when I grew feminized seeds from Female Seeds. Those 2017 plants produced fifty or so S-1 seeds, which I still have in the list. I grew three S-1s out the next year in 2018 just to see how a plant from selfed seeds grows, since I read they might be unstable or hermaphrodite. However, they were great plants and grew and flowered without problems. Good breeding. Looked beautiful just like their mom, a wonderful pheno. Lucky to still have some of the original feminized from FS, along with the many S-1 seeds from 2017.

However, the fact that there were 10 or more S-1, or rather S-2, seeds on the 2018 Purple Maroc suggests the seeds are selfed of the Purple Maroc and not a cross, neither Mexican Sativa nor Jamaican Pearl ever having showed nanners. Odds are greater that the Purple Maroc had a few nanners I never saw, since she grew from selfed seed and produced so many more seeds and only one seed appeared on another plant. I was also away for about a month that year in September.

Finally, I'd forgotten I have a ton of great looking seeds from my Nirvana Chrystal. It's a complicated story. I originally bought regular seeds of this strain in 2011, and that year I pollinated the females by accident, leaving some males standing around about 20 feet away whilst the girls were in flower. Oops. So I had more regular seeds. Over years there were some self-pollinated Chrystal seeds that I just found in the bud while rolling, apparently selfed seeds. I grew some of those out over the years and some of them produced nanners, especially if stressed from heat, which happened several times on the hot tiles causing root stress. And that caused me some stress too. o_O

So at some point I decided to produce fresh regular seeds, and in 2016 I grew a male Chrystal. It's logical that the seed the male sprouted from was regular and not from selfing, probably I still had some regulars from 2011. I also grew three females, but I can't recall whether they (with the male) were the last four regulars I had from 2011, or were they S1. I hope it they were all regular, but even if the female I pollinated was an S1, the genetic stability of her seeds will be strengthened from the mix with regular male pollen. I hope. I even had a very interesting thread on this genetic topic on icmag, and the participants seemed to agree the male might bring genetic strength to the table.

When he was in full flower and dropping pollen, I took him into the greenhouse with one of the Chrystal females, and dumped oodles of pollen on her. She promptly stopped flowering and produced about 500 seeds which have been waiting in the cool cellar these past 4 and half years. It will be interesting to see what sprouts from them. The regular Chrystal seeds I produced look good, large, striped, healthy. Better looking than some that come in a package...
 
Holy Mackerel, it'll be interesting what you choose to sprout with the choices and the considerations before you. My female photoperiod girls are currently very close to starting flowering, any day now. I intend to do at least one of two things, I have some White Widow pollen that is about 3 years old in the fridge that may or may not be viable which even though it is regular pollen that I will probably use it to try on the girls, and I also may have another go at trying to reverse a branch, which wasn't successful when I attempted it on my CBD Express Auto. Decisions... :smokin:
 
That is a kick-ass bean vault, Em’o! Interesting origin stories.
I see you going for more of a sunrise than a sunset garden this year. With soloists from that pool there’s bound to be some choons ♩♪♫

@Stunger remember, Koro that no part of a plant you’ve sprayed for reversal is safe to ingest.
:thumb:
 
DonkeyDick said:
That is a kick-ass bean vault, Em’o! Interesting origin stories.
I see you going for more of a sunrise than a sunset garden this year. With soloists from that pool there’s bound to be some choons ♩♪♫

@Stunger remember, Koro that no part of a plant you’ve sprayed for reversal is safe to ingest.
:thumb:
Click to expand...
When Donkey Member says somepin' is "kick ass", you know, y'know it's ... gonna be... well... yeeeeee-haw! :yahoo:

yeah, Koro's messin' with chemicals, trying to make feminized. It's so much easier to make regular, hee hee
 
A grow buddy is growing 2 plants from my regular White Widow x Gorgonzola, so if one of them turn out to be a male I'll hopefully get some pollen and use it to cross my photo girls. I still have some regular White Widow pollen stored carefully in the fridge sealed with rice, it's 3 years old and I am uncertain as to whether it is still viable so if nothing else I'll try that.:smokin:
 
ChronicTrees said:
I’m In! You got some nice strains going on there. I would really like the Afghani for sure. The Afghani, and Sour Díselo. What Is your goal yield wise, and what Is your setup?
Click to expand...
Hey Chronic, and welcome. The grow being and outdoor thing, I really did jump the gun posting about those strains. Obviously, in a balcony stealth grow, I need to supercrop my ambitions and LST the urge to post too much. You'll see more action here in a few months. Setup is looking east, so morning sun. In June, sunshine from early until mid-afternoon, then indirect light. The afternoon sun gets sweltering in July, so the morning sunlight is a good setup imho.

At present I plan to germinate in April and set them out in May. But which?
Too many strains to choose from, it's a problem that arises from all those freebies! :lot-o-toke:

Afghani, yes. Pure indicas are great for a balcony stealth grow, they stay short and out of sight of nosey neighbors.

Durban, yes. A mostly sativa. Hopefully will do well in this climate.

Actually, I wish I had -- there I go again! -- more Jack Herer seeds, that strain has gotta be one of the best I've ever had. Have you ever tried Sensi's JH? I had 3 freebies and grew out one female two years ago but didn't pollinate her. I had one male as well, but wanted to try JH first, so I chopped him and harvested her. This time I would grow a male and make seeds. To do that, I'd need to order more JH seeds. The last thing I need is to order more seeds. With more freebies... (Sigh)
 
Emeraldo said:
Ideas from the Seed Pot for 2021:
Jamaican Pearl - Sensi (several still in original package from 2018)
Durban - Sensi (got these in 2020)
Afghani #1 - Sensi (got these in 2020)
Spliff's Strawberry (2020)
Arjan's Strawberry Haze - GHS (2020)
Sativa's Sour Diesel - Nirvana (2018)
Black D.O.G. - HSO freebie (2017)
Blueberry Headband - HSO (2017)
OG Kush - Dinafem (2017)
White Widow x Bubblegum - Canna Seeds freebie
Blue Domina (from "Wet Dream Mix") - Canna Seeds freebie
Chrystal - Nirvana regular (originally from 2011), pollinated by Chrystal male grown for seeds in 2016
Mexican Sativa (S1 from 2018) (x PM?)
Purple Maroc (F1 from 2017, S1 from 2017, 2018) (x MS? JP? PM?)

I went digging in various seed pots for pot seeds and found more. So the list got a bit longer. Won't need to buy any new seeds for a while. The last three on the list would make a grow all by themselves!

I am happy I still have one S1 seed off the Mexican Sativa from 2018. Actually, I'd forgotten about it, but am still not sure how that happened. Mexican Sativa was a few feet from Purple Maroc during flowering, and was not far from the Jamaican Pearl. But I did not see any hermies on any of the plants. So it is a mystery how the Mexican Sativa was pollinated. In any event, there is one clue, and more about that below. I am hoping to germinate the one seed, if she is a cross maybe it will show. Since I only found one seed on the Mexican Sativa and none on Jamaican Pearl, most likely it is a cross Purple Maroc x Mexican Sativa. That looks even more likely because there were several S1 seeds on the Purple Maroc herself.

Indeed, I harvested about 10 seeds off the 2018 feminized Purple Maroc herself. These are S-2s, and are one further generation away from the original feminized seed. As between S-1 and S-2 stability, I'd guess the S-1 seeds from 2017 are the better bet. Because they're "closer" to the mom genetically. The story goes on, the Purple Maroc I grew in 2018 was herself grown from selfed seeds I had from my first Purple Maroc grow in 2017, when I grew feminized seeds from Female Seeds. Those 2017 plants produced fifty or so S-1 seeds, which I still have in the list. I grew three S-1s out the next year in 2018 just to see how a plant from selfed seeds grows, since I read they might be unstable or hermaphrodite. However, they were great plants and grew and flowered without problems. Good breeding. Looked beautiful just like their mom, a wonderful pheno. Lucky to still have some of the original feminized from FS, along with the many S-1 seeds from 2017.

However, the fact that there were 10 or more S-1, or rather S-2, seeds on the 2018 Purple Maroc suggests the seeds are selfed of the Purple Maroc and not a cross, neither Mexican Sativa nor Jamaican Pearl ever having showed nanners. Odds are greater that the Purple Maroc had a few nanners I never saw, since she grew from selfed seed and produced so many more seeds and only one seed appeared on another plant. I was also away for about a month that year in September.

Finally, I'd forgotten I have a ton of great looking seeds from my Nirvana Chrystal. It's a complicated story. I originally bought regular seeds of this strain in 2011, and that year I pollinated the females by accident, leaving some males standing around about 20 feet away whilst the girls were in flower. Oops. So I had more regular seeds. Over years there were some self-pollinated Chrystal seeds that I just found in the bud while rolling, apparently selfed seeds. I grew some of those out over the years and some of them produced nanners, especially if stressed from heat, which happened several times on the hot tiles causing root stress. And that caused me some stress too. o_O

So at some point I decided to produce fresh regular seeds, and in 2016 I grew a male Chrystal. It's logical that the seed the male sprouted from was regular and not from selfing, probably I still had some regulars from 2011. I also grew three females, but I can't recall whether they (with the male) were the last four regulars I had from 2011, or were they S1. I hope it they were all regular, but even if the female I pollinated was an S1, the genetic stability of her seeds will be strengthened from the mix with regular male pollen. I hope. I even had a very interesting thread on this genetic topic on icmag, and the participants seemed to agree the male might bring genetic strength to the table.

When he was in full flower and dropping pollen, I took him into the greenhouse with one of the Chrystal females, and dumped oodles of pollen on her. She promptly stopped flowering and produced about 500 seeds which have been waiting in the cool cellar these past 4 and half years. It will be interesting to see what sprouts from them. The regular Chrystal seeds I produced look good, large, striped, healthy. Better looking than some that come in a package...
Click to expand...
Beautiful selection of magic beans there to choose from ....
 
Emeraldo said:
Hey Chronic, and welcome. The grow being and outdoor thing, I really did jump the gun posting about those strains. Obviously, in a balcony stealth grow, I need to supercrop my ambitions and LST the urge to post too much. You'll see more action here in a few months. Setup is looking east, so morning sun. In June, sunshine from early until mid-afternoon, then indirect light. The afternoon sun gets sweltering in July, so the morning sunlight is a good setup imho.

At present I plan to germinate in April and set them out in May. But which?
Too many strains to choose from, it's a problem that arises from all those freebies! :lot-o-toke:

Afghani, yes. Pure indicas are great for a balcony stealth grow, they stay short and out of sight of nosey neighbors.

Durban, yes. A mostly sativa. Hopefully will do well in this climate.

Actually, I wish I had -- there I go again! -- more Jack Herer seeds, that strain has gotta be one of the best I've ever had. Have you ever tried Sensi's JH? I had 3 freebies and grew out one female two years ago but didn't pollinate her. I had one male as well, but wanted to try JH first, so I chopped him and harvested her. This time I would grow a male and make seeds. To do that, I'd need to order more JH seeds. The last thing I need is to order more seeds. With more freebies... (Sigh)
Click to expand...
Haven’t grown any Sensi Seeds JH, or Jh at all. I can get ahold of some really good seeds from Seedsupreme, including Jack Herer seeds, just never ended up growing any JH before.
I definitely would love to try It, due to Jack Herer being a great strain, (I’ve smoked many blunts of Jack Herer, just never grew It personally).
 
Dohc007 said:
Greetings Emeraldo.
I sort of got to this thread following the cloven track marks of @DonkeyDick
Love to join in an watch the next adventure.
Really thought you were going to say:
"Actually,I wish I had a tent..."
:laughtwo:
Click to expand...
Welcome, Dohc007. Am still in the process of wondering: Which?

Jack Herer grown on the East-facing grow last time (otherwise known as my Arjan's Haze #1 grow) has me convinced I now want to grow with that kind of reliable, true-breeding, regular genetics. In fact, I'd like to eventually build up a reserve of first-class genetics like Northern Lights and Haze strains that were developed from California strains beginning in the 1970s by Schoenemakers, Shantibaba, Sensi, and other Dutch breeders. IBLs "with variation" to a certain extent.

Those guys at that time did something historic. They isolated and strengthened the indica and purified the haze. Then started the wide ranging search for a balanced strain, leading to Jack Herer [50% haze, 37.5% Northern Lights, 12.5% Shiva skunk (NL#5 x Skunk#1)]. It seems Sensi crossed skunk#1 x NL#5, back-crossed with NL, then crossed with haze. There are so many great strains like Super Silver Haze or Mango Haze that pretty much follow the same proportions. Mr. Nice's Mango Haze took a different approach: 50% haze x skunk, 50% haze x NL.

There is always a skunk component, which is where I run aground because I cannot grow anything with even 25% skunk without "exceeding the stealth limits", as @Stunger likes to put it. I once grew a 100% skunk, quite naiively, and had the neighbors running about sniffing in the air. Later I grew a 25% skunk strain, and even that caused me nosey-neighbor anxiety. Jack Herer has 12.5% skunk, and that seems to be about the limit.

I've read that a kush strain can be a skunk substitute since kush generally has skunk genetics (Master Kush = Hindu Kush x skunk). Mr Nice Seedbank mentions this aspect of kush subsituting for skunk is largely overlooked (see MNS strain "The Stones" using kush). Some kush strains, like the Nirvana Seed's Master Kush I grew about 10 years ago, do not have the penetrating pungeancy that a 50% skunk normally would have, and yet provide that aromatic angle without going over the limits and getting too stinky.

It would be great to find a way to inject hybrid vigor into a favorite strain like Jack. But even to start going down that road to breed (or maybe just back-cross and/or strengthen) a balanced strain or IBL, infusing it with more of one side or the other, I need to find a breeder who still breeds the basic building blocks. I see Barney's Farm has discontinued Northern Lights and NL x Haze. Heck, they even discontinued White Widow -- white widow discontinued! Imagine that, what's it all coming to? Commercial pressures? I guess the old strains just get boring? Nobody buyin' anything without a sexy name. I note many discontinued strains are regular seeds, which also says folks are not into pollinating or creating crosses.
Screenshot 2021-02-04 at 13.30.48.png

Screenshot 2021-02-04 at 13.30.48.png


Today there is such a mish-mash of genetics in some strains, it can be hard to tell one hybrid-of-a-hybrid from the next. It makes me want to start over with a clean slate.

So where would you get a good solid indica for crossing? Black Domina (Afghanistan x Ortega x Northern Lights x Hash Plant) from Sensi looks good, as does Black Afghani Kush (OG Kush x Afghanistan x Black Domina) by Medicann. Sensi's good ol' Northern Lights is still there. I wonder if there is any benefit to re-crossing to NL again, and Black Domina has 25% Northern Lights genetics as it is. Or would Black Afghani Kush be a better choice for a strong indica side of the cross? Am looking for a kick-ass indica that just begs to be crossed with an uplifting haze with a bit of somethin' skunky in between. Any suggestions are welcome.

I may try Mr. Nice Seedbank as they still carry the generic basic 50/50 crosses like NL x skunk and NL x haze, just basic genetics for crossing purposes. Which will save me years of work. Those MNS seeds make it a lot easier to intensify or freshen up a well-worn IBL strain, if nothing else. MNS even has "skunk" crosses with less skunk, like the Early Skunk Haze (25%). MNS strain "U2" has the following lineup genetically: Mexican 12.5%, Early Pearl 12.5%, Early Girl 12.5%, Super Skunk 12.5% and Haze 50%. I also really like the fact that almost all MNS' strains are growable indoors and outdoors, and developed to appeal to a grower who wants to cross them.

Ace Seeds carries a good line of pure haze strains like Oldtimer's Haze and Green Haze for the haze side of things. These ripen in various timeframes, all of them longer, most in December and January, so ... January! Not sure I can do that one, we'll see.

So, maybe some kind of cross... just wondering.

Cheers from covid exile, hope you are all well. If I had a tent, I'd never have an off-season to wonder about things.

:ganjamon:
 
Emeraldo said:
If I had a tent, I'd never have an off-season to wonder about things.
Click to expand...
That would be nice, I envy the growers who can go from one grow/harvest to the next without a break.

Interesting set of breeding considerations ahead of you. As far as what to select in order to cross/backcross is beyond my experience but @Jackalope has a lot of knowledge on what you are considering but he might be too away from the internet fishing for lake trout. :smokin:
 
Thanks Stunger! My ponderings will lead me somewheres, mehopes. The stock of genetics will have to come together over the next years for me, I can't see starting that this year. I'd welcome any comment from @Jackalope, am on a pretty steep learning curve there.

I am looking forward to starting germinating the next East-facing around April 1 with the first set of strains, regulars. That will include Chrystal (seed grown in 2016), and possibly, hopefully, some regular Jack Herer, the Hemperor's hisself, we'll see.

The rest of the grow I am not yet sure. I'd definitely like to grow Jamaican Pearl again. Purple Maroc, as well. I still have feminized seeds for both from 4 years ago. New for me would be Durban. Would like to grow an indica too. Was thinking first of Afghani #1, and even got some seeds. But it is reported to be very stinky. I could try OG Kush fem, which I got by mail years ago. But I didn't really like it the first time, so I think I'll skip that one. Maybe that Blue Domina (without the whip)? Is there any connection between her and a Blue Donkey Dick?

:laugh:
 
Oh dear.
Your dry humour chafes :laugh:

Hey have you had a play on phylos galaxy to look for dissimilar varieties? It can help to get a visualisation of your needs/feeds/breeds.
:peace::hookah:
 

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