TripleG's Apartment Based Breeding Grounds

Ganjagrowergu

Well-Known Member
I've been running the same journal for over 6 months now. Figure it is time to put that puppy to rest. It is very long and packed with tons of real world learning experiences, but the title doesn't match what's going on in my world in any way whatsoever. Fresh start. Been putting it off for awhile.

As a stay at home dad, I had to find a good hobby. I learned how to grow with reasonable success over the past year, harvesting 30+ small plants. I learned how to build grow lights that won't burn my complex to the ground, and I also did/do lots of research about genetics and heredity and different ways of breeding cannabis. Stabilization and all that stuff.

My first hybrid was a Punto Rojo x Unknown x Dark Devil auto. I am in the midst of pursuing the stabilization of a regular autoflower cultivar using this first cross of mine. I currently have two F2 autoflower phenotypes growing in my closet, a boy and a girl. So, the show is well on the road.




I am also in the midst of a genetic preservation project with a couple of Harlequin plants. The female was badly damaged as a seedling but is still healthy. The Male, is a freaking bull.

I am also growing 2 Sensi NL and 2 Sensi NL x Nirvana NL IBL as well as 2 Devil's Pitchfork F2 photoperiods in my flowering tent.



Basically I do this in my 680sq ft apartment. I utilize a 32"x 48"x60" tent, a 50"x22"x48" section of closet, and my kitchen window.

Veg light (to be upgraded soon) is a 51w DIY SMD array with mixed blurple and 6500k 3w epistar diodes.

The flowering tent runs on 2x qb288 V1s in 4000k at 240w max. I also have a DIY 2 chip 44w Vero18 fixture that I run when the ladies get further into flower.

I grow in coffee can size hempys with red lava rock from home depot. I feed 1/4 tsp/ga Mega-Crop to seedlings and early veg. After a few nodes I feed 1tsp/ga Mega-Crop, as the stretch finishes up I like to switch to 1/2 tsp/ga each Mega-Crop and Maxibloom. During the last 7-10 days of life I feed straight tapwater. All ph'd at 5.5-6.0 using white vinegar and Chinese test strips.

So, there we have it. This is what I am doing now. There is a lighting upgrade ahead as well as some tester seeds from a private breeder that should be very interesting. I try to post pics a few times a week and ramble a bit in between.

Peace.
 
Things are starting to heat up in here. Look forward to seeing your breeding projects get going.
It's definitely a very exciting time for me. Glad you made it over here.

I do have a quick question @beez0404 When you are gifted a clone, do you quarantine them for a time, or do some kind of dip to prevent pest contamination? My neighbor can get me cuttings of White Widow, but I've had bad experiences in the past with imported clones. You seem to have pretty good luck with them.
 
No matter who or where I get a clone from I quarantine it until I can treat it for potential pests. As a rule when you receive a clone it doesn't have a whole mature network of roots. I gently squeeze the root ball / soil whatever and break it up to get rid of as much of the "unknown" soil as I can. I then have a good size bowl filled with 50/50 mix of H2O2. I submerge the whole plant and with my fingers try to VERY GENTLY remove more of the soil from the roots the whole time keeping the foliage under the water. If after 5 minutes I don't see any pests float or swim to the surface (and I do watch) I'll remove the plant from the dip and carefully replant her paying special attention to the roots. At that point she would be, in my opinion, ready for the general population.

If you receive a mature clone with a bunch of roots I would first submerge the root ball (in the pot) and just leave it there for 10 minutes again watching for critters to swim or float to the top. If I see nothing I flip it over and submerge the foliage for five minutes. In this scenario I would keep this plant in quarantine for a week or so just to be safe.
 
Thanks much, Beez.

Several years ago I imported a mature clone of Harlequin. I also imported a large population of spider mites hell bent on world domination.

I banned imported clones across the board. After my clonebucket pump died and wiped out an entire generation of irreplaceable genetics, I actually stopped growing altogether for 2 years vowing to never cut a clone again.

Still gun shy about importing. But I feel like I have one more piece of the puzzle. Knowledge is power.

The main reason for an inquiry about clone care in a breeding journal: Chemdawg x Sour Angel seeds. They aren't planted yet, but I am nonetheless preparing to do so next week. I plan to clone the heck out of them and try my hand at keeping a bonsai mom.

Ugh, roommates are irritating even if they are good ones. He's only got about 3.5 weeks left, he works full time, buys groceries for the household, buys his own pot, and he paid in advance... Yet I struggle. Anxiety is weird.
 
They aren't planted yet, but I am nonetheless preparing to do so next week. I plan to clone the heck out of them and try my hand at keeping a bonsai mom.

Being an untested hybrid the smart thing to do would be to pop two seeds. One to grow, and one to turn into a Bonsai mom. By the time you harvest that plant and determine if the bud quality is there you'll have mastered the keeping of a Bonsai mom. If the buds are mediocre kill the Bonsai mom.

Here is my Chem 91 X Cherry Aliendawg Bonsai mom.

She is about 5 months old. I've cut back her roots twice so far as she got root bound. I am trying to keep my moms of a size that I could harvest 5-10 cuttings at any given time except for right after they're "cut back" to reduce their size. And I only cut them back when I'm in a position that I would not need a cutting of that plant for at least a month.
 
I wonder if the tiny fabric pots I ordered would work well for bonsai. They're about the size of my 9cm nursery pots. Maybe they would allow too much growth, but maybe not. At least up-potting wouldn't be a problem if they turn out to be too small.

I once grew a plant start to finish in an old hospital sock. She was almost 4ft tall when I supercropped her 5 weeks into flower... some sativas stretch forever.
 
I've been looking for good quality plastic pots that are square and will hold about 2x the amount of medium a Solo cup will hold. The square pots will make it easier to shave the roots down when necessary. It can be done with round pots but I have to remove more then I would like to get clean surfaces.
 
A quick look

Let's start with the Devil's Pitchfork F2s. These are growing great. The Male auto stinks like skunk, the female auto; very little odor. He has been placed in the kitchen window until I harvest his pollen



The photoperiods are very bushy


Northern lights are plugging along




Then Harlequin.. the Male popped a dozen flowers over the course of Friday night into Saturday morning. Clear signs of pollination exist. Male flowers are drying in a paper sack far away from any females. In fact everybody in the tent got a little. Mission accomplished.
Finally took the time to document this, she grew in a circle inside the rockwool cube before my daring rescue.


And a group shot

Since that pic I rearranged a bit and cranked on the cobs. Moving along rather smoothly.
 
Looking good! That curly one is crazy looking :oops:
I had to surgically remove her from the inside of the cube with a toothpick. She had done a complete 360° inside and was supercropped during removal. As luck would have it, she was the only female out of 5. Tough effing plants

My belief is that since I scar my seeds before planting, they get stuck in the rockwool fibers, making successful germination a PITA. I think rockwool has a definite place in cloning, just not seeds.
 
They are tuff plants. My veg tent is too full and I'm trying to keep the plants short so I topped a couple, well I took off half the tops on a couple and they didn't mind a bit. I've never used rockwoll before. Always seemed kinda strange material to me. But I know it works looking at all the people who use it
 
Until some newer/better method of germination comes along I'll never start a seed in anything other then a perlite hempy cup with 1/4 strength nutrients drenching the perlite. My germination success rate is so close to 100% that it would be silly to try any other way. And I think the tiny number of seeds that haven't sprouted in the hempy were broken to begin with and wouldn't have sprouted no matter how I tried.
 
Hempy scares the shit out of me. I don't know why, just seems like I'd screw up and let it dry out. I'll have to try it eventually. Lol
Most folks use 100% perlite in their hempys. Over here ---> Hempy Headquarters They are testing some super coarse perlite.
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I chase healthy roots. The roots I got in rockwool with successful germinations were bright white, fuzzy, and robust. I had more success than failure. Just a few too many failures. I may revisit rockwool when cloning time comes along, seems like it would fit into that niche very nicely.

I have experience with coco, it was available very cheap ($3 brick of Burpees) as were the fabric pots (about $5/100) . I felt comfortable making the purchase. The $25 worth of lava rock I bought a couple months ago should last me a couple of years. The nutrients are inexpensive and very effective (spent less than $25 in about a year). Most money invested here is in lights and air circulation/odor control.

In short, I am a penny pincher
 
I've grown a handful of plants start to finish in pure perlite. But I'm basically a lazy gardener. My preference is Promix BX and if I am running plants in the Promix and a plant or two in hempy I'm having to mix multiple bottles of nutrients. It requires a PH of 6.5 in the Promix and 5.5 PH in the hempy pots. But to be fair the plants I grew in the pure perlite grew vigorously and big. I just don't have enough reason to change and grow everything in hempy.
 
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