AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

Weaselcracker said:
I haven't had to store it much or even use it much but I think, from what I read, the main trick is keeping it dry. People sometimes mix it with dry flour to try and help keep it from clumping. If freezing then condensation might be a problem. Once it stops being dusty enough to float through the air it's not going to work as well.
Click to expand...

That's what I was afraid of. The baggies I put over the ends of the branches hold moisture, even when I leave vents. I swished the wet pollen with a small paint brush brush and rubbed it on the flowers I want to pollinate. No way to know if it's going to take. :-(

On the bright side, there still are a lot of pods on the male. I might have to forgo the baggies and let the pollen fall on or into something.


Thoughts?
 
AKgramma said:
That's what I was afraid of. The baggies I put over the ends of the branches hold moisture, even when I leave vents. I swished the wet pollen with a small paint brush brush and rubbed it on the flowers I want to pollinate. No way to know if it's going to take. :-(

On the bright side, there still are a lot of pods on the male. I might have to forgo the baggies and let the pollen fall on or into something.


Thoughts?
Click to expand...

B A R used to put a plastic cover, or it might have been a paper plate, cut to fit around the stalk, to catch the falling pollen. Can you envision what I'm suggesting? Also, since plastic creates moisture, try paper lunch bags.
 
SweetSue said:
B A R used to put a plastic cover, or it might have been a paper plate, cut to fit around the stalk, to catch the falling pollen. Can you envision what I'm suggesting? Also, since plastic creates moisture, try paper lunch bags.
Click to expand...

Yes, I can! I will do that immediately! I'll try the heavy-duty paper plates, since they are waxed and the pollen will come off them easier than a paper bag.
 
Following Sweet Sue's suggestion. Catching pollen on a paper plate. I will obviously have to find more support for the plate.

Pollen_Collection1.JPG


I found a mug the proper height to support the plate. So it will be stable during collection. Now to keep the kitty cat away from it!
 
Males make a lot of pollen, and it's difficult not to end up with 10000000 more seeds then you want. If you see any calyxes swelling with seeds then you've probably reached that 10000000 seed mark already and should chop the male.
In the past I just chopped a limb off and put it in water in a different room under a cfl on 12/12- let it hang over a piece of paper for pollen.
As you discovered, plastic bags don't work too well on plants because of all the condensation.
 
SIGH! The cat breeched my safety barriers and spilled all the pollen I had collected! Must be he can't resist the fragrance of cannibus. I will have to put the collection device in the grow room, which has a door to keep Merlin the cat out. That will take some create rearranging of my stuff in there. I think I have too much leftover stuff from previous grows. Like empty soda bottles, old DIY light fixtures, etc.

WC: Yes, I am learning a lot this time around. Good thing the male is still putting out. I don't mind having 10 million seeds. At MY rate of germination, I'll need them ALL to get ANY offspring from this experiment!

Just in case wet pollen does anything, I picked up what pollen I could from the baggies and brushed it on the female flowers of the mystery sativas. This was before I used the plate.
 
The Sativa mystery ladies are finally flowering! Since they are so lanky, the flowers are spread out in small clusters. I moved "Sticky Missy" close to the male and tied their branches together. I also brushed the biggest flowers with a brush dipped in pollen. Overkill? Most likely. But I want THIS try to be successful!

Nothing yet from the Auto Polar Express. It CAN'T take this long for an auto to flower in a 3 gallon bin! Almost 12 weeks from seed. She's stopped growing at close to 30", but still no sign of flowers, even after putting her under 12/12 with the AK 48 photo fems. I gave all the plants in this unit regular nutes, since none of them are showing yet.

Now I was surprised to see my mother Bubblelicious COVERED with preflowers, even tho she is on gaslight, and I KNOW the timer is working properly. I really don't want her to go to flower, as I want to be sure all her clones are rooted, and I take more. She and all her rooted clones and the juvenile AK 48's got a good dose of veg nutes, Epsom salts and molasses today, too.

I tend to forget, and they get a bit scraggly looking after a while.

The mystery mamas all got fed today, too. They are dropping leaves like mad, and they will be bare by the time they are mature.

I'm going to move my aloe plant out of the cold North window and tuck it under one of the bushier plants. It needs filling out before I start using its leaves for cloning, as Sweet Sue does. It also needs up-potting with some decent soil fit for succulents.

I wonder how long it will take to tell if the pollination took?
 
I wouldn't worry about the preflowers. They just mean she's ready. Also, I think it might be time to call it on the Auto Polar Express. An auto should start flowering around week 2-3. I've seen them stall mid-flower for weeks on end - I have a friend who harvested a couple that stalled in the heat and restarted , to be harvested at around week 25 or so - but one that hasn't flowered by 12 weeks sounds like a waste of your precious resources and real estate under the lights.
 
In a couple weeks I'll be ready to start some Jock Horror Auto Fem and Auto Berry Fem. It will take some creative re-arranging to find room for them when they pass the seedling stage. Still trying to use up the AK-48 seeds I got last time. :-)

I'm soaking the seeds that failed to sprout, giving them one last chance before I decide they are duds.
 
Of course, the fresh AK-48's sprouted in the water in 24 hours. I put them in soil/perlite in solo cups and covered loosely with open baggies, just to keep the RH up.

I wonder if there is something I can add to the water to stimulate sprouting on the other seeds. Any ideas? Something I don't have to send to China for?
 
AKgramma said:
Of course, the fresh AK-48's sprouted in the water in 24 hours. I put them in soil/perlite in solo cups and covered loosely with open baggies, just to keep the RH up.

I wonder if there is something I can add to the water to stimulate sprouting on the other seeds. Any ideas? Something I don't have to send to China for?
Click to expand...

Do you have any aloe? Some aloe gel mixed into the water would do the trick. If you have any fulvic acid that would help too.
 
SweetSue said:
Do you have any aloe? Some aloe gel mixed into the water would do the trick. If you have any fulvic acid that would help too.
Click to expand...

Aloe I have! I rescued my poor neglected slip of a plant from the North window and put it in the veg room under semi-shade. Since the leaves are so small, I cut one into slices and dropped a slice into each cup containing a seed. I figure the sap will infuse into the water. Thanks a lot! I was hoping you would swing by and help me out!

Because of you, I am going to nurture the poor aloe and grow it out like its supposed to be!
 
I was able to plant 4 AK 48 seeds that were soaking in water. Apparently the soil didn't provide enough moisture they needed to emerge from their seed casings. A couple of the other seeds SEEM to be trying to sprout, but the roots are stained from having been in soil for weeks. I'll wait till I'm sure they are viable before planting. One other seed has been invaded by fungi, still another is open, but black inside. I will have to call it on them. The rest, it's hard to tell right now.

I know I sound silly stressing over every single seed, but I cannot just toss them out without giving them every chance. Tho I do consider terminating weak plants, my grow is too small and costly to cull them. Maybe once I have enough clones of my favorite strains to ensure future harvests, will I try (with extreme difficulty) to actually KILL weaklings. At the very least they can be added to the leaf bin as dried herbs and for tinctures.

It is also time to up-pot a couple of juvenile mystery Sativas. Their roots have overtaken their 2-quart containers. I am surprised at their vigor, being clones, whereas the mothers I took them from are not that vigorous, but are well into flower now, and hopefully pollinated by the male I chose for them. It's going to be "fun" trying to find room for them around Mama Bubblelicious, who is spreading rapidly under her 12 CFLs. Thanks to Sweet Sue's tips, and taking larger clones, I'm much more successful rooting them. :Love:
 
Up-potted some clones, cleaned off lower leaves on all plants, mixed another 5 gallons of soil, rearranged the one veg closet so everybody would fit. And in between, watching a marathon of Star Wars movies on TBS. LOL!

I have saved the small roots from previous plants. Maybe they will, along with the mycho that are on them, will benefit the new tenants. There were a lot of roots in the bottom of the old bins. I ended up with 15 gallons of rejuvenated soil/perlite/and other stuff I've added over the past couple of years.
 
...lolool...The force is strong in this one...:laughtwo:...h00k...:Hookah:
 
dr.h00k said:
...lolool...The force is strong in this one...:laughtwo:...h00k...:Hookah:
Click to expand...

Some of these reluctant seeds and clones NEED a healthy application of the Force to kick them in gear!
 
Just a couple pics on sprouting seeds. I normally just plunk them in a solo cup filled with soil, but I had a few that just would not pop. So I dug them up and soaked them in water. Since I only had one or two of several strains, I used 1.5" bead containers, then when the root tip showed, put them in cups and put 2 cups to a one-gallon zip lock bag. It's 35 RH here, and I wanted to start them in higher humidity.

The water soak:

Water_Soak.JPG


The mini-greenhouse. One of 2 under a CFL for warmth. Once the true leaves appear, they will go into the veg closet.

sprouting_AK_48s.JPG
 
Got a sprout 2 days ago, one of the slow-to-pop AK 48s. The other 3 are still under the soil.

The AK48 seed in water soak fell apart yesterday, so just one dud out of a 10 seed order from mjseedscanada. It doesn't look good for the Bubble Bomb or the 1st lady seeds, either. I've been trying to pop them for WEEKS.

Still waiting for signs that the pollination experiment worked in the mystery tent. I've got the branches so interwoven (scrog without the screen) SOME kind of hanky-panky has to be taking place! :cheesygrinsmiley:

Starting to see hairs on the Auto Polar Express, FINALLY after 88 days from seed! This was no auto. :-( Mislabeled seed. The two AK 48s in the same unit are also showing. The one really bushy mystery in the same unit is acting like the male in the mystery unit. really shaggy with no signs of hairs at all. I expect to see a spike of pods here pretty soon.

Getting somewhat crowded in the veg closet! With clones being up-potted and cuttings waiting to show roots. I had better wait till I harvest something to make more plants!
 
Only 2 of the seeds I retrieved from the soil and put in a water soak sprouted. These were the AK 48s.

Weaselcracker shared with me a pic of pollinated ladies 6 days past pollination day. My mystery Sativas have not begun to fill out yet, but the hairs have disappeared. So I hope this is a good sign. I continue to catch pollen from the male, who is putting out tons of pods.

a few of my BBL clones are struggling, but most are acclimated to normal RH, so I can remove them from the open baggies. The mystery Sativa clones I took rooted very quickly, and have grown twice as much as the BBL clones taken at an earlier date.

Mother BBL and her clones are covered with flowers. And they are in the veg closet on gaslight schedule. I REALLY don't want the mama to continue on to harvest, but I may have no choice. She is more of a bush now, than a normal indoor cannabis plant and has a mind of her own.

I guess I can move her to a flowering unit, and switch the veg closet to 18/6. Maybe some of her clones will stay in veg.
 
Back
Top Bottom