I really goofed this week. I got really busy elsewhere and totally missed a few days visiting the ladies. When I took some time to check on the ladies in flower, they were totally wilted, and my prized Mama BBL was practically dead. (SOB!)
I watered them to runoff, and checked on them a few hours later. The lower 2/3 of Mama BBL did not recover, so I harvested all the small dried buds and seeds. Judging from the number of seeds hidden in her small flowers, she MUST have been pollenated by my first attempt from a BBL male. Because I had to take them early, only about half the seeds are mature, but at least I am assured that the strain won't die out on me any time soon.
One AK48 was totally dessicated, so I harvested her, too. She was full of seeds from a mystery male. her small larfy buds will be saved for cannibudder. Both the BBL and the AK48 were VERY sticky, and I scraped the stuff off my fingers and saved them in a special little jar I save for resin and trics.
So maybe they weren't all that early after all.
The Polar Express recovered, except for some lower small buds, which I'll put in the buds saved for cannabudder. So, I have the Polar Express still in flower, and the tips of Mama BBL, which still have green and flowers with pistils. I might get some sensimilla buds from what's left of the BBL and the top of the Polar Express.
What I learned from this batch in flower, you have to choose between nice buds or seeds. You can't have both, unless you have a separate grow area for breeding, preferably in another room. I am sure I tracked pollen on my clothing from the breeding unit into the flower unit, because I KNOW I did not deliberately let a male do his thing unattended in the flower unit!
So It will be some time before I entertain another male. I have plenty of stored pollen, and I can chop the leaves, pods, and stray pollen for the cannabudder and other cooking. Male parts, esp the open pods and pollen covered leaves, can make some good edibles. I hear they smoke well, too, when dried and sprinkled on buds.
I have three strains of seeds, enough to start fresh when cloning fails me. AK48 x mystery sativa, BBL x BBL male (possibly some mystery Sativa), and Mystery Sativa x Mystery Sstiva. Then I have a decent batch of purchased seeds. So plenty to play with this next grow.
The juveniles in veg fared much better, as I water them more frequently.
I have quite a variety of juveniles, some of which I can up-pot into the 3 gallon bins, and a 5 gallon pot with 2 BBL clones that will become my new mother, until she puts out flowers, like my last mother did. The previous mother was a year old, and she put out flowers under veg. She is the one I nearly killed.