Hyena's Never-Ending Adventures In Growing

Hyena your journal inspired me to go Dutch Bucket on my first grow. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, and showing us newbies how its done! Clap clap clap clap . Awesomeness !!!!

Honored your first post was to pay me a compliment. You are too kind!

WELCOME to the world of people who aspire to grow weed. You will learn much on 420 Mag if you want to.

There's an old golf saying, "The less someone knows about golf, the more they think they can teach you." Weed-growing forums can be a little like that too. There are many different approaches. But the best thing about all this varied input is, if you stay awhile, you can compare various people's results. That is the true path to understanding what really works.

My way isn't the only way or even necessarily the best way...but I'm glad to offer it. Hopefully, by seeing the efforts, techniques and results of many, you will find your way. Stay in touch and good luck!

Peace, Hyena
 
Happy Saturday!

The kids are growing ever-faster.

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Got the canopy to stop at a really nice level and the final shape is slightly concave. Max light everywhere. They are responding with steady flower growth.

Wave two of flower is doing its thing. Some really nice looking frost still this early.

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Lots to go still, obviously different phenos emerging. A few of the Blue Dream X2 are quite tall with more widely spaced nodes.

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The Indica-dominant varieties in the middle (Plush Berry, Cheese Berry) are built a little more compactly but still big.

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I feel lucky that the whole thing is where it is, one of my best canopies to date. There's no substitute for experience, I learn more every grow. The number of actual vertical colas is better than my most optimistic hopes when I started Project 24.

I am becoming hopeful that the elusive 3-pound dream might have a slim chance of coming true. You have to have a dream.

Of course I have learned not to count chickens when I'm still looking at eggs. Did I jinx it? :yikes:

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I need to start planning the next generation, Project 25. That will be a seed production grow, new territory with an eye towards a future commercial endeavor. This all keeps getting more exciting.

Meanwhile staying in the present is the rule. All seems beautiful to me.

Peace, Hyena
 
Happy Monday! Is there such a thing? Yes, because this is how it looks in the secret Hyena lab...

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Frosty in here

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Pour some sugar on me

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A taller one on the right side, middle. Hope it fills in like the one right behind it.

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The Plush Berry is, well, plush.

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I still see this as having over a month to go, not even looking at trichomes yet. I want to let these colas get as fat as possible since my next grow will be a lower-yielding seed grow, then maybe some time off during late summer so this crop will be my stash for awhile. Which is totally okay.

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I did water top-off and gave a good nute blast, something I only do 4-5 times per grow. Get ready to see the flowering blast off. This PH of 6.3 will drop gradually to about 5.6 over the next 10 days, giving them the chance to be at ideal uptake PH for every nutrient along the way. Adding high-PH tap water (after a day sitting, to dechlorinate) raises the PH of the nute reservoir naturally without having to add PH UP or DOWN solution, so at this point I use adding water to adjust PH 90% of the time.

I used to adjust PH CONSTANTLY using both UP and DOWN solutions, I spent extra money and a ton of time on it before I learned to simply use the refill to adjust things, and more importantly the value of letting the PH start higher then drift downward in a controlled manner, on a regular weekly+ schedule. Those two things together have made the whole PH thing simple, and provided, IMHO, better overall nutrition for my babies.

All I got. Have a great week!

Peace, Hyena
 
What a gorgeous looking garden!

I love the way you vary ph and also the fact that you do it naturally. There is a big difference between this grow and last. I think you are going to have a huge harvest!

Can I ask what you mean by your next grow being smaller as you are going from seed?

Cheers
 
What a gorgeous looking garden!

I love the way you vary ph and also the fact that you do it naturally. There is a big difference between this grow and last. I think you are going to have a huge harvest!

Can I ask what you mean by your next grow being smaller as you are going from seed?

Cheers

Sure. Going FOR seeds. I will be reproducing one of my strains, making feminized seeds for commercial distribution. My area is relatively small, and my goal is 5,000 seeds. That means, realistically, everyone gets pregnant and all energy in every plant is spent growing beans, then the beans all have to be busted out so who knows what will be left as an end product for smoking, might not be much and who knows the form it will take.

But bringing a new variety to market is a dream so it's time to try. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take...

Thanks for the encouragement! I agree this might be a heavy crop. Stay tuned!

Peace, Hyena
 
Aha! Excellent. Will you one using colloidal silver to make female seed or just using pollen you have collected or gotten from somewhere to make normal seed?

Given this is your first go at it commercially have you done any work on stabilizing a particular strain so that it doesn't have a few different types of phenos all giving different highs or uses for medicinal marijuana? I know you go some self pregnantion on a couple of your previous grows..the problem I found with these is that they grew out hermi just like their parents before. I've tried twice and had the same result...

Sorry if you have mentioned this before...I must have missed it somewhere and apologies for all the questions.....I'm just very interested.
 
Aha! Excellent. Will you one using colloidal silver to make female seed or just using pollen you have collected or gotten from somewhere to make normal seed?

Given this is your first go at it commercially have you done any work on stabilizing a particular strain so that it doesn't have a few different types of phenos all giving different highs or uses for medicinal marijuana? I know you go some self pregnantion on a couple of your previous grows..the problem I found with these is that they grew out hermi just like their parents before. I've tried twice and had the same result...

Sorry if you have mentioned this before...I must have missed it somewhere and apologies for all the questions.....I'm just very interested.

Sure. Using colloidal silver to stimulate "male" flowers, then will chop all but the "male" branches (to avoid any self-pollinated seeds) then cross with other individuals.

I got this strain not from a self-pollination, but a Blue Dream plant that produced one little banana and knocked up my Amnesia Haze, during a grow titled Project 21. I only got about 100 seeds but grew 6 of them out (in Project 23) and they were the best overall buds (awesome fruity taste and smell, killer sativa high) I ever had. You can see them in the first part of this journal (originally named Project 23). The plants were surprisingly homogeneous, all amazing really. I will be duplicating those genetics and I expect stable and productive phenos based on the test grow using the silver colloidal method.

In Project 21, the Blue Dream also pollinated a Widow Mix plant, and a White Widow, and even itself and its sister. Shit! Here's a picture of what I refer to as my "mother" seed bank. These four are all Blue Dream crosses (well, three and a self-cross).


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So now I have three nice fem crosses plus a self-crossed Blue Dream.

The Blue Dream x Blue Dream isn't as stable because some of the seeds are self-self, and some are self-sister which should mean the first contain a lot of genetic weirdos, and the second should be fine but variable. Anyway I mixed them together so I don't know which is which but decided to grow them out anyway because the smoke is so good. When I started some for my current grow (Project 24), I did find that a certain number were freaks or dwarves. However the healthy ones comprise the bulk of my current grow so we can evaluate them...and at this point it seems they are expressing at least three different phenos so my fears (and your point) are confirmed, they're no good as a breeding stock. That's why I am growing this grow for stash, then the next one, I will do the Amnesia (Ripper) Haze x Blue Dream which is apparently much more stable, and produce the seeds.

I have two additional crosses from the original Project 21 grow as you can see above. I grew one Widow Mix x Blue Dream seed in Project 23, and it got fertilized early by residual Blue Dream pollen and produced 600-700 seeds. Obviously they are all fem, but the plant wasn't a big producer on the bud side because it was sort of a stepchild in the grow. When I smoked it though, it was a whole new level of delicious, and nothing like either parent so I do plan to do the same project with that plant as well.

So, I will be growing one of that variety, and also the White Widow x Blue Dream, in the seed grow but planning on not actively pollinating them, just evaluating them. No matter what precautions I take I expect them to pick up at least some pollen, so I will have two additional back-crossed new varieties after that to experiment with.

Finally, Project 23 produced two third-generation back-crosses which are being grown by three fellow 420 Mag friends and we'll soon see what they are like. It goes on and on!

Long answer but you asked. I'm hopefully going to the next level with all this but hey, why not. My ultimate dream is to establish a cross or two of my own making and sell the seeds, not so much for the money but to craft something uniquely delicious that people will love, and maybe achieve a tiny bit of cannabis immortality. I dream someday people will be smoking Blue Hyena and bragging about it. And I will be there in spirit.

Stay tuned. I am splashing the beans for the seed grow tomorrow!

Peace, Hyena
 
Cheers bro! Thanks for the long explanation, much appreciated.

The big seed banks claim to take years to stabilize a strain...I've always thought, yeah right! But I guess it's possible with a company like Dutch passion etc as they have been in business so long. I've also gotten strains from well established seed bank, grew 4 beans out from the same strain and gotten 3 different phenos...so hey...what to think! Lol. I guess some strains are yet to be stabilized when they are brought to market.

I am deeply looking forward to the next few grows you do and smoke reports on these bad girls!

P.s. Are any of the other 420 guys doing journals on here on their grows from your seeds? Or is it all super secret stuff?

So one last question and then I'll shut the hell up..lol...as far as selling your seeds are you going to go to a big deed bank or bring to market yourself?
 
Verbal, my answers are in red.

Cheers bro! Thanks for the long explanation, much appreciated.

The big seed banks claim to take years to stabilize a strain...I've always thought, yeah right! But I guess it's possible with a company like Dutch passion etc as they have been in business so long. I've also gotten strains from well established seed bank, grew 4 beans out from the same strain and gotten 3 different phenos...so hey...what to think! Lol. I guess some strains are yet to be stabilized when they are brought to market.

Yeah, "stabilization" is sort of a funny term when it comes to NATURE, the least-stable force of all! A strain, to my understanding, can become more and more "stable" but then you reach territory where vigor is lost and problems emerge unless a new set of genes from another individual is introduced, so strains are continuously changing and evolving and constant "maintenance" in a genetic sense is required to keep the line as pure as possible. Major crops in the agricultural world are the basis for this...first-cross F1 hybrids are preferred over second- and third-generation seeds, their degree of homogeneity makes them more highly prized and more expensive too.

I am loosely using the term "F1" in my project to simply identify the first generation cross...in agriculture, a true "F1" hybrid refers to a seed produced from two completely stabilized lines, which often takes 6-8 generations. That degree of genetic specialization has reputedly been achieved with some cannabis strains but most strains out there are simply crosses of good parents with reasonably stable progeny. I am simply duplicating a great cross that was very stable and productive in a test grow, to make a single seed batch.

I am confident this Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream strain is a good bet to reproduce, since I grew it out already, using enough individuals to identify the basic difference(s) in any phenos which turned out to be negligible. On the other hand, my current grow, a Blue Dream x Blue Dream (self-cross, plus crossed with a couple other BD's) has produced three radically different expressions, some shorter, some medium, and some taller so basically, crossing a stable strain with itself destabilized it.

The colloidal silver method seems to reliably reproduce the genetics of the mother plant with over 90% reliability according to the results of many who have done it successfully.


I am deeply looking forward to the next few grows you do and smoke reports on these bad girls!

Thanks!

P.s. Are any of the other 420 guys doing journals on here on their grows from your seeds? Or is it all super secret stuff?

Three others are growing them at present, one has started them already and the other two will within the month.

So one last question and then I'll shut the hell up..lol...as far as selling your seeds are you going to go to a big deed bank or bring to market yourself?

I have made a few contacts at a couple seed companies. I think a significant part of it is clever branding and attractive packaging plus other support elements, not just good seeds. I am developing all those things and plan to have the whole deal ready to go by fall. Once I can hand a company something ready to put on the shelf I am confident it will find a home. The key for me is to make enough great fresh seeds to make some decent money, and make a year of work worth it. A thousand packs of five seeds each is my goal which means I need to make over 5,000 perfect seeds per grow. That alone might be a challenge in my small area.

In the end a lot of things will have to happen for this to become a reality.

The botanical challenge is great, and the financial aspect is interesting but honestly the main motivation is helping people grow ever-greater buds.
Wish me luck.

Peace, Hyena
:grinjoint:
 
Thanks again Hyena, it all makes sense now.

I was reading last night that colloidal silver is poisonous if ingested so any bud around the seed should be discarded. Obviously you haven't come across this. Hey with all th crap on the internet maybe this is crap too as I'm sure you have done way more research into it than I.

I'm excited for you buddy. Cheers for all the answers, much appreciated.
 
Thanks again Hyena, it all makes sense now.

I was reading last night that colloidal silver is poisonous if ingested so any bud around the seed should be discarded. .

Since the only thing you use the colloidal silver spray on is a single branch of the parent plant, and that branch will then only produce clusters of male flowers, there's no real worry anything will be smoked. The object is to produce lots of pollen and use that one branch to pollinate all the other plants.

I think I will probably denude all the non-male branches on the one pollen parent plant once the male pollen sacs have appeared, to prevent any self-pollination, and hopefully I will get that entire branch safely out of the grow room before any uncontrolled release of pollen, and that will allow me to carefully re-introduce the pollen to specific individuals.

But reason and experience tells me I will probably not find a way to completely control every bit of it. Odds are I will end up with ambient pollen in my grow room for years to come unless I finish the grow then completely sanitize the entire lab, and even then there will probably still be pollen. So, I am probably limiting myself to crosses based on this one strain going forward...which is fine since it's absolutely killer. I can cross it with a different crop each time and make new varieties, confident I know the genetics. Who knows where it will lead! There could be a whole family of Hyena strains in a few years.

We'll see, it's a total challenge and I'm very excited to try learning this and see if I'm up to doing it.

Keep in touch.

Peace, Hyena
 
Excellent...I'm currently reading more on colloidal silver at the moment. Exciting times buddy. When the time is right I'll be in touch about growing out a few of your beans as from what you have described them about being killer now and previously it seems something really worth doing.

I shall look forward to seeing the master in action!
 
I know colloidal silver works, but I have seen others use different sprays to produce female pollen, has anyone tried other sprays?

I am not familiar with other methods but I'm sure they exist.

I have not tried this silver colloidal spray technique yet. But it seems pretty straightforward. Even stoners seem to be able to do it. :winkyface:

The emulsion I got is called Tiresias Mist. I've read and seen enough to know it's simple and it does the job.

You can probably make your own colloidal silver solution but I have a general life rule: if it saves me a thousand bucks I'll do it myself if humanly possible. If it saves me twenty screw it. Some things are really worth just buying. :riskybusiness:

Peace, Hyena
 
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