Organic indoor phenotype hunt [2023 APRIL - SEPTEMBER]

It's LEGAL here, finally!! Minnesota just flipped the switch, all quiet-like. Now I get to slink out of my hidey-hole and start acting like a legitimate member of the human race. I discovered cannabis by chance. Then I learned how essential it is for my wellbeing. I believe psychedelic drugs should all be legal, if they can be cultivated by primitive means. That goes for mushrooms, mead, wine, cannabis, coca, opium, and the various cacti known to bring dreams. Why these and not others? Because you can process my listed substances yourself. That being said, cannabis alone is enough for me. It's got everything I need for mood management, relaxation, and other fun stuff. And if you get one of the really good strains, it'll even make you gleefully psychotic, which is perfect for choring.

Taking a few of the sativa cultivars I've preferred lately, I'm ready to start a new grow of original F1s. Just playing with landrace genetics, mostly. There's some dank in there, because the weekend. "All work and no play..." You know the rest. So this is where I'll upload images of the grow. It'll be mostly an artistic outlet for when I want to photograph my organic, slow-flowering beauties in repose and maybe get some angles on the indica belly-draggers too. I tend to grow all types at once in the same setup, bending and cutting my way to an even canopy. Then, just when everything's perfect, I switch it to 12/12, and the complications start immediately. It's not as extreme as it could be, since I'm not doing autos. Nor will I do full African landrace sativa. Unmolested African cultivars get 350% their height over the course of three months, or thereabout, and wouldn't even have substantial flowers before the indica had ripened to completion. As for those I choose, I'll wrap their limbs up and down and around, filling every cranny of the allotted space. I may have to pluck the indica side branches to help them stay tall enough to compete. Good times ahead.

Lurk, my lurkers, lurk ...

I wear size 10, these are 20 gal., biggest I've ever scaled. And with me using landrace genes, I'm going to have to twist them like pretzels to keep them from exceeding my 7-foot clearance. I'll be topping these ladies hundreds of times before bloom. Stay tuned.

I got so sick from mixing these bags. I opened a pallet of manure and it exploded in my face just as I whacked my shoulder against the wall. So naturally, I gasp in pain, inhaling something bitter. Then I taste cow shit. Then I say softly, "No way." Then I'm sick for a week, like in-bed-16-hours-a-day sick. First time for that particular SNAFU. Finally expectorated over the last two days. So: CAREFUL WITH YOUR SHIT, EVERYONE. This has been a PSA.

I will post pics of my lovely seedlings later. I need to gender them (like a bigot?), so I transfer only females. The reason I didn't feminize the seeds when I made them is because that's a dumb thing to do. I like to select from as many males as possible, which isn't many given my space. All told, I should have 20+ seedlings to sort, all from heroic lines, which I'll happily detail as we get there! Sativa is slow, but she's worth it when you get a strong one. And guess who knows how to select for strength. That's right, my lurkers, it's me. I have the nose for it. Who knows what we may find from the depths of South Africa or the reaches of Thailand? Maybe it's a solid black plant that smells like nightmares. I'd be down. So just keep lurking... ... ...

SOON™

Mini update:

Still finishing a few IBL indica stragglers for a friend's insomnia. Started them late, kept them in 1-gal., just looking for a good male to pass along the dankness to my favorite CBD landrace. The resultant F1 should zonk the user the moment it hits, after the administration of a full serving. Also pairing this midget kush-cousin with one of my THC sativa ladies of outstanding potency. Just wanted to pop some true hybrids. Very rewarding work, that. Effect of the THC progeny should be utterly useless medicinally (but still a lot of fun for when you want your activity to be "communing with God"). The male smells of kush and hash, good signs both, but he's a little guy. I mean 1-month-veg. OG Kush small.

TL;DR summary of first paragraph: I've been fiddling with indica sleepy-time stuff to promising results.

On to the little poppers. They're in 12/12 from day 1. Transplanting day 22 thru 25. I will be transitioning them into 1-gal. from their Solo cups, for sexing. Females will be transferred into 20-gals. shown above. Nothing worth sharing yet. The tikes've adapted well to the wet conditions in my apartment, like sativa would. A lot of the genetics I'm using were about to expire, so I'm getting some duds, paying for my casual storage habits, especially in the six-year-old stock. So far, I've got 2 African sativa babes legendary for their intense trip induction. NOT NEWBIE STUFF. This is the hardest weed I've ever encountered, and at a humble 14% under pro lights and after 16 weeks. (It's one of Kwazulu's cousins, I suspect.) Next are a couple Kerala. Yessir... I shall harness the subtle, psychedelic backbone of the Cookies strains, sans any of the couchlock, as Kerala is a renowned energetic strain known to the West since the Hippie Trail was established. Really strong in a very subtle way. Gets very, very strong when consuming three or four servings, yet remains clear and lucid. These babes are unlike anything else I've tried. And the smell of 'em! Next, a three-way F1 of a North-Indian charas landrace, a Dutch strain: "White LSD Auto" (which I recommend to fans of the trippy stuff), and Barney's Farm LSD. This one will have a lick of CBD, which is just what I was hoping for, something for a blast of insanity that transforms into a full body massage at 15 minutes. Also got a random Afghan popper, from a friend who swears by the nightmare potency of the thing. We shall see. Next, a true CLASSIC for fans of '90s weed, a "very chill, very narcotic" Highland Lao #2 x Master Kush '90 F1 from Kwik Seeds. I hope I get a fruit pheno... Not likely, but I hope!

And final reveal...

BOOM! Original genetics from a local hunt, here in Minnesota! I got a landrace that's been here, according to rumor, since it came in from Asia on a train, to aid in the fight against Nazis! S'true. I found it in October, leaning heavily, burdened by hundreds of fat, black seeds, and covered in frost. It smelled like a tire fire when I rubbed it. I think it's related to rewilded hemp mingled with someone's hardy Northern Lights or some such plant, something with notes of gassy chocolate. Had crispy, hollow stems, strong apical dominance, very smelly garbage reek, dark, dark coloration, pure sativa morphology. I've considered that the coloration is a stress response to the extreme life-ending cold, but this rewilded plant is used to it by now, having 70 generations here in our near-tundra deep winter. Needless to say, I collected the seeds at night, cut a few fat branches for sampling. Wanted to leave some for the planter, if it was a planned cultivation, but that doesn't seem likely. There were dozens of scraggly specimens along the roadside and deeper into the woods, most in a worse state then the one I'd sampled. In fact, of all the plants, this black sativa was the largest, healthiest, and hardiest. Yet all had "finished" and were loaded with seeds or empty pollen sacks that made them look like tumbleweeds. I paid the scout 40.00. I'm a nice guy. These plants were thriving right across the street from a neighborhood in the old suburbs of St. Paul, just waiting for me. I expect smelly hemp but wouldn't mind a pleasant surprise. Smells really, really unique and delicious. And the plant I tried buzzed me for about an hour, was very positive and clear-headed, then let me down gently with some muscle relaxation and general arousal creeping in as the final impression. Not strong, yet the body effect is promising. I'll be "spilling" some seeds in the wild to pay it forward. I only have one that popped, as of this posting. Not a great germination rate, but it might be extremely uneven germination is the norm here, as is the case with the Russian autoflower hemp that braves similar circumstances. Since I keep it wetter-than-recommended in my grow area, to help reflect the conditions of the native soil here, I expect the local landrace will be eager to rise in due course, as it's relatively used to this treatment (except why's it never cold?). That said, the seeds are from 2019 and have been mishandled and once-misplaced. But whatever happens with germination, I don't need many to get this party started, just a male and a female to cross brother-to-sister. They are very tall, hardy plants, and will definitely require LST and make me cull for sexual stability. Could be worth it.

Oh, and looks like a Golden Tiger from Ace Seeds just popped. Woohoo!

TL;DR summary of everything else: 9 seeds have popped. One is a guaranteed female. The others are anybody's guess. I'll save the males for later, while only upsizing (with the intent to grow in sinsemilla) 8 chosen females, which for legal reasons, I'll flower in 2 groups of 4, with the latter 4 getting massive in veg while waiting on their sisters to finish.

Pics next! Give me a couple more weeks for the li'l poppers to develop some distinction from each other (I say as the African sativa comes out pure purple-pink; we'll see if it doesn't immediately age out of it). African babe featured below.

EDIT: Went to take a pic of the purple-pink coloration I saw this morning, was utterly gone. A little, lime-green brat stared back at me, like "What? It was a phase, okay? I'm so over it."

Harvested today. "Fireballs" x 3, or Fireballses, I guess.


Pic above is of the Fireballs mother plant I made, inbreeding it with the finest male of the same lineage. That dude put out a pollen flower bigger than my fist and smelled like an attitude problem. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

SO THE PHENO HUNT BEGINS ...


Here are two Kerala I replanted from their Solo cups into a 1-gal.. This gives them a little more room, but not much. So they're feeling the growing pains and the flowering pressure from the 12-hour "nights" since germination. For two young Indian plants whom I suspect are a male and female pair, this is a very strange, alien upbringing that is sure to test them for herm. traits. You can just see, on the left, the re-greened leaves of the Fireballs mother plant I just harvested. As a strategy to aid her in forming strong seeds, I added nitrogen and calcium to her bed mere weeks ago. Wrecked the flavor, but she was a mother plant, so she had other priorities. Seeds were so strong they were rock-hard: chocolate dappled with black. In the upper center, in the background of the pic, there's one of the Africans that didn't get photographed, as they're still quite young. These two Kerala (or "Idukki"), in front of them, will be used unless they show herm. traits, which will land them in the compost bin.


Next, this shorty is a kush hybrid from Kwik Seeds. Her other half is Lao ganja, so she's gunna STRETCH. Should be potent medicine, as the ganja females were selected for a long-lasting, uplifting effect. But you see the plant next to her, behind her? That's the aforementioned Minnesota landrace that popped! Pic of it next...


See the semi-wild vigor? It would never admit it's exhausted from being pelted with light for 11 hours straight, but this pheno is way over-stimmed, being used to gray skies and muddy soil conditions. I had to top it to allow the others to catch up. It freaked out in response, sprouting 8 nodes overnight, which prompted these pics and update. And this is an old seed, too! In Minnesota, years really matter because of the heavy wetness of the air. I miss crunchy chips. Anyway, this thing has more stank than anything else presently in the bank, aside from one ripe, remaining Fireballs. The wild (or semi-wild) weed smells like a pig pin in a pine forest. And what's more: this little rebel has an accomplice, pictured next...


This is the mutated cousin from the same mother as the previous plant. It has been germinated nearly the same amount of time as its lanky kin, maybe a week behind. Was very petite initially, hard to even notice. Is huge now compared to its former self. I'm not sure what it's doing, but I wanted to be sure it had ample leg room (and check its roots, which significantly outsize its above-ground portion), so I transplanted it over a dead Hindu Kush. My tent is usually too wet for the weaker phenotypes in that line (or any desert line). I get a lot of hash-style indica plants surviving, but they're never landrace. Even Afghani landrace plants, supposedly hardy devils, flop over and die in my part of the world, since I'm not controlling for anything except temperature range and light exposure, a sloppy, bare-bones operation meant to localize the genetics I cycle through. And notice the soil quality. For this sexing, I just used the cheap indoor stuff, which really clumps and retains moisture. Like Minnesota's soil, which is either poor and sandy or rich, sweet, and cold. And if you think this little runt has it rough, wait till you see the next guy...


This plant is also from Kwik Seeds, same as the kush hybrid mentioned before. Only this one's coming in hot. Keeps mutating and showing wild stress responses. This sort of behavior, in my experience, denotes a particularly potent (if unstable) phenotype. Time will tell. I certainly won't give up on ya, buddy! Now, it rubs the lotion on its skin...

Aaaand there's also two more African sativa babies who were feeling a little camera shy, as they're still runty. And Golden Tiger was in a drunken stupor with an old hybrid of mine, the two of them being slow to adapt to my transplantation, laying down on the job, as it were. Plus, I may have set their tray at an angle, to provide them with "an additional challenge," which they didn't like. Anyway, they're safe and happy now, but in no condition to be taking glam shots. So more on them four soon. It's just a matter of sexing, to be sure to eliminate hermaphrodites and weak males. Weak males who exhibit an especially strong smell will be spared. Unlikely.

I also have four more plants now, all of custom, personal genetics. Culling will be brutal. Always is.

You might be asking, "What is he searching for in this hunt?" I'm just adventuring, spontaneously. You can tell by the spread that I prefer a strong upper, and to that effect, any outstanding volunteer will be propagated and assimilated into my ultimate goal: making the Minnesota landrace into a monster! There, you know my true motivation. Minnesota deserves kickass, original weed. We have the weed here already. Injecting the kickass is my department. Lurk, my lurkers, lurk...

Mini-update: Was right about the Kerala landrace pair. One proved male, the other female, and they sexed quicker than expected for such a long-flowering cultivar. No signs of hermaphroditic tendencies, yet. I repacked them in separate 1-gal. beds, not gently. I also made the beds essentially just mud, with a simple application of:

sand + cold water + a little vermiculite + a little peat moss + a pinch of bone meal

Now, if either the male or female continue to show no agenda for self-pollination, I will, respectively, save the male's pollen for application with one of each of the chosen females' limbs, and grant the female a 20-gal. of her very own. I will do the same if I get a strong male in the African heritage, give him a limb of his own. Lastly, if a very special plant (not the Minnesota landrace) sexes male, I'll certainly do the same for it, as its accolades are easily that of any landrace the world over.

Not much else to share, except harvested the last Fireballs in my stock. And now I have 50+ Fireballs seeds, which I will certainly be growing again. Very nice Kush and Afghan expressions in it, and what a reek. Oh, and I did some digging on my aforementioned African plant's heritage. It's not Malawi or anything you'd expect. It's a small farmer's IBL of unknowable heritage with absolutely 0.00% CBD. Had a chance to smell and experience the outdoor plant's bud (which looked to be about 12% THC, judging by resin and sticky feel, and all I can say is: This stuff is the next big sativa. Has a heavenly bouquet of carrot, ginseng, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and just a hint of citric zest. Like nothing I've ever tasted, and the high lasted all day, being pronounced by waves of psychedelic ecstasy.

Looks like an exciting journey. I'm in!!

Mini-update: Minnesota landrace sexed female in one of the two phenotypes. The second pheno. is finally putting on some decent size and should sex soon! Hoping for another female but would use a male with some hog's breath-smelling, belly-crawling indica. The landrace, as you've seen from her previous pic., is quite leggy, being goose-shaped in maturity with one dominant flower and a bunch of afterthoughts clustered around its midriff, so indica influence might help the plant develop more evenly, if possible. Rest assured, I am not polluting the natural wild-type population, here. I am doing my experiments at home, then seeding my altered plants elsewhere, far away enough to never crosspollinate. Conservationism was my upbringing, with the Scouts and all that.

Also, went ahead and transferred two guaranteed females into 20-gals. in the main tent, because the times demand some proper ganja in the rotation. Among these ganja are: the aforementioned Ace Seeds' Golden Tiger (A.K.A. The Best Thai You Can Buy) and Highland Lao x Master Kush '90 cross from Kwik Seeds. The second plant is going to kick me in the head, in a good way. Already smells like baby shit and bad B.O..

More pics. soon! I'm saving for a real camera, so I can just point and click with some UHD quality, then upload. As it is now, I use my built-in tablet camera, which is decent, but I have to make it mobile to take the pics., which is less convenient than you might think. If there was more to see, I'd bother. There isn't, yet.

Mini-update: Transplanted the she-Kerala. And here's the straight dope: I've been popping a great deal more genetics then I'm mentioning in this forum, because I've designs on this little hunt. You already know my motivation, bring great medicine to Minnesota. For me, sativa medication is a way of handling my mental illness, which would have me huddling in my home most of the time. PTSD's a bitch. The soaring high blasts me out of myself into Freud's Superego, where life is manageable because I'm beyond petty cares, and I have motivation to spare. I'm writing a book (who isn't?), for instance. There. Some personal info.; do with that what you will. I might even try YouTube, in a few years, when she unclenches her buttocks.

I have to say, this community rocks. So many bright stars. We shine together.