SG's 2008 Outdoor Purps and White Russian Breeding

I'm back again with another run at seeding the ganja. After talking to a couple of fellow RIU folks I think I now know what I am doing here. I would like to thank FDD and especially Kochab for his suggested technique for pollen collection. I changed it up a bit, and instead of using a newspaper I went with a glass jar. I cut off a couple of clusters of flowers that appeared to be ready to open. I cut off about 3 inches of stem along with each cluster and placed them in the jar yesterday. Today I checked the jar and there was a layer of pollen on the bottom.

I pulled out most of the plant material before taking this pic:



I brought in the two plants I am trying to seed and gathered the required tools to get this done. I didn't have a paintbrush handy so I tried a couple of methods:


The first method I tried was putting on a vinyl glove, and covering the tip of my finger with pollen:


I just touched my fingertip to the selected budsites. But I didn't feel this was the way to go, so I went for my trusty Q-tip.


I gathered up pollen on the Q-tip, and placed it over the budsites and tapped with my index finger, as if I was trying to ash a joint. This allowed the pollen to come off in a thin cloud and cover the hairs:


I have a feeling this seeding will take. Just in case, I will use the remaining pollen in the jar to repeat this one more time tomorrow. I love learning and trying new things. This concludes today's update. Tomorrow we have new plant pics coming.


Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I could not ask for better weather than what we have here in SoCal right now. The skies are totally clear, and the winds are down to about 2-3 miles per hour. All the plants are out there doing their little happy dance.

I took some measurements today. The two largest WRs finally broke the 2 foot mark. Everything else is still 18-20". I should have kept the first 3 WR and the Sage n Sour in veg a little longer. It's ok though, I will have 3 or 4 more plants to harvest after these 6 are done.

And now for today's pics:







White Russian #1:



White Russian #2:



Sage n Sour:



Here is the WR that I topped. It is bushing out quite nicely, and I feel it is going to be one of the biggest of the bunch in the end:


Here is a halfway decent shot of the two biggest:




And that's it for today. Hope you are enjoying my journal.


Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Watered lightly today. I also notice a couple of the plants have some aphids on them. I will check the plants tomorrow and use neem on the affected ones.

New pics coming in my 6/9 entry in a few minutes.

Shame





Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

OK, I checked the plants out and it is only a couple of them that have aphids. I couldn't spray today so I will do it first thing tomorrow. Aside from that the plants are looking pretty well.

A little yellowing on the bottom of some of the plants that have been in flower the longest. I will hit them with Growbig one last time next water, and after that I will use TigerBloom only the rest of the grow.

Here are some pics from just a couple of hours ago. They are the first wave plants that have been flowering for a little under 3 weeks.










I will spray them down with neem tomorrow morning. That's it for now.


Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Ok, as usual I will keep my backlogged update short and sweet, as I will be posting today's pic update in a few minutes. I sprayed 4 of the plants down with neem today first thing in the morning after finding some aphids on them yesterday. I also watered lightly again today - no nutes yet though.


Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I am back again. The plants are looking fine. I noticed some of the hairs turned red on parts of the plants that I sprayed yesterday. This is very common, and there is nothing to worry about.

There is some yellowing that is starting to creep up the plants that have been flowering the longest ( 3 weeks ). I have been alternating veg and flower nutes the last week or two, and I will give them one last feeding of the GrowBig the next time I water. That will leave 2 weeks of flower nutes, and 2 weeks + of flushing up to harvest. The Sage n Sour may take an extra week or two.

I have received some PMs from people asking about the nutes I use, and if they should use the same thing I do, or if it is ok to use another lineup. I see lots of arguments about all kinds of nute lineups from all kinds of companies. Now I am not going to sit here and pass judgement on products I have not tried. But I will say this about the MJ nutrient
market:

Most of the products created specifically for growing MJ are highly overrated and overpriced. As long as you provide all of the required nutrients for your plants they will flourish, and it doesn't matter if the nutes you are using cost 5 dollars or 1000 dollars. Many people spend hundreds of dollars on fancy bottles and jars with pretty artwork on them. I have friends like this. Their yields and quality are no better ( and often times poorer ) than mine.

Most of these giant nute lineups can be replaced with simple and less expensive substitutes.

1 bottle each of GrowBig and TigerBloom: 30 dollars
1 bottle of peroxide: 1 dollar
1 bottle of molasses: 1 dollar (completely optional) **for SOIL only**
1 package of epsom salts: 1 dollar

There. I said it. For 33 dollars you can grow perfect pot every time. You could spend some money on cal-mag, which is a good product. I do not own any since I have never had a calcium problem in almost 5 years of growing, nor have I ever met anyone who has.

There are many great products available for very reasonable prices, and I am not saying that FoxFarms is the best or only way to go. Just use common sense when picking your nutes, and don't get sucked into the hype.

And now for today's pics.

2nd and 3rd weeks of flower:










Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Quick update for today. I will have some pics of the branches I pollinated, I am pretty sure I see some seeds forming. I also noticed some very mild leaf twisting tonight. My Ph has been stable, I will keep watching the leaves. If it gets worse I will probably flush.

Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

The crystals are really starting to build up on the WRs that are 3+ weeks into flower. The SnS with it's longer flower time is still pretty far behind. I have also noticed that some of the other WRs that seem to be more of a sativa pheno are taking their sweet time in bud development.

Here are a couple of shots showing some pollinated budsites. Looks like seeds developing to me...





And some new WR pics:







The SnS:



The weather is great, with more of the same in the foreseeable future. No other news to report today. Have a great weekend.

Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Things are moving right along. More crystals and mass every day. I may be sampling some of the WR in 2 or 3 weeks.

Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I watered heavy today, and mixed up two separate batches of water- one with veg. nutes for the plants 2+ weeks into flower, and a bloom batch for the plants 3+ weeks into flower. A couple of the plants are a bit too yellow for their age. Next water will be molasses and a half dose of tigerbloom.The flowering time on the WR is 7-9 weeks according to Serious Seeds. I think two of mine will be ready right around that 7 week mark, and the rest will be 8 or 9.

On a side note, here is a list of seeds I will be reaping from this year's outdoor. I kind of went a bit crazy with the pollination. Oh well.

White Russian
WRx Sage n Sour
WRx OG Kush
WRx Bubba Kush

After all is said and done, I will grow some of these out to see which side of the family they favor. Hell, some of these crosses my not even be worth it. But I am having fun with it so I don't mind. I really wanted to try to capture the genetics of the OG kush as it is a great specimen. Enough talk. It's picture time.

The Stinky six-pack:


WR @ 2+ weeks into flower:




WR @ 3+ weeks into flower:



I have had a couple of people ask, so I want to clarify - When I talk about how many weeks into flower my plants are, I am counting from when the plants actually start to produce flowers, not at the 12/12 light change.

That's it for today.

Shame


Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I went through the plants again and did a random bug search. Aside from a couple of leaf miner tracks I found nothing. Two of the smaller WRs are really starting to yellow up. The Sage n Sour is starting to pack on the trichs now.

That's it for today.

Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

The days have been going by so fast for me right now so I felt this would be a good time to go over where we are at right now, as well as projected harvest times. The sun has been strong the last two weeks, and will only get stronger. The plants have been getting as much as 11 hours a day of direct sunlight and warm temps. These conditions not only make the plants blow up, but they also help the plants finish faster to one degree or another.

Plants 1 and 2 are the smallest of the bunch. In hindsight I should have vegged them a bit longer. Now that I have grown my first batch of WR, I know what to expect. These plants are exactly 4 weeks into flower. From the looks of them it wouldn't surprise me if these two were finished before the 7 week mark. ETH: 2.5 weeks

Plant 3 is also at the 4 week mark. The main cola on this girl is going to be 4-5 inches thick at the base. Her larger size will probably demand an extra 3-7 days of flower time compared to the first two. ETH: 3.5 weeks

Plant 4 is just over the 3 week mark. ETH: 5 weeks

Plant 5 is just under 3 weeks. ETH: 5 weeks

Plant 5a is the sage n sour which is at the 4 week mark. This strain requires a longer flower time than the WR. ETH: 5 weeks

Now we should be all caught up on where we are at here.








Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Watered heavy today. I threw in 2 tablespoons full of molasses and a half cap of TigerBloom. My dog somehow got his paws on my dropper and chewed it up, so I had to use a straw to apply my Ph up today. I'll get another dropper next time I am close to the hydro shop. Nothing else to report. Pics tomorrow.

Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I found some powdery mildew on a couple of the week 4+ WRs. This is an enemy I have not seen before. I did some searching here at RIU, and after trying a couple of "tried and true" methods for removing this mold I am still unsuccessful.

Spraying with neem - no dice. It came back a few hours later.
Spraying with Hydrogen Peroxide - Nope. It was back a few hours later.



Finally it came time to put them plants away for the night, so I cut off most of the little leaves that were affected. I have a feeling it will be there again in the morning when I wake them up. I will try two more methods for removing the mildew tomorrow:

Vinegar + Soap + Water

Nonfat milk + Water

If I don't get this solved by tomorrow afternoon, I am going to harvest at least one of the plants before the buds are ruined and/or the mold spreads to more plants. If you have any real solutions for powdery mildew you can PM me. I am fairly confident that I will find some way to get this under control.

Here are some new pics of the the group:






Aside from the minor mildew issue they are doing incredibly well. I will do my best to stop this mildew thing in it's tracks. Got to be a way to kill this stuff...

Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

I am back with good news. I am pretty sure that I have beaten the mildew for now. No visible mildew when I put them out this morning, and no mildew when I put them to bed tonight. After some more research, I think I have found the next remedy I will try if the mold shows up again.

It seems that if I were to just mix up a batch of water with a Ph of about 9 I could just spray it on the affected and surrounding areas to kill the mildew. Maybe throw in a drop or 2 of dish soap as the wetting agent. I will keep a close eye on them.

It's been hot here in SoCal the last couple of days. I may have to keep the plants in the shade if temps continue to climb. That's all I have to report today.

Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

It's getting hotter. I watered lightly today, and applied a light dose of TigerBloom as well. I think I am going to stick to watering less and more often just to keep the moisture down. Still no new mildew...

As you can see, the girls are starting to yellow up to varying degrees. The plants farthest from harvest will receive Growbig one or two more times. The rest are on bloom nutes only for another week or two before beginning the flush process.

The WR is really starting to impress me. The buds are just a sticky, stoney mess covered in trichs.

White Russian:




Here is the SnS.



Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Welcome back. The temps are still going up, today it hit 91 where I am. One of the plants actually showed mild heat stress, so I moved them into the shade for the second half of the day. The good news is that the humidity dropped quite a bit from what it has been.They are looking a tad thirsty right now but I am going to wait until tomorrow morning to water.


Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Big update today.

The two WR that had the mildew on them got the axe today. They could have gone 7-10 days longer, but the mold came back again a little bit. I don't want to chance that spreading to the rest of the grow. I will post some pics when the bud is dried and cured a bit.

So these are out:


This Purps ( Left ) and an OG Kush ( Right ) will be taking their places in the journal:



The Purps is over 2.5 ft. tall. Although she's only a foot tall, I am really excited about this OGK. Wonderful genetics, and I want to capture them. I pollinated most of the lower branches with the WR pollen. I can't wait to grow out the F1s. Instead of focusing on the cross first, I want to work on breeding out the WR genetics to stabilize the pheno you see here:


Next up are some pics of the pollinated branches of different plants to show the seed development. The seeds are still 3-5 weeks from being done (I think).

First up, the OGK - This is a good shot of a preflower that has been seeded:


And here are a couple of pics of the WR we seeded:






As you can see they are coming along, but still have quite a while before they will be ready. I may actually have to let some of these plants go a little longer than I normally would just to give the seeds enough time. We'll see.

Finally, here is a pic of the journal group as it is for now. The next chop date will be in 1-2 weeks when I harvest the last remaining WR from the first wave of flowering. There is a Bubba Kush waiting to take her place.



That's it for today.

Shame


Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Cooler weather headed our way for the next week or so. I watered lightly with no additives. I will hit them with some more molasses next water.

Shame



Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!

Back with new pics. I did a mold and bug check this morning. The plants came up clean. I will hold off watering until tomorrow, and will hit them with some molasses.



This WR is two weeks or less from harvest. She is being flushed until chop:


Here is the topped WR. I am curious to compare the yield of this one to the other non-topped. So far she is looking good:






Here is the Sage n Sour. For a leggy clone that I pollinated heavily she looks to be a good yielder:


Here is the Purps. She has a ways to go:


And the OGK:


This grow won't be totally finished until mid-late July, and I am already thinking about my next grow. So many strains already sitting in my seedbox, and now I have a couple of crosses here that I am really excited about. That's it for today.

Shame




Please DO NOT POST in my journal until it is complete. I appreciate comments or questions via PMs only thanks!