Acro's Farm Adventures

Some history and background on me so some of the madness that’s to follow makes sense. I promise to not continue on such long rambles after this. For those with short attention spends. I grow a lot of plants. I’ll be showing my breeding with them here.

4 years ago I set out on a journey to become a professional breeder of sorts, I planned for it to be a thing I do as a small supplemental income. To dedicate no more than a quarter of my working hours, to not NEED to make a dime from it. I wanted to do it right, and three years seemed like enough time to develop my own auto reg strains and photo reg strains. Fems TBD.

I’d only made fems photos until this point, as well as some fast photos and played around with basically selective pollen chucking. But, I wanted to be serious about this, do it right, so my plan was to only make fems when compelled to, when necessary, after I’d worked a line for a while, or as preservation.

My background in growing is with gardening since I could walk, then starting in the mid 80’s, coral and reef aquariums and then a few decades later, cannabis. I grew and farmed coral as a serious hobby, and would do a sale a couple times a year to generate 5-10k a year. Basically, paid the water and electric bills.

I didn’t want to rely upon coral because of the reliance on keeping something fragile alive, for decades. Such value and such fragility… Considering a tiny 1” fragment can go for hundreds of dollars, there can be a lot riding on each colony. It’s a lot like the clone game on extra hard mode, if the clones tried to kill one another by physical and chemical attacks. Supply and demand, rarity, and what the flavor of the month is. Far more risk, far more difficult environments and mothers to maintain. Oh, and hundreds of gallons of saltwater mixed with gobs of heat and electricty. Not for the faint of heart.

This decision to breed came about after a power outage that was only supposed to last a few hours wiped out all my flowering plants and all of my coral collection. Don’t ever do the financial math after the fact on these things. But it wasn’t the value that was most crushing, it was losing some corals that may be lost forever, rare color morphs, famous corals, held for decades in some cases.

The first time I grew cannabis, ILGM white widow :joy: It was a lightbulb moment. My profession was/is in the wine, food, beverage, coffee and tea. I’ve been lucky to travel around the world and taste extraordinary things in extraordinary places, I became a big nerd about food, wine, bourbon, all things that smell and taste good. And being a taster, taster product developer, buyer for wine, herb, coffee, and tea. I was simply blown away by how satisfying of a plant it is to grow in every regard. I seem to have a good nose, good sense for the plant, and breeding and growing it felt like my calling the more I did it.

I found myself studying genetic backgrounds and the stories of strains. Learning all I could by reading various forums and sites. Everything from ILGM, to Z labs, AFN, RIU, etc. Just from being a lurker I spent most of my time on afn and here. Here more and more as I advanced in knowledge and became interested in breeding as trading.

I’ve grown appreciation for all types of plants. I like autos, photos, prefer regs, but won’t scoff at a fem. I love some of the latest hype as well as the classics. Still dipping my toes in landraces. The last few years I’ve sorted through well over 1000 beans from other breeders and worked on a proper seed collection.

I caught the seed bug here a while back, but that quickly turned into me buying gobs of packs from a variety of breeders. My arsenal is pretty heavy on Bodhi, 3rd coast, Thug Pug, Dynasty, Capulator, EG, Cannarado, Clearwater, Top Dawg… I like to hunt, I usually have 100-400 plants going at once in various stages and depending on the season.

This is what it usually looks like every 2-3 months. I probably miss some really good and great plants along the way, but I enjoy finding new ways that torture and test them and seeing who continues to shine.

I’ve also put well over 100 elites through their paces. Many being culled or meeting an early demise before seeing flower. I’m still narrowing down, but this is what I’m down to…

Here’s what I’m holding at least a small plant of these days… Also to help me keep track…

Blueberry Muffin
BBM x Vintage Blueberry (my cut)
Zkittles
Macdaddy
Zkittles Cake
Strawberry Guava
Stardawg Guava
MOB
Irene OG
Original Diesel
Giesel
Dream Axis (Congo x Ghash) x SSDDUV (my cut)
Cuban Black Haze
Papaya
Cereal Milk S1 (my cut)
Donnie Burger #10
SLH Franco’s
Chem Chillz
Sour D x SSH F3 (my cut)
Blueberry (old pnw Sativa cut)
Wellness OG
Peach Chemo (chem91 x TK) x Peach Oz (my cut)
Purple Widow Freak (my cut)
GTR (my cut)
Now n Later

Plus a few boys…

Papaya, Cereal Milk, and Donnie Burger have recently been sent into flower. 8-10 others will follow soon. I’ll be updating here with pics.

Haven’t flowered all of them yet, but all have been tested in a wide variety of ways for 1-3 years. At the very least I grew a large mother of each, sometimes flowered out just clones. I’ve tested many outdoors in soil, coco, and indoors in coco, hydro, Kratky. Here’s macdaddy and a Kratky blueberry muffin in veg

I haven’t kept a ton of what I’ve popped long term. I’ve bred with a lot that I didn’t hold due to space and variety. I also have yet to properly test a crazy amount of my own work. I spent a year sorting through and making blueberry autos regs. And testing different F gens as a learning exercise.

Now I’m starting to really dig into F1 photos I’ve made, with plans of hunting through them and exploring different directions and expressions. I will work some lines over the years, but I ultimately will get bored looking at similar plants too much. I love the variety and creating something new. I’ll likely make a lot of F1 and F2 and move on as a breeder.

The plan for this thread is to show all sides of my growing and breeding. Even the ugly sides and the struggles. I’ve found that the breeders I truly appreciate are the ones without ego, and that have transparency. I’ll do my best to be that wherever my journey takes me.

Life has thrown some curveballs. My daughter has health stuff and my wife’s work is letting people go. These days I’m considering going back to my career and dialing things back to hobby level. I’ve even considered trying to get into the cannabis industry not of my own venture.

I don’t know where I’ll end up, if I’ll ever sell a seed pack. For now, just going to enjoy growing and breeding and having lots of plants and beans to share.

Anyone who’s made it this far, thank you, and bravo! Feel free to ask questions. If you see something I post that you you’d like to grow I’m always looking for help testing. Feel free to send a message.

Some purple widow freak holding some beans. More to come from her in the future :v:

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Figured I’d talk about the moms, I’ve found it difficult finding info on some of these…

**

Macdaddy

She’s been a standout! Iirc this came to me from GMO sending me all the clones he had left before he closed shop for a little while. I got a couple of these and set about to making sure one got a solid start and instantly torturing the other. I fell for her early in stress testing. I’m used to slow growing GDP :man_shrugging:

Sturdy, wildly vigorous, resilient, “fun” and distinctive leaves. She’ll grow tall and beautiful in a tiny pot. Stretchy, so be careful. I fear I’ve let her get entirely too tall. I’ll top and flip in the next day or two. Frighteningly, she was multi topped last week, and is already in attack mode with the lights. I think I let her get way too big before flip. I’ve got a couple backups and a bunch freshly cut in a cup, so letting her flower anyway. If I have to chop her up after flip, so be it.

I flowered some fresh cuts outdoors later in the season. Assuming I do much better indoors with a nice root system, the smoke will be great. Great relaxing high, and strong grape goodness. The leaves are wildly sticky in veg and there’s something about them that makes me want to pour some vinaigrette, shallots, and crack some pepper over them. I do think there’s a natural tackiness to her moreso than a majority of plants.

I haven’t bred with her yet, but she will get hit along the way. I’m a little surprised more people haven’t user her in hybrids. Lots of flower pics in the coming weeks.

I believe @santero made this one? He did some really nice work, and seems like one of the good ones. Edit: Probably IHG’s work upon further inspection, but will get confirmation.

Too many tops and too close to the light last week… Candycane twist branch of hers for the holidays.

GTR up next when I have time. Here’s a sneak peek.

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I enjoy the long stories, thanks!
Had saltwater aquaria & coral for a few years myself. Loved them, and yes, very fragile & expensive, and stunningly beautiful.
I’m in love with cannabis breeding projects, and envy your large amount of space. Got to figure out how to increase mine! :face_with_monocle::grin:
Looking forward to hearing more about your projects!

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This is great! I’m a fish nut, no reef at the moment but I’ve had my share of coral too. Tents and aquariums offer a similar vibe to my well-being.

Great to have you, excited to watch your work!

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I’m lucky to have the extra space I do, and some outdoor space, though I may not have it next season, we’ll see. Also lucky to have a very understanding wife. To put up with multiple aquariums, a little coral farm, and multiple cannabis projects happening… Oh, and my sneaker addiction :crazy_face::rofl:

I still have a smattering of corals and maintain a tank, but they’ve been surviving despite me. I’ve done two water changes the last 2 years and am running skimmerless. With auto top off and a computer running them, they’re just on autopilot.

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Some nice corals when I lived in Florida I used to grow corals and supplement my income and the cost of maintaining 3 100 gallon reef tanks….my favorite were Sps

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I ran skimmerless for years. Had a mandarin goby, red anemone, various corals though only one sps variety seemed happy in there. 20g sump on a 50g with deep sand beds in both and a bunch of macroalgae. Just used treated tap water. I’d rip out a bunch of algae once a month, and the water tests were always spot on.

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i am not dead … not yet anyways :grin:

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My urge to overpopulate my tanks would mean I’m never in this scenario :frowning:

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Ugh, why did I feel like people were talking about you passing. So sorry, I’ll just edit that. Glad to see you’re still around :crazy_face::heart:

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haha … no worries :wink:
i can’t be jinxed (too good karma, lol).

oi, you are the only one that showed mac daddy so far, nice !!

that GTR looks amazing, btw (!!) :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
that original diesel bx in there is KILLER, to say the least.

__

EDIT:

i did shared “mac daddy” far and wide seven years ago. it’s most likely
mine (?), since no one else shared that openly and in that quantity :wink:

purple caper released theirs maybe two years later and in house’s work with it came out
after that … i always just assumed they reproduced/worked mine and went from there, lol.

“cheetos” is another one that was used by “big time” players and they claimed a
different lineage to not have to admit they use genetics that anyone can buy for 20
bucks, lol …

i do (kinda) understand why: they ask so much money for their packs that admitting to
using 20€ genetics to make them would be weird. so, they “enhance” the lineages with
fancy names and truck on … i am not out for fame or money, so i don’t care, lol.

i can live with people assuming me not to be the creator, lol … shadows and dust.

__

i can hit you with a pack of “mac daddy”, so you can make f2’s of the cut and have
some “room” to work the line if you fancy her. i am absolutely game to support you
and your adventures, bro … these plants are no ones property. everyone should be
able to enjoy everything, imho … so, if i can help → i will, of course :slight_smile:

… and even if it might not be mine, it will still mix very well (!) the offer stands.

sometimes names get used again … i believe that it can result in
coincidential names being given to different cultivars. i saw lucky
dog calling two of their lines after stuff i definetly made and named
before them, but now they also sell “fume” and chewie" stuff, haha.

i don’t think they even know about me, lol … just another conicidence :wink:

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I held on to one boy one girl of the GTR after coming out of early testing with only 3 plants. Most had mold issues. This one can be grown as a house plant and in just about any conditions. I wasn’t even going to test it further since it was kind of small and weird at first, but it proved to be among the most resilient of 250+ sour and chem plants and there was just something about her.

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If only you were still alive you be able to tell us if you found the cut, or if someone else did 🥸

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Here’s Daywrecker in need of a transplant.

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I need that daywrecker :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Sorry to hear about your daughter and your wife’s workplace letting people go.

As always I love your info dumps. I really want Guava after you said she was super resilient. Corey is definitely starting to pack it on though.

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Great story! I got sucked right in! Especially liked to coral, it’s so beautiful :star_struck:. Also excited to see how your crosses pan out for you, I’ll be pulling up a chair and following along.

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Yeah, SPS are my favorite as well. Corals from the genus Acropora in particular

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Lots of clones and backups being started this way recently. Those roots were 9 days from cut on one of my Sour D x SSH F3 keepers. Of all the plants a ran outdoors this past year from seed, she’s my favorite. She shined outdoors no matter what was thrown at her. She saw a little snow and lots of nights in the low 30’s along with 90’s and drought like conditions. Longer flower time and Sativa bud structure with lots of lemony haze backed up with hints of diesel and bubblegum.

Apparently I dropped some seeds while I was shucking mom. She was crossed with Blueberry Muffin x Vintage Blueberry. They didn’t mind having 1200 tds water dumped on them and not being buried. Three of them have now popped up, so I guess germ testing is complete? :joy:

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Figured we could use some flowers…

Some shots of testing my most recent blueberry reg autos. There are several renditions, but this was progeny from one of my favorite mothers. It started as 12 plants, 6 fast photos and 6 blueberry auto regs. Sharing a 5 gallon pot which I culled down to 4.

This girl outgrew her sister by silly amounts, in fact, she’s pictured as one of those frosty top clusters, she yielded less than one of her sisters less impressive colas. She also outpaced the two biggest fast photos, which both turned out to be boys.

Mum and some other random blueberry below

I’m also breeding hibiscus… :crazy_face:

I’ve been sorting through photos and writing while sitting in doctor’s office waiting areas. Way better than looking at the news!

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ey, if anything: this helped us to connect to each other
and swap some gems :wink: it’s a “win-win” in my book.

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