Afghaniganza 5: Auto Cherry Queen

[lefthandseeds]

This girl is coming along nicely. I need some of my lebs to finish so I can get her into more adequate lighting, but for now she’ll be ok. In another 2ish weeks, probably at least one or two spots will open up.

Today was first pollination with the Durban. I think the Durban pollen is only a little more than a year old, maybe about 15 months. I opened the package and put it immediate into the dessicator for 15 minutes while I prepped everything. The pollen flowed nicely, and seemed good. No clumping at all.

I marked the Durban branches with RED tape, and covered pistils on 3 branches. Hopefully they take. I also transplanted an auto HK female into a pot and will pollinate her with Durban, and of course the SSC as well.

[GMan]

She’s got a real nice look to her. So, that’s a CQ female? She looks super happy. peace

[lefthandseeds]

Yessir. This is a cut from @vernal. It’s an F2 selection that I think probably leans more toward Bodhi’s Old Mother Ghani.

[HolyAngel]

aw rough, was it a male first and then started throwing hairs too?

I was reading this thread over on opengrow over the weekend that DJ Short is in, and someone named The Joker came in after and mentioned something about backwards herms… full males that end up throwing hairs…

(A quick word on “backward” hermaphrodites ? declared males that eventually sport female flowers ? as opposed to the usual female-to-male hermaphrodites. These are semi-rare occurrences, usually sterile but sometimes viable, that I have found at times to be valuable in their genetic contributions. Some of the most resinous and desirable males I have encountered exhibited this trait. This trait almost seems to guarantee against unwanted hermaphroditism in subsequent generations as it also increases the female to male ratio in its progeny.)

Out of curiosity tell more of DJ Short Genetics please?

[GMan]

Hmm, I hadn’t heard that but it would be good news. Who gave that info, was it Joker or Toker? I haven’t been over there much lately.

[lefthandseeds]

There were a few balls and then a lot of pistils. The early poppers did produce some pollen, and I hit a branch. If the females look ok, maybe I’ll give it a whirl. Pretty sure I’ll get enough seeds to make the F2 and hunt for autos.

[lefthandseeds]

These pictures didn’t come out great. The shadow on the back wall makes kind of a blurry trippy effect, but here’s some shots of the auto HK (first) and the non-sequitur for the thread, the SSC @vernal cut. Along with the CQ and another Lebanese in my 4x4 tent, they’re all just starting to bud.

They’re all waiting to be moved over to the flower tent once some other stuff finishes up. I only have about 25W/sq in the tent, because it’s the one I typically use for males. But it’s a good time to get some Durban pollen down on everyone so I can make sure it takes and then wash it off before they get moved over. This SSC is quite a bit more branchy than I anticipated. It is really wanting to claim quite a bit of space. This thing will be a freak monster crossed to the Durban.

The auto HK took a bit of a root trim when I had to get it out of it’s smaller pot. But it looks like it’s recovering, and I’m seeing some new roots poking out the bottom now. Durban on her too. You get a Durban and you get a Durban. Everybody gets a Durban.

[lefthandseeds]

Cherry Queen

SSC

Auto HK

These all got moved into my main flowering tent last week. The Cherry Queen is definitely knocked up with some Cannabiogen Durban pollen. It seemed to take much better on the CQ than other plants, but maybe that’s just because it’s farther along developmentally. I think I’m going to call the strain “DurbiQueen”.

It should make a really nice 50/50. I’m actually pretty excited about it. It has surprisingly dark foliage, which I’m scratching my head over a little bit. It’s getting the proprietary Lefthand “high P” hydro mix that I developed specifically for the Lebs. It doesn’t have any signs of N-tox though, just very green leaves.

In other news, the Auto hindu’s are continuing on and hopefully starting to bud up more soon. I’ve smashed one of them with the Durban pollen, but can’t tell if it’s taking yet. I’m considering what to smash onto the one in back. Maybe “Major indica”… maybe black Afghan/Leb. I’ll make a decision in the next day or two.

Finally the @vernal cut SSC is recovering from some minor abuses. She’s a big gal, and is starting to smell nice and perfumey and soapy. I also smashed her with Durban pollen, and I think I see some calyxes swelling, but am not 100% that there are seeds developing. Now that she has some overhead space, I think that top cola is going to turn around and produce nicely. The LH “high P” mix is gonna do her right. The smells so far are much less spicy than my panama haze. I’m really excited to have another pheno of haze in my tent right now. If I get some Durban cross seeds, maybe I’ll experiment with that and some panama haze BX2 together sometime. Love me some haze!

[vernal]

How’s the Cherry Queen smell for ya? I found that shit enchanting.

Should be some really cool stuff paired with the CBG Durban. Real narrowleaf Durban crossed to an old time vintage Afghani line…like the early catalog selections. There’s a little magic in the inbred broadleaf-narrowleaf hybrids.

Tell me more about the Durban side.

[lefthandseeds]

Exactly how you described. It’s pretty different from the smell of the F1s, but I like it a lot. The spiciness might go well with the Durban, but who knows what’ll pop out.

The Durban females in the line were definitely very narrow leaf, and the buds did not have much density. However, they were pretty good for resin, and flowered maybe ~14 weeks.

Here’s a picture of the male, topped once:

Here’s a bud shot:

It was a difficult grow due to it’s size, but I thoroughly enjoyed the smoke. I didn’t have much vertical space at the time, and as you can see, it wanted to get very large. It foxtailed like crazy when it grew up into the lights. The buds were quite voluminous, but not dense. It’s a great one to hybridize. I think CQ will be exceptional with it. I’ll send you some seeds.

[vernal]

Oh lawd that looks beautiful. Much appreciated for the offer; I can’t wait to try my hand at a few. Thanks for the writeup as well. It’s fun to grow narrowleafs but it’s even more fun to grow the hybrids. So much more “manageable”. I feel like the Cherry Q scent is one that will pair better with sativas than say, a really rank skunky burnt rubber type Afghani. The more plants I grow, the more I realize I like things that smell pleasant over nasty. CQ vigor was already off the charts, I can’t even imagine a true hybrid. Shit will probably take over a light.

My Cherry Q will be meeting the Golden Goat x Scott’s OG line. Should make buds even bigger, shorten stretch a bit, maybe knock a week off flower. Scents aren’t terribly far off between the two, should pair well.

[lefthandseeds]

@vernal

The more plants I grow, the more I realize I like things that smell pleasant over nasty.

I with you on that. I’ve had some plants that were just rank, and not in a good way. I like some things that “stink” but have that sort of attractive stink… some skunky smells or chem smells. But some things have just outright turned me off… baby shit, rotten smells not for me. My favorite are usually more spicy and piney smells. I like really spicy haze smells a lot, incense, things that aren’t sweet and citrus. Berry isn’t my favorite usually either.

I was listening to a breeder panel the other week, and one guy was talking about how pine terpenes seem to be recessed. I found that interesting… It’s being lost in these perpetually outcrossed polyhybrid chains, because recessive genes are usually just completely buried. Pine is becoming a “lost” smell and everything is getting homogenized toward the dominant smells.

Made me think that make pine a pretty ideal smell for a hashplant outcrosser. If you’re looking for an indica male that doesn’t dominate the terpenes in every cross it makes, then something piney would be something one would want to look for.

[vernal]

I get a little pine in a lot of stuff, but never pure pine. OG is pretty piney. Christmas Bud had pine but it was only a component.

I’ve read a little into perfume, it’s a somewhat subjective science but from what I can glean the nasty, gross smells seem to work better in conjunction with other pleasant smells, gives it “oomph” without smelling “bad in a bad way not bad in a good way”. They’re lightyears ahead of us on smells I haven’t even scratched the surface.

[Herbie]

there are actually two pinenes an alpha and a beta. I suspect in some combination and with others they are responsible for menthol as well.

What Is Pinene and What Are Its Benefits in Cannabis? | Leafly

and

• Anti-inflammatory
• Bronchodilator (helps open airways)
• Anti-anxiety
• Pain relief
• May help combat short-term memory impairment associated with THC

One strain listed as pine dominant is Big Smooth

[lefthandseeds]

@vernal

OG is pretty piney. Christmas Bud had pine but it was only a component.

I had some pine tar kush, but it was more like pine wood. But come to think of it, Afghan Kush sometimes has very piney terpenes as well. Hmmmm

[GMan]

Been a long time since I’ve had anything piney like what I remember way back, late '70s, early eighties. I’d love to find some.

[lefthandseeds]

Auto Hindu Kush #2

Cherry Queen

I know the pollen works at least a little bit. She got a little calcium deficient, but I bumped the EC up to 2.2, because I think everybody can take it now.

SSC

Pretty sure the Durban worked at least a little bit there… Hard to tell.

Auto HK #1

[TheNorthAbides]

I grew Royal Queen’s Special Kush #1 on one of my first ever outdoor grows back about 15 years ago… effortless grow - big 8 foot plants - and I didn’t really even know what I was doing. But the smoke on that was pretty darn good and the flavors were all that traditional Kush spicy/pine/earthy stuff… loved it!
I also had a NL/Skunk around that time that had a smell like rotten meat… not my favorite smell in the world.
That spicy/pine talk makes me want to grow that Special Kush again…

[lefthandseeds]

That’s great to hear. I think I have a couple of those in my seed box. I’ll have to crack them open sometime. Once I’m done working on this Lebanese, I’m going to sift through my afghan collection to try and find the best mate for it. Maybe I’ll crack a few of those when I make some test crosses.

[lefthandseeds]

SSC

This plant never looks amazing, but the buds sure look amazing. She’s a little overfed I think, being on the same res as CQ and the auto HK with slightly downturned leaves and a bit of tip curling. Probably 2-3 weeks to go. I don’t think she’s going to make a ton of seeds, but I definitely see signs of some. Looks like a winning selection from @vernal.

Cherry Queen

This girl has some chunky buds. She seems to be super hungry for the calcium, and the first plant on my custom nute mix that has complained about it. Time to make a few tweaks. She will probably be done in a week at most. I see some external seeds browning. One slightly weird thing is that this plant seems to produce more seeds that aren’t wrapped in calyxes than most.

Auto HK

This is my favorite of the two. It’s happy and just humming along. I wish I could grow it under 18/6, because I can’t really tell if it’s actually autoflowering But I think it is. I saw pistils forming when it was under 24/0.