Hmmm could be eucalyptus, I know the thought of mints and gum immediately came to mind as it rolled across the taste buds. That’s very interesting to know about pine OG. I will say when delivery dispensaries had it, I jumped right quick. Always nice but I didn’t think it was as pronounced. Buzz was always strong and focused. This mix of crip and Xmas does make it stand out more. I had a feeling, Xmas would lend more flavor to Crip side and even though I scathed w a single plant I know the combination works right. Makes me eager to pop 10-15 B’s and hope I get a few w intersex only, which is passable and not the actual hermie that’s active as it appears.
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A little update on NL2
They’re under the veg light now
Doing well. Definitely not fussy, yet. I’ll repot them soon
In the next few days I’ll be posting a smoke report on the TC A x Xmas. Remember I said let’s see what she gives than what I hope, it’s more than I hoped…
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So I’ve found 13 seeds of the TC x Xmas x PTK…decisions… decisions 
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Well, after almost a year I have SOMETHING. As I suspected Xmas does have strong terp of pine. The TC had some too, but now it’s SUPER pine w notes of mints and gas. I can only akin the odor to pine and spearmint. It still hits hard and busts a lung if you hit it too hard, so I can’t say it’s declined in potency, but I can say without question very soothing, calming and relaxing buzz. This could be highly effective for anxiety problems, so I may have the beginnings of a medical strain. Potent but not as intense. I find myself reaching for more. I’m praying the clone roots but I am re-vegging in case it doesn’t. I’m not completely empty handed as I do have the 3 way cross now, but I’d rather still have the original to build from.
Stats
19” finished height
49 days flowering
28.2 dry weight
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Very nice looking bud you got there. 
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I’m very pleased with the results. Really checks off a lot of boxes, especially the flavor mix. An herbal woody terp would really make it complex, but complement the profile well. It is possible to make a cross but the female has to stay true or intersex, which grows on/inside the bud, withers and dies after its cut and dried. So I say use your pollen, you may get a lucky pheno, but you will get a high number of hermies to find it. It’s clear intersex is dominant but is passable to proceed to the next filial generation.
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this is the most beautiful picture of buds my guy, congrats this sounds so so fire!!
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I got all caught up, and was rewarded with those incredible looking buds!
Your details, and explanation of your selection process are great, and greatly appreciated. 
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Thanks @supershitfuck, I try to present the end results well, despite hair flying everywhere. I appreciate the kudos. And yes, it’s fire. Xmas is good, it just needs a potent counterpart for its terps
@HeadyBearAdventures Im happy to hear you like how the progress is going. It’s encouragement that drives me forward I know I’m on the right path. In the beginning I could only speculate intuitively on hunches, but it’s clear it works. I’m hoping for less intersex expression as I build the IBL lines to a stable version.
I think I’ll still get the flowered cut to root, which for me has the been the LONGEST at close to 60 days now. Brown stem, but refuses to rot…
I also think re-veg is working. The little buds are starting to curl now. Seeing tiny green growth in the corners.
Little update on NL 2
Plant A is male, short nodes and laterals. Not even long enough for a cut. After PTK is done dropping, I’ll trigger and start collecting
Plant B is the female, even shorter than A nodes and laterals. Seems like it’s going to be awhile before I get a cut long enough to take
Both have confused me by wilting a bit like they’re dry but slightly overwatered. Like Corn I want to work cuts into the rotation.
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Ahhh how fast a week a passes…all 3 doing well. Also look uniform. Could be TC x Xmas x PTK rouge seed instead of Xmas BX. Time will tell which it is… I at least have seedlings so I still have a chance 
Unfortunately the re-veg failed. I held hope but I could see the buds turning golden dead before it could get going. The tiny bud branch clone, has translucent bumbs so I’m praying it pulls through. Huge cloning SNAFNU for 2 months so it wasn’t ideal. Realized I needed an interval timer to reduce the standard 15 min pin in those wheel timers, which was proving to be too wet.
NL 2 fem STILL doesn’t have long enough branches for cuts. It’s ridiculously stout and compact nodes, but soon I’ll be able to take a few…
My plan is to hope the clone fully roots, I can then grow it into a mom. Take several cuts from there, get those ready. OR if the clone doesn’t, use best female. 2 options from that point. 1) use a male from the 3 seedlings and BX. 2) trigger NL2 then trigger vegged cuts or seed female and after 2-3 weeks take them out and shake the ready NL2 dust. Obviously we know a shake over ready females will be a loaded amount of beans. I don’t really care about more smoke here since I know it works, so it will be all for would be testers.
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if something showed promise in line breeding but didn’t yield it wouldn’t stop me but obviously as many boxes as possible checked preferred
I saw some old school white widow the other day that remakes of pine
I thought of this thread trying to track down the grower
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You’re right @Shamus slightly smaller buds aren’t going to deter my goals. The terps of A are the better flavors to make the Xmas quite pronounced. Earlier in the thread there was debate Xmas was named for holiday theme and not terp…. Definitely not the case. I’d rather have the right blend and smaller bud/yield than larger and not the right blend. For the size plant it is, it did well. That’s interesting I never knew that about WW. Must be a select pheno. The WW Mota Rebel told me about that came from Fig Widow, is a smuggled cut from the 95 CC. Fig Widow by far was the best WW variation I sampled, grew and bred w. Toasted nut flavor and so complex I’d sure like to get that one again…oh memories!
Well remember the Xmas male I found, even though I scrapped him, he still dropped enough. I decided to save the sheet of foil and put it in the fridge for later. I have one remaining self pheno that’s early enough to hit, so I did. I’ve redone it yesterday, and saw it’s taken. So I’ve done 3 branches and should get enough see what’s there. So the make up is TC Self x TC A x Xmas. If the terps are lent to the self version, that could be very ideal. I see several ways to go about this, but if it isn’t right, I won’t conceal it to say so.
Finally able to take 2 of the NL cuts. Stubby laterals taking a long time to get long enough. Maybe there’s a little something to be said for stretching some
I’ve circled the bract cluster
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Now it’s time for the PTK smoke report :
At first the bouquet of apple cedar and pine is lovely. Tight spears w tinges of red, tiny interspersed leaves for a high calyx/leaf ratio encrusted glands. Upon rolling, the first few hits are baffling as I taste floral. This floral is off putting but once I reach the mid point it changes more to a pine mix. As it stands I need the floral to dissipate or mellow to be lighter to be acceptable. The buzz is strong body like but clear. @firehead you’re right, not couch lock smoke, though I’m disappointed about the floral. I’m hoping after the curing process I can say it’s better pine than it started as. I suppose there’s better phenos to find but the TC Xmas hybrid is far more in line w the profile than PTK. I get more of that cooler ahhh sensation. PTK is about 50% less. So I have mixed thoughts. I’d like to see it stabilize sex but less influence in terps, other growing traits can work in the line. Hints or notes but not overpowering. I’m open to seeing what happens but I’ll scrap PTK out if the floral can’t be tamed and confirm it can’t work. And this is what I’m talking about, because I won’t hesitate to post about a strain that just doesn’t cut it. Not every candidate is going to work out…
Smell 8
Appearance 7
Flavor 4
Potency/buzz 7
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Well, I think aero cloning can be effortless until a certain point arrives. The habit of cutting, dipping and sticking in the collar, then waiting… but forgetting the collar can be why no bumbs or slow to surface. Also being looser from grabbing and pinching so water seeps up the stem.
Needless to say I overused my original collars and failed to clean them. I also think in between dry time without aeration the warmer water wasn’t being agitated enough causing a more a favorable environment for slime.
I stupidly thought the solution was to chill the water to keep it from growing not realizing that colder zone of 69-62 would keep the roots from starting or very slowly, but even at cooler temps it was mostly brown and mushy tips, so research has led as it seems every grower finds out, you can add inoculant, fluctuate temps and even start using purified/RO but none of those work if there’s hidden residue inside.
My failure to change and sanitize the res cost me the the TC Xmas clone. It finally damped off. Having others in progress Corn and NL, I’ve cleaned the res w h202 and added some to the res, also UC roots along w a bubble curtain, I think new collars are helping but these sit halfway out and large holes in the center. Good for thicker, but thinner cuts fall through. I’m not sure how to make these holes tighter, any ideas ?
I found one Corn that has rooted slip too low and luckily I caught it before the top stem got too wet. I decided no sense in chancing it, so plant it before more damage happens. I know I’m in need of the bleach cleaning but I’m hoping new collars, aeration, routine change outs and h202 let’s me finish out the rest then I can scour the whole thing. I’m miffed I lost the plant but I realize the mistakes each grower encounters w aero cloning along the way. Anyway I’ve rooted some cuts despite mishaps but 6 in about 2 months. Since I lost it, I decided to pop 3 more original TC A x Xmas. One is coming up now, and 2 still yet. One tip slightly broke being planted. I’m hoping it’s not too much.
The other 3 are doing great. (Left to right and center) Left and center appears Xmas like. The irony of losing the original could mean I find a better pheno. Time will tell but their vigor is stronger than the originals.
One final note, I decided to mix PTK and TC A together and I think this can give an idea of how they might combine as a hybrid. It’s anecdotal so I don’t say anything w certainty. The TC A does greatly help to blend in this floral flavor pronouncement and I get the impression of a powerhouse. I think it could work well surprisingly, but this floral doesn’t fit the true profile of I what I want as the end result. It remains to be seen but I’m curious and cautious. The seeds I’m growing now may be rouge PTK instead of Xmas, but I have what I know is that plant w the PTK cross so I’m keeping that in mind
Here is the NL male. Even though I find it hard to keep him watered enough, I really like what I see. He’s wilting yet again lol
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It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update…a few days after my last one, I used an orange spray (not on them directly) but it seems to kill bugs. There was a pesky fly and it was higher up on the wall, so I went to spray and it flew down, my angle of spray tilted and down it came, less on 2 bigger but that center plant got the brunt. I tried to wash it quickly, then the next day the top melted away, followed by 1/4 of the stem. Carefully I had to cut at the thin stem near the base where a node was emerging. It was down to 2 leaves that were undergoing phytoxicity to recover from. I had my doubts, but full recovery. It lost 1 node of height. The others showed spots later, which still continued for 2 sets. Won’t be using that orange spray near plants again…some things aren’t so ‘natural’. Anyway, the good news is they pre-sexed themselves and appear to be all girls. I can’t find the clusters or spade showing, and the real kicker, is the plant that was about dead, shows a tiny set of hairs now. I feel glad I saved it and instead of assumed just a male. Definitely 2 are showing strong Xmas expressions. The serrations tell me this from TC. They’ll all get their bigger bags so I can grow them out more to figure which should be used w the NL2 pollination. Just a hunch, but I think after that crossing it will begin to stabilize from the intersex
Looks like hairs to me
Here you can see where new growth started from and the 2 leaves it had left
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Been awhile, but I wanted to let them get settled after transplanting last week. Well one clearly shows Xmas leaf, cause it’s not TC at all, though it’s getting leggy…hmmm maybe Xmas isn’t so short after all. They do have their mothers smell on stem rub. They’ve all been topped. I’m about to defoliate so they start to bush out more. I was able to take few cuts to add w new batch of Corn and NL after I had to sterilize the cloner.
A (This one looks closest to its parent)
B
C
(Xmas)
Finally the NL2 male : Very heathy. No deficiency other than tip burn. The structure remains short too…I feel there’s potential here.
The female NL2, which had to be put in a bag cause the 4” pot wasn’t enough to get branching going for cuts. Extremely tight growth
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Still got a couple posts to read but in the meantime…Maybe GG #4 RIL would be a good cross with the Christmas Bud to improve potentcy.
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My has time passed, but instead of posting tiny bits of growth, I decided to wait. My focus has been concentrated on getting rid of stubborn biofilm that has ruined 2 rounds of cuts. Considering what happened last time, I’m trying to wait until I get 1 back up each. I originally bought rapid rooters, but my first time w those didn’t go well in the grow room so I thought what a waste. I think you need inserts but I just got 2 bags of 50 trying to figure out how to stand them up. They don’t have flat bottoms and a slotted tray doesn’t help them to stand up right…I just put them in the drawer and went to aero cloning, which for the most part worked well most of the year, until it doesn’t… so I decided to try the rapid rooters while I multi step sanitizing cloner, and I did better. Found some flat bottom food containers to set on the tray. Also decided to try root powder for the first time, Hormex #8, which I think may be better. Anyway I don’t think my time will be in vain. Cuts don’t wilt when dome is off for awhile, so I may be closer to starting after all
Let’s start off with a group pic
(A to C left to right)
Now individual
A
You can see this one does not resemble the TC, and the variegated Xmas trait shows up. This why I suspected it is a stronger Xmas expression and had my eye on. Good structure not the thickest branches, like B. It’s interesting it shows more sativa than indica, like C
B
This one by far has the largest fan leaf and thickest stems, though I’m a bit disappointed in its structure being irregular, unlike the other 2. Other than top parts, which I’ve topped twice, the growth structure under is poor. Still I need to see what it does as that’s just one aspect
C
What can I say about this one… She’s mostly sativa. It’s less Indica than A. Definitely indicative by the thinner branching. To be fair I’ve had to cut a few times taking clones, But you can see the structure is similar to A. She seems to be developing a decent amounts of top branches.
The NL2 male
I’ve seen some good males, but this one is different. On closer inspection he is very close to flipping naturally in maturity. There is zero stretch here! Other than a little bit of defoliation underneath, this plant has done its own thing. No deficiencies and no problems, I see a lot of potential. As I keep saying I can’t keep it watered enough…
Once I see the cuts have rooted, it’s time to begin. Stay tuned
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