use to yes, now i use pool shock “calcium hypochlorite” which is just another form of bleach but more concentrated and in solid format, i have a little jar i just sprinkle a tiny bit out into its cap “incase i pour out to much” and then just throw it into my feed water after ive mixed it to the level i wanted. It also raises my pH slightly which for me works out nicely.
Typically i don’t add any more till the next res fill, or if my reservoir has been sitting for more than a week or two.
Just some shots i took while looking over the plants today.
Here are the 4 plants i’ll hit with pollen if it ever matures… which should be this week
The reversed plants im waiting on looking scraggly , moved the left one in front of the fan now to possibly get it to dry out quicker and start dusting if if decides to drop some pollen in the next couple days, the short purple one i’ll be target pollinating roughly once it produces which should be a bit sooner than the other …
And the left too long hydroton seedlings are surviving for now actually doing not that bad.
Just wanted to see root development.
When a plant is pollinated does it lose it’s smell or does it stay the same?
Cheers 
I’ve never noticed them to lose much smell, if any. I know it seems like there must be some compensation for the plant devoting so much energy and resources into making seeds, but if there’s any difference at all its too subtle for my old sniffer.
Day 37/6
posting some pictures taken yesterday and today
The pollen im waiting on, the dark expression followed by the other one.
Close up of the dark expression.
Plucked lower calyx on a dark expression.
The as for today, the hydroton seedlings are still going but swapped out the res today on them as it was at 750ppm and 6.6pH and hadn’t been changed in awhile. Took a root shot of the one i took a look at 3 days ago, next time i try a hydroton only run definitely going with humidity domes or daily misting for the start.
I Also moved the pollen bearing plants over to that side yesterday and unplugged the fan, one was to cut back on their waterings, and to maybe make things warmer with the disconnected circulation fan just to speed the pollen along, or at least my thought on it,
The other side looking as such, the four on the right being the ones ill be trying to get seeds with.
And low and behold some usable pollen even if i had to manually extract a couple pods.
I got pollen from both pollen bearing plants, dusted the lowers of the potential mothers with the dark pheno and the uppers with the other one, not too concerned with them mixing, so was pretty loose at trowing it around with a paint brush. Now to see if it takes and they finish out, ill keep up on the pollen applications as the days go on and try to successfully store the excess once they start shedding more than i need.
At this rate, we should be putting you in Nat’l Geographic! 
I think these are the nicest pics of male cannabis flowers I’ve seen & probably many others too. Wowee.
Day 40/9/0
Started some more seeds, only had one pop in this last batch “honey peach cbd” its the one in rockwool
as for the others in hydroton they were surviving, i thinned them out though, and they will probably get removed once the latest seedlings are good to go.
Gonna take a bit to work this out.
As for the other plants, 5 plants have been decently doused in pollen so lets hope they can make seeds before there done… If not im collecting pollen so can start up another batch if needed.
We’ve all seen grasses & weeds growing out of gravel… but those seeds may have “migrated” fairly deep or to the soil surface below. A roadway of any age has accumulation from past growth which gives some kind of humic foundation or beginnings.
So…
Would you be able to provide them with some coir/longer coco fibres… say split apart a “coco-chunk” and rinse the sediment & fine 'chit away, and make a little nest/incubation support for the seed?
Also wondering if extra wetting agent might be called for…
Just thinkin.
… yes
and you bring up a point of the seedlings hunting for there happy zone.
First if coco is brought back in, then the whole thing is gonna be pure coco, works, is very effective volume needed for what size plant you want, but its not really recyclable for me apart from going to compost “root pucks”, but its convenient and i only need to keep one bag around for my use.
But the happy zone comment, your onto something there and i maybe was just too blinded or wasn’t thinking in that way.
That growth zone that’s a nice happy zone for growth needs to come up in the pot or become bigger. Ideas would be Drain off prevention “less holes” , more frequent watering, or dispersed watering for coverage and film/retention properties of water, or a way to adjust the water drainage properties with water clinging/wetting agents depending on goal.
i think the rockwool will kinda do some of the above now looking at it, center wet zone due to its retention properties. Im gonna have to think and play with that today and get a game plan going for how im gonna change that.
Thanks.
Everything looks awesome! Even your males look purple and dank lol
Day 42/11/2/0
Well the seeds i started threw out tails in a hurry and would be too long by tomorrow to put in the rockwool plugs unlike if i was running coco where i could just bury them.
So ignore the multi plug pots for now, just a temporary hold over to start, as i was expecting the Leca “hydroton” only plants to be not doing as well, but a recent timing change has made them perk up quite a bit, so i don’y want to kill them off yet to fit the new seedlings.
In order to fit the new starts i moved over the pollinators to the other side and disconnected the fan for now or at least till i can collect some more pollen to save and potentially use later, any errant pollen floating around im not concerned with as it just means more seeds potentially if it finds a nice home. On that point a lot of the pistils “styles & stigmas” are receding or dying off now, which hopefully means soon to be seeds if they can finish in time before the plant says its done.
Day 44/13/1
First all the new seedlings have popped their shells, some i gave a little help to today. So a mix 3 Divyders @reikox , 2 Girl Scout Devils “my crossing”, and a BlueTooth and SourCrinkle which are Mephisto, that i enjoyed a couple rounds ago, I may hit a lower bud or two with some pollen if i like how they run.
The previous seedlings on the left side the honey peach and blow mind are kinda stagnant, issue was if they got hit early on with bacteria/dampening off issues so if they power through great but im not counting on it.
And the older attempts “far left” are still going and seem happy so i have no need to cull them yet, honestly don’t know what they are as they were just sacrifices to learning, being from what i had the most seeds of, which was from all the seeds reiko sent me, so are either LRxTheDevil or LRxUltraViolet both the #1 instead of #2s . Will have to go back in my journal and see if i mentioned something.
As for the other side i have been collecting pollen and the pollinated plants are starting on seeds.
Some deficiencies and or past and present issues going on, but they are surviving so i haven’t really spent any time on correcting any issues or diving further into it just cause i haven’t.
been plucking pollen pods as they open maybe once or twice a day just because.
As for the plants im adding these shots, which is really for my own journaling and note taking, as me just like everyone memory only goes so far and is so accurate with time, so just easier to get some info down.
First are the reversed plants
Beyonce and RuPaul In order “just the names they got” for their own reasons lol, but thats for my own referencing to see how things lean in the offspring nothing more than that. Just the plants i decided to use.
Beyonce - Overpowering purple/red pigment trait, good smell fruity/floral, bud structure possible potential which is more compact/dense floral cluster wise but i am unsure on nodal spacing and the nodal amounts for floral cluster, like each proceeding cluster may not build as much as i would like but that is all hard to tell right now because of pollen production plant changes.
RuPaul - Decent floral cluster production, more airy but higher production, lots of smaller leaves, the closer and later developing having more trichomes with the older or lower leaves being relatively barren, would be loose trimmed buds. Smell is nice again fruity/floral, and more subdued color expression compared to Beyonce, but nice in its own regard.
As for the pollinated plants left to right in order.
“Yet to be named or numbered” - is a good middle of the road plant on alot of fronts, smell is decent, production and density is good, trimming will be easier but still will have some buried fan leaves with no trichome production, may express or carry a lower node mutant/multipolate style trait which only showed on the second node “weird” wasn’t gonna pollinate it but turned out decent plant wise so they will become burner seeds to have fun with for people and myself, if they express bad traits in common occurrence, they will just be tossed, but will have to grow out offspring first to see.
“Yet to be named or numbered” maybe “fluffy” pheno - Fluffier stacked floral production but not that bad, nice and interesting color expression leans more to a red/pink pigment, good smell, more on the floral side with possible spicier herb backnote (currently i have a cold so i’ll have to re test later), Good trichome production, low fan leaf production, just an interesting plant to me. It got hit with a bit more of the Beyonce pollen with the thought that it may add some density back to the the bud production, and pushing the smell out a bit more to the floral and background fruity side
TheGreenPheno - floral fruity smell is there but is a little bit different kinda excited it carried over in that way as typically it hasn’t for the green phenos which typically express solvent like smells, floral production is good with good leaf support for growth, a little more spacing than i would like in the bud node spacing which will make good lookers with coverage but weight will be lower and deceptive. Color is neat as there is an underlying purple pigment but with the predominate green side the tips of calyxs and leafs express a dark bronze color with a slight purple overtone, but more bronze than purple its pretty neat, would like to push the traits and see if i can isolate and push and improve them if i can. Gonna be something to pay with…
It got hit more with the RuPaul pollen with my thought on to try and keep or lock in some of those green traits but it also got a decent dose of the Beyonce pollen earlier so will have to see how the ratios play out seeds wise or even if i can tell which sides they come from
Dark Spark - It has the smell hard to describe but fruity/floral leaning grape candy sweetness, whether it will stay around no idea, but was my early pick because of it, it had good density, build, trichome production, and cool colorway with very distinctive purple under leaf trait. Bit smaller plant, and higher leaf ratio and a build structure that i can see as a potential mold susceptibility issue if it was run in a high humidity environment, but also its been stuffed in the back corner the entire time, so may just be how its expressing under its current conditions. Im looking forward to chasing down this side, it got a mix of pollen.
“eazy” pheno - Should be an easy trimmer/leaf plucker, density should be good, floral production is alright but also was stuck in a corner beside and under a fan, may carry that multipolate/segment trait, but that only expressed on node 2 and only one side if i remember correctly “weird” and was really minor, Smell is decent right in the middle floral/fruity wise for what they express. Should be a fun plant to play with density and trimming ability being the higher points of it, Nice color expression too. It got hit with i believe more of the Beyonce pollen with bud density and fan leaf build structure retention more in mind, where the RuPaul pollen will possibly make it fluffier but it got hit with some of that too just to mix it up a bit.
The Sandy Broom - Not using this for obvious reasons but including it just as a reference plant for odd traits, its currently growing seeds too but that’s just from stray pollen, i don’t intend to keep it and will cut it maybe in the next couple days. Its an interesting plant as everything is trichome covered the further up the plant you go like “fuzzy stalks”, but long inter-node distance, low floral cluster production, low fan leaf amount, and stacking calyx trait, and early/quick floral production, should really call this the survivor pheno, as its against the norm of the others and to me expresses traits that seem to make it want to try and grab any errant air born pollen it possibly can, just cause of the high surface area and open structure.
It’s a weirdo
LOL
…cousin of the australian bastard cannabis? 
That one branch is just reaching off to become a vine…
Crazy. Thanks for including the freak on the back page. 
Cylax on cylax on cylax. Bet it’s a heady high…
There is a reason why they call you Mr. … Love your threads, and the knowledge you pass along (even though most of it is over my head right now lol). You certainly have a passion for it, and a willingness to help others. You explain things well and certainly have a “green thumb”. You are a great asset to the OG community. Peace
One week later
Day 51/8
Had an excuse earlier in the week to finally get all the plants into their own separate pots, the past left hand side Leca only plants both were male but so got to move things an take a look at their roots to really look at them.
not bad, roots were definitely low in the pot but were starting to build up because of the roots blocking the bottom.
passages allowing water to hand around a bit more is my figure, will have to try some things in time, but rockwool on this next cycle.
So skip to today
not bad at 8 days in, not great but again not bad, some though not doing so well, such as this honey peach, but it started off badly and im pretty sure has no tap root, reason i say that is i know it got hit and almost dampened off early as my seed start procedure for it was crap. Also no roots are coming out of the cube yet which i checked after this photo.
But the one beside it in the right front corner doing the best currently. looked at the roots as well, because how else do you really know.
As for the other side they are bulking away gaining size and crystals every day, with the seeds starting to dense up as well, oh and with a rockwool seedling hidden by that front plant “Ran out of spot on the other side”
<img src="/uploads/default/original/3X/b/7/b762bccf5f0152d5cff2d720a7c548e38810e07b.jpg" width="666"height=“500”>
But some close ups with what im calling them tonight lol
Dark Spark
“Ezey”
The Fuzz
Da Greens
and Aubergine Toots MaGoots
Obviously not serious about the naming but just a way to distinguish them.
and because im having fun why not, some went into water the other day, looking forward to getting some fresh basil going will try till i have a plant going just for fun. But some seeds i had from previous years.
Decided to do some plucking tonight.
before
after
For those who havent plucked defoliated much
The leaves that will want to come off will, and the ones that don’t aren’t ready so consider how that leaf looked and pick that as your stopping point for where to pluck up to , no need to rush things along if they aren’t ready
All i do is grab a leaf near the base of the stem or at least at the base of the leaf, quick tug down when the leaf is a bit under tension and the ones that want to go pop right off. If you get stringers then it wasn’t quite ready to come off, you will know what a stringer is when you get one only one way to learn how far a plant is along.
But thinned it out a bit, needed no but will move things along a bit, and getting some light onto all the buds
.
And a bonus shot
@Mr.Sparkle. I enjoyed the Dark Devil as much as any plant I’ve grown. Please consider oleskool next time you’re feeling benevolent. teehee. This new cross looks magnificent! You are an inspiration and are doing stellar work! Much love and respect…
Day 55/12
Right hand side is just starting to age up now, the red/purple pigments just started to change today so they are gonna be degrading to a brown color over the next week and a bit, the green pheno seeds i expect to finish later than the others just with how things are looking for it.
As for the LECA/Rockwool side, im partially at a loss for tackling what i want to happen.
This is my condensed thoughts over the last while, In order to utilize the LECA how i want i need to try and see how i can maximize lateral advantageous root develop. Currently the roots have been driving down following the water right to the drain holes for the res with long water style roots, now i would like the roots to utilize and be contained within the pots instead so im trying to think how to alter that to suit.
The direction well at least my thought on it is i need to try and maximize lateral growth early, whether say possible tap root trimming early if really needed or possibly myself running a lot lower watering frequency on the start utilizing the rockwool and directly watering it. Idea im thinking is to concentrate a center top moisture zone with the rockwool being wetter and holding onto moisture more so than the LECA around it. The reason im thinking that is that lateral air style roots would be more likely to form and can fill up the spaces between the leca a bit easier till there are enough roots in place to hold onto and access more water, once im at that stage then i can progress to a forced watering situation where more water style roots would be forming, but being that the roots spread out a bit better earlier on then hopefully im starting with a better base vs say having roots drive down and first fill the bottom of the pot then slowly fill up the gaps as more roots fill the space.
Honestly there seems to be very little of the more advance knowledge on LECA/Hydroton use out there, typically its only basic typical beginner stuff that ive been running across, sure the odd person, growlog or more like snippet of info where you can see things are being utilize effectively, but also a lot of hydro “water” systems just utilizing it as a bridge or support media and just growing in water anyways. It just makes me question why im not seeing more “good” grows with it, or just thats its a more challenging media to truly utilize it effectively…
Anyways kinda rambling there, but adjusted the watering frequency quite a bit back tonight, changed one side to be a bit longer span between waterings yesterday and it was the better looking set today, so i need to play around, as really i have no clue or at least feel that way currently with it.
