Let’s do it. I won’t be able to use them for the trainwreck bx, but the Maui Mango Haze I won yesterday are heavily Afghan dominant, so I could use the trainwreck to steer it toward a hazier expression. You cool with that?
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Sounds killer!!
You know the drill. Send me that DM and I’ll get them out to you in the next couple days 
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Been a few days without much updates but flowering is sprinting through over here with all these fast sativas and thankfully the veg tent is also booming, I’ll pot those up in another week to 2G pots until after sexing.
Day 30 from seed in the 3x4:
That Blue Tara runt has not given up, so I haven’t given up on it either. Weirdly it gets dry pretty in the middle of the pack for the tent, rather than the slowest, like I would expect. I have fingers crossed that it’s growing an insane root network and will one of these days just launch like I’ve never seen. Until I run out of space, it gets to stay. The whorled sibling is still swirly, pretty neat! Very thankful to @Oldjoints and @JohnnyPotseed for the chance to try this old Bodhi cross.
Apparently, according to @LouDog420 I’m the first person to run these (4SD x Chem DD) x Sour Jack seeds, so I’m going to make sure to give them lots of attention here as they grow out. One of them was the first aboveground in sprouting, so that was points in its favor already, because I know the creators of all four seeds this time around to be excellent and reliable, so stiff competition. Kudos to @SCJedi and @Tonygreen too for their good germination rates, in my experience with their seeds so far. I just got some packs from Lou in the holiday special over at Beans 4 St Jude, 3/$50 until Christmas (or NYE? not sure). It was a tough choice but he was able to do me a favor and scrape up a pack each of the Joey Weed AK-47 F2 x Heath Robinson/TGTB Black Rose and the Karma Sour Jack F2s that he had a small number of, and for my holiday freebie I picked the (TGA Agent Orange x Chimera C-Plus) x Authentic Genetics Kush/Haze. 
Day 28 of 12/12 in the 4x4:
Everyone but the Cindy Mix got elevated on crates, which is my usual technique for evening out the canopy after stretch. Between the 5" Coke flats, milk crates, and a few odd taller crates I have, along with an extra elevator and tray occasionally, I can get it perfectly level if I try hard enough. I like to get the plants up like this in mid to late flower so that it’s easier to turn them 90° clockwise every day when I water, and to get the air circulation freed up down below to really maximize fresh air. As a bonus, the canopy is higher up for me to inspect at eye level, which is nice for my back.
NSxApollo:
Cindy Mix:
Smart Move:
Cinderella 99:
My sprayers on deck, just missing the silica/coconut because I mix that one fresh each time:
This morning’s coffee sesh, some FDM C99 with eleven months in the bag, in the cure fridge. Packed into my David James Glass spoon with a big cup of fresh ground Dean’s Beans coffee. I love being a grower and a homeowner by proxy, mornings on the porch like this in any season are all I ever wanted:
I figure you folks would like my loquat (Japanese plum) tree that’s slowly (quickly) taking over my living room now that it’s inside for the winter and realized it’s warm again. I’m going to order some new transplanter fabric pots soon and get a few basic 30-50 gallon pots for these trees and some yard stuff, this one’s going to go in a tree pot, which is taller for the volume than most, I think a 30 or 40 gallon one for now. After it outgrows that, I think it’s ready for the yard and overwintering, we are on the edge of but within its hardiness zone so I want to let it mature for three or four years from a cutting before we try that:
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Based on this post I found from Copa, I think I can well identify which phenos my Icy Grapes are now:
#1 on the bottom is a Purple Skittles leaner
#2 IDK really
#3 Black Domina leaner
I really appreciate when breeders post this stuff.
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Not going to spill the beans (hahaha) until it gets into my hands, but I’m very excited about what will probably be my last trade of 2022, and it’s a doozy. With my Vortex co-op grow coming up and learning more about pollination and seed making, I realized that what my genetic stash was lacking, along with the experience of using it, was pollen. Looking at my seed glut and continued acquisition of them, clearly the only thing to do was diversify my holdings, so I found a member on here with a freezer full of kickass pollen from AKBB and Bob Hemphill plants who wanted to trade for some outdoor heirlooms and landraces for next summer’s grow. We’re at the same latitude North, so the outdoor varieties I have are perfect, gathered in anticipation of finding someone around here with a yard who wants to grow and I could hold their hand/use their plant count for selection and my own edification.
I have to sit down with a calendar and sketch out the rest of my grow year through the spring, but I think I’ll have a window to try branch pollination of the plants currently in veg while the Vortex seedlings are all still too small to be pollinated, in accordance with the Co-op Run rules on no other pollination activities in the same area. I run two tents, and the ventilation could easily be split and filtered, but I’d prefer to not goof around with the rules or my setup that works well right now.
It’s a split of old school NL and Hashplant and modern Chem pollens so I think I’m going to stay in the family roughly and hit the Blue Tara and Icy Grape with the old dank, while the LDSC and Sowah Grapefruit are gonna get some the Chems. If it works well, I’ll definitely be giving some of those seeds away here in the spring when they’re ready, first dibs for my homies here in the thread and other places on OG I interact with a bunch. I’ll also see what’s up with how much pollen I get, it’s from big outdoor plants so it could be a lot, if it is, I will share with y’all. Joining OG has been great for me, not just to learn and get support on growing my own, but to interact with other folks about genetics and to see them spread around freely or bartered fairly.
I truly think we’re going to make sure that no matter how fucked the legalization of weed continues to be, with bottlenecking genetics and big corporate MSOs doing cutthroat things towards smaller cultivators and breeders (see @Tracker 's thread for some real fucked up shit from the Midwest recently, a straight hit job on the little guys at a public competition by the organizers), we are going to make sure that there’s fridges and freezers and buried Mason jars full of preserved seedlines everywhere. People have a lot of justified fears about the future of cannabis, but the way I see it is that Pandora’s Box is open, we’ve had the chance to interact in the open like this and spread the seed, at a scale beyond anything in the underground years, and that can’t be undone. There’s still so much still hidden or missing and maybe lost, and lots of work to do reproducing and sharing rare stuff, but it’s happening and I don’t think it’ll stop.
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Time for another link dump, this time it’s some stuff from DJ Short’s classes that he teaches, a full video and a thread with the complete syllabus and conversation by OP who attended the class while on the forum, followed by a bunch of podcasts and a surprising number of long videos of panels DJs been on, he’s really been doing the legalization festivals and conferences for a long time, I didn’t expect to find so much! I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole when reading about the use of colchicine historically in cannabis breeding to induce polyploidy mutations, going back to the first books by Bill Drake and Mel Frank that gave instructions on it. People have said that they’ve never met anyone as knowledgeable about colchicine in the cannabis world as DJ is if you take his class, and he’s long admitted to possible mutagen use in developing his breeding lines, so that’s an interesting factoid. I’m hoping there’s some more commentary by him in some of these breeder panels I’m finding.
https://www.icmag.com/threads/djs-articles-info.133421/
Old video with a bunch of good interviews, DJ first then Subcool, Kyle Kushman, and more:
2016 Indo Expo Portland panel on breeding:
Bonkers looking panel from Seattle Hempfest 2015, particularly interesting for having Mowgli Holmes on it pre-Phylos talking about cannabis genetics and licensing:
A second video of the same panel from a different angle:
2013 Denver Cannabis Cup breeders panel:
DJ comes in at 24:00
https://hightimes.com/grow/free-weed-harvest-tips-wet-vs-dry-trim-pot-seed-breeder-dj-short/
DJ on hashish:
DJ at 15:30
DJ interviewed by NORML TV:
DJ onstage at Seattle Hempfest:
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Wow, that link dump is a gold mine dude, gonna take some time to work through all of that, I’ve seen the video of him talking about hash, that and some of the FCP and frenchie videos sent me on a hash quest that I’m still getting to the bottom of. Stoked to hear about your plans too, what kind of stuff are you holding for outdoors? I’m doing the same looking for stuff that works well here in VT, planning next year to run some copa p25, and up in the air on the other spot, might run some stuff from some local breeders I know, but also considering running some of rebel frown’s gear or trying to find some more landrace-y stuff that’ll do good up here. I’m hoping to find some gems and maybe line work em forward for a couple years like the old head outdoor growers used to yaknow? Blessings to OG for bringing us all together right?
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I liked that Luther Burbank quote he dropped in the middle about taking the best and rejecting the rest, tells ya something about his breeding techniques. I still hasn’t watched most of them myself but I see now how that hash one got you fired up, that’s a damn fine argument for traditional hash he made.
The outdoor stuff I’ve picked up is mostly older heirlooms and landrace stuff that is outdoor proven, got some M33 x R2 NL2, some Durban crosses and straight up, got that P25 and it seems like the Ancient OG is a killer outdoors in the North, both by itself and in crosses. Lotta stuff from Fleur Du Mal, since many of those are old school quick and dual use strains like Bubblegum or Sweet Tooth. And then a bunch of OG seeds including some autos. IDK I haven’t gotten a real plan together just picked up what looked good when I saw it, I haven’t met many people around here since moving back during a pandemic so no outdoor gromies yet, but I’ll meet them eventually. I’ll never be able to grow outdoors where I am in the middle of town unfortunately, it’ll always be a project for helping a homie with at their house somewhere a little outside.
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Definitely lots of landrace/heirloom for up where you are, you ever look at www.nordicgenetics.net/en ? They’ve got some real hardcore outdoor genetics over there from Derg Corra/Fatman Lala and others. FYI the current exchange rate is 7 DKK to the US dollar. They have a ton of the gnarliest toughest stuff I’ve seen, and lots of it traditional photoperiod if that matters to you.
I’ve also been really intrigued by The Guy Downtown, who is sold by Hoku Seed Co. He’s got some hybrids with a population of Lolab Valley Lemon Kashmir that he did two season of OP on right where you are latitude wise, he’s in southern Maine.
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Lots to unpack there, it sounds like you’ve got a good outdoor stable. One dude I know of that breeds in the area gave me some seeds that use the Friesland that do really well up here, ran one of em i doors but I’m tempted to run em outside too to see the differences. I was also eyeing the ancient OG to run outside as well. I can only do 2 plants outdoors myself here with the plant counts the way that they are, so I gotta be selective about it. I’ll have to look into that vendor you mentioned, I was thinking about some Nepalese genetics just because of their resistances to mold in wet humid and cold conditions which seems to be what we’re getting here in fall time these days
dude that bred that friesland grows a cut of sweet tooth as well, says he loves it for outdoor here, i gotta see if h es got seeds!
Heres the link to the log i put together for that friesland cross, its friesland x god bud and he calls it “Niben” which is the name of a god in the abenaki language, kinda cool stuff: Niben F4 -Anthos Seeds
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Thanks for the link, I’m gonna give that a read today. I am definitely fascinated by how some of the old SSSC outdoor varieties still have such a following up North as proven performers, especially the Friesland/Freezeland and the Erdbeer that people suspect is in the Strawberry Fields, among others. I’ve heard of Viking still being common among old northern heads, the Danes seem to have adopted that one as their local heirloom judging by Nordic Genetics and other seedbanks I’ve seen from there. They also seem to have latched onto and kept using some of the old hardy Canadian outdoor strains like Guerilla Gold, Texada Timewarp, Pinewarp, and Mighty Mite/Lowryder
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the strawberry fields is still very present from some old heads here in VT for sure, never heard of the Erdbeer, but im gonna have to look into that one for sure.
dont judge me too harshly on that Niben journal, i dont think i did the variety justice, needed more food and i dont think it bangs indoors like it does out, hence my wanting to give-er another go 
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Yup yup it’s definitely still around, I’ve heard of local circulation of the cut but I haven’t found it yet even to ask about. The theory is that Strawberry Fields is probably an Erdbeer crossed to an indica decades ago, for the perfect hardy northern strain. Just like that Friesland, the Erdbeer was bred in absolutely terrible climate in Europe, cold and rainy and short seasoned just like New England!
Roms is the man:
Old Dubi thread from 2007 with Esbe, H&L, others:
Erdbeer is supposed to be a worked version of an Alpine strain, just like the Purpurea Ticinicis that Breeder Steve says he found with some old ladies in a high mountain village who were growing it for “decoration”. In that era, for a long time you could grow marijuana in Switzerland legally as long as it was an ornamental or for perfume/scents/dried decorations, it was only illegal to smoke it. So you could buy weed in stores legally as “potpourri satchets” with a wink and then go open the pouch and smoke it. The Erdbeer got crossed to PT and that’s the Erdpurt.
Esbe from Hybrids from Hell, another Danish breeder, is the reigning expert on these lines from everything I’ve found, his seeds are at European seedbanks:
Post in thread ‘afghan, cross erd purt’ afghan, cross erd purt | International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums
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This is something I’m learning the hard way, I have mostly been concerned with stretch height and plant size but I’m realizing that there really are some strains that don’t show intersex or anything inside, they’re just mid. Along with clone expression being different along with environmental expression. I gotta post up some photos today, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot since growing Bodhi’s Cherry Unicorn. My first round of it was impeccable, just the dankest buds, huge harvest, easy trim etc. The clone run was a good harvest of middie buds with the same top cherry note but none of the dankness or frost and density, which could have been from cloning or more likely from temps and humidity being higher and less controlled in the flowering of the second round. Thus learning that this one absolutely needs cool temps and dryness to express resin and terps, in a way I hadn’t had demonstrated yet in my short growing experience. Based on that, I’d say the Cherry Unicorn probably bangs outdoors like a big frosty Afghan would.
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Yes man, this is my finding, with that Niben I have benefit of speaking directly with the breeder and seeing how they perform outdoors and its head and shoulders above what I was able to achieve. Granted my setup is a little different now and there’s a lot I could improve upon, but I think some stuff just wants to be out under the sun, and given that I like the smoke off my half assed attempt I’m ready to oblige and see how it goes
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Here’s an interesting profile of DJ, if you feel like reading it: » The Willy Wonka of Pot
Just bear in mind that it was written for people who don’t spend all day on weed-growing websites haha. Still a fun little read.
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The dude really does lean into the Willy wonka vibe doesn’t he 
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I know peripherally of the breeder here in VT who claims to have bred the strawberry fields and works with it heavily but for all intents and purposes the guy is a wing nut, so I’ve steered clear of his gear in favor of some other folks I know and have good vibes, but damned if this doesn’t have me thinking about dipping a toe into that pool of crazy
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That’s a great interview, one of the best ever in the category IMO, it does a good job of telling you a lot while being playful, Grantland is one of my favorite long format reportage sites to read, their archives are worth a look there’s so much good stuff to read. I’ve read the DJ article probably a dozen times!
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That’s the thing all too often, isn’t it? The guys who have been in the game for their whole life and kinda can’t get out of the underground mentality, including the bad stuff like hard drugs and conspiracy theories, etc. @Wuachuma was just saying the other day that he had the opportunity to meet the breeder of AAA/Asian Fantasy in NorCal some years ago, he’s not a particularly hidden character but he is a tweaker and bath salts guy and Wu decided that it just wasn’t worth getting close to him. I can’t really disagree, I think if I were trying to source stuff from a guy like that I’d want at least one layer of person between me and them for my peace of mind, even if it made the trade or purchase more costly in the end from having to cut in a middleman. Sometimes paying a broker for a little insulation is really worth it, in my experiences through life.
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