Frankie’s Daughters: Unpacking a Frozen Genome

Frankie’s Daughters Updates and a Plan of Action

Friends and Neighbors, thanks for your interest in this project!

The first phase of this plan was the creation of viable feminized Frankenstein S1 seeds. That part is a done deal. Both my batch of “Daughters” and Johnnypotseed’s forthcoming sale of S1 seeds from other growers are soon to be at large on OG. (JP’s Fem Frankie seed sale starts 15 January, see his Hall of Genetics thread for info)

This seems like a good time to pause for a recap of what we know and what resources we have on hand to work with.

So, here’s the Past, the Present and the Proposal for our little part in the Feminized Frankenstein S1 seed story.

Oh, yeah, there’s a seed giveaway to be announced too…

But let’s start with what we know.

  • Chemically reversing and self pollinating Frankie clones does result in viable seeds.
  • Growing out those seeds produces healthy plants in at least two visibly different S1 phenotypes (Hilda & Olive). The chemotype of these plants is still unknown pending our first harvest.
  • Both phenos and the Frankie clone mother are easily cloned.
  • It remains to be seen if the S1 plants themselves can be chemically “Selfed” to create pollen with their own unique genetics.
  • Only a few dozen of my S1 seeds have been grown so far so there may be additional phenotypes to be discovered along with other less obvious genetic variations.
  • Perhaps most importantly, like many S1 reversal projects, the only thing sure is that they are indeed feminized seeds. The first ones are still vegging!

Here are the Frankie-related “resources” I have to work with here. (A few OG buddies are also working these seeds and they have additional plants going.)

Two Frankie clone-only bonsai moms

One STS reversed Frankie clone with developing pollen sacs.

Two healthy Hilda plants vegging in octos

One rooted Hilda clone just transplanted to Dixie cup

Two Healthy Olive plants vegging in octos

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Two tiny Olive cuts hopefully developing roots in the cloning tray

AND a bag of Fem Frankie S1 seeds stored cool and dry.

Time to make some decisions about where to take this project next.

The three obvious options would be:

  1. Create pollen from both S1 phenotypes we’ve found and use it to breed an S2 generation for each of the “Hilda”(Large) & “Olive”(Tiny) phenotypes. Hilda x Hilda S1, & Olive x Olive S1.
  2. Use STS reversal pollen from an original Frankie clone to backcross Hilda & Olive with their clone-only Frankie Mother plant, in the hope of recreating (something closer to) the original Frankenstein mother plant in seed form. Frankie clone x Hilda & Frankie clone x Olive.
  3. Grow out the Hilda and Olive plants that I have on hand for righteous bud, enjoy brief and unwarranted fame for posting the first definitive Smoke Test of the Fem Frankie S1 seed run, then fold up my tent and retire from the Frankie Phenomenon entirely. :thinking:

TBH, door number 3 is enticing, take a bow and walk away. Amateur cannabis breeding is not for the faint of heart and it is a lot of work!

My first love honestly is training large plants for big yield, grown in large pots filled with supersoil compost from my orchard waste. Babysitting fussy clones, avoiding accidental pollen chucks and spraying hazardous chemicals to initiate unnatural sex acts on innocent cannabis plants isn’t my cup of tea. I look forward to getting back to my own “Roots,” once this plane has safely landed.

But, at this point I have a lot invested in the project and I’ve coerced a few OG friends to help out so it’s probably best to wrap up my part of the Fem Frankie story in some sort of style.

After thinking hard about this, and consulting with growers who know more than I, I propose to adopt the following goals for this project.

Ordered by priority:

  1. Backcross both Hilda & Olive phenos with pollen from the Frankenstein clone-only mother obtained using STS reversal.
  2. Use some of my remaining S1 seeds for a Frankenstein’s Daughter Pheno Hunt to determine if there are any other interesting heteromonstrositie phenotypes. Hint: Seed GiveAway!
  3. Finally, I intend to grow some of my own Frankie BX seeds in large pots filled to the brim with supersoil topped with a scrog screen with a huge, healthy Monster’s Daughter plant spreading her limbs beneath it.

The first goal, Creating Frankenstein in seed form, is the only one I really care about. That was what I had in mind when I purchased the Frankenstein cuts from JP. It is yet unrealized and still a primary objective.

It is clear to me that selfing the Frankie mother clone for seeds has released a genie from it’s biological bottle. Additional reversals of Hilda and Olive, producing an S2 “GrandDaughter” generation is more likely to diverge further from the original Frankenstein than towards it.

If there is a path to recreate Frankie in seed form it will be by back crossing Frankie S1 Daughters with a Frankenstein clone-only mother. I have everything I need to do that so that’s my primary task and I’m already on the case.

I believe I mentioned a Seed Giveaway…
My secondary goal, Desperately Seeking Phreaky Phrankie Phenos, is potentially fun for the whole family. I’d like to see if any OG growers have the time, facilities, and desire to do a highly structured, short duration sea of green / Dixie cup pheno hunt?

Details to follow, but basically you’d be gifted seeds upon a pledge to plant them quickly, grow them up to 12" and report your results in this thread with pictures and any relevant comments! Any extra seeds, and the plants you grow are yours to keep. ***Anybody up for that assignment? ***

So that’s a wrap, thanks for following, smoke it like a Grower friends,
-Grouchy :v: :green_heart:

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GREAT WORK @GrouchyOldMan :v:

I love and appreciate your approach and detail :ok_hand:

This is what I’d vote for however 100% hear ya on #3 as you’ve already put in a tonne of work into this. :star_struck:

How many plants are you wanting each grower to take on? I could sneak in 2-4 in the next month in 1L air-pots to help out but couldn’t do a “proper” sea of cups to really find out a greater range of expressions.

No matter what you’re doing awesome and thanks for it! :hugs:

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I TOTALLY AGREE! Thanks @GrouchyOldMan
I know a lot of blood, sweat & fears went along with this project. But VERY nice job and a great way to give back to the community while continuing this worthwhile endeavor. You da man! I’m very happy to be along for this journey and it’s many dead ends and tight alley ways that led to this freakishly cool clearing.

Gosh I love The OG! :v:

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Just wanting to emphasis that even I’ve I’m blessed with a few Frankie S1’s from @GrouchyOldMan to help us all find out how these express…

Y’all still gotta fight me tomorrow when @JohnnyPotseed starts up his sale!!!

$30 for 10 quality beans + collectors card = no-thinker DEAL!!!

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The first batch of leaves have been removed from Momma Hilda. They’re UUUGE! Here’s a pic of the MONSTER leaves 24 hours after being removed and Hilda as of today 18 January 2023 - No worse for wear.



:v:

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Just a couple of updates:

Frankenstein has survived as a clone-only strain for decades and it really is a breeze to take a nice cut from a Frankie mom and get her rooted in a few days.

The question I needed to answer was whether or not Frankie’s S1 Daughters would be as happy with cloning and I am pleased to report that they are. Both the large-leaf “Hilda” plant, and the little dwarf “Olive” have popped roots in the seedling tray without any fuss.

I’m also excited to announce that I began collecting feminized Frankenstein pollen yesterday from a recently reversed clone. The donor plant is small but He/She should produce enough magic dust to knock up both Hilda and Olive for a back-crossed generation. Might even have enough left over for a couple of interesting crosses.

Here’s our pollen mom plant. I’ll be removing most of the leaves today in preparation for the major pollen drop.
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You can see my tools for the job, including the pollen shaker and a small dehumidifier that will be used to dry the pollen collected in preparation for use and longer term storage in the glassine envelopes in the lower right.

After trying other methods, I have had the best results plucking newly opened male flowers and depositing them directly into the pollen shaker. The screen on the bottom collects the plant material while the dust falls through and collects on the parchment paper underneath. Periodically, I’ll carefully remove the parchment, fold it into a little envelope and slip it into one of the glassine envelopes.

The first of many pollen laden flowers into the can!

Here’s where the pollen will sleep until needed. The little dehumidifier can reportedly drop RH down into the 30% range!

AND, In Other News…
I am totally stoked to announce that @BU2B has posted a thread that will follow his high yield PPP (Pound Per Plant) training method using a Hilda phenotype plant in his next hydro grow! This veteran grower knows his stuff and it should be exciting and educational to watch.

Here’s a peek at Hilda au naturale

Saludos a todos y Crezcamos la herbe buena!
-Grouchy

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Wow great work! Its amazing whatt you can do to this plant. Lovr your project and watxhing along with @BU2B grow. The pot smokers of the world salute your both or all three @JohnnyPotseed actually.lol I love watching all of the projects people take on in this forum.

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Surfing thru for a look @GrouchyOldMan I’ll be back.

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A Fist Full of Frankies

Left to right:
F3, F2 & F1 (all trimmed up as mothers and under 20/4 of 1,500 lux)

In the cloner, (L to R)
3x F3, 2x F2, 2x F1.

F2 & F3 were started 2 weeks later and as such felt threatened enough to stretch their inter-nodal spacing. If I decide to keep them long term I’ll replace them with fresh cuttings later.

Once I get the cuttings rooted all manner of ‘fun things’ will happen.

Cheers
G

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Aha … now you folks see why @Gpaw was chosen as of 1 of 4 on the ‘Frank N Beans Team’ the man knows his stuff! :+1:t3:
I’m lovin’ it. GREAT job!

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Well thanks… :vulcan_salute:

I’m always trying little ‘changes’ and judge the effects, a while back I figured out how to slow down the clone mothers’ growth with lower light conditions.

You just have to channel your inner Doctor Moreau

Cheers
G

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You’re not sounding like a jerk but even if you were I wouldn’t worry about it too much as long as you’re not a mean jerk; There are an entire group of of us who talk like a jerk on a somewhat regular basis. :joy::v:

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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I always thought that would just make them grow tall and lanky. I’m very interested in keeping mothers healthy and growing slowly.

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They creep along at 1500 lux and take a couple days to shift gears when you crank them up to 15,000 lux.
It seems to need a week to slow the growth down when you drop them back to 1500… Light is literally the accelerator pedal…

Below 1200 lux I saw them running into problems and generally lower health but that will be moderated somewhat by different genetics I imagine.

Cheers
G

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And the Beat Goes On…

One of my Frankie Mom’s started looking a little haggard and, after exhausting every other diagnostic possibility, I realized she was root bound. D’oh

I took a deep breath and set up to do my first bonsai root pruning.

I started by re-reading the Bonsai Mom tutorial by Oldtimer1

Bonsai Mums by Oldtimer1

Then I summoned up some gumption with a couple of tokes of Frankie bud and began chopping off “Mom’s” arms & legs.

She was pretty crowded in her half-gallon pot, and she suffered the indignity of my clumsy surgery with good graces. Now, with fresh soil and a bottom feeding with some weak sauce nutes, she seems to be recovering nicely.

I’m also pleased to report that Frankie’s Daughters are beginning to show wispy pistils after just a week of flowering photons. Where pistils appear, buds are sure to follow but it remains to be seen what they’ll look like (or how they’ll smoke!). All I can say for sure is that there will be lots of them.
Hilda

Olive

I am preparing one of the Hilda plants for backcrossing with a Frankie clone and, taking @gpaw’s sage advice, I’m trimming her down to facilitate some selective pollination.

Here are my two Hilda plants. The one on the right has been sculpted for a seed run. I’m letting the other one take her natural shape with minimal training or defoliation. Both of them are stretching inches per day.

Here’s a question for Y’all
Thanks to @Gpaw I may have an opportunity to dose one these Hilda plants with some of his OGer Kush Encore pollen. I wasn’t planning to do any F1 crosses at this time, but if there’s any enthusiasm for that idea I’d give it a shot.

Fem Frankie Hilda x OGer Kush :+1: :-1: ?

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Great work keep going bro :+1::+1::+1:

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Thoughts? This is something that has fascinated me since first reading about it YEARS ago in a study on dust bowl survivors. With topics like SATIVA and INDICA are genetically identical I’ve wondered about it more and more.

We now have case studies of mice passing along immunity but without changing the DNA of the pups. :flushed:

I’m just wondering … if OLIVE is pampered and coached will her offspring be more attuned to what I visually would call a healthy vigorous version of herself yet still retain her specific genetics?

Strange thing about epigenetics is that often the notable changes are first recognized not in the generation immediately following - but in the grandchildren. Genes are the same - but which ones are turned on or off are different.

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Very interesting to say the least.
I suppose only time will tell, right?

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Genetics or Epigenetics, or both? That’s the right question old Friend.
I’ll probably get some part of this wrong, but…

I don’t think Olive is an epigenetic phenomenon. My guess is that Olive is a unique phenotype with a DNA significantly different than her Hilda pheno sister.

As seedling sisters, both plants share a substantial genetic background, however because the seeds they came from were created via Sexual reproduction, there has been some mixing of genes during the meiosis process and mixing of the sex cells, gametes, from separate parent plants. If you want a real brain twister, Goog “Chiasma!”

Because we know that only XX chromosomes come from both female parents, the seeds will be female, but pretty much everything else is up for grabs.

From the unfathomable genetic scrambles in the Frankenstein polyhybrid, two dominant plant types, phenotypes, have appeared. There may be others that appear as more of these seeds are grown out.

More to the point, Olive is not the slightest bit sickly as a plant. She just grows that way. Olive may prefer one growing environment over another, but she is going to be a tiny wrinkled spinster runt regardless of how she is grown. So far in my “Lab” Olive has grown in dirt, hydro, plain water and nutes, high and low VPD and temps. She doesn’t seem to notice any of those variables.

I am convinced that Olive is a legitimate dwarf pheno and her size and character are genetically determined rather than epigenetics.

If this entire generation of Feminized Frankenstein S1 seeds, from us and others, shows the same ratio of Hilda & Olive we’ll be seeing more of both over time.

Hilda is a big robust plant that is fun and rewarding to grow. Perhaps Olive will find a following among those who seek oddities among the cannabis spectrum. I’m hoping for some beautiful one inch buds and a quarter ounce total yield!

Or… I could be completely wrong! LoL :upside_down_face:

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OLIVE is a challenge for me. I know how she grows - I’m just really not a fan and want to do SOMETHING to help her out. I know she’s healthy I can see her roots but her above ground shenanigans drive me right up the wall and I want her to LOOK better. For me it it really is how exactly can you pretty up Shelley Duvall? :joy:
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