Shit, man, missed this thread until just now. That sucks about the herms, but other than that, everything sounds/looks good. I guess I’ll just be super-aware and check the plants closely, whenever I get around to popping these seeds. You got any other logs I’m not aware of, @lambchopedd? Haha.
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just wanted to say ive been following along with this and I wish you the best of luck! preserving this strain for posterity is great work 
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Another one (DJ Khalid voice):
No new intersex issues, even on the tagged plants — probably was grower error, but who knows.
For anyone planning on popping seeds, you should ALWAYS keep an eye on plants for issues. But with these, I’d be more weary of plants that show obvious intersex traits early (balls & pistils); again, that might’ve been a fluke for me, but there’s no way to be sure. Also, feel free to ignore this advice because I’m a degenerate who grows what I want & however many of I want…. But start twice as many seeds than you need — it’s easier to cull what sucks, than it is to keep what you have due to desperation. That’s my 2cents.
Anyways….
The grapefruit smell is still there; although somewhat fainter than it was before. I stopped supplementing sulfur as much, but I think I’m going to renege on that. Some are putting on quite the biomass as well! Several plants are already leaning, and no they’re not dense yet. One trait that I always credited the MDS with is that they were pretty sturdy; Needed no staking. Some seem to be swelling already, while the majority look like your typical white pistil’ed long flowering sativas — I might make my selection(s) based on flowering time in this sense. But I can’t say for sure until after the smoke tests. The tallest one is the sweeter-grapefruit one for sure. One is definitely muted. And the one that was “my favorite” is definitely top three, but it would be hasty to call it #1 at this point. She has at least two other contenders fighting for the top spot.
Again, I’m gonna have to post about the males another day. They all look fucking good! But they probably jizzed all over each other, so collecting pollen is out of the question at this point. I’m just trying to decide when I should chop and reveg them — that’ll be the real test.
I hope to find at least one or two female keepers in this group. I’ll probably run them from clone once or twice after reveg, then pop two more MDS groupings when I have space in the male tents available. I don’t want to rush this project. I want to be proud of the end results.
Here’s some random pics:
The picture probably sucks, but this is one of the quicker swelling ones… Versus one of the ones that hasn’t started to swell
This is just a fun pic to showcase some fox-tailing
And these last two are just two random pictures, from two different Phenos lowers to show what the resin production looks like so far
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looking really solid! grapefruit terps… mmmm 
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From one degenerate to another.
Awesome that’s great news.
Awesome advice as well.
Let’s see those males.
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How are these guys coming along?
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Glad you asked @api312 haha
So…. Still no new intersex parts so that’s good. The grapefruit smells are starting to change, unfortunately. They all exhibit a grapefruitiness, but not that sour fresh grapefruit smell I raved about last time. One (the tallest) still has a sweet pink grapefruit smell. They’re starting to really put on biomass. As many of you probably imagined, they’re like your typical landrace sativa-ish buds, not rock hard dense like something modern or afghani — but they still have some weeks left to finish, so who knows what’ll happen. There is one that’s forming a denser, tighter cola that may be promising. The picture probably doesnt do it justice:
It’s day 56 for all of them (since flip). I might add some cal-nitrate for the next couple feedings to insure that their lowers retain some growth/chlorophyll — I want to insure they reveg nicely. I’m waiting on some Potassium Nitrate from Buildasoil, and I’ll probably end them off with that in the coming weeks for that extra ”push”.
Speaking of using salts…. Anyone use molybdenum sulfate? I heard from the Growing With Fishes podcast guy that that would promote purpling (if it’s in the genetics) and promote anthocyanin production. Been thinking about trying some of that to test his theories.
Last grow, I credited MDS for having sturdy stems (not so much the males, but def the females). This time around…. Can’t say that trait passed on to everybody:
Lastly, I took some closeups to try to show resin production. They’re all frosty and beautifully so… although the resin heads arent modernly huge. These aren’t cherry-picked, they’re random shots of randomly chosen females LOWERS:
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As far as the males go, and future plans…
I’m definitely going to hit them with some high nitrogen inputs. I’m probably going to chop them and start the reveg process in a week or two — I want to see how they react, then keep whatever Selections impress, clone, just to have them around.
Once I have cuttings of them, the females should be about done, and I’ll start to reveg them. At the same time, I’m probably going to pop more of my OP beans and see what the next group(s) do. I’m hoping that by the time I pop all the OP beans I kept for myself, I can start making selections, take MDS another generation, and start the process over again.
I’ll also pollenate some other females that I am more familiar with, to really gauge what each individual brings to the table. So there will be a lot of MDS/MDS-hybrid seeds for me to play around with and dig through. For science.
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Man! They are looking pretty chunky for pure sativas! Very glad to hear the hermy issue hasn’t reared its head again.
Always interesting to hear how the terps/smell morph through the grow period. Probably go through some more stages before all is said and done.
Thanks for the update! Excited to watch these continue to progress
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Here’s my wittle MDS
This little tyke is just that: LITTLE? I know it had a weird dry-out issue after transplant where the medium was saturated but NOT at the plant root level so I assumed it would have slow growth but I didn’t expect it to be this small at almost 40 days in from sprouting.
To sex it, I cleared out the 2x2 and it’s been alone for 3 days at 12/12 with a FarRed initiator going for 15min after lights off. I’m starting to see something coming in… and I hope for pistils! 
I should know in a few days; the far red puck (Rapid LED) shows me pistils in usually under 7 days since I’ve started using them.
If the plant is female i’m going forward with the ΩPot; but if it’s male I’m going to cull it cause as much fun as it would be to do a pollen run it’s not the most impressive plant I’ve grown to feel the months of extra work being worth the effort.
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You just reminded me that I have a screw in far red bulb from hlg that I’ve never employed. Sometimes ole duder just gets stoned and forgets man. 
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Grapefruit sounds delicious… I love citrus terps. I almost regret passing these on. 
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UPDATE: MEXICAN DEATH SATIVA
This little tyke is just that: LITTLE? I know it had a dry-out issue after transplant but didn’t expect it to be this small at 5 weeks in from sprouting.
It’s been alone for 3 days at 12/12 with a FarRed initiator going for 15min after lights off. I’m starting to see something coming in… and I hope for pistils!
If it’s female I’m going forward with the ΩPot; but if it’s male I’m going to cull it cause as much fun as it would be to do a pollen run it’s not the most impressive plant I’ve grown to feel the months of extra work being worth the effort.
Regardless I’m hoping for the best.
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It’s been a while. Update?:
I can’t remember what I said last time, but due to neglect, I only had two males that were alive enough to go through my reveg-test. I had pictures of both, but one threw pistils, so it’s in the trash.
The other on the other hand… Was one of the males that looked like the original stock that I grew — taller height, narrow leaves of course, and longer flowering/took longer to drop pollen. I was actually going to chop it very early on because I didn’t find it desirable, but I’m glad I didn’t. Whenever I realized that most of my males were dead from neglect, it was one of the two that still has some life; it was actually the most green! I revegged him, and he passed — no pistils, no auto flowering, no fuss overall, and now he looks healthy as fuck.
So because he’s the only MDS male I have that’s worth a damn, I’m gonna let him make some seeds, and then will test those out to see what he actually passes to his progeny. And duuuuuuddddeeee… BOY is he fragrant! Spicy, I get whiffs of the grapefruit, but it’s the fact that I can smell his leaves when touching him.
Which brings me to the next point — The females I currently have, and the females I’m gonna have to pop this next round, in order to keep searching.
I was really on the fence about it… Technically I still am, but I know I’m gonna pop more MDS beans, so I might as well stop acting like it’s that much of a dilemma. This next round I’m going to do the “fruity“ pheno, and either a random pack of the OP beans I gave out, or OP beans from another specific pheno I chose. Nothing crazy… For now I’ll probably just pollinate branches on each, then keep the ones from females that actually look like they’re worth a damn. Then test all those when the time comes. I hope to find more males to manipulate and choose from.
As far as the females go… I’ll talk about them some other day; probably after the smoke tests. I did have to chop a few…… Long story short, it’s Christmas time, and I need some supplemental income 
so a few were a bit earlier than ideal. Judge me all you want. In the end, I think I’ll reveg (4), And narrow that down to either one or none. I have higher hopes for the next round.
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Thanks for the update! These beans you created have made wonderful plants.
The one I grew turned out to be a male; which I can’t focus on right now… but it’s such a beautiful plant that I just moved it with my citrus trees and will be clipping the balls off so I can enjoy it as a eunuch until I can’t anymore.
It also great to see how resilient this line is considering your description above. 
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Looking good!
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10x days later and it’s now being referred to as a houseplant. At this point I’m going to keep it going until the day comes where I’ll let it develop balls again and pollinate something. The leaves on this thing SMELL LIKE GRAPEFRUIT. I can’t let this one go even if it’s not in the cards to happen right now.
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Ugh, I’m so far behind on updating and taking pics. Work is HELL during the Christmas season, but today is the first day of normal-ness (is that a word?)
Anyways.
So everything is chopped and dry/drying. So far I’ve smoked 2 (maybe 3) phenos of the ones I had to chop early — I’ll comment on that below.
Flowering time — definitely 14wks. I’d say go fifteen if you flush, or if the buds hadn’t quite swelled to your liking… but 14wks seems to be the window.
At twelve weeks, all had brown pistils (but minimal swelling), so if you like things slightly racier or whatever, 12wks should suit you nicely.
Phenos/post-dry terp profiles — not sure if I mentioned it before but I had one female that was just a biomass monster. Tried revegging her, but she kicked the bucket pretty quickly.
iirc I tried revegging (3); the biomass one, the sweet pink grapefruit one, and probably the frostiest one (which was that foxtailing one I showed a while ago).
The sweet pink grapefruit one definitely retained her smell post dry. The biomass one probably needs cured before I judge it, and I didnt even smell the bud on the third. HOWEVER when grinded up… they all smelled of fresh sour red-grapefruit (minus the pink, which was sweeter) so that’s a plus.
Overall, I’m not entirely satisfied with the females I decided to keep. So two more packs are already germinating and I’ll sift thru again.
How it smoked — here we go. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.
So I smoked either 2 or 3 of the phenos I chopped early. I didnt really pick up on “great” taste from combustion; and the pink was surprisingly harsh. BUTTT I havent trimmed them yet; I just grinded the whole bud, leaves n all (dont worry, no stems no seeds)
The high seems very long lasting with zero fucking crash. I personally thought the potency was on the low-end of things, on all three…. But I had a friend smoke some yesterday, and she was fucking ripped. So idk. Maybe it just complements my endocannabinoid system more than her 
Side-note: she typically smokes heavy indica based buds 99% of the time. The same shit that makes her “normal”, makes me freak the fuck out.
Edit: it’s not trippy. Very mellow and “clear“, if that makes sense. Not the most energetic either, at least the Phenos that I’ve had weren’t; Although I definitely still cleaned the whole fucking house… Every time I smoked lol
I’ll probably finish a full smoke-report as we smoke more of everything.
What’s next — well the revegged male is still thriving; I also have several clones of him in the cloner as we speak. I intend to test him on future MDS females, and maybe some other inbred stock I have cloned (i.e Kashmir, AG, etc)… then test run those. He’ll be around for a while until I determine whether he’s a stud or a liability.
As I mentioned, more MDS beans are underway. The hunt continues.
Also the MDS is strictly for me, her, and however many friends in my local area they just want to try something different. So perhaps I can get some other opinions on it as well.
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