Those plants are looking sooooo healthy and happy
Lefty I imagine that’s the Lebanese you used in the Panama haze x Lebanese That iam running?
I can’t believe iv got purple coming out in only 3 week in flower amazing
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The Panama haze / Lebanese uses the “black & blue” Lebanese I’ve been running. Black Lebanon from Geneseeds is only distributed as fems. I crossed it to Blue Hemp Switzerland’s Lebanese to make regs. I’m going to cross the BB Leb back to the Black Lebanon with these moms I have running now. BB Leb has more blueberry notes and sweetness to it. Black Leb is maybe more pineapple.
By the end, it turned completely black like the Black Lebanon, and actually looks structurally very similar to the panama haze. PH being very pretty strongly purple in color mid-late flowering, I was thinking you’d be pretty certain to see something happen.
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Syrian
Black & Blue Lebanese
Culled
A little musical chairs in the last few days. I moved several Syrian and Lebs into flowering positions. I selected the best Lebanese for root grow and branchy-ness. Since the Syrians are fairly apical – which is not a trait I want long-term for the project, I am selecting toward phenos that have better branching and will be trying to remove the more apical phenos. A few Syrians had a branching mutation that I noticed last time I grew them, and I removed those too. After all the culling, I think I’ll end up with 6 good Syrians and hopefully enough Lebanese to backfill spots. I’ll probably pollinate both ways for inclusion – Syrian to Lebanese and Lebanese to Syrian.
A look back
That was a male from last time right before I killed it. Beautiful flower structure on the BB Lebs. Hybridizing these old lines really unlocks a lot of their potential that has been dampened through inbreeding. I can’t wait to see what comes out in the hybrid with the Lebs to the Syrian. The genetic refresh should really help them pop.
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Black Lebanon
These two girls have recovered from being topped. I’ll take clones in a few more days. Great branching structure on the one in front. The one in back isn’t so bad either. I missed with the knife and took one of the mains when I topped. Doh! Was too lazy to clean my scissors and paid the price lol.
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Pulling up a chair for this one!
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How are your Syrian going?
I have found references on thcv in the middle eastern cultivars. This post refers to 7% thc:v in a targeted reproduction of Syrian cannabis:
Are you able to get testing from a reputable laboratory?
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Male Tent
I’ve only got 1 Syrian male right now (back right), but it seems like a good one. I’ve also got 2 black & blue lebanese males on the left. The 3 in the front right are all females and will probably get killed, unless I get another Syrian male from the ones not yet showing in my female tent.
Girls
Back right is a tall Syrian female. The other 3 are nice, short and branchy Black & Blue Lebanese females.
These are all Syrian females. The two on the left side got pulled into the tent yesterday and today, so they’re a little behind the others. Sex is undecided on them, and I’m hoping that 1 turns out to be male. Got a female heavy batch.
My plan is to strictly hybridize these with each other Syrian x BB Leb and BB Leb x Syrian. Then I’ll take from my favorite females and add them into the mix (also containing genetics from RSC Leb and Leb27) for next round.
The hybridized BB Lebanese really have a lot more vigor to their growth. This hybridization with the Syrian is going to be like awakening the dead.
@DanzaKuduro I do actually. I was talking to @8k_feet about it the other day. He found some labs nearby that we can drop samples at for $35. I can’t afford to do all of them, but if I find one that has some interesting or unusual effects, that’s a really good suggestion. I need to see if they test THCV in their standard “potency test”. I’m not sure what cannabinoids they test for.
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Thanks for your detailed response. My single Syrian female has faded and is sticky aa honey. She’ll be a few bong hits.
The RSC Sinai and Mazar-i-Sharif carry thcv based on personal experience and al few lab reports online. I am very interested in the result of mixing across the middle eastern strains. I will have to acquire more of the RSC Syrian and Turkish seeds to grow a seed stash to work with.
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I have some Syrian that I have reproduced. They have good germination rates. I can send you some if you like. They have a fairly limited genetic diversity, because I got 1 sterile male, 1 runt male and 3-4 females, but it isn’t such a big deal since these don’t appear to have a lot of genetic diversity in the line. I did get 1-2 females that turned black or dark colors, and the others were more lime green. One female was much more fertile than the others, but I can’t remember which. Most of my seeds came from that one.
The runt male is the father of all the ones I’m growing now, and has produced mostly normal plants. There is a branching mutation that occurs approximately 1:5, but the rest are good so far and have good germination rates. I am seeing two main types – a taller one and a shorter, bushier one. I’ll know more about them in a few weeks when they develop.
You’re also welcome to my “Mediterranean mix” at any point in the project. There should be quite a bit of heterogeneity for the next few generations. Also, I may be able to send you Syrian or Black & Blue Lebanese pollen if you are interested in that.
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I would love to have some of your Syrian and Mediterranean mix seeds. Sometimes the runt males are the Sultan of Swing in reproduction.
Please let me know if I have seeds that you are interested in. I am currently doing a bud run to fill jars but will make accommodations for the African and middle eastern strains if healthy pairs are available.
Thanks for your generous offer 
. I can DM an address at your convenience.
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I can give you some of the Syrians right now. My Mediterranean mix is more like a Lebanese mix until I finish this run - a mix of hybrids with RSC Lebanese, Geneseeds Black Lebanon, Blue Hemp Lebanese and Leb27.
But when I recently tried the Syrian, I really enjoyed it. It had some of the most interesting colors and smells. The resin was actually pretty good and the bud structure was good too. It was a very mellow, mild smoke that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately I didn’t yield much, because they were small plants and grew slowly. My little jar didn’t last long. But it should work nicely hybridized with BB Lebanese. I’ll have to send you some of those in ~2 months.
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Lefty has a spot on one of my stash jars lol
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Thank you 
. Want to grow the Syrian again. Sending you a PM
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Male feature - Black & Blue Lebanese (8F, Wide Branching, Tall type)
So I think I’m going to start doing these single plant features in my thread. I want to start bringing the concepts of mindfulness to my breeding practice. Cheesy sounding, but bear with me. Breeding is a very observational practice, and in order to become skillful I have noticed that seeing the plants closely helps remember traits and where they come from, when they can be identified in the lifecycle and how they will impact various aspects of the strain.
This could mean anything, like how the leaves form, what the serrations look like, how the plant branches, thickness of the stems, spacing of nodes, etc. There’s a million things to look at, and individually giving them mental focus, understanding and appreciation ought to help me make better decisions, and understanding of what options I have to work with.
So here goes. These pictures were taken an hour and a half after feeding, day 8 since 12/12. I have noticed tall and short phenos in my Black and Blue Lebanese. Some of them are F2, and some are F1. I selected out particularly branchy phenos, because I don’t want to keep apical dominance, when I know that I have more options. This male is of the taller variety. The branches are long to the first nodes, presenting a wide christmas tree structure. The branches sprawl out in a U-shape, rather than a V shape. Leaves are large in size and hang slightly downwards, giving a tropical sativa appearance.
The nutrients have been at 1.4 for the first week, and though tolerable, there is some evidence that it was a little strong. I see some burning at the tips and downturned ends. I’ve noticed previously that Lebanese can be nutrient sensitive, and this plant appears to be as well. The nutrient EC dropped from 1.4 to 1.3 recently, which might that one or more plants are pulling out of the nutrient excess and ready to accept more.
The temperature is not high, however the serrations are slightly upturned, giving a saw-like appearance. The fingers of the leaves exhibit good separation all the way to the petiole. I find the rear lobes to be very interesting. These are very pronounced, long and thin. Some following the next set of leaves inward, some pointing backwards more. Some petioles are slightly reddish, especially toward the bottom of the plant. Some pollen sacs are forming, though not as quickly as the Syrian.
In general, it has a very open structure. It has an appearance that it would support sativa-like buds, rather than dense indica. Were it a female, I think the bud density would be low, for the volume the male occupies. I think this male should be used with a small, dense, apical Syrian female. A compromise of the two will probably house a hybrid population of plants that will lend toward better indoor structure.
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@lefthandseeds Thank you for taking us along for the ride!!
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Flower Day 14
Syrian
Whew well it’s be a rough week growing Syrians… let me tell you.
As you can see, there’s a lot of dark green foliage at the tops and clawing. Normally, one would consider this nitrogen toxicity. Not the whole story folks.
Nitrogen toxicity does not simultaneously occur with yellowing in the lower leaves. In fact, intervenal chlorosis on those I believe is caused by magnesium (and/or iron deficiency) – and not for lack of magnesium. So what’s going on here? 
Well early in the week, I saw the warning signs of this coming. It happened to me last time as well. At that time, I was not using the Peters 321 formula, but instead using Masterblend with higher NH4. I was unsuccessful then in correcting the problem, and it definitely affected my plants long term. When I saw it coming this time, I knew I had to act fast. These plants flower quickly, and we can’t afford to be fuckin about with nutrient problems.
There are other signs here though. First, you can see the leaves have taken on an almost bluish hue to them. Second is RED PETIOLES. Third, if you look at the male in the last picture, it’s extremely compressed.
The answer to a problem this systemic is certainly macronutrient related – phosphorous. Here is the role of phosphorous in plants:
Nutrient Transport
Plant cells can accumulate nutrients at much higher concentrations than are present in the soil solution that surrounds them. This allows roots to extract nutrients from the soil solution where they are present in very low concentrations.Movement of nutrients within the plant depends largely upon transport through cell membranes, which requires energy to oppose the forces of osmosis. Here again, ATP and other high energy P compounds provide the needed energy.
…
Generally, inadequate P slows the processes of carbohydrate utilization, while carbohydrate production through photosynthesis continues. This results in a buildup of carbohydrates and the development of a dark green leaf color. In some plants, P-deficient leaves develop a purple color, tomatoes and corn being two examples. Since P is readily mobilized in the plant, when a deficiency occurs the P is translocated from older tissues to active meristematic tissues, resulting in foliar deficiency symptoms appearing on the older (lower) portion of the plant.
So there you have it. P is important to energy transfer through the plant. When deficient, the plant builds up carbs in the new growth, which results in the dark green colors and essentially nitrogen toxicity. Also, it tends to affect the growth of shoots, meaning the plant doesn’t grow upward as easily resulting in the compressed shape of a few of these.
So far, I’ve already doubled the amount of P in my feeds and it’s already helping quite a bit. By next week, I think it should be under control. What’s fascinating about this is that some other Lebanese strains I’ve grown have also shown similar P needs. Lebanese and Syrian will be the most phosphorous hungry plants I’ve ever grown. Since the 321 mix is slightly on the light side for phos, I think it’s notable that P needs to be amended in synthetic nutrient programs to grow some of these successfully. I’ve added a mix of MKP and MAP to resolve the problem. The ol’ Fertilome 9-58-8 is good to have on hand for Jacks/Peters/Southern Ag blue razz users.
Since adding extra phos, some of the lower leaves have started to return their color. A few plants started into stretching more, the clawing at the top is also slowly backing off. The Black/Blue Lebs have much lower phos demands, and have fared this whole event without issue.
All of the Syrians have been sexed. I ended up with 3 good females and 2 males, and 1 more male that I culled. There are 2 phenos emerging – tall and short. The tall phenos are flowering faster and generally more vigorous and more apical. However the taller male pheno has a propensity toward branching and will mate well with a shorter, branchy leb. The shorter phenos will be bred with the taller (Blue hemp leb leaning) male – but perhaps the shorter male as well.
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Flower Day 14
Lebanese
These are all Black & Blue Lebs in my tents. They’re really quite a breeze to grow, and have completely recovered from their mild nutrient high last week. This week, one is even showing a bit of nitrogen deficiency. I’ve been hesitant to really turn up the nutrient concentrations until the Syrians get into shape. But today I’m bumping them up to 1.7-1.8 EC. No signs of tips burning, so I think everybody will take it… at least I hope. It’s a bit of a balancing act right now as these are much more tolerant than the Syrians.
I really dig the balanced/branching structure of the first pictured plant. It’s a good height with very wide side branching. I think it’ll make a nice selection. I replaced one Syrian that turned out to be male with one of my lebs in holding. Roots got damaged a bit as it was difficult to remove from the treepot, so it’ll hopefully recover from the stress in the next couple days.
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Flower Day 21 - RSC Syrian
As you can see, they Syrians have 2 different structures. One is very tall and apical, the others are very squatty and a little more branchy. Good resin already forms along leaves. They are still deep green and complaining about nutrients, but I’ve done much better so far this time than last. The lower leaves have actually returned to more normal shades of green, from being dangerously yellow. In the last picture, I identified what appears to be hermaphroditism in one of the plants. It’s being kept with the males for observation.
The male Syrian is turning out to be completely sterile, so that’s disappointing. The genetics from the Lebanese will make a world of difference once I have seeds. Pollination has begun this week. Gotta get in with the pollen as early as you can. They don’t run long.
The leaf structure on the Syrian comes in very narrow near the tops after stretch. Serrations are single serrations and a bit more pronounced than average. Resin crawls the leaves like a good hash plant. Smells of delicious tart fruits so far.
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Flower Day 21 - Black & Blue Lebanese
The Lebanese are cranking along. I really love the structure on some of these. I pre-selected out apical dominant phenos early on. These are all branchy and varying between expressions of blue hemp leb and black leb. The giant male in back is definitely on the BH side, while the shorter one in front is just starting to toss pollen now and leans toward the black.
So far I’ve found some very nice structures in the females that I picked. I’ve tried to pollinate with the Syrian male, but I don’t think that’s happening. Those pollen sacs are dry as a bone.
I used a little pollen from the shorter male on the Syrian gals, and had enough to do a spot on my favorite BB Leb female. I’ll probably do a little more every day, until the bulk of the flowers open up and I can finally get everything hit.
One very distinguishing feature difference between the Lebs and Syrian is that the Lebanese have very fine delicate pistils, while the Syrians have very thick, burly pistils – some of the thickest pistils I’ve seen. It’s really quite impressive and curious that it is so different among the Lebs.
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Amazing work my friend
Thanks for what you do !
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