SyrianLeb dwarf —> Ethiopian highlands

[lefthandseeds]

Howdy all. I’ve been itching to do an outcross to my itty bitty medi mini to some kind of sativa. After great deliberation, have determined it will be the Ethiopian highlands strain.

Originally from African seeds, and further selected by Ace, this strain runs a modest 13-14 weeks and is said to have both short and tall phenotypes. Of interest, it has been tested at 2% THCV — though I’m certain there is variation. However, that is something I want to encourage or protect in the outcross, as the Syrian strain is also known produce it.

In order to breed the dwarf, I will need to use a SyrianLeb as female (less than ideal, but it has to be). But I cannot identify dwarf males yet if they even exist…

In conjunction, I’ll be seeking fast flowering, smallish plants with nodes as compact as possible. High resin and thcv are importantly criteria for flowers, so if I like what I’m seeing, I’ll eventually send some samples for test.

If I like it, it’s probably all I’ll grow for a whiiiiile… as I tend to do now. But hopefully these all pop and give me a nice male or four to save pollen from. If nothing pops, we’ll pretend like this never happened and I’ll change the title to my second choice.

I hope you’ll stop in now and then to check on progress and say hi.

Here we go!

[DougDawson]

Defiantly be hanging out in the corner watching the slow. Good luck with the seeds man.

[Fuel]

I known it’s weird to read that but the seeds are just beautiful. All these veins, like a tasty high grade steak. In love. Sorry ^^

[Tejas]

Looking forward to it, good luck!

[Dirt_Wizard]

Very cool project! I’ll be watching for sure

[lefthandseeds]

@Fuel

I known it’s weird to read that but the seeds are just beautiful. All these veins, like a tasty high grade steak. In love.

I decided to put my jewelers loupe up to my phone camera and it worked pretty well! I think it’s nice to really get to see the seeds if possible. No real importance, but there is some minor identification there.

[Fuel]

Thanks for the effort, you make one fool happy at least ^^

I’m personally loving seed’s porn, for a ton of reasons. A lot of people don’t really catch the idea that seeds are in a way the negative print of the weed they’re smoking.

[firehead]

This sounds like a fun time! I’m in!

[George]

Always intrigued with your experiments , following along …

[middleman]

Very interesting. I’ll be following along.

[lefthandseeds]

First seed germinated yesterday. Most of the rest today, with 3 to go.

I’ll be looking a sprouts by the end of the week.

[Foreigner]

Pop pop pop. You got this.

[George]

You use peroxide? Good genetics, love that dark exotic look …

[lefthandseeds]

@George

You use peroxide?

Yeah, I like a splash of peroxide in the soak water. Even a little bit prevents sinking/drowning.

These seeds are 5ish years old, so I did a light scarification just in case, but I don’t think they even needed it.

[Herbie]

Think the OG Kush is going to be one that has the dwarf males as well. I had 2 in a set of 12 seeds. Interestingly enough, I sat and graded out the best of the seeds. Might have been 18 and I germinated the nice, normal, well-developed 12.

I will definitely be watching this grow.

[lefthandseeds]

@LedZeppelin

I’ve always give them a tap to sinkem even with a couple drops of peroxide.

I used to sink them, but more recently I just like letting them float better. Maybe it takes a touch more patience but it works really well.

@Herbie

dwarf males as well

I only have dwarf females. That’s cool. What do they look like? These have nodes that are practically on top of each other and grow not much bigger than a foot in small pots. They’ll grow a little bigger in larger pots but not much.

[lefthandseeds]

I use a shot glass and usually I put them on my heat mat. For these, I just left them on my counter for a few days (68 degrees, room temp). After the first one, I put the shot glass on the heat mat because I was going into my veg tent to put the first seed into media.

For other seeds like tomatoes, I usually don’t use a heat mat, but I think it maybe speeds up germination a little bit for cannabis.

[lefthandseeds]

Nothing but the finest RO water

[Herbie]

There were 12 to begin. These showed sex after 3 days of 12/12, some did not. I culled those late bloomers.

The males

Obviously the females had to be topped. Opposite of usual.

[lefthandseeds]

The lid has been cracking on my hd tub for my tree pot flood and drain system. You also can’t buy new lids separately

So I drilled some holes for pvc crossbars to support the flood tray and added some hydroponic plastic to block light from the side. Voila! More years of growing to do.

Some sprouts are up. The last seed I had to crack by hand. It might make it… one sprout came up with no seed head or cotelydons. I think that one is a dud. But I should have enough to work with.

From what I’ve seen here, I think I’m looking for the shorter pheno, which also flowers faster. That’s more in line with what I am looking for in this step of the project.