Since joining OG I have wanted to start a journal and as we all know life can get in the way. I am sure I will need some help navigating the site, figuring out the best way to post photos and other oddities but I know that OGers willingly offer a helping hand.
I have a LOT of plans for this journal as I get better acquainted with the site and how to do everything. But for right now I want to start with something basic, something simple that any auto grower can do with minimal skills and resources…MAKE YOUR OWN AUTO FLOWER SEEDS. I am going to show you how to make feminized auto seeds to grow, share, and trade. And I’ll be doing this start to finish and if you’re patient I will answer all questions as I go from step to step.
Now last I knew my new auto flower buddy @Greenup was going to join me and we were both going to grow an auto each at the same time. Hopefully he started his on time and will jump in here with photos. I sincerely encourage everyone to participate so we can get to know each other.
So first up for me is a HubbaBubbaMelloScope Autoflower plant from Mephisto Genetics. There is a handful of top quality auto breeders out there and Mephisto is one of them. From here on the HubbaBubba will be referred to as HBMS or Ruth. I started my plant on 2/24/2023 which is the day it sprouted above ground.
Ruth is 13 days old today. She is growing in 5 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forest medium because it was less expensive then Pro-Mix when I was buying medium last. Several months ago I purchased a bag of #3 perlite which is the large coarse variety and I believe it makes a difference with autos and I’m sure it would with photos also. More aeration, better moisture retention both help grow better plants. Ruth is on a diet right now of 3 grams of Mega Crop 1 part granular nutrients per gallon of water with a 2ml sip of Cal-Mag in said gallon of water. I water in a ring a couple inches wider then the footprint of the plant. A key thing I have learned about autos is that it’s better to give them a little bit too little water/nutrients then it is to feed them too much. As this plant grows I will be doing a modest amount of low stress training on her to help keep her opened up more then would naturally occur.
The goal with Ruth is to keep her healthy and use STS to reverse one of her lower branches, collect pollen from her and use that pollen to dust buds on a couple lower branches to make feminized S1 seeds. What I will be looking for is the side branching to start on the first node. I will select the healthiest of those two branches to treat with the STS. I would expect / hope this to begin around day 25 or so.
Please feel free to ask any questions about anything that we’ve talked about thus far if you didn’t understand something.
I tend to be long winded and apologize in advance. Something I’m trying are short and sweet growing tips I employ when growing autos. This one I think is a key to a good start.
Autos thrive with a consistent temperature (75 - 80 F) is what I shoot for with the humidity at or around 70%. FOR THE FIRST 10 DAYS I run my light 24 hours a day. I use the dimmer switch to adjust the temperature to where I want it to be and by leaving the light on I maintain the plants ideal temperature. No light on / light off temp fluctuation. Everyone has different methods to moderate the humidity. Worse comes to worse I have a tiny mister I put in the tent.
I am still wanting to participate alongside you. Have the STS made and I have started a small handful of autos since you offered to help me make seeds. I just posted an update on most of them over on my auto thread. I almost want to spray all of them to make seeds but I think I should take it slow and with purpose/intent and just spray one or two and try to self and make one cross like I originally planned.
In addition @Rhino_buddy gifted me a bunch of top shelf autos with the hopes i can make seeds and share with all. If this first round is successful I have plenty of work in the queue to make more.
My suggestion would be for your first attempt at seed making you only work with one pollen producing plant. If you have the room to segregate multiple pollen donors and understand how to neutralize pollen to prevent contamination with unwanted pollen then sure have multiple males / reversed females. I’ll say this, I don’t grow mystery seeds, I want to know exactly what I’m growing so most times I reverse one female and pollinate her and a few other strains at the same time. One source of pollen.
Well I’ll pull up a chair. You taught me to make photo seeds with CS, so I’ll be interested to see how autos are done. Would you also be able to give pointers/time line recommendations for CS as well as STS?
I’ve walked the path you are on and look forward to learning new tips and techniques as your grow unfolds.
Two questions to start: Are you mixing your own STS, or using storebought? Will you collect pollen and dust your buds, or just let the pollinated branch do its work naturally?
As you know @ChefDGreen when I reverse a plant to make seeds I “leave the legs on” meaning I don’t remove the lower branches. Although they don’t produce the best quality flowers they are more then adequate for producing mature seeds. This gives you a best of both worlds scenario as by pollinating the bottom branches you can pull a bunnch of seeds off the plant and still have the upper branches to produce your top quality flowers.
When I reversed autos with Colloidal Silver I would start treating the chosen branch as soon as it was a couple inches long. I would wrap a fluorescent pipe cleaner around the bottom of the branch so I was sure to treat the same branch each time.
Good day @GrouchyOldMan ! I only began using the STS solution for my last two plant reversals and I liked it. I did mix my own because I wanted to be sure of what I was spraying onto the plants. I have heard a few reports of the store bought STS not working. Could be user error I guess or a result of an inferior product.
The pollen question is a great one. This is an area above my pay grade I’m afraid. I actually have only collected pollen one time and that was my last pollination run with the Cap Junky pollen. I just winged it after doing a small amount of reading and it involved baked rice, vacuum sealing, and freezing. I won’t know if it worked until my next seed making (photo) run which is in the seedling stage at the moment.
I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOMEONE WHO SUCCESSFULLY COLLECTS AND STORES POLLEN TO SHARE THEIR METHODS WITH US.
Oh, there is a really important step that comes before the soaking. SCARIFYING the seeds will improve your germination success rate. The easiest method is to take an 8" x 10" sheet of 80 grit sandpaper, cut it down the middle long ways and roll it up into a tube with the grit facing in. Then I use packing tape to tape full lengh of the seam to keep it into a tube shape. I cut a piece of heavier weight cardboard and tape it securely over one of the open ends of the tube. You can use it successfully just like this but an extra step I use is to pour in a tablespoon of white or playground sand make sure it’s nice and dry.
Then drop your seed or seeds into the tube, put a finger over the open and and shake shake shake. I do it vigorously for probably at least 3 or so minutes. If the seeds still have the tiger stripe calyx stains on them you need to sand them some more.
I soak in a shot glass that I wash every time with H202 warm water. I rinse it out well then add one drop of peroxide to about 3/4 of a shot glass of tepid water and set the shot glass onto a seedling / seed heating pad. I leave it on there usually about 24 hours until I see the taproot starting to split the shell open. I remove it at that point and pour that water onto a folded up paper towel and put the seeds in and fold it over. I then put the paper towel into a zip-loc baggie and seal it up and put it back onto the coolest part of the heating pad. I check them periodically seeing how the taproot is coming along. When it’s 1/2" to 3/4" long I plant it into its final pot. I consider day one of the life of the plant to be when it’s standing and the cutting leaves are opened.
You know @LedZeppelin that is a touchy subject with me. I buy breeders packs of autos from Mephisto and the darn things aren’t sealed closed. I buy breeders packs from CSI Humboldt and they’re not sealed. For what we pay for seeds the least the breeders could do is mail your seeds in a sealed packet. It’s pretty quick and easy to put a piece of the holographic tape across the top of the pack…if it’s torn the pack has been tampered with. I’ve always struggled with trust issues going back as far as when I was 4 years old and my sister was 3. We both got a baby duck for Easter one year and we were playing with them on my sisters bed. Her duck fell off a wrinkle on the bed and broke it’s tiny duckling neck. She quickly grabbed my perfectly healthy duck and said to me “what happened to your duck”?? The parents took up for her and from that point on I was ruined.
With my wife it was hawks. She and her older sister raised two hawks. One day they came home and one had killed the other and ate most of the evidence. The first thing my wife’s sister said was, “Look! My hawk killed yours!”. lol
Even though my wife knew better, she gave her sister the bird.
I thought today would be a good day for a HBMS update. She is exactly 2 weeks old today and I’m a little surprised she’s not bigger then she is but that’s okay cause I’ve kept her environment nice for her. And I’m still learning how to grow these autos. She has some side branching starting and is looking good.
I trust, sometime somebody show us autoflower project from ruderalis landrace x photoperiod fully step by step. Good luck. mephistos - perfect selection work, not Just another lowriderX
I experimented with some of the Cap Junky pollen because I had extra and the strains reputation preceeded it. So I had to give it a shot. I baked rice at about 150 degrees F for half an hour and added some to each of the 4 small ziploc bags I had the dried pollen in. I then vacuum sealed each ziploc separately and then put them in the freezer. I will see in about 6 weeks or so if it’s still viable.
There are a handful of auto growers on OG I keep an eye on here and you’re one of them.
