These are shaping up to be my ideal Afghan-type plant. Assuming things go well, the best gal will meet whatever male I end up going with. Structurally and vigor wise this would have been a better suitor to the Bandaid Haze than Christmas Bud was. Oh well live and learn.
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The f1 cherry queens i ran here recently i would say was about a 200 percent stretch. They were hungry feeders too.
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It’s vigorous because it’s a hybrid, and your xmas bud is probably pretty inbred. The yield on some of the phenos is pretty rad though, and that branching structure is usually what I like to breed toward, rather than the apical dominant plants.
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I think the Christmas was too extreme on the squat broadleaf spectrum, whereas Bandaid Haze wasn’t far enough. Christmas Bud might have been a better partner to an extreme narrowleaf, not a haze hybrid. It ended up more like “Christmas Bud with vigor” rather than something that was “in the middle” between the parents. I still really like the plants I’ve flowered so far, they just weren’t really the goal I had in mind. Unique and interesting, though.
I prefer branchier stuff myself, I grow bushes usually. Giant colas are also a big budrot risk for the warmer more humid months. Fine in the winter here though. Nice n’ dry.
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I have some conjecture that Afghans are often pretty dominant in crosses, but I don’t really have much to prove it. But it’s not totally a shock that you found xmas bud to dominate the cross, because it seems to align with my experiences as well.
One reason I am trying experiments with Lebanese/Afghan hybrids is to see if I could “soften” the Afghan characteristics before using it in a hybrid with a sativa. With a lot of Lebanese lines, you can usually find two phenos – one with apical dominance, and one with a lot more branching. So my thought is to try using a more branched Lebanese with an Afghan, and inbreed it a bit before crossing to a sativa.
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OMG! I remember, back when I first started growing cannabis, years ago, everyone was arguing about ‘duds’. It was an especially hot conversation around the time GG4 came around. A lot of people were arguing that there was no such thing, IIRC. I guess it turns out it was real. I’m reading and catching up now.
That must have been a nightmare to deal with. I am gonna go back and look for your old log about it.
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Other people found it to be super dominant as well, people seem to say they had similar experiences with many of the old really inbred broadleaf lines, Christmas, PTK, Deep Chunk, etc. You might be onto something with the “softening up” with something else before crossing, maybe even using it as a backcross grandparent.
@Eudaemon yeah a lot of the really popular cuts are contaminated, many people mention GG4 specifically. It’s a real devil of a problem and I’m going on record saying it’s about to get much worse since clones are circulating faster than ever and many people are unaware of this problem. The latent aspect of it is the real killer. It can infect everything before you even know it, show up months later.
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My memories are flooding back now! Didn’t it have something to do with Sour Dub? Is that where the virus came from?
Edit: It’s really cool to come back to a hobby (growing) and have one of those weird mysteries solved.
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A lot of people mentioned that one specifically as well. As to the real “patient zero” no one really knows, somewhere they grow hops and weed lol, probably PNW.
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Super Silver Cough F2 day 2 of flower. This is my favorite female. Pungent already, like cheesy socks. The smelliest in veg don’t always yield the smelliest flowers, but they are certainly more inclined to.
From the 34 seeds, I ended up sexing 12 plants. I selected 4 females and 2 males. I was hoping on another female or two but this is what fate gave me. One male is shorter and smells perfumey, another is taller and skunkier. I usually flower larger plants but I wasn’t sure just how stretchy these would be, and the auxiliary tent was overcrowded with Cherry Queen ladies, so now one CQ is in the main tent.
This thing is a monster. Cherry Queen F2 from @lefthandseeds. She’s 2 weeks into flower; looks like it’s got another week or so of stretch. There’s 2 other females that look more or less identical. This ain’t the Afghani you’re used to lol.
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Getting Cheese from an SSH cross? That sounds glorious regardless. is it SSHxSC? If you already said so I must have missed it 
That Cherry Queen looks beautiful!! I love that leaf pattern, 9 bladed sexiness. Closest thing I have is some CQxX18 from Comacus I desperately want to run.
Hope you find what you’re looking for soon ^^
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Close! Ft. Collins Cough x SSH F3
Ft. Collins Cough is a allegedly an old NL5 x Haze clone from Colorado. So it’s (NL5 x Haze) x [(NL5 x Haze) x (Skunk x Haze)]
Some of the CQ fan leaves are the size of dinner plates. I already had to take quite a few off to let light into the lowers.
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Oh that’s even better! I’ve only seen the Strawberry Cough recently so lucky you for getting a cut of the Ft. Collins ^^
That one is definitely on my list of cuts I would want to acquire someday if given the opportunity. I want to breed all the best NL5xHaze together and isolate my own pheno to use. Started with Mel Franks, and I have some MrNice to search through too. Been considering AKBB’s NL5xHaze, Consumption, or Relic’s Cough BX… Really your cross is kind of a backcross then, like I just did with the Franco’s Lemon Cheese. Should be really good regardless!
That’s awesome on the CQ! I’ve definitely heard that one before, MASSIVE leaves on a small frame… and gloriously fat arm length cola’s 
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Oh man I didn’t even know Relic/Dynasty did a Cough BX! I’m sure my wife will totally understand that I do, in fact, NEED to spend $150 on more seeds lol.
I do think that’s a real neat idea though; if you’re gonna make something, might as well start with the classics. If I ever do come across a (clean) source of the cough I’ll point her in your direction. She’s not an easy fish to catch; 11 week plants from the 90’s just don’t get passed around or grown much anymore. I’ve only ever seen it in a Colorado dispo once like 6 years ago, pretty crazy product. Dynasty and Workingman’s Seeds are the only cats I’ve ever even seen with the cut.
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You started with 34 seeds and ended with 4 females and 2 males. What criteria do you for culling?
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Oh yeah, go get that cough bx! And if you make F2’s I’d make it worth your while 
Would also appreciate that direction ^^
But yeah tell me about it 
my NL5HSS from Mel Frank is an 11 weeker for sure. Took mine down at 80 days. I haven’t ever seen any NL or NLHaze at any dispo ever, it’s all platinum this, cookies that, and cakes galore 
Hell I haven’t even seen it in the black market for the last like 20 or so years. Think 03 was the last time I had it and was some hobby grower.
Anyways, best of luck on the grow! Will be keeping an eye in here for sure ^^
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Threw down 34 beans. 3 didn’t sprout, and 2 stalled after sprouting.
So I was left with 29.
Then I lost 6 to damp-off because the room was too cold.
Of the 23 remaining, I culled 3 mutant looking seedlings. I never waste time on anything that looks “weird”.
So, really, it was a selection of 20 very nice healthy seedlings. From the 20, there were a couple outliers. 2 plants were obviously way hazier than I wanted to mess with (light lime green, tall, hollow stem, narrow leaf).
Of the 18 that were left, I culled a couple with weak, floppy stems. Then, a few were just underperforming compared to their siblings. Which left me with 12 of the best looking, most vigorous plants to sex.
I try not to have “rules”, I just try to “be water” and read the plants. Generally though, the plan is more or less “start 20 and sex 10”. The key is to start more seedlings than you have space for and be forced to cull so you don’t get sentimental lol. Only flower the most vigorous seedlings and you know the plants you select will at the very least pass on those traits. And, the more you start, the choosier you can be. If you have enough seedlings you can choose specific traits to go on.
I may not have a lot of space, I got 3 tents with 40 sq. ft of lit space, but I use it very intensively. When it’s all running normally, plants very close together, everything purposely kept very small except plants about to hit flower. Plants defoliated so they can fit in closer. Clones/mothers in the shade of the big plants. I truly don’t have space for anything even slightly underperforming. However, I have a lot of seeds in my collection that I didn’t pay for, so it’s not a problem to lose 20-30 every few months. For dudes that buy $200 10 packs this isn’t feasible lol.
Sometimes only 1 female per 10 seedlings even makes it to flower, and there’s no guarantee that one female will be any better than mediocre. Sometimes I’ll start 6-7 and not end up flowering any of them.
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Lefty’s Cherry Queen F2 at 3 weeks. These got big haha his assessment was correct. This would make fine breeding stock for just about anything, structurally and vigor wise. Rock solid branches that have some stretch, clones root fast, smelly. One of these 3 will probably meet a Super Silver Cough male.
There’s another lady in the other flower tent that looks almost the same; 2 of these totally took over the little pollination/overflow tent. Fine by me, since I had a little extra space to fill in the main tent.
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Here’s a couple of the 4 Super Silver Cough F2 females. 9 days into flower and they have taken notice. I am assuming stretch will be tremendous. #13 and #20 are my favorites. From what I understand, stretchy plants with dark blue green leaves are Cough-dominant.
There is one smaller not pictured female I’m kinda iffy on. It doesn’t look much like the other sisters. It’s smaller, much branchier with shorter zigzag nodes; reminds me a lot of Apollo or C99. I probably won’t keep it but it may prove interesting.
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Great structure on that one. Is it still stretching?