"Yes, I really do need all these plants." šŸ¤£ Autoflowers, photoperiods, bugs, breeding (journal)

Looking awesome in here Rain! :+1::boom:

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This batch of seedlings are 16 days old. I still donā€™t know whatā€™s been chewing on my seedlings, but either theyā€™re old enough to not be tasty anymore or the potato chunks are better. I moved the cups over the potatoes too, to keep them moist and thus tasty a bit longer.


Iā€™ve still got 4 Miss Piggy sadlings hanging on. One is showing good signs that itā€™s starting to grow again, and the tiniest is the only one that didnā€™t have roots coming though the rooter cube when planted. The goal is seeds, these were old seeds and Iā€™m guessing the trait weā€™re looking for is recessive anyway, so breeding for a next generation is the goal. If they only get 4" tall and make 50 seeds each girl thatā€™ll still be worthwhile.

I do think the large male one of the Man Bear Alien Pig x Double Grape is showing that XXL phenotype. Second photo below, plant on the left. Miss Piggy is Man Bear Alien Pig x Gabagoo, so thatā€™s reasonable. Iā€™ve got some nice Gabagoo girls growing too, which that pollen can go on. Weā€™ll see about the Miss Piggy, but Iā€™m inclined to use that maleā€™s pollen if the large Miss Piggy is a girl. There were two early Gabagoo males, and another showed just today. The early ones will get composted on @Carty 's excellent advice, and Iā€™ll keep the late one around for a bit to keep my options open. The male flower buds on him and the giant one are just single nubs the size of the end of a toothpick, so thereā€™s plenty of time.

Miss Piggy the good one continues to do well, thatā€™s it in the center and two transplanted Pineapple x Zamaldelica f4 on the sides. They did fine with the transplant, it was low trauma but imperfect and theyā€™ve just kept on growing.

I stunted these ones of the same cross

And this one here is a male. The primary goal with growing them out was to see if I got true males or herm males, so thatā€™s why I havenā€™t removed any stunted ones.

Also, Iā€™m going to dunk some more seeds. Iā€™ve been drying the first of the Beast Mode seeds I made in oven dried rice to try to get them sproutable sooner by dehydrating them faster :rofl: so those are for sure. Got to see what else would be good. I know I had some things in mind, just spaced out right now. Thatā€™s okay, shouldnā€™t drop them in the water until tomorrow anyway, so I can plant them on Saturday.

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I have been busy reading all of this. Great work. You are just too kind, @RainToday. I tried to enter the wiki (my first) and hope I did not make any major mistakes. I will keep reading your posts, definitely!

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Heyā€¦ Iā€™ve been thinking about your hand for a couple days but couldnā€™t remember where this pic wasā€¦

Howā€™s your bird flippin finger doing?? And your wrist??

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Iā€™m reasonably flippant again, thank goodness :heartpulse::wink::rofl: and if Iā€™m kinder to my wrists and wear gloves and such more itā€™ll be alright. Thanks for thinking of me :purple_heart:

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Happy Sunday @RainToday ! Now that I finally got a Zamaldelica girl I wanted to ask you about growing out the strain. Specifically about the structure, is she strong enough to hold herself up without yo-yos or bamboo sticks? She is just now starting to push out nugs and still stretching in her one gallon fabric pot.

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What a cutie! Looks a lot like the f5 one I just finished. They seem quite strong, I expect sheā€™ll hold up just fine. I supercropped the top and later three taller branches on mine, bending it over because it was going to hit my lights and the lowers were much too much lower to get good light. It did fine with that.

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Iā€™m super grumpy, and wondering how come Iā€™ve got so many herms this time around. Most especially, why this epic beauty? Maybe itā€™s the soil? But if the soil parameters being of caused the first few flowers to be male I probably donā€™t want a touchy plant like that. Except look at the size here - these are in the same size container, planted the same day. One is normal, and the other is the giant Man Bear Alien Pig x Double Grape


Hereā€™s the stupid male flower cluster. The rest of it is covered in girly flowers now.

Iā€™ll probably grow it out with careful monitoring and unless it throws any more male flowers Iā€™ll pollinate with the Miss Piggy male and hope for giant offspring without herm issues.

Itā€™s official, the big Miss Piggy is a male. Heā€™ll be moving over to the bathroom in a few days, where shorter ā€œdaysā€ and cooler temps can slow him down a bit while the girls catch up.

These 4 stunted Miss Piggy look like they are going to grow out of it successfully. Iā€™m sure theyā€™ll be stunted, but any females will get pollinated with the male. @Carty and I are looking for the giant plant trait their mother had. I am betting its recessive.

Iā€™ve got a pair of good Gabagoo girls growing too, and some of the Pineapple x Z.E.f5 are looking good. No herms in that yet.

I just started a bunch of Beast Mode from the first of the seeds Iā€™m finishing right now. I did 10 from each mom. One mom got pollinated earlier than the other and is about a week ahead in seed development. 10 out of 10 of those seeds popped. Big fat tails :heart_eyes: and only 2 out of 10 of the younger seeds, which I am sure is about germination inhibition. I planted each group in a what I think is a 20 gallon pot. Iā€™ll be culling shrimpy ones and the female winner(s) will get to finish in the pots :wink: and also get pollinated by the Miss Piggy male.

Iā€™m behind on mailings, planning to catch up tomorrow, apologies to those waiting for me. Iā€™ve been underwater a bit mentally, but I feel like Iā€™m righting the ship again, and that lately it gets better each time I do.

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Iā€™m glad you are feeling good. Donā€™t apologize to these stoners. They can wait on you and they can like it.

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Thank you, :joy: that gave me some nice warm fuzzy feelings and a good laugh to start the day. :green_heart: My attitude had been rather resembling this furry lump who doesnā€™t want to leave our cozy nest this morning. But I opened the window and itā€™s sunny, got on here, signed up for some :fire: on misterbeeā€™s giveaway, saw your nice comment, and things are looking up. Gonna go see if the seeds Iā€™ve got in water are doing anything yet. Just as soon as I break Mauiā€™s little kitty heart by getting up. :rofl:

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Hey @RainToday . The world is full of wonderous things. :grin: :rainbow:

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Thank you, Iā€™m laughing now because indeed I enjoy deer and find them wondrous in two places - one is far away from my garden, and the other is on my plate. :rofl:
I remember finding one of their napping spots as a kid, out in grass taller than me. It felt so magical, secret and safe and glorious.

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@RainToday . Go checkout my post on the pictures of pets thread. :wink:

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Thatā€™s delightful @Magu !

Happy news - my latest round germinated, 10 out of 11. :slight_smile: They are Scarlet Grapes f2 x Zamaldelica Express f4, and their only job is to show me if the males come out without herm traits. Thatā€™s because we know the Scarlet Grapes donā€™t have any herm issues, and we know many of the Z.E. f5 males I made do.
I planted them all in the one big pot since a bit of stress is all to the good in this case.

Also, those Beast Mode f3 seeds must have heard me talking about them :wink: because the first two from mom A are up this morning. :smiley:

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that beast mode is quite impressive for an auto. :evergreen_tree:

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I do want to say @RainToday you have provided me with enough ZE seeds to last the next 27 years. :rofl: And you included some stamps so I can send you more seeds. We are in harmony! Thank you for your generosity. Hope you have a blessed and fun week.

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Things have been moseying along here, but finally some significant milestones. :slight_smile:

Miss Piggy TLC crew has produced a lovely girl!


Sheā€™ll be pollinated with the one seedling that escaped trauma and grew like crazy - which of course turned out to be a male. Heā€™s dropped a couple flowers already, and is about to release a blizzard of pollen :laughing:

The other TLC Miss Piggyā€™s are a stunted male (@Carty do you want me to let that one pollinate also?)


One that hasnā€™t shown gender yet:

And a stress herm, which nicely showed me the roots are white and beautiful, no sign of any infection issues.

ā€œMr. Piggyā€ will also be pollinating:

Man Bear Alien Pig x Double Grape, which after reading up Iā€™ve decided to forgive for its tiny early herm transgression, since itā€™s an exceptional outlier in size and showed no further issues. Iā€™ll mark all its progeny though.

Gabagoo :smiley:

Pineapple x Zamaldelica Express f5, a nice big plant which I left in the greenhouse until it was too late. :rofl: I had to supercrop its top because it was about to hit the lights.
(Its showing in the photo right behind Mr. Piggy.)

And the two Beast Mode moms, which have thrown out a fresh round of pistils. Iā€™ve trimmed them way back and removed all the x Beast Mode seeds. They look capable of going another round, so Iā€™m going to let them try.

Here are the surviving tester baby Beast Modes from mom A. :slight_smile:

Something ate a bunch of them (again) and thereā€™s just one left from mom B.


The only thing keeping me from a full scale bleach and new soil reset of the greenhouse is the cost of all that soil. And Iā€™m increasingly thinking Iā€™ll just give up and do it. I have a bunch of peat moss I got for almost nothing, so I could do a self-made mix like I originally started with for not too much money. Argh. I sure do love the KIS soil though. BuildASoil would be lovely to try too, but shipping soil is :roll_eyes:

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5 survivors is plenty, natural selection.
My filosophy is that if it doesnā€™t survive then it wasnā€™t worth growing.
Gives me inner peace. I like to take it easy.
The best ones survive with the least amount of effort.

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I think itā€™s worth trying orange peel insecticideā€¦

There are different recipes for this some contain vinegar also, hope the situation gets better without having to change yr soil :slightly_smiling_face:

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The orange peel treatment seems to be interesting. However, all the organic stuff I tried so far lessened the amount of pests (mainly aphids) but never even got close to really controlling them. Did anyone really try the orange peel treatment?

So far, the only thing that really helped with thrips and aphids was a nicotine solution. Which is somewhat poisonous and probably not too healthy but then I have been a smoker almost all of my life - until 4.5 years ago. I have a greenhouse setting which complicates things a lot more than a real outside grow.

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