Making Seeds

The story so far...

About 5 years ago I was lucky enough to be given a bag of Grapefruit X Chemo seeds, my friend told me that he got them from Vic High. I didn't grow at the time so they sat out on my bar for 3 years. When I started growing from hydro store clones, the weed I got was just fine but it was boring and wasn't really as strong as I like.

I decided to grow some of these seeds out, but they weren't very easy to germinate. After various attempts I managed to get 4 to germinate from about 200 that I started. I called them 1 circle, 2 triangle, 3 line and 4 square, once they were sexed it turned out that 1 circle and 4 square were female and they other 2 were male. I grew them out and they both grew really well, made seeds with both of them using 3 circle which I selected because I liked the way it grew better than 2 triangle and also because it flowered earlier.

The smoke from 1 circle was definitely superior to 4 square, the high was stronger and the taste was much better – 4 square tasted moldy, even though it wasn't and 1 circle had more of a watermelon taste.

All would have been well, and I would have kept making clones and growing 1 circle forever. But I can't keep the mum in veg, even under 24/0 so the yield is down and I'm pretty bored of the taste after 3 crops of the same thing. So the mother has gone in a friend's garden and I'm starting from seed again

I invite you all to follow along and share your help and knowledge with me as I attempt to make more seeds & weeds.

Well, that's a lot of writing so here's a few pictures of 1 circle...


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The Plan

The Plan

First up what I have to work with, I'm germinating a total of 120 seeds this time, 40 BCGA GF x Chemo f1s (Calling them GFC from now on), 60 GF x Chemo f2s (Hereafter referred to as Yin-Yang) and 20 SOL Blockhead (Thanks Gypsy!).

Initially I'm going to select on growth characteristics until I have 24 females and 3 males (one of each GFC, Yin-Yang & Blockhead), then I'll flower the females out and pollinate one branch on each female with one of the males. So in the end I'll have 72 types of seed and 24 types of weed.

When I have tried all the weed I'll be discarding any seeds from inferior plants and growing out another batch of the new seeds which I'll pollinate with the same male.

So much for the plan, on to the 'cut out and keep guide to making your own seeds.'


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Preparation

Preparation

I'm starting the seeds in rock wool cubes, I prepared the rock wool by soaking it overnight in tap water at pH 5.4, in addition to HNO3 I added B'Cuzz root stimulator, Liquid Gold & Superthrive. The next day I changed the water, and allowed them to soak for a couple of hours with the same ingredients.

I've had problems germinating the GFC and Yin-Yang before, so I cut the shells carefully with a single edged razor before putting them in the rock wool, the Blockhead just went straight in there.

When they started sprouting I put them in my clone chamber with a couple of fluros.


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Progress

Progress

It's been 5 days, so far the germination rates have been pretty good for all but the GFC, only one of which has sprouted so far, which is about what I expected as these seeds have been sitting at room temperature for the last 5 years or so. Here's a rundown of the results so far :

Type/Planted/Germinated at 5 days

GFC 40 1
Blockhea 20 16
Yin-Yang 60 42

That's it for now, I'll try to keep this updated.

Update: Under the big lamps

Update: Under the big lamps

It's been 2 weeks now, and time to move the seedlings under the big lights so they can grow big and strong. To help them do that I've planted them 4 to a pot in 6 in square pots. I'm using Canna vega at half strength with 2ml/litre of fulvic acid (Liquid Gold), 1ml/litre B'Cuzz root stimulator & Superthrive at 1drop/litre. Medium is hydrotun, watering 15min/90min on/off in a recirculating top feed system.

Final germination rates were

GFC 40 4
Blockhead 20 19
Yin-Yang 60 56

I'm using 16 pots, and I'm keeping the seed types separate so that leaves room for 64 seedlings. I'm keeping all the blockhead and the f1's so I've discarded the yin-yang seedlings that looked the weakest.

On to the pictures...


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Update: 2 Weeks Under HPS

Update: 2 Weeks Under HPS

Here's some pictures I took the other day, they have been under the HPS lamp for 2 weeks now. There is quite a variation in size at the moment, I'll probably take clones in another week or so and flip these plants over from 18/6 to 12/12 to find the boys. I'm going to keep the clones in veg and flower the seedlings so I'll be able to make mums out of the ones I like the best once they have been harvested and smoke tested.

A fifth GFC seed germinated last week (3 weeks after it was planted) so I now have 5 GFC. 4 of the Blockhead died because they dried out, same with 6 of the Yin-Yang. When I looked at them they didn't have very good roots, next time I think I'll cut the plastic wrapper off the sides of the rock wool when I put the seedlings in the pot...

Your setup looks really great keep it updated with pictures and give us a complete growlog..

We don't have enough grow logs here

Sharp_pain,

Thanks for the kind words. I'll be updating as and when things happen.