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Volunteers and Their Fate

Rico Swazi

Active member
The advent of quasi legalization here in Oregon brought about significant changes in '16. Absolutely fantastic that anyone and everyone could grow 4 plants of their own,indoors or outdoors. Incredibly devastating for the same reason for those that have been growing outdoors medically over the past decade. I have been OMMP since '06.

Never had a problem with my outdoor getting seeded until 2016. First year was just a few, the next year had a few more. Problem was, as I found out, that several inexperienced outdoor growers were unaware of the impact male plants have in the hood and would let them go too long before culling, if culled at all.

The cultivation of hemp only adds fuel to this fire the way I see it. While the inexperienced can be taught, seems the greedy cannot or will not be swayed. Last fall, good friends of mine clued me in on some folks (<-polite way of saying arseholes) were growing hemp for seed to sell... outdoors... barely a mile away from me. Unknown varieties/cultivars , you name it, if they thought there was a buck to be had , they were all in. Growing cannabis became a free for all for those 'folks' literaly throwing all caution to the wind.


Cannabis Pollen is becoming ubiquitous as more 'folks' continue to pursue their dreams of easy money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not adverse to easy money, just not the indiscriminate disregard for others that rely on cannabinoid therapy for their quality of life. That is my disagreement with that trivial pursuit. But what ya gonna do? can't shoot 'em, (<- HR legal dept made me say can't shoot em but it is sooo tempting at times to do something, besides it'd be rock salt in the arse and would opt for a jury of my peers. Case dismissed :dance013:) I had originally intended to name this thread 'Careful what you wish for' but thought better of it . Rather than another bitch and complain thread , I would like to have a discussion about what to do with the unknown genetics that pop up in the inside or outside cannabis garden. Inside grows included due to cannabis pollen becoming ubiquitous in our semi-quasi almost legal culture.

I hear of friends and neighbors growing inside for years being pollinated no matter how well maintained their grow. Those that have grown no-til have had seedlings pop up unexpectedly after finding a few seeds in previous harvests. Seems no one is immune 'cept those that are sterile and/or kept in a bubble.

So figuring out a Plan B is essential, now that we know there is a problem with ... for lack of a better term, unknowns. The sploogenie is out of the bottle and having profound effects on medical growers as myself and especially breeders that may not to be able to guarantee or trust the genetics they are growing .
MODS --Didn't know where else to put this thread, I'm good with it being moved .

Lastly, feel free to show pics of your situation if you like but not necessary for the discussion. here are a few of mine taken today

half dozen who knows whats


different angle

biggest volunteer, the other are in the background

how one got in the herb planter is a mystery



The floor is open on the subject of what to do with the volunteers that show up outside or the unexpected indoor pollination and plants that appear out of nowhere.


Some plan B options might include -
Grow them out
move plants to another (clandestine?) location (after checking sex of course)
cull them all, unknown genetics suck


There are more I am sure so lets hear

What is the fate of your volunteers?



 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Wow I knew it was a problem but had no idea it was this bad. Must be spread by birds? I'd be pissed if my stuff got pollinated that way. I've been to the Emerald Triangle in areas where everyone was growing outdoors and things weren't that bad, but the people were cash cropping. During prohibition spreading cannabis plants around was fun and acceptable. Now that it's legal there's no excuse for that shit, especially hemp. If you're planting cannabis as an ornamental or for fun you should know enough to cull the males.

In India and other places with lots of cannabis plants, feral or wild and cultivated, this isn't really a problem. The different types of plants flower at different times. They may get a bit of feral hemp type pollen in their ganja flowers but most of it is male pollen from the ganja. A lot of the hempy wild stuff autoflowers or flowers long before the cultivated plants.

I would toss the mystery seed, not much of a reason to grow unlabeled stuff. Too many good strains available why waste your time when the males could be whatever. The volunteers, I'd cull most of them. I'd still take a look, do some stem rubbing and if something tickled my fancy I'd keep it. A few of your volunteers look like nice stuff, most of them look like whatever.

I've got volunteers this year but they aren't from careless neighbors they're from careless me. Last year I let my separated selected males go a bit further then I normally do, had a bit more seed in my stuff then normal. Still it was hardly any. October was wet, I had much more moldy buds then normal. Including purposely labeled seeds. After a while I stopped caring, didn't want to pick the seeds out of moldy goo when I had plenty of good seed already. I threw it on the ground in the garden.

This March we had a couple days above 70 degrees F. Much to my surprise I had 7 or 8 volunteers. Most of them were nice looking. In late April I was preparing my soil, I wasn't ready to transplant them and the guy who was manning my rototiller was going a bit fast and wild. I wanted to get it done so I transplanted 4 of the volunteers haphazardly. Not quite enough water and I threw them in regular old unprepared sandy soil.

They didn't die but they were stunted and burnt looking. A couple weeks later when I was planting out my purposely planted ganja I had to make a decision. I closed my eyes, cursed,and yanked the 4. It was especially hard to do because they were nice looking plants before I neglected them, I know the pollen came from select males. But I already had too many healthy starts I'd put out on purpose, didn't want any more runts and needed the space.

I kept the 4 I didn't transplant. I've got pics. Three popped up in one spot, I know this was a moldy seeded bud. I moved one to another spot, left a big one and a little one. The biggest one, the biggest volunteer all along, has a good skunky smell. It's the same size as my cultivated plants. Haven't done much for it until I dug fertilizer in around it a few days ago. Transplanted a bunch of potato plants away. You can see the little one on the left near the ground, it's much lighter green. I'm hoping the big one's female!

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Here's the third one, it's always been scraggy. I'll probably leave it where it is until it sexes, let it go feral.

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I gave it a bit of fertilizer, not a lot. They all came up near my potato patch, it's why I didn't move them. Didn't need to rototill there. The fourth one is in the potato patch. It's a bit scraggy as well. Probably leave it where it is, give it a bit of fertilzer, cull it if it's male. Let it grow together with the potatoes.

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Behind it you can see a bit of my purposefully planted ganja patch. I wish I had pics of the other volunteers, they were superior to all but the big one. I wish I'd put them in containers earlier and taken better care of them, I'd like to have my own landrace.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
What is the fate of your volunteers?


Feed them to the birds !

Actually that's what I do with males if I decide they're not pollen material.

If a volunteer 'feels right' I let it grow. But I don't have many volunteers. They usually occur in pots, for me.

If you pull a volunteer, you can still chop it up like parsley. Some birds like that.

Idea #2 - feed it to the Grumpy Cat.
 

Rico Swazi

Active member
Where does the time go? I meant to post this three weeks ago but things got crazy busy around here. Please accept my apologies and thanks for the replies.
I ended up culling all but one plant in the ground and the one in the herb pot.
Both showed fem sex by the first week of june while the others lagged behind so their fate was a date with a lawnmower.
Pics taken June 4th

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I briefly entertained the idea of running over a mr bill doll but decided I didn't want china made plastic littering (poisoning) my garden . Nothing stopping you from making the OHHH NOOO! sound effects yourself though.

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The light filtering thru the trees made me smile, like an affirmation of the right choice.

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Haven't fed her anything by the way of nutrients as she seems healthy enough on the alfalfa clover mix chop and drop or in my case, mow and row (mow and hoe), lol No matter what you call it, gardening this way preserves the fungal networks and bacterial colonies with as little disturbance as possible. Time spent tilling is now spent gathering mulch as there is no such thing as too much mulch.

Pics taken yesterday, mulched with the borage plant that was growing beside her, over 4ft tall now

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top view, healthy, no?


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I will post pics of previous years volunteers but don't be surprised if it takes another month now that precedence is set.
Thanks for looking
 

Rico Swazi

Active member
not only do I suck at making threads i create fun, interesting and engaging with the other posters .....I procrastinate too !
Heres some pics from a week ago and update that goes with





Haven't fed her anything , rarely watered and still she displayed extreme vigor standing 10 ft tall at time of the pic. Nice nose on her with a lovely skunk smell, not road kill but not sickly super sweet either. Just the right amount of pine undertones too. The container to the left has a cut of her that shows the same desire for vertical growth. Started flowering on the 1st of aug.

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Pulled the mulch back to show how dry the soil is and the problem with branches separating from the main stalk. I don't like weak plants. I see it as a vector for disease. backside of plant in this pic

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front side showing how a branch tore itself off the stalk and how poorly the branch mends itself with a butt knuckle
nice lil hole for all sorts of things



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Potency and effect would have to be off the hook for me to think about trying to fix that trait which takes time and experience both of which I don't have much of. . A couple friends took cuts for their indoor to see if some trellis training would help. If it turns out to be something special then I have access to it again but I can tell its not for me. I prefer haze like these even though they finish a month later than the wld pheno in the background.


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I was hoping the ganja gods would favor me with a plant that is potent enough to heal, one aclimated to the climate and able to stand up to the toughest wind and rain with unparalled pest and desease resistance . Aren't we all. Calling her 'volly' for lack of a better name

Take care, thanks for looking in, update in a month (or so).



 

Rico Swazi

Active member
Love this time of year
must have smoked thirty different cultivars from other growers near me with more on the way I'm told.
I'm lucky to be in with a good bunch of people that love to share their veggies and herb.

good news is very few seeds if any are being found from their outdoor grows and mine as well. I found 3 so far which is nothing compared to years past.

Seems you can put the sploogenie back in the bottle



I made a big mistake by not transplanting the volunteer . She grew up to be 12ft tall and 15ft wide and got in the way of my fall plantings of cauliflower and broccoli. If I ever grow an unknown again, it will be transplanted to another part of the garden like I did with the one in the herb pot. Volly certainly wasn't worth the inconvenience.



Pics tell the story i hope
first two are the calm before the storm then a few day later the beat down begins





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Rico Swazi

Active member
aftermath-

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This is what it looks like today
My neighbor is taking it all. smells like catpiss and has a heavy stone to it. Hes a vet and says its works well to quiet the noise and is perfect for him. Glad to see it be put to some use as i don't care for it much at all.



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heres what the flowers look like


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heres the NLD cultivar that was in the herb pot. Smells of lemon pepper and mint. 4ft tall x 12 ft wide in a fresh huglebed which performed better than expected for its first year.



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Rico Swazi

Active member
The haze is still in the ground growing strong, no PM or mold
showing some purple from some cooler weather now,
smells strong citrus spice, no mint
Pic taken Nov 1st

The top 3 feet of the tall plant is in the pic also standing up, harvested the 20th of Oct ,
(was fun to watch it fall all about herself but wont give up preferred ground to let another do it to me again.
I will transplant it to another place like I did with the haze and let fate decide)

2nd pic is of this plant on the 23rd of Oct

last pic was couple days ago also


been a fun season, hope you all can say the same
gonna start harvesting this week
Gonna let this thread rest in peace now



thanks for looking:tiphat:



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P

pongster

curious, interesting and refreshing thread!
i surely didn't know what to expect when clicking the title, but it sure lasted for an hour and half a J,
thank you very much for sharing
best regards,
:rasta:
 

grayeyes

Active member
I too have experienced my own sloppiness. After this years grow I noticed volunteers about a week after harvest in the pots I grew in. First one or two then I ended up finding a total of 9. I kept those and brought them in the house under lights. Two weeks ago (about a month later) I find sprouts coming up about 30 feet from where I grew. I have 7 of those and I think I am going to leave them there. This strain is a well known hybrid so I know it will finish early.
 

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