[mitch_connor]

Originally Posted by S_a_H

Looks like a great adventure.

This is still all for Secret Garden Seeds right ?

Goodluck

No, we aren't involved with SGS,

This is a joint project for another forum/seedsite and we (me and Tim) are working on our own projects for a new company in the making.

Which I will mention later if it's permissable by ICMAG

Cheers, Mitch

[mitch_connor]

Originally Posted by aridbud

What an adventure in Spain. Various rooms look great.

Car antics remind me of a friend being run over by an old 60's truck out of gear rolling back. Left tire tread marks on my friend's back. Luckily, we were young in our 20's and supple then. Yikes!

With all great projects, calamities happen.

Cars out of control, being inside or out of them is no bueno , but we lived to grow another day!

The toughest aspect to being out here is, you need to be prepared for all eventualities, or you're in for a very long walk.

In just the past week, our drivebelt perished on the truck, and I ordered a part whilst in the Uk, was told it was the correct one, but it was way too long.

So we had to cut it, bodge it back together (staples and glue) and cross our fingers we could get to the local town.

Another mode of transport would solve this problem, or having a whole stock of service parts but those requirements are above our budget at present, so we've relied on many elements of good fortune throughout the year

Glad your friend was ok, Peace Mitch

[S_a_H]

Sure go ahead when ready seed breeders and their companies can be mentioned just not other seedbanks.

So what kind of genetics are you going to be using ?

Anything local to the area ?

[mitch_connor]

Originally Posted by S_a_H

Sure go ahead when ready seed breeders and their companies can be mentioned just not other seedbanks.

So what kind of genetics are you going to be using ?

Anything local to the area ?

Unfortunately at present, no Spanish genetics.
It would be interesting to work with some for outdoor next year.

Apart from visits to the grow shops for supplies, we've really kept everything low key in terms of making local connections etc.

The origins of the genetics we've been working with so far, span U.S, Canadian, and UK 'elite' cuttings. Many provided by a friend from the UK forum here.

Some strains were worked from seeds from breeders like BOG, Chimera and RD, my personal favourites basically.

Half of the projects (Non AF x AF) were crosses made whilst I was in the UK and running AF's and Photoperiods simultaneously, Many were shelved for the future due to space restrictions.

We were lucky enough to host some very cool and insightful people this year, Jorge Cervantes and Karma to name a couple, so we've been networking that way too.

All new strains and projects have been started from scratch, and a handful are at F3 now. We've chosen our projects very carefully and been very harsh with our selections so far. As we felt it would be pointless to work this hard, come this far and change our lives basically, to sell ourselves short.

Any other questions, feel free.
Peace Mitch

[aridbud]

Anything from the ground up is going to take time, patience, perseverance, luck and a lot of chutzpah. Sounds like you've got some good folks in your circle.

I disagree w/ new3....I've grown several of your SGS strains and have always had great results. Now you are writing a different chapter....of which many will take note. KUDOS!

Inbreeding is a problem, thus my reason to hybridize, then bx or F2 onward. Personally I do not inbreed knowing the unstable genetics down the road. And perhaps as a craft brewer or wine maker, you have to get your ingredients from some source. I've used others genetics to make my own crosses or hybrids.....and hybridize again to make it my own, yet label what genetics are being used. Liken it to a Levi denim jacket....once I put a Harley Davidson emblem on it....it's still Levi's and still HD....but it's my own creation.

Perhaps new3 has had unfortunate grows with your strains. I could name several other strains I've tried ( both large commercial seeders and private breeders); the seeds did not pop and at times seedlings were weak and died. There are times when seeds don't cooperate. Move on and try something else is all I can recommend. No need to lambast IMHO.

Thanks, Mitch, for your sentiments....not sure if watching my friend being tire "branded" was as bad as using a work glove saturated w/ creosote scratching my chin/neck was more painful, all happening simultaneously that fateful day. So, I stay away from steering column shifts (in old trucks) and creosote as a wood preservative. Cough.

I applaud you on your new venture, Mitch. Grow on!

[mitch_connor]

The Plan really is to get the new Strains stable with the AF trait, and then take it from there. Strains will be released at F4 pending results of the F3's,

There will then be 3 options,

A) IBL lines onward - to the point where there are only a couple of phenotypes, or where I can pretty much guarantee that all plants will grow to within certain parameters we are looking to achieve.

B) A bx back to the non-AF parent, and work them again to AF - It takes time, but there is no rush here, and I personally believe it would take this family of new strains above and beyond most products out there.

C) To also offer F1 AF hybrids made from the new strains.

At present we have 10+ strains in development, and I'm going to do my best to document them at each stage of the process.

It's a fun journey to be on, some crosses excel any expectations, others leave something to be desired and are scrapped, but you have to grow to know.

I could liken it to cooking, sometime you can have 2 or 3 ingredients that on there own aren't special, but you can combine them in the right way and have something great, Or you start with the very best ingredients you can find and cross your fingers.

In the next few weeks we are converting another room to a 6 light space to work in solely for our projects.

Cheers, Mitch

[aridbud]

"I could liken it to cooking, sometime you can have 2 or 3 ingredients that on there own aren't special, but you can combine them in the right way and have something great, Or you start with the very best ingredients you can find and cross your fingers."

Sounds great. keep up the arduous work. Look forward to your new hybrids.

[vostok]

Great Post ...please keep us up dated

[mitch_connor]

Originally Posted by vostok

Great Post ...please keep us up dated

Thanks, there's plenty more to show and tell, I'll get the next update sorted tomorrow

Cheers

[mitch_connor]

Here we go:

Part 3 – Spring

Mid February, saw the completion of phase 1 of the flower room. We filled the room with cuttings we were familiar with, in order to make accurate comparisons to what we had seen and were used to in England, where both of our set-ups were dialled in. We also grew out some new plants from seed, some crosses that I was itching to test out, but hadn't the space/time previously.

Anyone who has built a room from scratch, or even just moved to another area to grow, knows how much of a nervy time it can be, and the process to get an environment dialled in, and wrinkles ironed out begins.

We were confident in the quality of our build, the materials we used, and the theory and concise planning that went into it, but until you flick that switch and observe you can never be 100%.

Despite general teething problems as noted in Part 2, all in all, we had a productive time in the tents over Autumn and Winter.

Also, as we are growing for seed and not sensi, growing many strains is no easy task, to see them all flourish, but it's a must when sorting through a mountain of seeds, and is definitely worthwhile to uncover some real beauties.

One bonus to growing for seed = A lot of nice kief


It does take several hundred plants to spot those illusive diamonds sparkling in the rough (relatively speaking here of course, everything we dedicate space and time to is top notch, but I'm just extra fussy).

After what felt like a never ending Winter, we were being teased by the Sun, there was a day in late February that had the smell of Spring in the air, flowers were emerging, the sun getting a little higher and out for longer each day. I actually got my only sunburn of the year back in early March.

However, as our luck would have it, this happened to be (I was informed) the wettest and coldest Spring here since the 1890's I believe, but it wasn't so bad for us, England was having snow drifts in March, and a whole shit storm of problems because of it.

I must admit, it's a slightly evil pleasure of ours, and a very British obsession to check the weather between our home city and Spain.

Back to the flowering room, we flipped our girls in to flower in the 3rd week of Feb, to encounter a problem... we had added several new circuits to the basement and divided the spaces up. The tent room was on it's own circuit, the flower room was split into 2 circuits, one per side, and lastly we have a general basement circuit for fans, tools and miscellaneous electrical items.
In theory this should have been all good. But we were experiencing voltage drops. We opted for adjustable ballasts, and whilst everything would hold on 400w per light, when making the switch up to 600w or 'super lumens' certain lights would flicker or turn off, to turn back on after a reset, or one fan would be off whilst the other would be on full power no problems.
In the winter we had gathered all items inside the house, and noted down the watts/amps of each, and step by step turned them on until we found where the cut off point was for the circuits tripping.
We had carried out some remedial electrical work which cured the problems inside the house before the expansion and turn on of the flower room.
We after some head-scratching and a lot of research, we got down the bare bones of it. We have 3 phase power, however the way it was previously configured, everything was running from one of those phases. Now each circuit is tied to a different phase, so we have 66% of our total power left to play with!
So during week two, as the initial stress had settled down, and the weather was becoming fairer, we set our attention to outdoor preparation to capitalise on the Sunshine Spain has to offer.

A new friend popped in to check the progress – Jorge Cervantes.


Our property is one hectare+, however due to us being in the mountains, much of the land is well, mountainous, hence without heavy plant machinery, at present there are only a few areas we can safely exploit and utilise.
There was one spot we had originally had in mind, a clearing deep in the woods that was flat, and just the right balance between accessible and stealthy.
One problem was at that time it was heavily shaded by some big trees.
We first downloaded some apps to check the path of the sun and how it would affect that area later on in the year, then with a tape measure, a pen and pad, and later some 3d CAD design work (Uni did have some benefits afterall) we put together a plan.
We costed up the price for the greenhouses, and once OK'd the next item on the shopping list was a chainsaw.
So, 2 boys, 1 4x4, 1 chainsaw, 1 Rope, 1 Axe, 2 shovels and we got to work.

STAGE 1:
This meant A LOT of hard graft, felling some big big trees in order to open up the area ( don't worry, we didn't set about willy nilly with a chainsaw hacking down everything in sight). We tackled the area strategically and thoughtfully, taking only what needed to be taken, whilst leaving what did not. My hat goes of to any lumberjacks out there, it's punishing work!



With the area now less shaded, we set about excavating some banks surrounding the clearing in order to free-up extra precious square footage and then levelling areas by hand. We could build greenhouses, to which we have 4 now, with another one planned for that site.
There are secondary sites to further investigate and begin to plan and expand our outdoor adventures next year.

Here's a picture to give you guys a better idea.


After construction of the G'houses was complete, we concentrated on getting power up to them, the distribution and conservation of our water resources, and implementing methods to save labour. Efficiency is key to a smooth OP no doubt.

I will get on to the next instalment soon!
Cheers, Mitch