Home Improvised Polyploid Induction HIPI

Golosa is supposed to have high resistance to mold and pests. This year, I was annoyed by spider mites. Golosa is almost perfect. The additional quality that I want is strong irrigation tolerance. There is a new cannabis technique that make polyploid plant. All well and good. I read that a feature of polyploid plant is having large water venting holes underneath the leaves. This could make plants do better in humid climate. Then I may be able to have a version of cannabis strain that is potent, has very strong resistance, and can take high humidity. And I bought extra amount of Golosa to play with. Let’s start with eight seeds and see if I can get at least one to be polyploid. This week is about germinating seeds. Once seedlings got started, I’ll attempt to make polyploid by copying what people say on the internet. List of the stuff I used for germination: Antiseptic hydrogen peroxide to speed up germination during the first day. Flat facial cleaning cotton pad for rooting. I like cotton pad better than paper towel. Small food keeping boxes with lid for cotton pad step. Medium size food keeping boxes with lid for handling of plant container to cook and germinating soil before use. Don’t use box for garden soil to store food in the fridge. Pumice, earth worm casting, peat moss. Mycorrhiza as always. Must have for germinating and cloning. 2 inch by 2 inch cactus container, 8 pieces Seaweed extract to promote root. Wasabi hormone (brassinolide) to promote root. Highly effective when use together with seaweed/BAP or root promoter auxin/IAA/NAA. Clean cup and drinking water for plant. Germination day 1 Saturday October 9th Soaked 8 seeds in dilute hydrogen peroxide solution. One part hydrogen peroxide (3% solution) with four-parts of lukewarm water. Five out of eight seeds cracked. The other three swollen up nicely. Germination day 2 There are two seeds with smaller crooked roots. And one seed was a dud. I put all seeds on flat cotton pads. And I added magic juices to speed them on their way. The juice is made with wasabi steriod (brasinolide 0.1 ppm and seed weed (BAP). And I made a sandwich out of dripping pads. As it is, cotton pads are too wet and seeds can’t breathe. To make the pad moist and not wet, I put dry pads on the bottom to absorb excess water. And one other pad on top of the sandwich. I was careful to arrange seeds so they point in same direction. Normally, the side of white spot is up direction. And the pointy side with root tip point down. Then I tilt the container so root would be pointing down toward gravity. I believe that tilting it this way encourage root to grow straight down. And this would help later when I have to place seeds in the soil. Crooked roots can get damage easier. After 24hours, I was surprised to see roots comes out at about 4 mm long on six seeds. Wasabi hormone sure make a big difference in speed. Treated seedlings with wasabi hormone grow like they were on, well, steroid. The dud seed still does not show sign of growth. Germination day 3 Then I mix components into seedling soi in a clean plastic container. The “soil” is actually 1 part peat moss, 1 part earth worm casting, 1 part small (number 0) pumice, 1 part water. Then I microwave the mix to kill off germs. Let cool. Wash my hands really well. And then mix in mycorrhizae sand. I put soil in 2-inch by 2-inch containers. And as gentle as I can get, (I am not very gentle), I placed seedlings in the potting containers. Than the seedling containers were kept in plastic food box transparent lid. It is the same container that I used to mix the soil. And I washed my hands and container well. Cleanliness is important for expensive seeds. Within a day, six seedlings sprang out of the ground. One stilt not showing green stuff. I should always use this wasabi hormone. Now I think I have enough starting seedlings to get at least one polyploid and at least one normal plant. No watering yet. Germination day 4 / True leaves are shown on five seeds. One still has only cotyledon. One still had not come up. Germination day 5 / Thursday October 14 / Finished germination. True leaves are shown on six seedlings out of eight seeds. One was a dud. And other one may show true leave later but moy not be useable. I am not counting this seed. This weekend, I shall try to induce polyploid.