The Garden 2026-1A - MSNL Fem Breeding

00110001001001111O Okay, this is the first of two feminized breeding cycles for 2026. I've got 2 MSNL Kush Mints, 2 MSNL Animal Mints and 2 Mountaintop Mints from HSC. All clones were potted up 'today.' I'm giving the seedling 2-3 more days before following suit. It won't be the pollen donator, so this is tenable. Five days from now I'll select the pollen donator based on plants currently growing in "The Garden 2026-1" diaries. A 2 mM solution of Silver Thiosulfate ("STS") is applied to start flower and then two more applications at FD5 and FD10. The exact plant is not chosen yet, and it will amount to a guess as the 2026-1 crop will only be ~30 days into flower by the time the donator has to be chosen. The pollen-receivers will head to breeding area seven days later. Every receiver will be pruned down to 2-4 primary colas. The resulting 30-40g plants will predictably produce 1000+ seed, each. ------------------- Why am I doing it in a backward way? The logistics of maintaining several cloned plants for several months to see outcome of flower, then another 10 weeks to breed them is not a cost or time-sink that I am willing to endure. So, the selection of plants is more of a guess than it should be. Why do some people have inconsistent results? First, colloidal silver sucks. Silver thiosulfate is dependable by comparison when done right. In my experience, the main reason for poor outcomes is overdosing them with STS. Full conversion to male pollen sacs is not the goal. Viable pollen is the goal. You'll have better results without full conversion, in my experience. A thousand or more seed per plant is a reasonable expectation when done correctly. Use distilled water. Use a "milligram" scale (.001g resolution with +/- .003 error) or make a large enough batch relative to your scale's resolution. The latter will waste a lot of STS, if only applying to 1 small plant, but at least it'll be an accurate 2mM concentration. How much STS per plant? Three applications is about 100-150mL for a small plant as described. I'm being quite wasteful to ensure the whole surface of plant gets wet. I've got a 100mL spray bottle and typically have to add a little more after 2 applications. Larger plants will obvioulsy need more. The smallest batch a 'milligram" scale can produce accurately is ~250mL. Even with that i am throwing out about half. Might be able to make 125mL batch, but also might be quit difficult mixing up the individual solutions given the tiny amount of water needed at that point for the first few steps. Some example batches/math are outlined in the "STS Instructions" file. I bought 10g of silver nitrate a handful of years ago. It'll bee a decade or more before i use it all up == 26USD of silver nitrate and sodium thiosulfate off of ebay will make several gallons of STS. A 5g pack of silver nitrate would last years, too. ----------------- Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GvDcurah5FpjZaBuJQSKtsyIP3ZFNNS0 If you want to make your own feminized seed, don't buy that overpriced nonsense STS. For the same cost you can make your own and have liters to use over the coming years for the price of 1 marijuana-branded package of STS. Follow the URL to a shared google drive. Click on "STS Instructions." You may download it, but you may not edit it. Don't pay a 5,000% premium to these unscrupulous characters. "Sigma Aldritch" is now "Millipore Aldritch" or some shit like that, so the referenced link to the original STS recipe my instructions are based upon may not work, but a google search will get you there if you want to verify the information. That recipe requires a 9:1 dilution, which is explained in my text file. Three Ingredients: Distilled water Silver Nitrate - 2? usd/gram, ebay anhydrous Sodium Thiosulfate - Cheap, ebay (need 50% more, if not 'anhydrous') When mixed this stuff has a short shelf life. These marijuana branded STS concoctions often are out of date or otherwise poorly made. Make it yourself. Follow the simple instructions. Dry chemicals can last decades. The intermediary solutions have a 6-month shelf life and STS has about a 1-month shelf life.

00110001001001111O It has been 5 days since the transplant. Schedule is tight if I want to complete 2 breeding cycles before heat and humidity rise, so the pollen dontor is now on 12/12 and liberally sprayed with a ~2mM concentration of STS on the first 12/12 cycle. I'll wait 30minutes or so for that moisture to absorb and place it back under the lights. I use a little cardboard and some plastic as a back guard to keep the STS from staining or contaminating anything else. STS applications will occor on FD0 , FD5, and FD10. After it absorbs into the plant, I'll put it back under the light. I make sure that it never drips or touches the other plants. I don't even want the STS on my drain table. If it gets near other plants, there's a chance of pollen from a 2nd plant and that would not be optimal. While the STS-related pollen is safe, the plant itself is now poisonous for human use. Once the pollen-receivers are well-pollinated, the pollen-donator plant will be thrown out. There is nothing of use from the pollen-donator plant beyond the pollen at this point. The pollen-donator gets a 7-day head start. I'll start counting flower phase days ("FD") once they enter. Will get pollen FD 18-25ish, though you really don't need to try that hard or need that many days of peppering to get 1000+ seeds. Everything should be ripe enough by FD55-60. That will give at least 5+ weeks from initial pollination. The plants are a bit less than healthy, but I am on a schedule. When i topped them, I kept 2 pair of branches up near the top instead of cutting them down shorter. This growth is healthier and there's plenty of vertical space given 1-gallon pot limitations on plant size. New growth has been fine, so I am not worried. The plants are healthier than they look. The pollen-receivers have an addition 7 days of vege and may need another minor pruning to keep everything level and at a smaller size. Mountaintop Mint (HSC) crossed with: Kush Mints #1 - really like this pheno from smell to structure. Kush Mints #3 Animal Mints #2 Mountaintop Mint - new seed planted for breeding, so no idea on the traits. Kush Mints #1 had a nice fruity / minty smell the other day, but the aromas are different every day. The mountaintop mint has maintained a bit more of a minty smell, which is what I am targetting, but has a good amount of deisel/fuel, too. So, i went with the stinkiest option despite the growth pattern. I don't like its structure, but when I bread lanky plants lke that before (inhouse genetics), none of the offspring have displayed that growth pattern, so I have a suspicion it's caused by inbreeding, and that offspring has been the best breeding outcome of anything I've done so far. Amazing plants almost evey time. Consistently the best of any crop when they are included. If i had more time, I would have probably chosen a couple different plants out of the 8, but splitting hairs over a small sample of plants is useless. The genetic pairing can result in a wild range of results, so it's tough regardless to get an excellent result even with 2 outwardly 'perfect' parents. That's why i have a few tagalongs regardless of which I think are the best plants by the eye. My best outcome was two plants I whimsically bred and all my attempts with greater focus have fallen short of that outcome, LOL. So, I'm not so picky about it at this point. I try to pick plants with good structure and good aroma and call it a day after that. ------------------ This requires weighing out .085g of silver nitrate. The scale is +/- .005. So, that 2mM has about a 6% error, which should not be consequential. It sure is fun trying to mix .085g into 5mL of distilled water. I need to buy tiny little opaque plastic containers in the future. This .085g of silver nitrate makes 250mL solution. 5g / .085 = 58 whole 250mL batches. So, 10 USD of silver nitrate cam make 58 batches of 250mL, or 14.5 Liters. Compare that to those pre-made STS solutions that may or may not be LONG past their shelf life. If you can follow basic instructions, never overpay for STS. Make your own. I will also throw out a good portion of this 250mL batch - probably more than half if i wasn't so liberal spraying since i can afford to waste some. I could store it for a couple months and re-use but it will absolutely lose some concentration. Since it's so cheap and easy to make, I'd rather just make a new batch at that time. I tested storage last year, and results were fine, though, for future reference. I use tiny plants, so it only takes about 80-100 mL in total for 3 STS applications while being somewhat wasteful. This 250mL would stil be enough for a much larger plant, not that you would need a larger plant. I shoot for ~40g dry final outcome, give or take and that will provide 1000 or more seeds. Regardless, it is kept in darkness and in the fridge. The volume that doesn't fit in my opaque spray bottle is covered up in aluminum foil to block light while it sits in fridge.

00110001001001111O Total flower nights: 0 Plants included: Kush Mints #1 and #3 phenos, Animal Mints #2, Mountaintop Mint clone (donor) and a Mountaintop Mint (new from seed) Alrighty, flower phase is starting today for the pollen receivers. The pollen-donor plant is 7 days deep into flower and showing its sex already. One more STS application in 3 days. All the receivers were pruned down to 3 branches over 2 waves of effort. May need to prune down to 2 branches and remove a leaf or two to avoid touching the STS-applied plant. These plants got a bit bigger than intended, but can always prune them down to size. Donor is looking a bit rough, but that can happen. The important aspect is that it's adding plant mass just fine. Usually STS doesn't make a physical impact, but I'm not surprised this plant is more impacted than normal. I think it's been inbred too much to be a robust plant. Overall, generally content. I don't put much effort into this. I don't need supremely healthy plants. I just need 'healthy' plants. So, climate isn't controlled. It's a bit dry and on the colder side. Max yield is of no concern. Even as is, I expect 1000+ seeds each from all four receivers. I'd be happy with a hundred or so, but it's hard to grow them that small. Whenever the bulk of pollen sacks open, the donor will be removed 2-3 days after that. I err on safe side and pepper the plants for 2-3 days. Want instructions for STS? Google "millipore aldritch silver thiosulfate tissue protocol" -- If the instructions result in a 20mM concentration, that's the one. This need to be diluted down to 2-3mM - use basic algebra. The ingredients are easily bought off ebay. Don't give some greedy marijuana brand with 10,000% margin your money. This is a 2 step process... dissolve and mix. A double-replacement reaction does the rest.

00110001001001111O Total Flower Nights Pollen donator - 14 Pollen receivers - 7 She's got balls. Mission accomplished. Full conversion is not a concern, though there are a few more female bits than normal. I doubt it'll be an issue and not far off from normal. If the outcome is sparse, then I'll shoot for 2.5 mM concentration next time. I intend to re-use the same STS even though it's a bit too long to store it. Worked fine last year. I'll do 4 applications, if i want more to absorb. Probably won't see weekly updates on this diary. I'll post an update when I pepper the plants in 7-10 days, leading into flower, and harvest. Three more updates is enough to document the process. Yield and beauty aren't too much of a concern. Zero climate control in use beside house furnace, which makes it dry AF. 35-40% RH / 70-72F.