Week 22 of our painful result on the mothers. Reveg. Is full on and the plants are all trying desperately to figure out how to flower again. A couple days ago I was resolved to the fact that this cycle of mothers was not going to be anywhere near our acceptable standards for a high quality bud harvest. We lamented and cried a little…. Then we got ridiculously high to numb the pain…. And then I had a brilliant thought! The whole purpose has been to pollinate clones this whole time. Now that our stable of clones are well into rooting and reveg. We can simply use the mothers for breeding instead and salvage a harvest of high quality buds with the clones! It’s not an ideal situation and will result in less smokable buds but that said (and as per the outdoor photos), quantity won’t be a problem this year as usual😉. I figure a week or two to see what happens with em and we’ll commence the sperm spray😎. We’ve also taken some additional steps and commenced with impregnating the Spliff strawberry on a couple of select branches. This plant is proving a beauty as expected - even despite a little fasciation she’s a monster🤩🤩. Method - we placed some pollen into a brown paper bag (both some SOG in one and some 707 in another. - we marked 2 branches with zip ties to keep track of which pollen is where. - we wrapped the branches in each bag and twisty tied it closed to the stem base for about 12 hours. - after remove the bags and to prevent further pollination on the rest of the plant we sprayed down the pollinated branches and then the entire plant with a light mist of water. When ur outdoors this isn’t perfect science and there will be some additional seed that pops out elsewhere. Regardless, it’s a guarantee the 707 is viable but I’m none too sure about the Skywalker stuff. It may have been subjected to moisture while in storage and could be inert at this point. No telln for a few weeks🤞. The dutchy system, despite significant time to set up has been better than expected - all the plants are happy, added a Skywalker clone to the mix for flowering as well. They seem to be taking to the Druid nutes just fine. Great system and she’s pretty much on cruise control right now👌. All told - the pollen chuck is not yet a complete failure. We’re definitely gonna have some cross beans - they only question that remains is how many different strains. Thanks again for hanging with the longest grow ever👍👊. Background/Repetitive Nonsense These plants will be the two mothers this growing season that will be utilized for stage 2 of the pollen chucking project. We’ll be taking clones and stressing the genetics for some fem. pollen using colloidal silver. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with landrace genetics, we’re effectively skipping initial hybrid crossing and stabilization, going straight to the polyhybrid mix. I call it the shotgun approach to selective, unvetted and amateur breeding on a micro scale😉. These 2 parent strains will form the basis for 8-10 different F1 polyhybrid combinations and a further S1 back cross of each of the mothers. Not only should we be able to preserve the genetics for both mothers in feminized form but we’ll also be running an entire family of new hybrids after seeding out clones from each on the initial lineup of this summers photoperiods. Method is pretty simple here; once we’ve got our pollen off the two mothers we’ll be clipp’n clones on 4 select strains that have proven results from various respected breeders. We’ll be using those for pollination purposes in what is expected to be a 10 plant recirculating Dutch bucket hydro system. ***Update*** The feminization process didn’t take at all with the strawberry or the Skywalker so it’ll be reg. Seed crosses with only Skywalker and some other 707 Headband that we have in the vault. ********* Strain details: Parent strains for self pollination - Skywalker Kush by Reserva Privada Classic kush effects and earthy aroma. The strong kush element of this cultivar will compliment any cross. - Spliffs Strawberry by Spliff Seeds Incredible mix of flavourful terpenes and hard hitting high THC. She’s got some Herer as well as some Diesel in ‘er so an obvious choice for any cross as well. ***UPDATE*** The strawberry had to come out of this breeding run to wait for a better mother that hasn’t been attacked by aphids. It’s been a tough battle this season and we’ve had to make a couple of heartbreaking sacrifices already. Parent Strains for cross pollination ***UPDATE*** We added another 2 strains to the mix just in case we need to spot swap for some more variety. - Ghost Train by AMS Seeds A cross of Alien OG x Ghost Train Haze. Never tried the strain but I’ve heard only good things. This one might be worth mixing with the Strawberry so we’ll see how it goes. ***UPDATE*** Sadly - the ghost train turned out to be an auto so cloning her out as part of the breeding project is a no-go. Really disappointed about this but at least we still have a ready backup strain on the lost coast og to take her place. - Boogie Nights by AMS Seeds A cross of Kalijah, aka afghani/skunk/diesel/blue heaven X Juanita, aka NYC Diesel/Reina Madre). No idea here so naturally I’m interested😉. ************** - Lost Coast OG by Emerald Triangle Pakistani Kush x Lemon Thai x Chemdawg #4. Essentially a classic, west coast combo of landrace kush genetics that Cali is famous for, mixed with hard hitting Chemdawg #4. ***UPDATE*** The Lost Coast is a winner of a plant. Still outdoors and in veg. Looks like it’s recovered from the aphid attack. Might consider trying to take another cut of this and just rooting it in a pot for pollination. At this point, what the hell and if we could salvage anything it would be a positive. ***** - Spliffs Blueberry by Spliff Seeds (Chocolate Thai x Afghani #1 x Highland Oaxaca) x Northern Lighhts Special. Only 1 bean of this left and the whole purpose is to blend the best of Spliffs Berry strains as a tribute. Awesome breeder and they’ve been very kind to us over the years. - Northern Light by Royal Queen Seeds NL means nuff said. A combo of 11 unknown strains believed to originate from the west coast of North America. This cultivar is a great take on these classic genetics and a perfect compliment to just about any cross. A biased fave of ours.👍 - White Widow by Seedsman Brazilian Sativa x South Indian Indica. This classic strain has been unluckily elusive for us the last couple years. We know the quality of seedsmans version of this cultivar having grown it in the past. Sadly, a very strong performer that never made it to harvest due to an uncontrollable aphid infestation. And we’re only at step 1.... still gonna need an assist with pheno hunting all of the crosses so if anyone’s interested in running the testers (when we finally get to that point) just let me know👍😎. Gonna be a Dope ass summer project and can’t wait to see it in full swing🤟. Thanks for stopp’n in y’all👊