[Otishertz]

Crossing Snowtracks

Plant breeding is easy. You don't need a college degree. Just several years. Human beings have been doing it since before everything. While not impossible to breed plants within the restrictions of the OMMP, it is a lot harder. Because of the random nature of gene frequency, proper cross tests to lock down genotypes are not as reliable with plant counts under 100. Counts need to be closer to several thousand.


The small counts, nonsensical height restrictions, and use of only free plants make outcomes the sum of luck and coincidence. This is what I like about it. I am breeding Snowtracks with plants and seeds given to me for free using my small OMMP plant counts. These plants came from a place and time that has already come and gone. Their gene pool is small, high quality, and the direct result of sharing and two years of charity. Not one dollar has been exchanged for any of these plants.


Snowtracks, AKA Beloved, was the first plant I touched in Oregon. It came from a MAMA clone class taken right after I got my card. Found out right away it was an unstable plant and stopped passing it around but kept growing it for the deliciously illicit feminine scent and mind expanding, energizing high. One bud bomb recipient wrote to me calling it, "The Truth," which fit. AT called it "The original one hit wonder."


This is the go to plant when it is time to get the creative juices flowing. I did 1400 edits on a 10,000 word business plan during my first read in about six or seven hours smoking Beloved. A friend said he could finish his novel on it. Others confirmed this type of effect which made it worth preserving.


ST has a fairly purple stem and unique blue pewter metallic color under leaves of nearly finished plants. This color is best picked up with a bright white LED light.  Beloved ST is indica / afghani according to MAMA. I also heard it was part Trainwreck, a sativa with known hermie tendencies. I don't have the full story. She is Beloved so no matter the story.


Since Beloved is unstable I can't count on her staying in circulation. Unstable cannabis plants switch sexes and pollinate crops, ruining them with seeds. Cannabis plants have distinct sexes which is fairly unique among plants.  Usually a male plant is needed for pollination. However, cannabis females can go hermaphrodite (hermie) and pop out male flowers (called bananas) as a survival mechanism in times of stress. When a grower refers to a room full of girls he means exactly that. In Spanish Sensimilla (sin semilla) literally means without seeds.


Breeding a female hermie into a female or itself carries forward the undesirable hermie trait while producing all female seeds. If Mommy girl and Daddy girl, baby reefer will also be girl.  These seeds are commonly called "feminized" or Dutch. It is inferior breeding but sometimes it is the only way to preserve genetics.


I tried not to miss an opportunity to catch snowtracks genetics because this plant was special and who knew when luck would run out. I felt I should get snowtracks on anything that passed through and get some seeds. I put a Blackberry Kush next to a hermie ST to catch pollen thinking BBK is so female and ST is so gender bender that their offspring might be more stable. Another justification was suspicion that the herming in my cut of ST might be due a virus contracted as a clone class mother plant that was cut with unclean scissors from people who brought their own snips. A seed would be virus free.


The hermie breeding attempt was almost totally unsuccessful. I had been plucking ST bananas but left some flowers to develop, thinking they would make enough seeds. I found almost no seeds. The air flow in the tent must have been so high that the pollen was slurped into the filter instead of landing on the BBK. This gives some indication of the relative severity of the herming on ST. I bombed the BBK plant asking people to return the seeds. I got back two. One of those popped and was bigger than everything, smelled good, then hermed massively. Later selfed seeds I popped all acted like they were going to herm.

The attempted Snowtracks hyperhump. ST in back, BBK in front.

This same crop of Snowtracks won first place at 2010 OGF Harvest Festival. At least one judge noticed bananas and came up to ask me about them. Eventually I was given good seeds by Hunter812 in appreciation of a BBK clone I sent him. These seeds ultimately provided the best male plants to cross into snowtracks and get the hermie tendency out of beloved. I split the seeds with Albuddy who delivered the clone. I later split the seeds again with Mrider. After that I had only a few seeds left. Other males in the first cross were Space Bomb from TGA seeds through Kareem, Mazar from Jim Khlar through Mrider. The cream of the crop was Deep Chunk, LSD, and a Dynamite/Ogerkush f2 all from Hunter812.

Males being riskily sorted. They were then re-vegged in 16 oz cups while I worked my plan into rotation.

Males in cups next to Beloved.

I bred the five males simultaneously on one big Beloved. I bended and staked Beloved into five branches, cracking one of the branches wide open in the process. Used Mac's silicone earplugs from my gym bag to plug the gaping hole so that the branch could drink and it worked. The patch is below the cup attached to the center stalk.

This ST ran maybe ten weeks, much longer than any other, so that the seeds could fully develop. Once she was pollinated the hermie flowers ended. I bloomed several other plants next to the pollinated Beloved and produced no seeds on the other plants. This led me suspect preventative pollination may be a way to safely crop Snowtracks while continuing breeding. Also think a plant must be bloomed twice without pollination in order to be considered non hermie.

I timed it so the male flowers would be as close as possible to popping. If I had more room I could have bloomed the males and collected their pollen, painted it on ST, then covered just those areas for a few days. My concern was keeping the pollen and everything related to this in one tent since the others were full. The plan was to segregate under the bags for a week and keep them sealed to prevent pollen from traveling to other branches.


As expected, this approach slowed down the growth of all the plants involved. The growth slowed so much it took forever for the males to spread pollen. I blasted the plants with my bike tire co2 inflator and they liked that. Afterward I blew in each bag once a night with a straw being careful to wait in between each bag. This went on for two damn weeks before I was sure most bags had pollinated their branches.

Who knows how strong that 10 week crop would have been. I ground out all the seeds and threw away all the buds. The mother Beloved had been spayed with Procure deep in flower to protect the other plants from PM induced by the humidity from my my hi tecknology plastic bag and bike tire co2 breedin' methid. Didn't want to take a chance on smoking it. Broke my heart tossing half a grocery bag of Snowtracks in a dumpster - but she lives on!



Beloved growing her seeds past week nine.

Space Bomb didn't take. The others did well enough. Here are the seeds I have, minus the ones I popped.

[Otishertz]

While I was building this website in January a plant apocalypse occurred. Everything died. Even Snowtracks.


The water in Portland suddenly became very alkaline. Meaning, the alkalinity in addition to the pH was off the charts and required much more acid to control pH than usual. Normally I used 10 ml of either pH up or down but the January water suddenly required 600ml or three quarters of a bottle of pH minus. I needed stronger acid and bought ascorbic and citric acid at a chemical supply store. Filled out a homeland security form, got photocopied. Still took unnatural amounts of acid to bring the water in line. It was so bad that I found food grade muriatic acid.


I didn't believe my instruments. Before trying the muriatic acid I bought calibration solution and set my gauge. then I bought a new pH meter to check the old one. I put maybe 30 ml of HCl into four gallons of water. I got a normal pH. I tested the water for 90 minutes with no change then put it in the reservoir. The next day I smelled the chlorine that had been liberated from the hydrochloric acid. Tested the res. The HCl burned through the alkalinity and turned the res to acid. The roots were scorched. I pounded the floor.


I flushed, added tea to heal the roots, raised the pH, everything I could think to do. Roots were destroyed. Scalded by acid. Burned to death. My garden died slowly like cut flowers. As they died my skin broke out in an itchy sympathetic rash, head to toe, all over and up my neck. Went to the doctor. They checked my blood pressure, pulse, gave a psychological screening and said WTF. Gave me some ointment. I stayed inside.


A grower couple who are friends of mine had a similar problem with a similar rash in a different part of town at a different time of year. I have no explanation. The water company said they were introducing well water at that time. I reviewed all my actions, precautions, and redundant tests. The water was fuct. You can't grow without stable water.


Looking back I wish I had taken cuttings and zipbagged them in the fridge. I was too distraught to think straight. These were my pets. The plants were screaming out of my skin. I was Freaked. If only I had taken cuttings when I became aware of of the problem. Almost everything was lost. I tried to just stop growing. It is a lot of work and expense when the only return is risk to my freedom. Couldn't stop.


Took this unfortunate situation as direction from the universe. Let it lead into the seeds. The rash cleared when the seeds popped. I told Snowtracks she would live forever in those seeds.  Luckily there was some Chad's in the fridge and I was able to clone the Alaskan and Vortex from essentially nothing. Bmonee came through with a BBK cut that is tremendous.


That picture below was all that was left. The entire Otis garden reduced to one snapshot. The seeds were popped on 2-10-11.

The Entire Otis Garden 2-16-11

A lot of plants have come through here since. The pictures have dates. Some below are from before 2-16-11. I took many pictures but one crop somehow escaped detection by my camera. I think you will agree it was a lot of plants. Enough to keep three cards in supply, do a donation of 130 jars, lay in my supply for winter, make butane honey oil, donate several dozen clones, and cross all the winning strains that remained from my two years doing this. The highly productive methods I used are outlined here:


http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=74.0

[Otishertz]

Oregon allows each patient cardholder an allotment of 24 ounces of usable medicine and 24 plants, 6 of which can be in flower or over 12 inches. I teamed up with three other patients to combine allotments for a total of four cards including mine. This allows my garden to have 6 pounds of usable medicine and 96 plants, 24 can be in bloom or over 12 inches.


The 12 inch rule is totally arbitrary and unrelated to cannabis horticulture. Marijuana wants to stretch upon reaching 12". Pot can jump a couple inches overnight. Plants must be hobbled to remain in compliance. Perpetual crops are continual work if you want to stay legal. On the other hand, outdoor gardeners can grow plants as large as they wish as long as their counts are correct for the number of patients assigned to their garden. I have friends who grow several dozen outdoor plants every Summer that are each over 20 feet tall.


The development of Oregon genetics is hindered by the 12 inch rule and low plant counts for breeding. Even at 96 plants the legal counts are too small to lock down traits in any reasonable amount of time. Thousands of plants are needed because dominant and recessive traits are determined through observation. Such observation is only valid with a large sample size that overcomes random chance.


Oregon is a gardener's paradise where any strain can be obtained based on reputation alone and the whole of the law essentially is "Share". Everything I have done with this plant has been through sharing. I have never paid for any plant or seed. They all came to me. I have never sold even a gram of pot. I wait for the day I can.


My goal has been to freeze this moment in seeds by crossing the keepers in my garden. Considerable selection occurred as a result of the bud bombs, harvest fest trophies, gifts, friendships, and my work. The breeding is mostly the sum of serendipity. Snowtracks was the first plant I touched in Oregon, won First Place, and is the root of all this breeding.

Transplanting Seedlings 3-4-11

Progress 3-12-11

Progress 3-27-11

Clones of apical cuts from plants above. 3-27-11

Progress 3-30-11

Clones Cooking 3-30-11

Sorting Males and Females 4-2-11

Rooted Clones 4-2-11

[Otishertz]

Around 42 Snowtracks cross seeds from the original crosses were popped. Accidentally culled down to 31 early on with a batch of tea that had maybe too much humic acid. This may have helped selection by eliminating those with slow root development. Culled again to 27 by observation of vigor. Among those, 13 were male, 14 female. That was a relief because it showed that Snowtracks was pollinated by me and not herself as hermaphroditic seeds would have been all female, skewing the ratio. Furthermore, the seeds exhibited different traits so it was more likely that I hadn't cross pollinated with my Hi Tek Breedin' Methid. Deep Chunk crosses looked like Deep Chunk, a decidedly goofy looking plant that is used by breeders for its stable indica genetics.


At this point the seeds are being selected with my eyes and nose. Most all these crosses are part Snowtracks. Some are Vortex crosses with no Snowtracks. DNA tests are available for true identification in the future. If any clone becomes popular any cross pollination would turn up then. I was ridiculously fastidious about keeping my pollen contained and segregated. Even took showers between watering each tent. Still, there probably was at least some wandering pollen.

Short with long arms and fat hands, Deep Chunk is apparently also called Monkey Balls

One recurring thing about my garden has been serendipity from the very beginning. Parts of this story can only be told later for security but suffice it to say a chain reaction of luck seduced me repeatedly with a cascade of uncommon coincidences that flowed once the charity began. I was determined to let it all unfold as it would, let luck sort it out, take direction as it was offered and work with whatever I had.


As mentioned already, I donated a clone of Blackberry Kush to Hunter812, a guy I never met who was having a hard time getting a cut of that strain. He gave me most of the seeds for the first males I crossed into Snowtracks. To get Hunter's seeds at that point in time was tremendous good fortune. He turned out to be a cup winning grower with good genetics. The strong genetics improved snowtracks and have some recognition in the pot world.


I split those seeds with Albuddy for carrying my clones to Hunter812. I then split my half with Mrider. Didn't have too many left. Makes lucking out even better. Don't know why I give everything away like that. Definitely a shortcoming in a society programmed for self interested competition. There is a kind of economy of karma that is evident in the unexplained good fortune that came my way after the more anonymous mass donations. Mine were truly free, no obligation donations to people in pain. People were moved and relieved. I have archives of emails. The experience strengthened me in ways that came from beyond my body.


Continuing the story of the genetics..., Mrider gave me a female Mazar-I-Sharif that turned out to be male, blowing three plants up with seeds. Shit happens. He got his seed from Madfingers. I used the Mazar male to breed into Snowtracks since it was male and available with fit my mantra of use what you've got. Eventually culled almost all the Mazar seeds for being weak. One Mazar cross made it through the first round of breeding with the son's of Snowtracks. Who knows? Maybe something is in there. I don't question too much about this anymore. Do wish AK-47 and Jack Herrer would have survived the January plant holocaust and made it into the mix but it is what it is.


The other genetics came from clones that I bred alongside my Snowtracks crosses. Those clones are:



Second Place Vortex bred by Subcool. Rumor has it that Vortex is really God's Pussy, an old champion. It is delicious and potent enough to numb your teeth. It is Sativa/Indica, 80/20.


Third Place Alaskan, given to me by Spaceman2. Alaskan is strong, very dense, with a nice body high and a terrific sweet smell. Nothing else known about the plant.


Blackberry Kush, clone from Bmonee. BBK in my opinion is a queen among strains. It never totally reverts to a vegetative state, grows slowly, and has stems that tend to snap. Takes skill to grow. It purples, smells like blackberries. Very strong. One of the most well known plants in the region. Everyone is breeding this plant.


Chad's Alaskan. A very different Alaskan from the one that won third place. I had no information on these plants other than they are both called Alaskan and both very good. 3rd place Alaskan from Spaceman2 is more potent. Chad's is strong enough but has a wonderful flavor that lingers some. Chad's is the best tasting smoke I ever had.


I got what caane to be called CHad's from an OGF member named Blueshadow in a New Seasons parking lot. He identified it only as Alaskan. Said it was old and good with high eyebrows and big eyes. Never saw the guy again. It was cloned in regular Oregon dirt and styrofoam pellets with a tight layer of sand on the top for gnat control. The plants were healthy when I got them. I took a picture because I was surprised to see the plants were happy.

Chad's is in the large red cup on the right.

I routinely donated Chad's clones for about four or five months. Then I broke my hand and all my plants died. KingJMS and D13108 then both wrote me to tell me what a wonderful plant it turned out to be and say thanks. I had still never bloomed it.


D13108 arranged to get it back to me and went way out of his way doing so. His was a fine teen grown well. I was so paranoid about bugs after battling gnats into the wee hours for about a week that I left the plant with Chad so I could have a breather. It stayed on his roof for about a month. That is how is came to be called Chad's. The longer it sat there the more I regretted leaving it because it was a top notch clone and by leaving it outside was likely to get it the very problems I was trying to avoid. I also kept hearing how it was so amazing.


Then things began to flower outside so I topped it and cloned the top. The first plant I grew out got wiped out by a hermie Trainwreck. It took 16 months after being given this fine plant before smoking it. It is the best tasting smoke I've had. It definitely was meant to be around.




The first crosses: Popped 2-10-11



LSD = Life Saver Diesel (m) x Snowtracks (f)
DOG = Dynamite (m) / Ogerkush (f) F2 from Hunter812 x Snowtracks (f)
MZ = Mazar  x Snowtracks (f)
DC = Deep chunk  x Snowtracks (f)


1. LSD1, male, culled
2. LSD2, female, culled - immature, small buds
3. LSD3, female, Keeper Breeder- impressive bud size, trichome production, smell
4. LSD5, female, culled small buds
5. LSD6, female, culled
6. LSD7, male, bred mutant stem growth; three symmetrical petioles and split stems. Strong odor.
7. LSD8, male, culled
8. DOG1, male, culled
9. DOG2, male, bred unique smell, invisible stealth pollen.
10. DOG3, female, culled weak.
11. DOG4, female, culled
12. DOG5, male, culled
13. DOG6, female, culled early tric formation
14. DOG7, female, Keeper Breeder - root mass
15. DOG8, female, Keeper Breeder Great smell, good tric formation
16. DOG9, female, Keeper Breeder
17. MZ1, male, culled
18. MZ2, male, culled
19. MZ3, female, culled
20. MZ4, female, Bred vs DOG2 then culled weak
21. DC1, female, Breeder Keeper, still a question mark but has some looks
22. DC2, male, culled
23. DC3, male, culled
24. DC4, male, culled
25. DC5, female, culled - weak
26. culled
27. culled

[Otishertz]

Below are the clones from the sorting picture two posts above. Seeds were visible after about a week. One of the males shot off. If I didn't know better I'd say some males pollinate by telepathy. There were only the smallest pre-flowers. There was no way to know which male was the father. Ran them for a couple weeks or so to induce stress, observe growth, trichome development and smell then culled them all. 


To induce stress and reveal hermies I used small 1.68 l pots because I suspected that being potbound was the main trigger for my hermie plants in the past (aside from unstable genes). Plants must be pruned about three times in veg to remain contained in small pots. Next crop used 2.5 l pots and they worked well being hand watered daily. They dried out, but not catastrophically. Peat helped even out the drying. Don't believe the plants in 2.5 liter pots would have survived one missed night of watering unscathed under the hot lights, though. The 2.5 l size would be well suited to twice daily automated watering in a breeding program or a "sea of green" perpetual crop of short plants.


Deliberately tried to induce "light stress" by going into the tent during dark time, leaving the light on for a couple hours during the dark cycle, and working on the plants with a high powered flashlight. Couldn't force herming, tried several times. Along with some other growers, I think that light stress is a myth. You supposedly can keep plants in veg with a consistent hour interruption of close to 12 hour dark time and burn less hours to save power. Still, causing plants to switch back and forth between veg and bloom will stress them. Being dimly illuminated by pinholes, light leaks, or even an occasional big or prolonged interruption of dark time does not seem to correspond with expression of hermaphroditic female pollen in cannabis, AKA popping bananas, after the little yellow banana shaped male flowers.

Ill Fated Females Cooking (1.68 l pots) 4-11-11 to 4-24-11

There were three other patients who I supplied for free so I could use their their legal allotment to cover my plant counts during this breeding. Lots of work keeping them supplied while blooming dozens of plants that were not for consumption and ultimately destroyed. Most of my 24 blooming plants (out of a total 96 allowed including veg under 12") were employed in this breeding project. It took about 8 or 9 bloomed plants to keep my cards supplied and do a Bud Bomb mass donation during this breeding project. Plants for consumption were grown while breeding. Don't know how many dozens I grew for breeding.



What we didn't smoke was given to OMMP cardholders for free during this Bud Bomb event on 7-29-11:

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=109.0



Never weighed anything except to compile an average jar weight for compliance and to enter the Harvest Fest. No point weighing if you are not selling. I could hold a combined 6 pounds for my cards and myself. Was no danger of hitting my weight limit. Gave it away before getting close anyway. 


Tried to take pictures of everything to illustrate the productivity of these grow methods and equipment. Most of the plants got photographed. One bloom crop and one clone crop somehow escaped my camera. However, they did leave some traces. Clones from one of the phantom crops were given away through NGF here:

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=108.0


Another unphotographed crop left its effects in the jars below. It was four small plants bloomed in coco after my plant apocalypse to keep up with our medical needs. Some Vortex and Chad's from these jars made it to the Bud Bomb.

Yes, gave it all away.

Some more illicit pictures like the above were withheld until the meds were gone and this was done. I gave away that entire 14 jar stash primarily to service my cards, maybe as much as 18-20 ounces at 40g a jar. So, what you see here is close to the allotment for one card in Oregon. Probably looks like a lot to most, and a little to some. I fear inciting animal spirits with stash porn but it is part of the story. The pictures are useful for showing what these weights really look like.


At least that much weight is needed to have enough material for medical tinctures, hash preparations, alcohol extractions, and other more healthful ways to ingest than smoking. States that only allow small amounts like New Jersey with their one ounce are just dicking people around to build precedents that make it easier for the corporate state to control future recreational use market. You can't make medicine from one ounce.

[Otishertz]

Clones Growing: 4-11-11 to 4-24-11

Gardening with a handicap. Inversion Table Overflow: 5-9-11

Clones for LSD & DOG runs: 4-29-11 to 5-26-11

The plants in the bottom picture above had been pollinating in a small tent in a spare room for isolation. The father was DOG2, a Dynamite/Ogerkush x Snowtracks cross that had a unique smell among its peers. DOG2 pollinated before I saw a mature male flower.


I popped five Vortex seeds under the inversion table. The seeds were blond and juvenile but three grew: two males and a female. The female, Vortex3, was taller and more vigorous than the 2nd place Vortex that I also grew. 2nd place had better buds. The males also had differences. One was shorter and had female hairs, the other didn't but was taller and stronger. Decided to let them compete. Goes to show you the differences that occur even in stabilized strains. The males lived with a bunch of clones under the inversion table in very limited light for a long time because they needed to wait till their girls were ready due to plant count limitations. I kept a close eye on them but any cross pollination that may was probably one of these guys.


There was a limited time to get these seeds because I had to end this labor for no pay and have some real non-pot life before Summer ends. Looking forward to things like waking up somewhere else and going out of town. I have been here every night watering these plants for two years. The one thing I am looking forward to the most is opening the windows. When my final seed crop of Snowtracks crosses is done in August I will take down the tents and open the blinds for the first time since August 09.


My plan at this point was to cross the vortex males, a mutant LSD x Snowtracks, and LSD7 against all the surviving plants in my garden. The objective was to freeze this time in seeds then leave it behind. The DOG2 seed crop was already underway. I had two options with my four cards. Since I backed up clones of all my plants I could either run the seed crops concurrently or consecutively. Running one after the other would mean missing the whole Summer and having to grow, trim and cure another crop to service the needs of my cards. However. the concurrent option would be the safest way to avoid cross pollination.


Running simultaneously had higher risk of cross pollination because the plants would have to be grown next to eachother. Doing them at the same time meant gardening at full throttle max overflow capacity, cards to the limit. Chose to rock it. I hit it hard coir to get done as soon as possible. Decision was reinforced by the fact that these seeds would be selected by smell and sight before any other type of selection and DNA tests could settle parentage of any winners. Now that I'm finished I am certain that the male plants pollinated abundantly enough that the intended strain will be predominantly as marked on the seeds, even if there is a little mixed pollen. The paler, younger seeds should breed truer to description.

First Seed Run: Dynamite Ogerkush (DOG2) x Snowtracks vs... : 6-2-11

Sorting clones from under the inversion table: 6-5-11 to 6-6-11

Transplanting clones for LSD7 and Vortex runs: 6-16-11

[Otishertz]

DOG2 run next to bloom tent with coco and soil pots: 6-19-11

DOG2 Run

1. LSD3, best overall, named Marigirl
2. DOG7
3. DOG8, good smell
4. DOG9
5. DC1
6. Blackberry Kush
7. Vortex
8. Alaskan
9. Chad's Alaskan




LSD7 Run

1. LSD3, best overall, named Marigirl
2. DOG7
3. DOG8, good smell
4. DOG9
5. DC1
6. Blackberry Kush
7. Vortex
8. Alaskan
9. Chad's Alaskan
10. Snowtracks1 (selfed seed) - culled




Vortex Run (two males)

1. LSD3, best overall, named Marigirl
2. DOG7
3. DOG8, good smell
4. DOG9
5. DC1
6. Blackberry Kush
7. Vortex (2nd place)
8. Vortex3 (from seed)
9. Alaskan
10. Chad's Alaskan
11. Snowtracks 2 (selfed seed) - culled




I popped two hermie Snowtracks seeds thinking I could get lucky but they exhibited early hermie tendencies and were stringy so they were eliminated. Among the other male/female crosses I saw no hermaphroditism. This would be expected as hermie seeds increase the tendency. Male genes should reduce it. Improving Snowtracks was the goal, in addition to preserving her.


The LSD7 male had a stem mutation of three petioles per node. That ended with onset of alternating nodes. Thereafter it had a mutation where the stem would split in a Y. I was sold on this plant because I heart mutants. Later noticed it was very phototrophic, leaning into the light faster than all the others.

LSD and Vortex Runs Vegging: 6-19-11 to 6-29-11

[Smokeyhot]

Love it like it!

[Otishertz]

Separating dried plant matter from seeds is tedious work. There are probably machines out there to mechanize the labor but at this small scale my hands work fine for the money. The process is fairly self evident from the picture below. Crush the well dried buds wearing gloves by rubbing plant matter together using fingers and palms to liberate seeds. Use a plastic card on a tilted tray to pan for seeds. Swirl separated seeds in tall plastic container to remove fine particles.


Plant material is still potent medicine and once cleaned of seeds makes a fairly good strong smoke or tincture material. Probably another myth that seeds reduce THC potency. Seeds divert plant resources from trichome production but don't appear to diminish the strength of the trichomes that are produced. Crops had about 45g seeds and 80g of crushed plant matter on the larger plants, so maybe 40% seeds by weight.

Harvesting seeds: 7/5/11

A substantial increase in seed yield was achieved in the following LSD7 and Vortex runs by blooming females for two weeks before introducing males. the extra bud formation translated into more seeds Males take five to ten days to begin pollination. As mentioned earlier, sometimes pollination will occur before any visible viable male flowers.

Seeds from DOG2 run: 7/21/11

The final late August bud crop pictured dried in jars at top went to the four patients with cards in the garden and a three club bud bomb where this medicine was given to OMMP patients first come first served for free as required by Oregon law. Most of the stickers are my art. About 20 cap designs were from a "Crushed by Otis" sticker design contest that spontaneously erupted at OGF.


http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=109.0

Bud Bomb Jars

[Otishertz]

Plants were fairly uniform in size by strain but varied in age by a range of a couple weeks. There was better air flow and more plants in the left tent. It had a slightly better average yield (3.2%) A full four cards blooming 24 plants in 50 square feet before culling three males. Total tent floor area was 75 square feet. Otis Growing methods explained here:


http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=74.0

LSD7 and Vortex Runs Blooming: 8-18-11

Bloomed 60 days. Flushed five days with RO water. Seeds had between 35 and 40 days to develop. Seed yields vs the DOG run were 16-20% higher on the LSD and Vortex runs. Attribute difference primarily to giving the girls a two week head start on the males in developing flowers. The extra trics that developed in that time have normal potency.

Drying seeds: 8-25-11 to 8-29-11

Let the plants get bone dry before harvesting seeds. Seeds need to be dry for storage. Dry plants separate seeds more easily.

Separating Seeds

It is more like separating chaff. The seeds fall away from the pulverized plant material. I made a sieve from common wire mesh that sped the work enough to make it worthwhile.

Seed Stash

Saved crushed buds of Snowtracks crosses in blue jars for smell reference. Top row is Vortex crosses. Second row is LSD. Third is DOG. I counted the 380 seeds that fell on the floor throughout harvesting and let that be my random sample. The scrambled eggs weighed 4.2 grams or 0.0110526316 average seed weight. The grand total seed weight for three runs was 902.7 grams. Works out to a rough estimate of 81,673 seeds. Wow.

Seed Weights

[Otishertz]

These were the last of my clones. I gave them all away here:

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=112.0

Last Clone Batch: 8-30-11

Before I parted with them I zipbagged cuttings in the fridge. It is a good trick to know. A video is worth a million words but in case you can't see, leave a little filtered water in the bag. The rubber band is not needed and should be left loose. Plants can be preserved this way for about a month and will clone normally. Do this if you are ever in fear of losing a desired strain. There is more on zipbagging in this post:

www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=74.msg423#msg423

Zipbagging Cuttings

Getting smelly plants out of the apartment is tricky from an apartment on a very busy downtown Portland street. The best smuggling device is an igloo cooler. They are smelly proof, insulated, and practically invisible. Bagging plants in a box works too but not as well. Smell camouflage like anti fungal foot powder or your brother's perfume helps.

Smuggling Devices

The End, for now.

[Smokeyhot]

G6 tale

[Otishertz]

Bean Bomb

I just grew 80,000 seeds but the law limits me to 24 plants maximum. OMMP patients like me cannot legally buy seeds in Oregon and breeders can't sell. Buying or sending seeds or clones through the mail is a Federal Offense. Sales are illegal. Pretty much unanimous advice in the forums is do not buy seeds.


The Oregon medical community relies on the spontaneous appearance of free clones instead. Compared to seeds it makes more sense to work from clones of tested strains for ease, reliability, uniformity and yield.  Every imaginable good clone is around Portland through friends connecting on internet forums. Who you know  influences availability. In the absence of money, reputation is currency.


OMMP cardholders legally can give each other seeds all day but not sell a one. Even reasonable trades are a legal gray area. People somehow get them anyway otherwise there would be no plants. Brand name seeds are available and swapped in Oregon among friends and networks of friends. New patients usually ask about seeds when getting their cards only to find that they aren't really available until you know someone. People still want seeds because they are useful, durable and portable. Maintaining a perpetually plugged in secret garden of clones is not necessary if you have seeds. A half teaspoon of good seeds means you can garden at any time. Keeping clones means you have to garden all the time.


Seeds are condensed forms of individual living plants. They are different from clones. Each clone is an exact copy while each seed is unique. Clones do not vary because they are all the same exact plant. Variation is found even among seeds of strains with stabilized traits. Unstabilized seeds vary more. Clones do not need to be stabilized as they are already exact copies. The possible variations created by new crosses are unknown until explored.  Any unstabilized cross can potentially produce a winning clone or classic strain that never needs stabilizing provided it is kept by enough gardeners. Broadly dispersed clones get to be all ages simultaneously by living way beyond their usual brief three to five month life span. To gain extra lives they can seduce minds even threatened by prison.  A healthy, virus free clone can maintain vigor and potency for decades, getting wiser like an immortal. 


Tens of thousands of seed plants are required to lock down traits by observation and find top shelf clones worthy of further refinement. Observations of phenotype frequency are statistically meaningful only when large sample sizes are used. Proper breeding requires plant counts be high enough for random chance to be overcome and meaningful margins of error achieved. Without luck it takes a million plants to find that one in a million plant. There is no sound botanical way to efficiently sort through 80,000 seeds 24 at a time. A different approach is needed.


Winning plants and promising phenotypes are discovered by visual observation. OMMP gardeners cannot legally attain the necessary plant counts to evaluate thousands of plants with one pair of eyes. Another way is to increase the number of eyes. Since our eyes can legally see only 24 plants at a time we can overcomes the impossibility of any individual having the plant counts needed for efficient and effective breeding by spreading the seeds around and letting selection happen spontaneously among strangers. Donating thousands of seeds might open source selection of these early crosses by enlisting thousands of eyes.


The plants in these crosses were selected by hundreds, if not thousands, of serious medical smokers in Oregon over years. OMMP patients independently identified these ones as useful, potent, fragrant, and tasty enough to have cloned and shared them. Selection occurred by word of mouth, on online forums, at OGF exchanges at Big Blue, feedback from bud bombs, and at the 2010 OGF Harvest Festival which had blind tests by 120 judges from all over Oregon. Snowtracks, Vortex, and Alaskan took first, second and third at that fest. These plants represent a snapshot of the best that were circulating near me in 2010. There is high potential for finding a medically useful plant among the seeds.


The Vortex, Alaskan, Chad's Alaskan, and Blackberry Kush mothers were cloned many times and sent around. People ask for them back when they lose them. The F1 Snowtracks crosses DC1, LSD3, DOG8, and DOG9 were selected by me and bloomed twice. DOG8, DC1, and LSD3 are already named Marla7, Rosie7, and Marigirl. Marla is sweeter, Rosie is spicier, Marigirl is just right. They are potent with fat buds. All have a hint of Snowtracks smell. They are also being bloomed right now by OGF and NGF gardeners who will say whatever they wish about them on forums. If they are good or helpful they will stick around based on their own merits. I will keep cloning them for now.


A pinch of these seeds and some selection is enough for a gardener to get self sufficient. Use these seeds to find good clones. Expect one to three keepers from popping and sorting 30 seeds. Seeds should be half male. If sexing all at once, that crop will likely get seeded. All of the seeded females will have useable meds but culling stringy ones early will give fat bud plants more room and improve overall results. Observe bud size of first crop then use for hash or tincture. If plant counts allow, plan to cull early and start over with female clones right after sexing. To have clones ready to go in May for the Summer you should pop these in December or January to allow time for observation and selection. Clone the best plants at the first pruning around 7 or eight nodes. Work off the top apical cut.


Look for early trichome production, vigor, smell, and bell shaped buds. Bloom only sexually mature plants that have begun alternating nodes. Eliminate hermaphrodites. Cannabis takes a month or two to cure and reveal its true aroma. Several people must try a strain before it can be called good but if it looks good and smells good it will probably be good. Share keepers only after blooming twice yourself. If you find a winner name it as your own. That unique plant would not exist without you. Exceptional plants will stand out over time. Back crosses can be attempted in the future if forums record the contributions, genealogy, and experiences of gardeners.


The F1 seeds (first crosses V, A, CA, BBK) should have less variation than the F2 seeds (DC1, LSD3, DOG8, DOG9) which will show more phenotypes. The Vortex F2 seeds are not available. I am throwing them away after considering the effect on the future livelihood of Subcool who gave the seeds for free to our medical community. Many people have enjoyed Vortex. Thanks to him for providing it. Subby owns Vortex on Vortex. I ran with the plants on hand. If I had waited to start growing until I knew everything I would have never grown a plant. At some point you run with the ideas already in your head. Who knows about tomorrow. 


Bombing the seeds away is a natural progression of the charity already done with these plants. The strains used in these crosses came to me for free through sharing and serendipity. No money was spent or taken for any of these seeds, plants, or buds. There are many seeds. If you are seeing this check the Bean Bomb thread to see if free seeds are still available.

Enjoy!




Bean Bomb thread here:


http://otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=115.0

[Otishertz]

Back at it.

Picture dates:
10-10-11, 10-29-11,
11-3-11, 11-3-11

These were cloned after a month in the fridge. A month is probably the outer limit for preserving clones like this. Three weeks seems to work better. On 11-3 the clones were topped and donated then the tops were zipbagged again.

Back in the fridge.

The first bean bomb was delivered on Halloween. The clones above were donated on 11-8:
http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=122.0


The second Bean bomb was on 11-28:
http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=120.0

Bean Bomb Sorting

Next batch of clones

Picture dates:
11-22-11, 12-7-11,
12-22-11, 1-10-12

The clones in the first three pictures were donated on 12-29:
http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=126.0


The bottom right picture shows clones that will be given away next week after they develop more roots. After that, I will be taking a little vacation from this.





ROck On.

[Smokeyhot]

CAN YOU SAY BEAUTIFUL

[Otishertz]

Last batch of clones.

These clones were given away on January 15.

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=133.0

[Smokeyhot]

BEA-UTIFUL!