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This is no place for your ignorant rants. Show some common courtesy and stop the personal attacks, we don't tolerate that sort of nonsense here.

I've finally done it: Opened the box for my DIY HLG LED kit and put it together. The HPS and MH lighting is now officially retired — at the 2 weeks in flower mark for the girls. I am monitoring temperatures and will likely be adding heat tomorrow. I think the temps in the tent will only be in the low 60s (about 17-18 C). This is dimmed to about 3/4 power. They are bright as fuck. (As we all know, fuck is the standard for brightness.) They got about 3 hours of this yesterday. Today will be their first full day of bright AF. Extra bonus: no more photos lit with HPS!

Bebop at 5.5 weeks. This one has a horrendous fuel/garbage/OG-chemical stench. Another is sweet berry, a third is sweet berry + mint.

Feeling a bit under the weather today but that's OK, it's because I got my first covid shot yesterday. Woke up with a nasty headache and general malaise this morning. Some Tylenol and couple vapes have me feeling better now. My better half got her shot this morning so we are feeling fortunate. I am over 65 and though she is younger than that she works as a preschool teacher so they gave her one too. Three more weeks until the booster then we will be good to go....hopefully. All is well in the grow rooms. I really enjoy going into the flower room these days, the smell is incredible and keeps building as the days go by. That wonderful aroma comes from the Hammer Heads and their cousin Hammer head x Silverfields who are 10 weeks in 12's now. An intense citrusy/glue/fuel smell hits me in the face when I walk in, wish I could attach a sample...lol. Looks like the Hammer Heads will go another week, maybe 10 days. Here's a peek... HH #2 HH #3 HH x Silverfields The Amnesia Haze x Black Domina girl has filled in nicely at the 7 week mark. She has big, hairy buds that keep getting fatter. The NYCD x Lemon Thai clone is 43 days in 12's now and she is building some nice buds. That brings us to the Critical Mass x (G13 x hasplant) x Citral girl who is 24 days in and remains surprisingly (at least to me) short and bushy. I expected a 2-3 times stretch at least but she is barely 1.5 times now. Maybe the next week will bring more vertical growth, we shall see. I took 2 cuts from each of the Phuuu's IPA fems I have vegging today. I'll let them veg a few more days and then those 2 will go to 12's. When the cuts get big enough I'll take a couple more cuts from them so you'll be seeing a lot of IPA's around here for awhile. That's about all for now. Time to find a cup of coffee and another vape. Y'all take care and stay safe.

Panama haze x Lebanese Lefthanded seeds lobe the purple also usefulseeds blackened oranges

It's the first day of week six, so it's time for an update. Here's the whole gang. I've found that I still have a low-level thrip problem. I hammered them with both pyrethrins and Nuke 'Em, as seedlings/young plants and that seemed to have done it, but I noticed the tell-tale signs on a lower leaf and there they were. So the lower parts of all plants got hit with Nuke 'Em, which isn't actually recommended for thrips, but it seems to kill them. They'll get hit again, tonight. I guess thrips don't like a lot of light, because I haven't found any near plant tops. My nematodes might be keeping them in check, too. Bebop (Arise x Blueberry Cookies) is the most interesting, scent-wise, so far. All three are a little different. The first here is both fruity and has that minty scent. I assume this one is blueberry cookies leaning. The next is mostly just sweet and fruity. The third is restaurant-dumpster-in-August-during-a-sanitation-workers-strike + burning tire + fuel: This last stinky one also looks like she may finish up sooner than the rest. These next two are the Sugar Punch gals. This one has undeveloped scents — mostly "green" and sweet. The next is even sweeter scented. Like most of Sannie's sativas, it looks like Sugar Punch wants to produce large colas. Here are the two Golden Goats — all cured of their pH issue. If you grow this, go for a pH closer to 6, in soil. The first is the Hallelujah pheno, which is coming along an no longer threatening to go long. The second is the short pheno, which is most notable for its shortness, so I thought fast and came up with that name. I can think fast on my feet. The purple one back there is not it. This is the Storm Shadow clone, that appears to have tobacco mosaic virus: Now the Planet of the Grapes girls — Different degrees of grape. The most colorful one has the least scent. And finally, the strain that has kept me sane for the last 4 months, my Lemon Sunrise cut. She's not sure when she's going to demand more supports, but she is sure she will demand them. This is a potential mama plant for a Lemon Thai male, but I'm not sure If I want to cross the lemon Thai to another strong lemon scented plant. Anyway, she kicks ass. Until the end of week 6… Happy trails.

All five have been up-potted into 3 liter pots. I gave them a foliar spray of fresh aloe vera juice, coconut water, fulvic acid, and silica mixed with water. If there's a little residue on the leaves - that's what it is Nothing much to report except all are doing well

It's been a wild weather week in the PNW. Just 20 miles inland they have over a foot of ice encrusted snow with trees and power lines down all over. It was expected to hit us as well but stopped just short thankfully. We did get a wicked east wind a couple nights ago that tore apart a 20 year old Cypress tree in the back yard. Six, Fifteen to twenty foot long branches snapped off at their base and laid tangled in and around the tree the next morning. She had lost a few branches over the years but this took nearly half her lower branches and I'll have to cut it down when the weather improves. All is well in the grow room and the Hammer Head's are really stinking the place up. They are coming up on 9 weeks in 12's and their aroma grows more intense everyday. The Hammer Head x Silverfields is even more fragrant but hers is a sweeter, more lavender based aroma compared to the sharp citrusy glue smell of the HH's. The Amnesia Haze x Black Domina girl is 37 days in 12's now. She has nice form and is starting to fill in her many buds. The NYCD x Lemon Thai clone is 32 days in and about done stretching finally. Now she starts to build some colas. I hit a few buds on a couple lower branches with some Red IPA ( Phuuu's IPA x Nepalma CBD) pollen the other day and it looks to have taken. I have been sampling the NYCD x LT as it cures and really like it. Very uplifting but also a good body influence and a bit of mind numbing at higher doses. Last but not least in the flower room is the Critical Mass x (G13 x hasplant) x Citral girl who is 13 days in and is stretching into a nice looking lady. Interested to see how much she stretches in the coming week or two. I have 2 Phuuu's IPA fems going in the veg area. These are from the most recent IPA crop and I'm curious to see how they turn out. The Mom I chose to make seeds with was exceptional so hoping some of that carries through. In another week or so they will be ready to take some cuts from, then they will get up-potted and put to flower. On to the pics... Flower room Critical Mass x (G13 x hasplant) x Citral @ 13 days NYCD x LT clone @ 32 days Amnesia Haze x Black Domina @ 37 days Hammer Head x Silverfields @59 days Hammer Head V3 #2 @ 59 days Hammer Head V3 #3 @ 59 days Whew, who took all those pictures. That's all for now, back in a week or so with more to share. Stay safe out there.

Coming along nicely removing couple handful of leaves here and there. Top dress every 3 ish weeks and give an organic tea once a week!

NYCD x Lemon Thai @ 77 days

Gardenartis. Your good people. Care not for the words of those who seek to diminish your work. I have been called an angel and a devil. Generally those that called me devil do not know my perspective at least to a point of appreciation/effective understanding. Teach/explain to those you can. To the rest that don't accept science and experience. They only want to fight and hurt without genuine merit. Those people do not matter. Don't let them hurt feelings as they are without standing and true justification. Keep on keeping on! You do good and we need you!

Yeesh. So shortly after that last post, life kicked me square in the nuts. Different grow, different setup, but I've still got some pretty okay flowers. G13 Haze G13 Hashplant I dusted USC's Col'Jam with pollen of the G13HP's brother, I have a feeling that's going to be savage. I also hit Col'Jam with Killer Queen (Airborne G13 x C99), which I think has a lot of potential. I also pollenated that G13 Hashplant with [(Uzbekistan x Nepalma) x (Nepalma x Uzbekistan)], Orient Express, Silverfields, and a few more. Also, that Uzbekistan/Nepalma cross got hit with Black Afghani pollen, which should also be a knockout. Sorry for disappearing, more to come!

CBD Soap 200mg, love this mold, soap fits in the hand nicely.

The plants finished 4 weeks of flower. All is healthy, scents are developing. Here's the whole gang. The one sticking up beyond the canopy is a Sugar Punch. I wasn't expecting misbehavior from that one. Squashed that stem at least twice. In spite of the soil pH fiasco on the Golden Goats, they seem fine now. Their clones are bent out of shape, and I put them in Ocean Forest. Looks like I'll have to experiment on pH for two of the three. The Storm Shadow clone, who is getting a second chance to prover herself — not a lot of scent development yet — some skunkiness, some fuel, some stinkfoot, but not strong. Planet of the Grapes all have red/purple leaf veins. Stems are green, so this must be a trait of the ~cultivar~. All three have a grapey scent, but at three different intensities. There is a lot more going on in there, scent-wise, but I can't tell what's what yet. Here's a closeup of that canopy-breaking Sugar Punch top. Sweet and "green" is the scent from rubbing trichs. Not well developed yet. Now the Golden Goats. This is the squat one, which had the pH-related micronutrient problem pretty bad. I'm guessing the shortness is from the Romulan grandparent, but I've never grown Romulan, so that's a wild guess. This is the more sativa-looking one that gave me long-running-sativa-PTSD episode. I think she's catching up, though. I don't expect an unusually long flowering period. I'm calling it the hallelujah pheno, because of the way it holds its leaves. And finally, the Bebop. All three smell sweet and fruity, one also has a very noticeable mint scent, from the Cookies grandparent (whichever cookie it might be). We dog sat a dog for one night, and I now see there's a fucking dog hair on it. Time to put some filters on the intakes. Well, until they're a week older, see ya.

That is very sad, and you hurt my feelings. I never said I cured anyone. I share to help others, not to brag on myself. I guess not appreciated how to use cannabis and other herbs naturally to heal. Very sad indeed, cannabis is more than a high, it is medicine.

Day 77, 11 weeks and I'm giving up, trics won't amber up. Now the hard part of not having them dry out too quick , left the pots in the tent and set up a humidifier outside the tent next to the air intake.

Hi friends, Blue Santa x C99, Blue Rocket (Apollo 11 x BlueBerry) and Shiva x C99 are in the make. Which do you want to be first released?

I would love to know when Blue Rocket is done. I still have a few originals (not sure they will still pop) and was hoping to do a open pollenation when I knew they would not be contaminated.

Just thought I'd mention that Sannie came through again. I ordered Motherlode way back in November. Never made it. I let Sannie know and: Tah-daaaa. Too late for this grow, in time for next.

Nilla Wafer/Herifields Veg 84.7F 55.1% RH 260 PPM So the plants have decided not to cooperate with my plans to top another time before the net goes in. A couple are just growing too fast for that to be feasible. Net will probably go in tomorrow and the tucking will start. Nilla Wafer is growing slightly faster than HF which is a first when growing a sannie strain with a non. They struggled a bit for a few days because I think I kept the solution level at 1 notch a bit too long. Doing much better since I raised it to the 2nd notch. So far so good.

Happy Friday to all my working friends. Just cranked up a CD I got yesterday, Walter Trout - Go the Distance while I work on an update. He's one of my favorite Blues guitarists going back to Canned Heat and John Mayall. All is going well in the grow room. I chopped the big NYCD x LT girl last week at the 80 day mark and she is still drying. I took a few shots of her main cola before I chopped it up to finish drying. I really like this bud. It has a great smell of lavender/coffee/hash/epoxy resin all mixed together and the high is a very nice mixture of head and body with a motivating influence. Thanks again to @santero for sharing this one wherever he may be. It has been a few weeks since he has been around, hope all is well. Here's a look at the mostly dry main cola before I chopped it up. In the veg/sprout area I have 2 Phuuu's IPA fems ready to up-pot to #2's. I plan to take a couple clones from each when they are ready so I can build up my medicine supply again. The flower room is smelling real good these days as the Hammer Head's and HH x Silverfields ladies mature to the 7 week mark. The HH's have a citrusy/hazey smell while the HH x SF is more of a sweet lavender/hashy smell. The Amnesia Haze x Black Domina girl is 4 weeks in 12's now and her stretch has opened her up significantly. Her once horizontally inclined branches have now grown upwards and she won't need as much supporting as I thought. The NYCD x LT clone is 22 days in now and continues to stretch. Good thing is she does not take up too much vertical space and I will need what space is left for the 2 IPA's coming up. Here's some pics... Flower room Amnesia Haze x Black Domina @ 27 days NYCD x LT clone @ 22 days Hammer Head x Silverfields @ 49 days Thanks again to @oldschoolsg for sharing. Hammer Head #2 @ 49 days Hammer Head #3 @ 49 days That's about it for this week. Go KC Chiefs!

My patients are NOT guinea pigs, and I take great offense to that. I do No harm ever, massive amounts of research, classes in herbals, I even have some of my "concoctions" approved by a doctor. I take great care to make the best natural medicines for people who are interested in getting off harmful pharmaceuticals. I know every pharmie meds my patients take, I know all their conditions, I research all before I recommend anything. All are recommendations and not forced down anyone's throat. I have treated cancer patients, who are still alive and walking among us today, when the doctors told them to go home we have nothing to treat you with. I have gotten people off Ambien, Xanax, Energy drinks, opioids, Methadone, Blood Pressure medicine, diabetic meds, the list is very long. I have treated many conditions from psoriasis to cancer. This is with natural herbs, supplements, and cannabis. I share these things in hope they will help others. There are people here who have taken my recommendations and now feel better and have better health. They have used my recipes to help others. If you Believe in cannabis and know the benefits it has shown you, go further, and look into other natural herbs to treat. You can get off quite a few different pharmie meds with herbals.

I tend to dislike Western medicine that is geared to insurance companies rather than the patient. With that said, I would be dead if not for modern surgery. I take no medications but I should. Now, for something different.

If someone needs a doctor to tell them not to take advice about medications in a thread called stoner ramblings, they may have other issues. Since the earlies shamans, to the entire modern medical realm, we have always been their "human guinea pigs".

I got a slight case of Long-Flowering-Sativa-PTSD, from that Willie Nelson I grew a couple of years ago. It was triggered again by the sight of one of the Golden Goat girls. Maybe I'm over-reacting. Here's a Bebop and a Sugar Punch, at 2 weeks, 3 days of flower: Bebop: Sugar Punch: Golden Goat B: AIEEEE!! The other Golden Goat is at the same stage of development as the other plants in the grow. Golden Goat is clone-only, and this is from a selfed fem. One of the grandparents is "Hawaiian sativa." I imagine this pheno leans heavily toward that grandmother. The other grandparent on that side of the family is Romulan. This cross was crossed (accidentally) to a female Sweet Skunk. Neither of those are known to go long, so there better be no 13 week+ crap.

My doctor strongly advised me against taking medical advice from any American. And there are 450.000 reasons I believe him. Xanax, aka Alprazolam is adictive and can kill you. No need to promote it on a pot forum. Your observations are anecdotal, and your "patients" are used as "human guinea pigs". Your post deserves a WARNING.

compare them if you like its up to you. My line is different to yours (I think) I have not seen much colors there, but I grow inhouse, maybe thats why, but it really doesn't matter for me, I cant smoke colors, but the eye eats too I started with a BlueChem F1 x BlueBerry (call we it a BX?) and another BlueChem F2, both crosses came from e$co around 2013/2015 as freebies Both strains where selected heavenly over a few testgrows to get the blue/chem/structure I like. Then I started the F1 wich is male: BlueChem F2 x femal: BlueChem BX, then the F2, F3 and currently the F4 Just some quick dirty shots out of the dark, all BlueChem, taken yesterday. best vibes

another BlueChem I finished up outside. The colors are crazy, and the aromas are divine. My neighbor today got all giggly when I asked him if he could smell my yard. He was like "dude is smells so goddamn good!" seedheaven.net/product/blue-chem-f2/

Those all sound awesome. Thanks for making them.

Sounds awesome, thanks! I've wanted to grow his gear out for a while now! Happy to trade when the time is right.

By the time the are done, i’ll send a PM. Everybody should get their hands on Eskobar gear and according to his ideology peace

https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/collective-of-breeding-information-lost-old-new-put-it-here.1042336/ SEEMS T0 BE MORE GEMS OF INFORMATION HERE THEN IN ALL OTHER ARTICLES I HAVE SEEN OVER THE YEARS. JUST STUMBLED OVER THIS OLD GEM. Dear Nevil, Howard, and Shanti, I have decided to disclose my method of breeding in all of its simplicity, for the sake of this website and its cause, which I believe to be, above all else, for the benefit of improving and preserving the plant itself. I posted in this section of the forum because, above and beyond simple breeder support, this thread is also a plea and a guide to those who grow but don't breed. I will be introducing this method in several chapters which I will be completing over the next week or so. I will try to release 2 chapters per day. Special Thanks to all of you and my new found friends at MNS, I have written this for everyone, so please, enjoy. Sincerely, Joshua Hazen. Note: I am introducing this article here for the first time. As always you should check the laws of your area, so you can design a program that is in compliance with those laws. Chapter 1 Why Breed? The Ganja plant is an amazing organism. I believe she has her own sentience, and like all plants, she has a very simple charter, with but a single mandate: Be Fruitful and Multiply. She has given you so much, why don’t you give her something, the only thing she truly desires, the only thing she really wants: to reproduce sexually. If not for her alone, then do it for yourself as well, not only will it help you increase the yield and quality of your setup over time, but more importantly, it will give you a level of independence and control that you simply cannot get any other way. You will become an island. Now if things go to hell in a hand-basket, or even if your favorite strain gets discontinued, your personal strains will be safe with you. The idea behind this method is to be able to breed selectively using a large sample within a very small space.* In fact the Bonsai Sultan method only requires around four square feet of floor space in a corner preferably,* going up to the ceiling, and can accommodate close to a thousand plants.* Initially, though most likely, one would not start with that many, so one would only need two 4 ft shop light double fixture flourescents to start with.* It can be set up for around $100. The Bonsai Sultan Method is primarily for people who want to preserve and improve the strains that they are working with, and it allows one to breed using a male plant without endangering the cultivators main All Female seedless harvest. It is about proper timing, and the fact that the male plant, like all the plants that will be pollinated, is a bonsai, and very small.* Effectively, it allows virtually any setup to become a scientifically based, quickly evolving horticulture, simply and cheaply, utilizing parts which can be gotten from any hardware store, and with comparatively little effort.* By utilizing the simple principals of selective breeding it is possible to improve one's yield considerably by custom breeding, finding and selecting that super clone, out of a sample of hundreds, in the case of the 4 square foot model. Goals Goals are very important. Every breeder should have a goal or a set of goals, when breeding, and these goals become the hypothesis. More on this later for now lets get started on the more practical aspects of growing using the Bonsai Sultan Method. Supplies First of all lets go over the things you will need for beginning the bonsai sultan method. It is a short list. 1) 2 four foot double fixture fluorescent lights. 2) Notebook and pencil 3) masking tape, thread and ball point pen. 4) Power strip and extension cord(s) 5) 2 four foot 2inch X 14 inch shelves 6) Heavy duty black plastic sheeting 7) 2 timers 8) Mylar 9) 288 2 inch containers 10) 128 3 inch containers 11) 72 4 inch containers 12) Good dirt. 13) Good fertilizer for vegetative and separate fertilizer for flowering. It is very simple. You will build 2 shelves, the first shelf 2 feet above the floor and the second 1 and a half feet above that. And you will hang one shop light from each one by chains, so it can be raised and lowered. Then you will drape the whole thing in black plastic with a staple gun, on the outside and the Mylar underneath it. That is it, now you have two bonsai breeding chambers, one 2 ft tall on the floor and the other 1 ½ ft tall right above it. If you ever want to expand it, just add another shelf on top. Alternatively you can build 2 foot by four foot shelves with 2 shop fluorescents on each shelf if you feel you need more space. Generally, when one is selectively breeding for typology, in other words, choosing the best plant for intended use, from a given sample, the larger the sample is, the better. I will be posting the next chapter, later this evening. Thanks for the encouragement guys-- Here is the next installment. Chapter 2 Breeding philosophy:* The philosophy behind the method is simple.* To use an anachronism from the military:* Keep it KISS simple: Keep It Simple Stupid. * Another military saying:* Assumption is the mother of All Fuck ups.* Don't get caught up in irrelevant details, why are you worried if the leaves are fat or skinny, are you going to smoke the leaves? and if you are going to smoke them why would it matter if they are skinny or fat? Beginning growers often make this mistake; they want fat leaves because they like indica, or they want thin leaves because they like sativa. Well if you are growing a hybrid, you might have to choose between 2 plants, from the same seedstock, one might have thin leaves and one might have fat leaves. Which one are you going to choose? A beginner might choose the one with fat leaves and eliminate the one with thin leaves, when unfortunately in this particular instance, it was the very plant with the thin leaves that had the short budding cycle and dripping buds he was looking for, or vise versa. He made an assumption, that because it had fat leaves somehow it was more”indica” than its sister, and in this case it was a wrong assumption, and he lost the very plant that he had been looking for. Assume nothing, and only make a judgment call when you have to. Selection is the single most important factor in any breeding program. In the Bonsai Sultan method, we keep it KISS simple. We only have 4 major things that we select for. In order of importance they are: 1)Potency/high, 2) Over all vigor and structure, 3)Yield of dried harvest 4)length of budding cycle 1)potency/high This is the single most important factor of any breeding program. There is only one real reason we grow this plant: That is for the effect it gives us when we smoke/consume it. Lets not put the horse before the cart. It doesn’t matter how heavy it is, how dense it is, how much it stinks, if it doesn’t get you high its worthless. Every person has their own unique idea of what the ideal bud should smoke like, so as breeders we are all going to have at least slightly different ideals regarding what exactly constitutes the perfect high. As a breeder your first and foremost goal should be getting as close to this personal ideal as you possibly can. Of course flavor and aroma fit into this category as well, but are lesser components. 2)Overall Vigor and Structure Vigor refers to the general health of the plant, its ability to grow fast, resist disease, etc. This is very important. Again it doesn’t matter how stony or heavy yielding the plant is, if it can’t resist disease and it grows like crap, even if it is the stoniest shit on the planet, you will be lucky to get any bud out of it at all, and as a grower you don’t want to be dealing with a weak and sickly plant. You want a plant that grows like a champion, laughs at spider mites and practically grows by itself. This makes your job much easier. Structure refers to the shape of the plant, and what kind of structure you want depends on your growing setup, but as growers we all have ideals about what the perfect structure is. My advice is, keep an open mind and don’t be too judgmental. Look at the plants that yield the highest in your garden, what is their structure? Generally the ideal structure in my opinion, are stout plants with thick strong and dominant stems, that have tight inter-nodular lengths, but not too tight, those giant buds need a little space. The plants that have secondary and tertiary shoots which grow and bud prolifically are also a great advantage in most gardens. If the plant has the vigor, and the highest yield per square foot in your garden, then it has the structure you are looking for. Structure is primarily a function that is desirous to yield. Yield of dried harvest This one is a no brainier. But just remember, the heaviest plant is not necessarily the heaviest plant per square foot, and again keep an open mind regarding structure, because you may find yourself pleasantly surprised by a plant who’s structure did not fit your preconceived ideal. The structure that yields highest in one garden may not be the best for a different garden, and that is why it helps to custom breed the perfect plant for your own unique brand of horticulture. 4)Length of budding cycle Again this is a no brainer, but just remember that shorter is not always better, it varies from strain to strain, but there is a length of budding which is ideal for yield versus the time it takes to mature. I have had plants with budding cycles ranging from 25 days all the way up to 140 days within my strains. The plant that was ready within 25 days was totally mature and it was very fine bud, 50% NL5XHaze, unfortunately a 5 foot plant only yielded 18 grams. I was however , able to use this particular plant as a parent to breed many very short budding and highly potent and desirable high yielding specimens, which I have crossed with promising haze throwbacks that have had too long of a budding cycle to be practical. I don't think anyone would argue that length of budding cycle is not important, and generally, most of us are on the lookout for a shorter cycle as apposed to a longer one, within reason, but in our program we have to be careful not to sacrifice potency and yield in the name of a shorter budding cycle. This is all there is to it. It is quite simple really, if you stay focused, and don't get caught up in irrelevant details you will be able to select superior plants from your sample, and this is the single most important thing you can do for your breeding program. The next installment is coming soon. Chapter 3 The key to breeding with the scientific method, is reserving judgment, observing and recording data, and utilizing a control group. In the Bonsai Sultan Method, the main Seedless Harvest becomes the control group, more on this in later chapters. After you have been breeding your strain for a few years you may come to notice certain markers, but don’t put too much faith in these markers. Always record everything. And be sure to label. In the Bonsai Sultan Method, we label with masking tape. Each container is double labeled(2 pieces of tape with same label per container). When the plants are large enough, you can label them again at the first branch. By using a piece of thread and some masking tape. Just drape the thread around the branch and fix it with the tape. You can write on the tape when it is still on the roll, and make sure to use a standard Bic ball point pen. Labeling is one of the simplest yet most important parts of any breeding program. It is important to isolate variables and keep all variables constant, so that you can make sure that all your plants have the same environment, that way you can isolate the genetic factor. For example: if you are growing 2 plants in different soil, and one does better than the other, it becomes very difficult to say that one plant is better than the other because of genetics. Maybe one soil is better than the other, and that is why the plant appears so much better. So it is very important to make sure that all plants are treated exactly the same. Same soil, same fertilizer, same type of light, etc. Generally you want to use as much of the same materials for your Bonsai growing as you do for your setup, this is so that you know the plants that perform well under the bonsai method you are going to be ultimately using in your main garden, so you want to select plants that will do well under those conditions. Of course you can’t keep all the variables the same. This is easier if you grow in dirt. Don't worry if you use a hydroponic system, you will still want to use dirt to start with for your bonsai breeding even if you have a hydroponic system. The secondary and final selection process will insure that your strains are tested in whatever final medium you use, for your main setup, and the rare specimen that has trouble with hydroponics can be eliminated at this time, if you are using a hydroponic setup. Chapter 4 Now for starters, you will probably have just a few seeds plus whatever mother clones you may have. This is great. In the Bonsai sultan method, hermaphrodites are avoided like the plague, and destroyed whenever they show themselves. This means you will need to find a natural male for your clone mothers. What kind of strain do you want for your male? Well that depends on what you are trying to do. The odds are if you have a particular clone mother that you favor over all your others than you will want to use that as your primary mother, but if you have more than one mother you will want to use all of them. It is called the Sultan method because you will only be using one male to pollinate all of your females, per cycle. This is one of the primary features of the bonsai sultan method. Of course on the next cycle the odds are you will use a different male but it will be just a single male. You will select the best male out of many. I will explain the method you will use for selecting males later. Occasionally you will find yourself in a situation where you are having trouble deciding which male you want to use because they are both so great. In this situation you can use both, provided they came from the same packet of seeds. Generally, you will choose your male based on its genetics prior to selecting, so you will only be keeping and selecting males, from the already decided cross. You may use as many as the top 3 males, of the same batch of seeds. But usually one male will stand out heads above the rest, so usually you will just use one male. Just to be clear, even though on some occasions you may use more than one male, on those occasions the males will ALWAYS be from the exact same seed stock, IE the seeds will come from the same female. You will NEVER use more than one type of seed stock per cycle of breeding for males, NEVER. This is the like the 1st commandment of the bonsai sultan method, and it is the pillar on which the method is founded. Generally you will have just one or two crosses per cycle which you will be focusing on even though you may be growing as little as just a couple plants or as many as thousands. Chapter 5 If you are selecting a strain to use as a male you will want something that compliments your female, in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. I will site the following fictitious story as an example to help you better understand what I am talking about. Joe Grow, is using the bonsai sultan method to improve and preserve his stock. Joe has 2 mother strains, one that he uses for production, and the other he uses for his personal smoke. For example, he originally became interested in breeding because he wanted to preserve his 2 clone strains, primarily one, which he had gotten from Neville’s Seedbank, a strain which you might be familiar with: The Haze. he had noticed that it was experiencing some minor genetic drift, which hadn’t affected potency or yield, but it had worried him none the less. Also he had gotten some seed out of some crazy Humboldt county bud purchased directly from the grower in mid September, only 3 little white seeds from a whole . This “ounce” was a small round nugget broken off of the largest bud he had ever seen, and this “small” nugget actually weighed almost 40 grams, and the single bud it came off of must have weighed well over a pound. Well 2 of these little seeds had sprouted and they were both male. He had been toying with the idea of making seed, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. he crossed the best male into his two clone samples, The haze and his other strain, which was the best female for production, selected out of hundreds of plants from all sources, for its extremely high yielding indoor capacity. It came from an unknown source, a miscellaneous bag of the kill, but it outperformed all else for yield, with Giant buds and easily made the grade. He named it simply: The Giant. It had a 70 day budding cycle The Giant was his main production strain, wildly outperforming all else he had, and debilitatingly stony with a creeping high, that took at least ten minutes to hit you. He then grew seeds of the Humboldt Haze hybrids, and crossed it into the original haze, the original Giant, and a female of the Humboldt Giant. He kept the best clone for personal smoke, it was the best thing he had ever smoked outside the original Haze. Satisfied with these seed crosses, He promptly put them on the shelf and forgot about them for several years. He had accomplished this first goal of preserving his carefully collected and tested strains. Then a disaster forced him to shut down and he lost all of his clones, that had been the culmination of many years of collecting and testing. The thing that crushed him, was losing that original Haze clone. You can bet he remembered those seeds pretty quickly. When after things cooled down, he decided to take it back up again, he had a new goal. His Goal was simple, KISS simple, he wanted a plant that tasted and smoked like haze, but had the structure of the giant, with the early budding and other dynamite features of the Humboldt. Joe's own personal quest had started, and the gratification of seeking and finding that perfect strain became an obsession, with rewards that He had not even contemplated. Lets start with those first two Bonsai seedharvests that Joe grew before his big calamity. The production plant gives very heavy plants and looks like an indica, but is in fact a indica/sativa hybrid. It expresses itself as a giant indica. This plant he labels G(for Giant) for ease of recording. G is an extremely high yielder that came out of bag seed. In fact it is far and away the highest yielder Joe has ever seen, which actually says a lot. It has very stony bud, with a typical indica creeper high, it is devastating and lethargic, it also has immense bag appeal. It has a 70 day budding cycle. Joe’s other plant is a Holland Seedbank original, the NL5Xhaze. This plant he labels H. For those few who aren’t familiar, H is also an indica sativa hybrid, however it expresses itself primarily as a sativa. It is also quite high yielding, however it has a 100 day budding cycle. It has the greatest high Joe has ever experienced. The high lasts 6 hours, and can be smoked several times a day without building up a tolerance, the high is overwhelmingly trippy and hallucinogenic. To make a long story short, it is the bomb. Joe grows a single clone under fluorescents, and keeps it for his own stash because frankly, now that Joe has tried it, nothing else will suffice. Even though he smokes it with his friends few acknowledge it, everyone wants the G. Joe doesn’t really understand this, maybe they are scared. So he just grows it under a couple of shop light fluorescents in a small box, and gets a few zee's per cycle, enough for him and his friends, cause Joe prefers bong hits. Joe has a couple of goals. He would love to cross his G with his H, but all he has is clones, and they are female. So what is he to do? Well he needs a bridge. He wants to shorten the budding cycle of both plants, so he needs a fast budding plant. He wants something that is very stony. He does several crosses over a period of years but only one comes out solid and stable. This is a variety from a small Mountain Town called Paonia, and people call this stuff Paonia Kind Bud, so he labels it PK. The buds have bright red hairs are covered in crystals and have a delicate but powerfully sweet and fruity aroma. The high is amazing. The plants express themselves as short indicas, but due to the flavor and character of the buds, Joe suspects that there is some sativa hiding somewhere in this strain, possibly Hawaiian, or Colombian. Whatever the case it is some of the finest connoisseur bud Joe has ever smoked. Joe had crossed this with the haze, several years ago, and is thinking of using this strain, he has around 40 seeds of it. But then he scores some weed from a dude up in Humboldt county. Which changes everything In the end he decides to use the Humboldt county strain, because it is some of the very stoniest, most potent and clearheaded shit he has ever smoked, and the fact that it was an outdoor and he had purchased it in mid September, stem crackin dry and nicely cured. He crosses this male into both the G and the H. But wait there is a problem, this stuff is called Humboldt, it also starts with an H, so now, The H becomes the HZ and the Humboldt becomes the HU, problem solved. So for the first cross he does, he has one male HU and he crosses into 2 females. HZ and G. So now he has 2 new strains. Joe always makes sure that the male is named first when he labels his seeds. For example he now labels his 2 strains. HU/HZ and HU/G . For his second seed crop he now has more strains, he of course uses a HU/HZ male and crosses it with everything he has, but for some idiotic reason, he doesn’t pop any of his PK/HZ s, oh well he is new at this and it just doesn’t occur to him. So now out of his second seed crop, he chooses a male HU/HZ and crosses it with HZ , G, HU/HZ , HU/G So now he has the following strains from seed: First cross: HU/HZ and HU/G and from seed HU/HZ//HZ , HU/HZ//G , HU/HZ//HU/HZ , HU/HZ//HU/GR He is primarily interested in the first 2 crosses, HZ/HU//HZ this is ¾ HZ(NL5XHAZE) in case you didn’t notice. Of course in addition to recording this on the seed packs he is also recording it in his notebook. Now he has a starting point. He has something that is 75%Haze(NL5XHaze) and 25% Humboldt County, and he also has something that is 25% Haze and 25% Humboldt County, and 50% Giant Indica. Chapter 6 I will continue this story later. For now lets get back to the Bonsai Sultan Method. Joe Grow has a bonsai breeding setup like the one outlined above with 2 growing chambers, each one powered by one standard double fixture four foot shop light fluorescent light. For starters he just had 3 clones of HZ and 3 clones of G and he had two plants of Humboldt from seeds, He was hoping for a male and a female from these seeds, but all he got was 2 males, one was far superior, so he kept that one(more on selecting males later), and destroyed the other. For all of this he only used one of his chambers. He could have used much more clones if he wanted, then he would have gotten much more seeds, but alas he used just 3 of each. For the purposes of breeding, 3 clones of the same strain still equal one plant, and there is no need to differentiate, IE, all seeds from 3 identical clones can be stored in the same pack. Now keep in mind that in his main grow room, he is growing a crop of G, in the normal fashion, he also has a cloning chamber/veg room, and a small chamber, where he grows haze. He starts the plants in 2 inch containers and keeps them root bound in 2 inch containers for around a month or longer. He waits until his main all seedless harvest of G plants are 2 weeks from harvest, then he puts his seedlings on budding, this way by the time he harvests his G, the males will almost be starting to release their pollen, and they won’t affect his All female harvest of G clones. Also the male he selects is of course, root bound in a 2 inch container, and he leaves it in the 2 inch container. Once the male flowers are fully formed but have not yet released pollen the male is trimmed down to just a couple of dominant branches and the trimmings are baked in the oven at 300 for 30 minutes, insuring that all the pollen is destroyed. The remaining branches which have pollen will open in a couple of days. Once the flowers start to open, this male in a 2 inch container, will be used like a magic paint brush, and Joe will paint all of his bonsai females with this male, lightly brushing all the females, with the male. He will do this every day until the male has released most of its pollen(around a week or 2), then he will destroy the male in the oven. He worries a bit about his haze female he is growing for his head because it is a long way from finished, and doesn't want it to get seeded. But he finds to his relief, because it is in a different room, and the male is so small, he finds that his precious haze stash doesn’t even have a single seed. Of course he always wears different clothes, and washes up well, after handling the male. When he puts the seed plants on budding, he transfers his clones from 2 inch to 4 inch containers, because he has the space. If he didn’t have the space he would have put them in to 3 inch containers or not transplanted them at all. If he had any females from seed he would have transplanted them as well. When he transplants, he breaks up the root-ball using a sharp knife. He cuts the root ball on all four sides by making 2 incisions going down through the bottom and then up to the other side, the cut should be ½ to 1 inch deep. He uses an exacto knife to make sure the cut is not too deep, but any knife will do as long as he is careful, and sterilizes and does not cut too deep. He starts fertilizing with a ½ grow solution when the plants reach their 4th or 5th leafset. He switches to a bloom fertilizer at full strength when he switches the light cycle to 12. Chapter 7 His second seed crop is more interesting, he plants 40 seeds of the HU/HZ and 10 seeds of the HU/G and keeps 10 clones of the HZ and 10 clones of the G. As always, which is a prerequisite of the bonsai method, he starts both clones and seeds in 2 inch pots, with a 24 hour light cycle. (I recommend 24 hour light cycle for all vegetative growth especially in the bonsai chambers.) after 5 weeks again the timing is appropriate as he is 2 weeks away from harvest in his main flowering room. After about a week and a half the bonsai's start showing sex. He is keeping 2 males of the HU/HZ, that are clearly heads above the rest, he was having trouble choosing a favorite between 2 so he just kept them both. He winds up with 29 females and kills all males except the 2 he will use. Up until now all plants have been vegging in just one of the chambers. But now he is left with with 50 plants, He decides to use both chambers and transplant everything into 4 inch containers. He could flower a maximum of 72 plants in 4 inch containers, using both chambers. If he would have more than that, he would use 3 inch containers for transplant, but in fact he could just leave them in 2 inch containers if he had to. He flowers out the plants successfully on 12 hour light cycle. He winds up with just a couple of grams off of each plant, and anywhere from 20 or 30 seeds to as many as 100 seeds per plant. He uses old fashioned t12 fat, cool white shop fluorescent, because these stay cool enough where the plants can grow straight up into the lights so they are even touching the bulbs. He tries to find a style of shoplight where there is as much space between the 2 bulbs as possible. After he has been painting his females with his male, for around a week or 2, he bakes his male in the oven, to insure that it won't keep throwing pollen. His plants are starting to flower and produce seeds. He is fertilizing them full on with bloom. When the seeds are mature, it is time to harvest the buds. When he harvests the tiny little bonsai plants, he makes sure to leave the little bottom shoots that he had saved when he was pruning(more on this later), and he harvests the main stem, at those shoots, leaving those little bottom shoots, for regeneration. When he harvests the little plants he places the whole plant with stem minus fan leaves, into an individual paper post envelope, standard letter, or 8X11, depending on size of bonsai, writing the abbreviated name(in pencil) on the envelope. Chapter 8 Selecting Males Of course, the main thing you select a male for is by its genes. So before you even plant the seeds you know which strain, or seed stock you are going to select your male from. When you select males from among that pre-selected stock, you are primarily looking for 3 features, and it is not arbitrary crap you read about somewhere, like stem thickness. It is something you can measure and record. Here they are in order of importance: 1) High Factor: You want it to be stony, however you like it. With the male you can't be too choosy because you will be smoking leaf. You will test it for stoniness, by finding small veg leaves, 1 ½ inch diameter leaves, and dry them out. Make sure that the leaf samples to be tested are the exact same size(leaf stoniness varys according to size of leaf). Then first thing in the morning right when you wake up, wake and bake. Take 2 dried leaves pack them in a bong first thing in the morning right when you wake up, and take the single biggest hit you can and hold, and hold it for as long as possible, exhale, wait a few minutes and then rate on a scale from 1 to 10. Only one bong hit per test, and only test one sample each day, right when you wake up. Do this a couple times with each sample, if you have time. You will be surprised what a variation you will find, and if you smoke right when you wake up and you have a superior strain, you will also be surprised by how high you will get. Note: if you can finish the bong then you need to use more leaves. there should be enough material in the bong that you can't finish all of it. 2)Vigor and Form: This is just like a female. You know that plant, the one you are just praying will be a female? Well when it turns out to be a male, you select that one, provided the leaf is good and stony. 3) Length of budding cycle: Usually, the earlier flowering males are more desirous, because generally people prefer a shorter budding cycle. These are the three factors that can easily be isolated and measured, and these are the only three factors that you consider when selecting males for the bonsai sultan method. Keep it KISS simple and you are bound to come up with a winner. Pruning your bonsai's: Generally, you can let your bonsai's grow naturally and don't prune them at all in veg. Just let them grow strait up into the shop lights. Once they start budding, you can prune any of the side branches that don't make it up to the lights, but make sure that you leave the first 2 sets of branches at the bottom, but you can prune the bottom branches down to their 2nd leaf sets. It is very important that you keep these low branches, because you will be regenerating your plants, and you will be clipping your plants down when you regenerate them and they regenerate best from these lower branches. Generally you should do all the pruning at once, a couple weeks after you transplant and switch light cycle to 12 hours, when they are showing sex, then you can eliminate males and prune females at the same time. Prune the males as you start testing them for potency. Remember, you will prune the Keeper(s) a second time when the male flowers are fully formed, just before they open. Chapter 9 Back to Joe Grow. So Joe has now harvested all of his females and they are drying in individually labeled envelopes. For example he has like 18 HU/HZ females so he labels them 1-18 IE HU/HZ 1 HU/HZ 2 etc, and he is careful to make sure he numbers both the envelopes and the potted plants. Once he harvests the plants, he makes sure to leave the bottom branches that he left when he was pruning and puts the plants back on 24 hours, he prepares the plants for reveging in several ways. First of all he is very careful to remove all calyxes that have seeds or partially formed seeds with a tweezers, this is very important. Secondly he snips any yellow leaves. It is just fine to leave part of a leaf , IE if it is half yellow and half green, he snips the yellow part and leaves the green part. Larger leafs can be trimmed down to size. If there is an empty calyx that had a seed in it, make sure it is removed with tweezers. Also make sure to leave calyxes that do not have any signs of seed production. It is these calyxes from which new growth will spring. He waters them with vegetative fertilizer of a solution at 1/10th strength. He keeps them moist but not too wet and generally treats them like cuttings. He drops the lights so that they are around 4 inches from the plants. It will take around a month or so for the plants to start regenerating so he is patient. Once the individual plants have dried in their little envelopes it is time for the fun part. He is going to rate them in 4 different categories, and he will write their ratings right on the envelopes. Oh yeah he has already rated them for vigor and structure, when he rates them he does so on a scale from one to ten. He also knows when they are ready, he records the dates that he takes each one on the individual envelope. Remember that seeded bud matures much quicker. Now that they are dry he can weigh each one. Generally when weighing them it is best to remove all the leaves and stems and just weigh the seeded bud. Generally the plants just yield a couple grams each, so he needs a very accurate scale. Again he records the weight right on the envelope. After he removes the leaf and stem from the buds he places the buds back into the envelopes, and now comes the fun part, he can start testing and rating the buds for smoke. He stops smoking for 3 days to a week before he starts testing. He waits at least a couple hours between tests. The higher rated ones he tests twice. He tests by taking a single bong hit. And he makes sure that he uses the exact same amount of bud for each test. Once he tests the plants again he rates on a scale from one to ten, and writes the rating right on the envelope. By the time Joe is finished testing all the plants, with all the information he has gathered he has been able to select 6 plants that he will continue regenerating. These are the 6 best plants after being weighed and rated. If you have the space it is good to keep the best 10 percent of the regenerating plants. If your sample is just too large, then keep around 10 or 15. He destroys all the other plants that he is regenerating and just keeps these 6. He kept all until was able to differentiate through selection which he was going to keep. He winds up with 6 HU/HZ He doesn't keep any HU/GR, as he was just growing these so that he could cross them into the haze. So Now he has converted the bottom chamber into a mother chamber, and it now has 6 HZ/HU females regenerating. Once they start putting out shoots he will wait until he is taking cuttings off his main G mother for his main crop. Then he will take cuttings of these regenerated plants at the same time he takes his main cuttings, and he will grow 2 of each of these in his main grow room, as female clones alongside his main G crop. Now, his main G crop becomes the control group, and he is testing his subjects, the 6 varieties of HZ/HU against this control group. This is where he really find out what his new hybrids are made of. OK lets take a look at what seeds Joe got out of this last seed crop. He had 29 females from seed plus his 2 varieties of clones Of his females, 23 were HU/HZ and 6 were HU/G His 2 males were HU/HZ The Clones were HZ(NL5XHZ) and G(Giant Indica) So he winds up with 23 varieties of HU/HZ //HU/HZ These he labels as F2 HU/HZ because it is essentially HU/HZ crossed with itself. Because HU/HZ is and F1 hybrid this is an F2 hybrid Now the best 6 F2 HU/HZ specimens, the ones he is regenerating, he divides out and stores and labels separately. The rest he stores in one packet, labeled simply misc F2 HU/HZ. With the HZ/HU//HU/G since he did not keep any mothers, he separates the top 3 that have the best overall ratings and stores them each separately. The remaining he stores in one combined pack labeled misc HZ/HU//HU/G. He also winds up with HU/HZ//HZ which if you think about it, is ¾ HZ and ¼ Humboldt and he winds up with HU/HZ//G These are his 2 most important crosses and the main reason he did this seed crop, the others are just bonuses. Oh yeah he copies the info on the envelopes of his keepers into his notebook, along with other relevant notes. Chapter 10 Now Back to Joe Grows main crop. He mainly grows G because it is very heavy and people seem to love it. This time he is growing 12 clones of haze hybrids along side his G clones. His G clones represent the control group, and ultimately he is looking for something that will beat G. The Haze hybrids perform very well, and they are all quite similar to one another. He is surprised to find that most of them actually finish just a bit ahead of the Giant, in around 65-70 days. While they have quite an impressive yield in finishing, of course they can't compete with G for yield. He is not surprised, in all his years of growing he has never seen anything that competes with G for yield, but in his opinion, the quality of the smoke is miles ahead. It is very similar to the HZ in appearance but lighter green, and the flavor is very fruity, with strong haze undertones. Joe is in love with one in particular, and saves that particular clone. But he still prefers the original pure HZ. In the end he keeps that one clone and grows a couple every cycle, so he has some variety for his head. Satisfied that he has preserved his strains, he puts the seeds in a drawer and forgets about them for a couple of years. Then in a disaster, he loses all of his clones. Now he is thanking his lucky stars that he made those seeds. The main thing that devastates him is that fact that he lost the HZ. So now he feels he just want to find a few super strains, that combine the best features of the Hz and the G. In his quest however, he winds up creating many unique haze hybrids that he could never even imagined. Chapter 11 The Bonsai Sultan Method is driven by specimens, this is to say, that in your first generation you will be using tested clones and possibly untested seed(in terms of grown). It is important to find the most potent seed you can, and stock that compliments your clones. What are your clones weaknesses? Try finding superior strains that are strong where your mothers are weak. IE you might have a plant that you really love it is very potent, but it has small buds and is low yielding. Well you may want to mix it with something that is also very potent, but is known to be a heavy yielder. Whatever strains you use, just remember, you are looking for the very best specimens, and don't be judgmental, let them finish, and see which are the best, scientifically, by measuring, albeit testing in bong, to weighing entire plant, to recording the length of the budding cycle, and recording data. The first thing Joe does of course is cross a superior male of the HU/HZ//HZ( 3/4 HZ) into everything he has. He wants to get as much HZ into his strains as possible, because the main thing he is looking for is something that smokes like HZ, the other 2 factors are secondary. He has, PK/HZ, HU/HZ, F2 HU/HZ, HU/HZ/G, HU/G, HU/HZ//HU/G Now he focuses on 3/4HZ///HU/HZ//G because these plants seem to produce the haziest offspring and they are dynamite, in form, and yield, He inbreeds the very best specimens from his samples to F3, expanding to about 5 shelves. Selecting from a huge sample In the F3 generation, he finds a remarkable specimen, that is uncannily like the original HZ, except that it is much heavier, and has a budding cycle of around 75 days, with wild fruit undertones. It has its own character, he didn't invent it, he discovered it, and it has its own character He names this Mother the HHG, and starts back crossing it into all kinds of his other lines. He always uses the Bonsai Sultan Method. He creates lines, from this original superior mother:the HHG, and using males, from all different crosses of this mother, as well as her mother, he eventually finds several different mothers become the foundation of several lines. Through decent common sense and carefully recording genealogy, Joe has unwittingly become a line breeder. He assumed nothing and only did one thing, looked for superior specimens from his sample according to the 4 simple criteria for which he was selecting, in order of importance: Stonyness, Vigor/Form, yield, and length of budding cycle. It is important to note that his setup has been evolving this whole time, and he is now experiencing record yields, beyond even the original Giant. This happened gradually, over several generations. His All female seedless clone room is filled 75% with his dominant yielding plant, and 10% is dedicated to connoisseur and backup clones, and 15% of the room is dedicated to R&D, that is the clones he has taken from the regenerated bonsai hopefuls. So every once in a while one of these hopefuls Beats out the dominant mother in terms of quality and yeild. When that happens, he does a test harvest, and gives half of the dominant mother's grow spaces to the up and coming hopeful. This is a competition, If the hopeful wins she becomes the new dominant mother, and the old mother goes in part to the connoisseur and backup section of strains. At this point his system just evolved, it is better then it was before. Joe is surprised how quickly his system evolves using this method. Chapter 12 Now Joe Grow has evolved into something of a breeder and his plants have been evolving right along with him. He finally has something that for his specific purpose, is better than anything he has ever had. His new mother HHG is 50% original HZ and 25% Humbodlt, and 25% Giant. But phenotyopically, the bud is mostly HZ, with Hu undertones, and its form is like the Giant, with giant buds, except the bud material is like the haze. The Giant was fluffy bud, but the HHG is very dense, not quite as dense and the original HZ, but close. He got this result, by simply growing everything out not making any assumptions, and withholding judgment until the plants had budded out. He also got this result, by selecting based on his 4 categories, and religiously testing his males for potency. Nature took care of the rest. He always labelled everything, and recorded all the definitions of his abbreviations in his notebook, just to be safe. Chapter 13 When inbreeding using the bonsai sultan method one simple rule, generally, is not to go past the F3 generation. Generally if you follow this rule you shouldn't have too many problems with weakening strains due to inbreeding. Generally you will create many many lines, so as long as you keep track of your genealogy, you will have many combinations to choose from, when line breeding. Generally in the Bonsai Sultan Method you are going for Heterogeneity, not homogeneity. This is because generally, when you are propagating with herb you are using clones. So in the Bonsai Sultan Method you want a very wide variety of expression within your gene pool so that you can select that one mother that is perfect. By cloning her you will get the perfect homogeneity that you are looking for. In my experience, plants with diverse genetic backgrounds, tend to make very stable clones, much more stable than plants which are inbred. Joe started with just 4 different strains. 2 clones and 2 seed stock varieties. The clones were: The NL5HZ, and the Giant Indica. His seed stock strains were: The Paonia Kind(or Kine), and the Humboldt County Deathbud. Now the genes within these strains are extremely diverse. NL5HZ- is most likely Afghani with a hint of Thai on one side, and a pure sativa hybrid -Thai, Columbian, Oaxacan, Indian on the other. Giant Indica- Unknown, but phenotypically it is an Indica dominant sativa indica hybrid. Humboldt County Death- This is a classic old school variety scored from a classic Humboldt bushman. It has the best of old school genetics, most likely an Afghan Hawian hybrid, acclimatized to Northern California, for many generations. Paonia Kind(Kine)- phenotypically its form is pure indica, but the flavor and nature of the bud tells a different story, it has short compact plants that appear 100% indica, however the buds are fruity, dense, and covered in long exotic red hairs. For now, with this kind of genetic Diversity, Joe finds that his strains are very phenotypically diverse. Even within the same seed stock, no two plants are the same. The one thing they all seem to have in common: they are all very exotic and stony and each one is definitely its own unique connoisseur level smoke. This does not bother Joe in the least because Joe grows his main crop from clones, so when he finds that super plant, he simply makes it into a mother, and then he has the perfect homogeniety that he needs for his indoor setup. Chapter 14 Stabilizing strains, or going for Homogeneity is generally referred to as creating a “pure breed” or true breeding strain, and it is a very difficult thing to do properly. It can be done but it is beyond the scope of this write up. These are advanced breeding techniques. If you master the Bonsai Sultan Method, you may eventually want to study and learn how to do this. However, the Bonsai Sultan Method is a simple and easy way for beginners to vastly improve and custom modify the strains they are working with. And in terms of propagation for the average grower, it is actually more desirous to have a heterogeneous sample to work from, this is because the average grower uses clones, and only uses seeds to select a mother plant from. The average cultivator is primarily concerned with growing all female seedless harvest, and the Bonsai Sultan Method represents a simple way for the average grower to breed without jeopardizing his seedless harvest. Not only will you be able to preserve your strains, in the form of seeds and vastly improve the strains that you are working with, but you will also guarantee the independence of your setup. You will be able to stop cultivating for years at a time without jeopardizing the safety of your strains, because they will be stored safely and compactly, in the form of seed. Right now the current status of cultivation of this wonderful plant is in a legal grey area and it is difficult to say if the current trend of tolerance will last. There are significant powers right now in both the government and the private sector, that are organizing huge resources, in an effort to control and regulate this wonderful plant. We all need to work together as a community to safeguard what we have. I believe one way to do this, is for everyone who is growing to also breed, and for the beginner, and the non breeder, this method, represents a simple, viable and very effective way to do this. If every medical grower, who purchases these seeds from the Holland seedbanks, learns how to breed on his own using this simple method, then the powers that be, whether government, pharmiceutical or other big business interests will never be able to deprive us of what is naturally ours. By increasing the amount of breeders in the world, we will also be increasing the gene pool of the plant. Then seedbanks like MNS, can become like the hub of a sort of co-op, where local breeders, when they come up with superior strains, through forums like this one can share these strains with the community, and send these strains back to the seedbanks(especially MNS) where they can be further improved and perfected by experts. It appears to me that this is already going on right here at MNS, and it is this forum which has inspired me to disclose this simple method. Now is the time. We are blessed to have Nevil in our midst, he basically bred all the strains on which the Holland scene was founded, and it seems, MNS represents a new movement of the original masters. We must seize this moment while we have the opportunity. We do not know how long this window will remain open. By working together, and breeding, we can secure the future of this venerable plant for ourselves and those around us. END The Bonsai Sultan Method: Typological Breeding for the Non Breeder, Beginner, or Pro with Little Space. - MNS Forums The Bonsai Sultan Method: Typological Breeding for the Non Breeder, Beginner, or Pro with Little Space. - Page 2 - MNS Forums The Bonsai Sultan Method: Typological Breeding for the Non Breeder, Beginner, or Pro with Little Space. - Page 3 - MNS Forums Like x 1

It's times like these that make me wish SH took payment options other than cash in the mail or bank transfer. Well, and that I had any funds to transfer in the first place.

Nilla Wafer/Herifields Veg 84.8F 54.2% RH 400 PPM Its always surprising when the octos and plants kick into full gear. Lots of growth over the last week and the feeding is really picking up. My float valves are shot so I’m manually adding solution to the system at a rate of almost 4 gals per day. Very promising when they’re eating like that.

Resurrecting here. I have 5 females just over 5 weeks of flower. I have a question about one in particular. She is a runt with 3 bladed leaves, pistils started browning last week. Can anyone give insight as to what part of the genetics is bringing this on? Thanks for any insight. By contrast, "normal" size, 2x-3x bigger.

It’s going to be all (and more - those will be released as freebees) we love eskobar gear and let make sure everybody can enjoy them. With a special thanks to Santero and Zanzibar.

This is a plant that started as a seedling under Col'Jam, as she was finishing up in flower. The mother is almost definitely Col'Jam, which means that with these leaf expressions, the father was likely G13 Hashplant, Killer Queen, or Black Afghani. Definitely looking forward to sampling that one.

so true ... another bluechem lady, smell and structure is nearly the same from the first one but has a hint of mint and a bit more buds: best vibes

Plan was not to cross her yet, I wanted to make one but no space A quick shot of the BlueChem in 6.5 liter harvested today after 10 weeks of flowering, reminds me a bit of the ultrashack because of the bud trees She has a deepsweetberryhash smell, very nice and stinks like hell I gave her just 1 time a few nuts at the start of flowering, and it was a bit to cold and then to hot so here she is in all her glory: low feeder - high yielder best vibes

It's been a while since a plant got colorful for me. Must be the polar vortex. All the Planet of the Grapes have red/purple leaf veins. Now one is going totally purple. Not calyxes, though. Now that I'm growing this, I realize I never grew a grape-scented strain before. Sweet and intense.

They are having a second fattening now xD. Maybe the slow release nutes are kicking in now.. too bad cause they are almost done.. What seems to be the critical + is getting cloudy. The rest I think are up for one more week. The MK maybe even more.

Nilla Wafer/Herifields Veg 83.3F 57.1% RH 260 PPM All plants have responded well to being topped. A couple got a bit stretchy so I turned the big lights on a week earlier than I anticipated. My plan is to top one more time and defoliate before the net goes in. Not sure about the timeline but I do need to do a better job cleaning up anything below the net this time.

800mg Chocolate Mint Bar

I am not sure who all makes cannabis oil, but if you do, you can do dual purpose, clean up the pan with coconut oil and turn it into a balm. I use a reclaimer for the alcohol, and leave a bit of alcohol in it, to remove it from the machine easier. I pour it into a pyrex dish and let it finish off, it is very clean. Instead of cleaning the pyrex container out with alcohol, I use coconut oil instead, then I add other things like emu oil, beeswax, and essential oils. Makes a really nice pain-relieving balm. Once you melt and clean the pyrex container with coconut oil (once heated easy to use a spatula to get oil off the container), then add emu oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, melt that in the oven in the dish, once melted, remove from oven, add essential oils. Once it hardens enough, you can whip it into body butter, which is like butter that just melts right into your skin. Adding beeswax keeps it from melting if left on the counter.

New Jersey’s governor just signed the bill it will go into effect mid February a funny note the NJ weed man opened his store at 12 01am on Jan 1 and sold his first bag of legal weed even though the law was not in effect yet big shout out to the Newjersey weed man also a new bill is going up for vote on home grow looks like if it passes we will be able to grow out 6 plants also it looks like NY will pass this year as well peace

Herbal stew, Nom Nom, NOT lol Awesome meds

A dozen days later, the stretch is on. One of the Golden Goats got the ax. I really didn't have enough room for everything, so the sickly one had to go. Her cutting rooted, so I'll check her out next time. The other Golden Goats were miraculously cured of their high pH with regular additions of pH 5 water (from pH Down), and their Manganese(?) deficiency cleared up: You can still see the light color on that young fan leaf, but it was much worse. This one didn't have much problem with soil pH. it's soil came from a different mix. She's got very elongated leaflets: A Sugar Punch: A big ol' Bebop: A Planet of the Grapes: Bebop, Sugar Punch and Planet of the Grapes are very vigorous growers. One of the three Golden Goats were also vigorous, but I think that strain needs a low pH. Next time I grow it, assuming I like it, I'll go for 6.2 or so. My DIY LED kit has not yet assembled itself. I might call the manufacturer to explain himself. Uh-oh. Phantom pic.

707 Nuclear Chem ( Chem D x Chem 4 IBL) This picture was taken from the smallest lower branch.