Official "420" thread [No Political Talk]

[Myk]

You are purposely making seeds?

I do it with vegetables to save a couple of dollars on a seed pack. If they want to charge $10-$25 per seed, why not?
I'm not creating crosses so it's not difficult (and a lot of the so-called breeders are doing nothing but throwing pollen to create unstable F1s anyway). A few seeds will last a long time so it only takes one seeding, genetic drift isn't an issue.

For the cost of slightly more than one feminized seed I'll get as many seeds as I want.

I'm not a great test because of no tolerance to inhaling but I can't tell the difference between a bud that had 40 seeds or the rest of the plant (which according to edibles before I got a tolerance to them the trim compares to the high side of what I've had from a dispensary). When I ground a couple oz of molded buds for compost (not including the intentionally seeded bud) I only came up with 2 or 3 extras. Considering I was putting male flowers on the seeded bud and had the male in the same room and saw pollen sucked out of its box by the fan I think fear of males and hermies is very much overblown. People who act like a herm or a male on the same planet caused them brick weed level seeds just weren't paying attention.
I had a very hermed 80s brick weed grow only get around 3 seeds just from picking bananas as they appeared.

Here is the seeded bud. Male flowers in black, seeds in yellow. The rest of the plant is certainly not brick weed. It may be a little inconvenience looking in the grinder for any missed or ground seeds but that's about the extent of the basis for people's panic over males.
Also note this flower lived right in front of my intake.


Considering they should be feminized seeds my math says this is very much worth the time, cost and a bud even if it did ruin the bud (which it doesn't, but the feminizing spray does ruin that plant for consumption).

 

[truthbedamned]

Looks nice! How long do you dry/cure it for?

Usually 3 to 5 days depending on the weather.

 

[Burque]

Usually 3 to 5 days depending on the weather.

do you jar and burp with bovedas after that?

 

[Burque]

@truthbedamned what is that dry herb vape that is supposedly the best? Asking for a friend.

If anyone else has recommendations I am listening.

 

[Myk]

@truthbedamned what is that dry herb vape that is supposedly the best? Asking for a friend.

If anyone else has recommendations I am listening.

"Supposedly the best" would be a Volcano. But my opinion without trying one is people who spent $400-$600 on it try to convince themselves of that because they spent that much to make hot air. It only does bags but I think they have a hose attachment accessory at least for the newest one.

From me you're going to get cheap and functional. And I don't care to be a fanboy, everyone can like what they like, hate what I like.

Arizer Extreme-Q does bags and a hose for MUCH cheaper than the Volcano. Plus you can get aftermarket spare parts cheap on Amazon. I highly recommend elbow packing and skip everything else, suck some ground weed into the cap screened elbow, pack lightly and stick it on the bowl.
I've filled the bowl with hemp before and it was a wet mess. Of course I couldn't feel if it was doing anything but elbow pack gets me 15-60 minutes of vaping (remember I'm a lightweight inhaling). If I wanted more it's easy to dump into the Duff jar and repeat.
If you don't care about bags or a fan and just want a hose, Arizer Tower is even cheaper. I've only used my E-Q fan to dry the hose after cleaning, bags don't interest me.
I think they are conduction/convection hybrid but it seems elbow packing moves the weed far enough from the heat it's more convection.

Arizer Air2, simple to load (as easy as a hitter), picky about how much goes into it (about the same size as an elbow pack but not as easy as E-Q to mix one scoop of THC, 2 scoops of hemp). Replaceable Li-ion battery so it doesn't turn into garbage after X number of charges. (Arizer Solo is an internal battery so once it's done it's done.)
If I ever grow or get a 2:1 I can vape like it's 1979 this would be my portable of choice.
Basically other than the battery all the Arizer portables function the same. Argo is their newest since I looked and end up a little smaller in the pocket and offers protection for the glass.
The good thing about them all (but not legal carry in IL) is you can load up multiple stems/bowls, put a cap on them and be set for a day out.
These are conduction/convection.

Boundless Tera, not picky at all about how much you put into it. It's supposed to be convection so you can puff, set it down and pick it up later without having burned your weed up. But the metal feels awfully hot in there to me. That's what they claim.
It is a pain in the ass to dump and somewhat a pain to fill (it's why I use scoops). If you dump it in your Duff jar the loose screen goes with it.
I do love it for at home because it can use small amounts. I wouldn't take it anywhere because of the dumping pain.

Last but not least, one that should definitely be considered. DynaVap. It's like a one hitter of dry vapes. No batteries. Use fire, or an induction heater. The titanium models adjust down to be true one hitters (you probably get 2 puffs), the 2020M adjust almost as small but you only get 2 adjustments. The non-adjustable ones would be too big for me.
You adjust the heat by where you point the fire, closer to the end where the clicker is, lower heat, further down higher heat. It clicks (twice) take it off the heat and puff.

Something often not considered is bongs. Everything but my newest DynaVap fits a glass bong connection.
The Arizers are by cheap attachments from Amazon.
DynaVap HydraVong's stem is made to fit (14mm I think). Tera comes with a bong attachment.
DynaVaps have carbs which makes it too fidgety for my bong and nerve issues, that's a titanium one so it cools off by the time I put the torch down, get it in the hole, then find the carb.

I recommend Planet Of The Vapes. They seem reliable for only selling what they believe in (and have a guarantee to back it up).

 

[Myk]

You are purposely making seeds?

BTW, IL doesn't allow clone sales and we have a small plant count based on 5". I can't justify having a mother be 20% of my plant count.

 

[truthbedamned]

do you jar and burp with bovedas after that?

I burp....but I have stopped doing the Boveda packs during the curing stage. Used them the first year without burping and found the quality no where close to the second year when I burped every day for 40 days. Don't believe that garbage the people at Boveda try to sell you. Do your proper cure and then by all means use the Boveda packs to maintain the proper humidity for storage.

 

[truthbedamned]

@truthbedamned what is that dry herb vape that is supposedly the best? Asking for a friend.

If anyone else has recommendations I am listening.

Nothing else comes close. Mighty Vape. And don't fall for the chinese knockoff. If you find one on "sale" for 199.00 it is a fake.

 

[truthbedamned]

BTW, IL doesn't allow clone sales and we have a small plant count based on 5". I can't justify having a mother be 20% of my plant count.

How do you go about insuring a male to pollinate the female? Plus I have not found a strain I like so much that I am willing to chance pollinating a 5 square mile area. People grow for business in my area. They would not be to happy.

 

[truthbedamned]

Not a bad haul for an autoflower
View attachment 8941

And yes.....I know my shed is messy.

So total came out to 15.2 ounces. Not bad for an autoflower grown with hydro

 

[ytsejam]

@truthbedamned what is that dry herb vape that is supposedly the best? Asking for a friend.

If anyone else has recommendations I am listening.

I have same thing.
Ease of use, portability, variability. Sip on it or power hit it. Works either way and in between.

 

[Myk]

How do you go about insuring a male to pollinate the female? Plus I have not found a strain I like so much that I am willing to chance pollinating a 5 square mile area. People grow for business in my area. They would not be to happy.

So far out of 7 regular seeds grown out far enough to know male or female I have yet to get a natural male.
I spray the female I decide dies with silver thiosulfate to cause male flowers. The above "male" had female pre-flowers 3 weeks ago.
I tag the bud I'm pollinating. Once I'm sure I have seeds growing I bag the male, the job is done. Trying to collect as much pollen as possible and trying to keep it viable as long as possible is more for breeding programs. I just want affordable seeds. With 40 feminized seeds I can't imagine me needing to make seeds for that variety again.

While pollen traveling long distance is possible (I think they say 10 miles between marijuana and hemp fields based on outdoor CO experience) the extremes you hear about (350 miles) are extreme not the usual.
Odds are there's a male cannabis plant growing wild within everyone's safe radius. The wind would have to be perfect and prolonged to send a cloud of pollen from one plant for miles to turn a field into garbage. The 70's and 80's brick weed was because of males or hermies in the fields not plants far away.
If you were going to grow a male you would do it inside, collect pollen and brush the bud you want seeds from. You wouldn't just grow a male with your females outdoors and let them have free love like a bunch of hippies or you would get what everyone fears and risk local farms. Breeders may do that (indoors) but what are you going to do with thousands of seeds?
How do the outdoor recreational pros keep bananas that are bound to happen when keeping a field of unpollinated females alive to amber trichomes from pollinating your grow? You're throwing a dart at their big target, they're throwing many boulders at a lot of little homegrow targets.

IL doesn't allow outdoor marijuana for the pros (or medical but many are twisting the law to say they can, and I've heard of some letting a male go outdoors, people are stupid). The pros should have hepa for intakes, besides ditch weed pollen IL has a lot of powdery mildew, bud rot and fusarium and our allowed sprays are few and organic.
I'm not sure if hemp has to be indoor in IL but I've only seen it under hoop houses. I've also heard of claims of marijuana pollen jeopardizing the poor hemp farmers, but I really don't think it works like that unless the hemp farmers are saving seeds. Most want proven genetics so the govt doesn't come in and burn their year's work.
The farm belt has so much ditch weed growing everywhere I suspect the fears of homegrowers and pollen is played up by the antis to get whatever restrictions they can.
When I lived in IA once I started looking for it there was wild weed everywhere. Around here you have to get off the main roads but then it's everywhere too.

 

[truthbedamned]

While pollen traveling long distance is possible (I think they say 10 miles between marijuana and hemp fields based on outdoor CO experience) the extremes you hear about (350 miles) are extreme not the usual.

I have commercial growers within a mile of my house.

 

[Myk]

I have commercial growers within a mile of my house.

That must be nice to smell all the time.

Outdoors and ignored that could be a problem (for them). But don't you also have escaped guerrilla grows, hemp from the 40s and seeds thrown out along the road?
It's been many millions (or billions) of dollars and they haven't been able to eradicate wild weed, and most of what they spend that money on is 80 year old hemp populations that keep coming back. Virtually everyone in the US not in a big city has ditch weed growing somewhere near them.

Inside, when I say I saw pollen sucked up into my fan I saw specs not clouds. Let's say 10 possible seeds worth but probably less. How many landed on the blanket where the fan is blowing and stayed there? How many stayed suspended in my house air to get taken down the hall, and then stuck around 1 of 2 possible doors to get out? And then it had to catch an air current that just happened to find a field to land in.
As volatile as pollen is I guarantee none of that pollen is still viable and hiding in my ducts waiting to pollinate my plants (as I've heard dire warnings about). I'm not even sure if the bagged male's pollen is still viable since it wasn't frozen, even if it was frozen that was long enough ago it probably wouldn't be good (I keep forgetting to chop it up for the compost).

I showed you the picture of the male flowers on my bud. Young male flowers plucked and carried to the female box to throw their pollen. The extra seeds in that grow have been rare.
If that method of pollinating didn't cause me a bunch of seeds a plant a mile away may cause seeds but it's not going to be like the 70's where 25%-50% of your bag weight was seeds.

 

[Myk]

I have no clue how this works since I'm not crossing and this isn't really a male. I trust that the breeder knows their stuff and if they haven't fixed phenotypes I'm not going to change anything drastically. But this is the best looking "male" I've seen and the smell is great (the female smells but it's just average weed smell). This plant was comparatively runted but I've seen that before with when transferring 3 day old seedlings, a tiny bit difference in tap root ends up being a week behind.
The last one I tried to get both "male" and female clones from the same desired phenotype but think I failed and the breeder even described the different phenotypes so I figure that one won't see any improvement.
I haven't even tried this variety and this "male" has me looking forward to regrowing from the seeds I make.




She's all thinned out. I may still do more defoliating but it's pretty clean underneath of leaves and future popcorn. I don't know that cleaning out leaves higher will do anything beneficial, they'll get replace by other leaves high up to shade. If these buds are like the last one this won't be enough thinning. Oh well, the first pancake always sticks, 2nd runs are always better.
This is how you SCROG without the SCR.

 

[RacerX]

My 420 Homeys, need your counsel.

I am thinking of planting and growing in 2021, to that end -

1. Can you recommend a source for ordering seeds?
2. any pro tips on germinating?
3. what is the optimal month/time to plant (Bay Area)?

TYIA

 

[Myk]

My 420 Homeys, need your counsel.

I am thinking of planting and growing in 2021, to that end -

1. Can you recommend a source for ordering seeds?
2. any pro tips on germinating?
3. what is the optimal month/time to plant (Bay Area)?

TYIA

1. If you have a preferred variety find the breeder if it's modern. IL cultivators have a bad habit of changing names so that can take some research. Finding Gobbstopper was made by AlphaKroniK was easy. Figuring out Orange Herijuana is actually Ethos Mandarin Sunset was something I just lucked into (and still not positive that's true). AlphaKroniK sells direct and has official outlets. Ethos only has outlets. Finding MediHaze is CBD Guys was easy, finding their official outlets was depressing.
AlphaKroniK breeds a lot of Crohn's varieties like Cronuts (clone only so no seeds) so I figured they were worthy of trying other unknown to me varieties. AlphaKronic is all I've ordered from so far, they've been perfect, it takes a while to grow through them growing one plant at a time.

If you want old classics probably I Love Growing Marijuana, or if you want to risk customs snatching it Seedsman. Seedsman is the only official outlet for MediHaze from CBD Guys so I'll have to eventually risk that if I don't find a low THC variety I like domestic. A US supplier is always more reliable, customs will take it if they find it. With hemp legal seeds are claimed to be hemp because they have no THC, importing seeds is never allowed unless certified.
The classics from EU (and really anywhere) are sketchy. What cannabis calls seed banks aren't what the rest of the world calls seed banks so you may or may not get what you're expecting. (For instance, Seedsman has Cronuts seeds, which don't exist, did they seed Cronuts or are they calling a random variety Cronuts to sell seeds? The same goes about if they're lying about Acapulco Gold, are they lying to make a sale or did someone keep the variety alive for 60 years.)

Don't dispensaries sell seeds and clones in CA? If you can try it and then buy a clone of it that would be the way. Clones are a risk of introducing bugs and disease. Isolate and observe or spray if you're OK with that.

2. Total newb plant grower? Probably paper towel method but that doesn't work for me so I can't suggest how to do it.
Whatever works for you to grow peppers or tomatoes will work for weed. I use Jiffy Mix. Soak the mix once and they usually sprout before drying out.
I do not recommend soaking seeds under water but that's my own "seemed like sense" learning not from experience. Many swear by it.

3. Find local advice. The closer to you the better. I'm not sure of your dispensary situation. Cultivators here are not selling seeds, some dispensaries won't. My dispensary would (CO sister store does) and they've had write ups about how to grow and would probably have classes if the cultivators ever stop trying to corner the market all to themselves.

 

[truthbedamned]

My 420 Homeys, need your counsel.

I am thinking of planting and growing in 2021, to that end -

1. Can you recommend a source for ordering seeds?
2. any pro tips on germinating?
3. what is the optimal month/time to plant (Bay Area)?

TYIA

1 Seedsman
2. Put the seed in a glass of water and wait for the seed to pop. Always works unless it is a bad seed.
3. March.......Plant will be 6-8 foot at least by October

 

[Myk]

1 Seedsman

How do you pay, CC?
Do they have good sprouting rates so 5 would be enough or should I get 10?

I already know Chicago customs sucks (or at least they did before we went legal, hopefully the local employees have backed off being zealots and didn't get worse with legal).

 

[truthbedamned]

How do you pay, CC?
Do they have good sprouting rates so 5 would be enough or should I get 10?

I already know Chicago customs sucks (or at least they did before we went legal, hopefully the local employees have backed off being zealots and didn't get worse with legal).

Seedsman seeds are the highest quality I have gotten. Yes...they take CC. And have had 100 percent sprouting. Be careful though......you never know what the seeds will arrive in. One time it was a pair of gardening gloves and the next time they were in the bottom of a bottle of aspirin. Almost threw the gloves in the garbage.I have bought some Blue Dream seeds from an outfit in Santa Rosa Ca. but they insist on money orders. Stay away from places like ILGM as you have no idea where the seeds are coming from. I bought from them and was disappointed in quality and result..

I was hit and miss on germinating until I started using the water glass method. So far it has been 99 percent effective. I did have some failures from some seeds we bought in Alaska. But those were 9.00 for 10 seeds. You get my drift.