A blue berry breeding project

  • Thread starter bigbagofbuds
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

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I am starting my first breeding project and wanted to document it here so that more experienced breeders can comment on how I can improve my practices.

The goal of the project is 2 fold. I want to produce more seeds that will carry the berry aromas with good bud and plant structure. I also want to take the best male plant and cross it out to some autoflower varieties. The goal of the out crossing is to find the best pairing for the berry terpenes and to eventually be line bred into autoflowering varieties.

My plan is to veg 15 blueberry seeds to 30 days, switch to flower, day 15 conduct stem rubs and cull least favourable plants (ensuring 1 male survives), then cull males based on plant structure, day 30 cull females based on plant and bud structure.

I figure if I start with 15, get 9 females and 6 males, half pass the smell test leaving 3 males and 5 females, half of those pass the bud and plant structure test leaving 1 or 2 males and 2 or 3 females.

The blueberry plants were germinated September 27th and emerged September 29th. Here they are today at almost 2 weeks, all but number 13 survived. They are currently living in half gallon pots of promix mixed with dry ammendments. I plan to transplant and maybe give a week of veg before flipping to flower.
A blue berry breeding project

A blue berry breeding project 2


I will be out crossing to Mango Smile, Fugue State, Hubbabubbahaze, and Strawberry Nuggets for the autoflower varieties. I plan to start these seeds in about a months time.
 
bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
3 weeks from emerging update. Things are going well, seeing a bit of deficiencies in one or two plants but thats likely due to my lazy re-ammending of the medium. I plan to transplant soon and cull the 3 weekest plants for space reasons.

Im thinking of the following plants on the potential cull list:
# 12 (last photo, back row, right)
# 6 (last photo, back row, 2nd from right)
# 15 (last photo, back row, 3rd from right)
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Day 28 4 week update. I found out too late that I had fewer 1 gallon pots than I thought and so I have changed my plan to accommodate. Instead of transplanting to 1 gallons I have conducted stem rubs and will be transplanting 8 to 3 gallon containers. I will be transplanting this weekend and vegging for a week or two before the flip depending on growth rates once the roots get going.

This was the distribution on stem rubs
3 with great deep berry smells
7 with lime and a hint of berry
4 with skunk and a hint of lime or berry
I kept all the berry forward plants and the strongest smelling 5 of the lime and berry plants.

These are the cull plants
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These are the keepers
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Transplanted today into 3 gallon pots.
Sitting at 75f 50%rh 500 ppfd CO2 ~1000ppm
Plan is to top in a few days, veg for 2 weeks, increase ppfd by 100 each week, enter flower at 700ppfd, increase by 100 each week until 1400ppfd, harvest after 8 to 10 weeks flower.
I will be starting the auto flowers I plan to cross with soon, I have to wait for tent space and would like a confirmed male in my blueberry plants.

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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Topped a few days back and cleaned up the growth nodes to the top 4.
Sitting at 75f 50%rh ~600 ppfd CO2 ~1000ppm
Looking to switch to flower in about a week after the new growth points start to really push through.
Plants are looking like they are enjoying the properly ammended medium they were transplanted into, new growth looks healthy.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Plants are growing fast!
59% RH 79F 1000pm CO2 ~600ppfd
Ive given 2 foliar sprays of neem oil to combat some thrips that hitched a ride on a nursery plant last month. Ive introduced predatory insects a few days after the neem spray to clean up what may be left.

Ive started to tie down the tops as they extend in hopes of evening out the canopy. I will be flipping to flower early next week/in the coming days.

One plant (first photo top right by the fan) appears to be showing an iron toxicity, I have watered with CalMag once or twice in the past which likely caused it. I have been watering with mostly PHed water but occasionally add kelp, humic acids, mollasses, and microbes. I wont be adding any CalMag to the water any time soon. But I do plan to lightly top dress in 2 weeks, I think I overdid it with the ammendments when I transplanted as I see a bit of nitrogen claw coming in as well as the deep shade of green in the leaves.

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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Day 5 of flower update
60%RH 75f 700ppfd
Humidity is getting high, will be bringing in my dehumidifier this weekend to get that under control.
Plants are starting to really stretch, I cleaned up the lower canopy and removed any growth points that wont make it to the top third of the plant by the time its done. I also did a light defoliation as needed to open up the canopy to more light.
Ive spotted at least 2 males, and 1 female.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Day 9 flower update
55% RH 75f ~750ppfd
The dehumidifier is doing its job, humidity is bouncing between 50 and 55%, I will be dropping the humidity lower as flowering progresses.
I will be moving the males to their own tent this weekend after harvesting and cleaning up the tent.
I plan to take individual plant photos this weekend as well to share. There are 2 males and 6 females. I will likely be culling 1 male and 2 females based on plant structure, these plants seem to be taller with more stretch/longer internode spacing and I prefer my plants to be self supporting.
Join me this weekend to let me know if you think I am making good choices, I will include photos and my reasoning.
I aslo plan to top dress this weekend as the plants hit mid week 2 of flower.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
I rearranged the pots to better setup the lights, you can now clearly see the difference between the groups.

Males on left, tall femals on left, short females on right.

Will be moving the females to my other tent and keep the males in this tent until I decide to cull one and start pollinating. Better plant structure photos coming soon!

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FOE20

FOE20

Maestro Loco
Supporter
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143
Curious to see how this plays out for you...your plan is well thought out and hope you get some keepers...Can I ask whos Blue lines your running from?...
Plus you seem to have a few diff pheno types and Id treat each one like their own type till you feel them out...Blues hold multiple pheno types and many variations in all aspects of traits, terps and forms...
Finding both euphoric and nice strong effect profiles would be the 1st job...2nd being terp quality....Forms can change by enviro so long as Potency is the main facto0r it hard to go wrong..
Cause if you dont get a real stand out BBerry type, least what you'll have will be potent and worth further effort...
My fave phenos are Sat leaning Candy Store types with very Heady effects and incredible sweet candy BBerry smell n flav....
Ive grown 100s of Blue lines so always down to listen to some good Blues!...power to it
FOE20
 
bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Curious to see how this plays out for you...your plan is well thought out and hope you get some keepers...Can I ask whos Blue lines your running from?...
Plus you seem to have a few diff pheno types and Id treat each one like their own type till you feel them out...Blues hold multiple pheno types and many variations in all aspects of traits, terps and forms...
Finding both euphoric and nice strong effect profiles would be the 1st job...2nd being terp quality....Forms can change by enviro so long as Potency is the main facto0r it hard to go wrong..
Cause if you dont get a real stand out BBerry type, least what you'll have will be potent and worth further effort...
My fave phenos are Sat leaning Candy Store types with very Heady effects and incredible sweet candy BBerry smell n flav....
Ive grown 100s of Blue lines so always down to listen to some good Blues!...power to it
FOE20
This is the Pure Blueberry from Jordan of the Islands BC Canada.

Im really trying to just get some more seed stock to really do a proper job selecting through to find something really special to cross out later on.

Unfortunately I dont have the space at the moment to maintain clones. Im interested to see what I will get in the end and Im okay with lower THC if the terpenes and plant structure are there. The fear of missing out is always there but I find it hard to justify the space for clones when I have so many seeds. Eventually I am hoping to expand enough to maintain more projects on the go.

Im thinking I made not cull the the taller female plants and instead pollinate lower branches and keep things labelled well enough that I can reserve the final selection for after I have tested the flowers. You comments on the variability make me wonder.
 
bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Things are looking a little unstable on the male side, will be separating the plants tomorrow and ill let the males grow a bit more to confirm they are unstable.
They are small and hard to see but I think I definitely see pistils on one male and maybe some on the other.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
I culled both males, unfortunately both were unstable and so I didnt want to start my project on the wrong foot. I will be documenting the rest of the grow here and getting things lined up for the next project.

Next project is a seed run and pheno test of Indian Landrace Exchange's Zanjeer (landrace collected from Zabul province Afghanistan). I have 12 of these seeds which I will be growing, cloning, testing, and finally producing seeds. The goal of the next project is to produce more seeds for future work (terpene profile is supposed to be an interesting one), and find phenos with more balanced cannabinoid profiles that I can then work further into more stablized varieties.
 
bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
Day 16 of flower
75f 55rh ~800ppfd
Buds are starting to develop nicely, will likely do a final pruning this weekend to remove the growth nodes that arent going to make quality bud. Not too much of that stuff left but I noticed a branch here and there today and one or two plants need to be thinned a bit in the middle to allow the growth points to properly develop.

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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
End of day 20 of flower
75f 50rh ~900ppfd
Ppfd was increased to ~900 today for the start of week 3 of flowering. Relative humidity was reduced to 50% as we enter mid flower.
I trimmed up a few errant leaves and bud sites but things are looking pretty good. I could trim more but I am too lazy too at the moment since the dehumidifier is working its magic and the tent has 3 fans for airflow not including intake and exhaust.
I wish the male plants were more stable because these plants are starting to look nice.
At first I wasnt impressed with the plants that stretched more, however as you will see they are stacking budsites nicely. I may have to rethink my future plant atructure desires, but we will see how they hold up in late flower.
The Zanjeer seeds are in the ground now, I am just waiting for them to pop their heads up any day now.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
End of day 28
75f 50rh ~1000ppfd
Increased the ppfd today to around 1000.
Found pollen sacs on 1 of the females a few days ago, pruned them off and I havent seen any return, this strain isnt very stable.
I will be top dressing for the last time next week.
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bigbagofbuds

bigbagofbuds

306
93
End of day 36
75f 50rh ~1100ppfd
I increased the ppfd and top dressed over the weekend.
I will be starting to drop the humidity as the buds are starting to really get going.
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