Growing from seed regularly - what's the best plan?

[FastForward]

I don't have the space to keep mothers, so I'm growing perpetually from seed.

The problem is the same that everyone else faces who doesn't use femmed seeds: how do you manage unsexed plants and space effectively?

I know it's better to select a good female, mother it, and then clone away - but is there any better way than say, planting all 10 seeds, treating them all equally, flowering them at 6-12" tall, irrespective of pre-flowers, and then pulling out the males?

I don't want to repot 10 plants into 10l pots, with all that coco and nutes, and to care for males as if they were females...only to kill them.

If I leave them too long and they don't show gender and get above 10-12" I face major height issues if the strain has any stretchiness.

Any ideas? Better ways?

 

[Zoolander]

The thing with coco is that you can keep them in smaller pots for a longer time so you could keep them in 16 to 20 oz cups and then transplant once they show sex . If they start to get to tall before they show sex just bend them over and tie the top down like a mini LST

 

[ProGroWannabe]

Good idea Zoo. Also, FF it's really not as big of a deal as one might think. Especially if you keep them in small containers, because they won't be using very much in the way of nutes and water. When you find males, pick the best one and isolate him and a female to make more seeds if ya want, or just kill him. Plus, your coco is totally reusable. Just rinse it with 4-5 times the amount of water to the amount of coco and your good to use it again whenever you need it. I keep my extra coco in a Rubbermaid tub till I need it.

 

[grizz]

one thing I have noticed is that if you use t5 lights thet stay shorter, busher and sex faster I agree with zoo also about the smaller pots untill they sex..

 

[FastForward]

What size pot do you think they could stay in until sexed? 3.5l? 1.7l? I was worried because the rhizotonic gives such amazing root growth that they grow loads of roots out of the bottom of my starter cups within days, and when I've transplanted them they've been quite heavily rootbound. I've got them all in 4l pots right now and will wait until they show sex...but if they don't do it soon (i.e. within about 2 weeks) they'll have to go into flower anyway....

 

[FastForward]

p.s. i've not wanted to do any seed runs because I'm scared i'll pollinate my women. How easy is it to accidentally impregnant the girls? When I see photos of breeders doing it they COVER the plant in pollen but I hear horror stories of a single pollen sac ruining an entire room.

Could I dedicate one tent to breeding and if I'm moderately careful washing my hands, manage to keep it away from the girls in my prop and flower rooms??

 

[GDaze]

why not just keep a mum plant if you've another tent?
would make it all a lot easier, you could pollinate away from your tent, let the pollen set, rinse off and put the seeded plants back into bloom once dried, would keep your numbers down too as you wouldn't always need start seeds etc :flower

 

[ProGroWannabe]

FF, whether you decide to use the males or not is totally up to you. I was just thinkin since ya had em........why not. And with our gov'ts trying to crackdown on seeds, it might be a good idea to stock up, ya know?

Anyhow, I've had pollen mishaps. Most of us have. The best strategy to avoid them IMO, is to ALWAYS work your sensimila crop first....then work with the males after that.

Explanation: This is so much easier with two spaces..one for sensi, one for breeding. Each day make sure that you have ALL your work done on the sensi room before you even think about going into the "seed room". This way, any pollen that may get on your clothes, hair, shoes, etc...won't be getting into your sensi crop.

You CAN use one space, but one space usually means an accidental pollenation at some point. I bred some Mandala Speed Queen once. After isolating the males, and after the pollen began to drop, I pollenated the intended female. I let the female absorb the pollen for several hours, then rinsed her off LIBERALLY with a spray bottle of water. After placing her n front of a fan for a couple more hours, she went back into the bud room. You guessed it!!.........still got cross-pollentation to unintended females.

So, I think two spaces is far better in my mind.

 

[FastForward]

why not just keep a mum plant if you've another tent?
would make it all a lot easier, you could pollinate away from your tent, let the pollen set, rinse off and put the seeded plants back into bloom once dried, would keep your numbers down too as you wouldn't always need start seeds etc :flower

Ideally I'll do it your way...keep a mum...run clones...do some breeding. However, I'm new to this and LOVING the fact I can grow whatever I want, so I'm after the perfect buzz :) (name me one person here who isn't!)

In search of the perfect buzz I can't settle down with one or two mothers just yet. I need to grow out a load of different flavours and see what rules my world (one daytime tasty, one evening stoner) - and then run those from mothers regularly to keep me in smoke.

Also, I turned my mother tent into a flowering room to help speed up the process of discovery - but it will revert back to a mother tent when I'm decided on what to mother.

 

[FastForward]

Anyhow, I've had pollen mishaps. Most of us have. The best strategy to avoid them IMO, is to ALWAYS work your sensimila crop first....then work with the males after that.

Thanks PGW. I'm deadly scared of that, and if things go to plan I should have enough weed to see me good for 3-4 months shortly. If that happens I may start using a tent for breeding but tbh I'm more likely to just carry on trying different strains until I find what I'm looking for.

FastForward Haze will happen one day though :)

 

[BC_Bud]

Hey FF, I believe that the main reason we all grow seeds is to find that special plant (and keep it for as long as we can or until we find a better replacement). In order to do that, you gotta keep at least one or two rooted clones of each plant until the buds are dried, cured and smoked, cuz only on the final step will you be able to decide which are keepers or tossers.

Like Zoo suggested, it's really easy to maintain many plants in 16-20oz cups under some fluorescent lights. You can even make some boxes just to keep these clones with rubbermaid containers and the like. And if you barely feed them or don't feed them at all if in soil - but take good care of them - they will grow slowly enough to be good for the next round :flower

Remember this: The worse thing that can happen is you not have a clone of your favorite plant after the buds are cured and tasty. You will deeply regret not having kept some clones... because you never know how many more seeds you will have to top to find that special one again (if at all).

Good luck.

BC

 

[Trillion]

Yeah but if you dont take clones you might be smoking something after harvwest that you can never get back...

 

[FastForward]

I hear ya....but I just don't have the space to take cuts of everything I'm going to be smoking....I'm going to have to be happy with some pheno differences, but that's the shortfall...not so bad....

 

[Zoolander]

You can keep them in the cups for 6 weeks or a bit longer and most strains will show sex in that time , Just make sure you always flush around every third watering to avoid salt build up and a unhealthy root zone.

 

[grizz]

also revegging is a option when mom searching, I used to take cuts of all my females before flowering but it just was to space and time consuming, so now I just flower them out and when I find a good one revegg it, the t5"s are good for this to..

 

[Solidopc]

How come you're against using fem seeds FF? All the pics i posted in my diary apart from the ukcheese were from fem seeds. Really fantastic bud all of them, and no wasting space on males.

When i do grow reg seeds. I keep them all in 5 litre square pots i bought off ebay until they are sexxed, and only repot them females, plus i'll use the soil from the 5 litre pots with males aswell. Just shake it all off the roots and stick it in.

You can reuse coco too, so i think you'd be good in 5 litre pots then reuse the coco if you really dont want to try fem seeds.

If you want my advice, i'd grab some fems, so you know exactly how many females you are going to get. White Label are good, GH fems have allways been good to me, but my favourite by far is Sweetseeds who do the black jack, sweet afghani, jack47 and more, plus they are mega cheap. Paradise and Dinafem are also good.

The only bad experience i've ever had with fem seeds are from Mendocinos CH9 Flowers. I planted two seeds straight into 12 litre pots as i've never so much as had a hermie from a fem seed before. But one of the plants was a total male. Not a hermie, a full bollocked male. Screwed my timing a bit on the perpetual. The next seed was a female, but it's made me a bit nervous about planting anymore of them. So i got some sweetseeds jack47 and a sweetseeds mixed pack of black jack, sweet affie and phsychodelicia.

 

[FastForward]

How come you're against using fem seeds FF? All the pics i posted in my diary apart from the ukcheese were from fem seeds. Really fantastic bud all of them, and no wasting space on males.

I'm not really against them, but it really limits choice - and most of the stuff I want isn't femmed.

When i do grow reg seeds. I keep them all in 5 litre square pots i bought off ebay until they are sexxed, and only repot them females, plus i'll use the soil from the 5 litre pots with males aswell. Just shake it all off the roots and stick it in.

You can reuse coco too, so i think you'd be good in 5 litre pots then reuse the coco if you really dont want to try fem seeds.

I need to start re-using my coco instead of chucking it in the garden compost pile....because I'm running out of room and money! Will do...mate came over and said I should buy a large rubbermaid tote to keep used coco in, and give it a coating of cannazym to break down old rootmass.

Thanks for the advice....but I really can't go down the femmed route. Got some femmed seeds going now (G13 Haze) but only because I really wanted to grow it out and they were available femmed. I can't limit my search for the perfect buzz you see :)

Reusing coco will at least allow me to repot the stuff into 6.5 or 11l pots and then reuse the coco from the males....that's gotta be the best compromise for the time being....thanks :)

 

[ProGroWannabe]

.........mate came over and said I should buy a large rubbermaid tote to keep used coco in, .........

That's exactly what I do FF. I don't have the cannazyme to put in with it, but I do keep my used coco in a Rubbermaid tub. Works all too well.

 

[Solidopc]

Thanks for the advice....but I really can't go down the femmed route. Got some femmed seeds going now (G13 Haze) but only because I really wanted to grow it out and they were available femmed. I can't limit my search for the perfect buzz you see

I understand what you're saying. But it's also a bit contradictory. There are some strains you can only get in fem variety. Granted they may not be the ones you really want to grow. But if you don't want to limit the search for the perfect buzz, you shouldn't discount fems or regs, but embrace both.

The Sweetseeds Black Jack is one of the best smokes i've ever had, and cannot be got in reg form. Easy to clone, tangy fruit punch smell and haze bite to the taste.

Just saying man. There are some great fem strains that might just be your perfect buzz aswell as strains from reg seeds.

Good luck anyway in your hunt.

 

[Brendarn]

I might try Fem seeds, just because I don't have very much room, to grow out males only to have to get rid of them. It's a bummer to be limited by space.

B