AK Auto (RQS) x (Medical Mass x White Rhino)

[aliceklar]

Aiming to make my own autos using 3 AK47 Autos from Royal Queen Seeds as the mother, hit by pollen from my F1 Medical Mass (RQS) x White Rhino (MSNL) as the father. Recently chopped the AKs as they were starting to drop seed. All three were planted straight into a 3 litre pot with compost amended with blood fish and bone meal, and some kelp meal. Minimal feeding. Grown under some 17 watt LEDs on a 17 hour light cycle.

 

[aliceklar]

Buds and Seeds, stage 2

Buds and Seeds, stage 2



The 3 AKs grew relatively well considering they were crowded in a small pot and under weak lights. Some good frostiness and sweet smelling - noted that the buds seemed sparse and large - would like to select for smaller denser flowers.



Seeds were started on 27th November 2020, and plants chopped on 4th February 2021.



Lots of seed produced - interesting to see a wide variation in seed size and colour. Most of the seed is still on the plants, hanging to dry - so I will definitely collect seed separately to see if seed size/shape/colour is the same for each plant. One of the original AK seeds was significantly smaller than the other two.

View image in gallery​

Next step is to grow out the F1s - where I expect a whole heap of variation (and no autoflowers) because the father was also an F1, between two photoperiod strains. May be a while before I get to growing these out but I wanted to start documenting this now - long term project. Will select for effect, form and health in the F1, and then expect to find 25% autoflowers in the F2, and will take the line forward from that.

 

[zif]

This is going to be fun watch!

Those girls set some very healthy looking seed.

I’m curious how you decided on 17/7 for lighting.

Did you save any pollen for future backcrosses to the photo, or are you planning to just keep working forward from here?

 

[aliceklar]

This is going to be fun watch!

Those girls set some very healthy looking seed.

I’m curious how you decided on 17/7 for lighting.

Did you save any pollen for future backcrosses to the photo, or are you planning to just keep working forward from here?

17/7 wasnt a deliberate choice for the autos - it just happens to be what I'm using in my veg cabinet. [off topic] I had the main flower area on 11/13 because of the Johaar, and was worried that this wouldnt be enough light for the auto, so I moved it into veg, where there was a bit more space. I think I'd reduced the veg area from 18 to 17 hours light ages back when it was getting too hot in there and I figured I could safely shave an hour off with little difference apart from using less energy. My clone mums are in there, too. [/off topic]

I didnt save any MMxWR pollen, but I am working the Medical Mass x White Rhino line forward too, and once I have a stable auto, might backcross a male auto to the best MMxWR F2 or F3. Long term project... My goal here isnt to get a regular AK auto line, but to get my own regular autos - that I can then use to make other reg auto lines. An auto Johaar would be cool - then it would be possible to grow it outside at my northerly location.

At this point Im happy to just explore and see how it goes... I tend to pollinate a little of everything with whatever decent looking males I have going, document everything, see how I like the smoke, and then choose which seed lines to take forward.

 

[aliceklar]

Seeds sorted by plant

Seeds sorted by plant

View image in gallery​

So, yeah, there are some differences between the seeds taken from the 3 plants. Not the best picture sorry but A are larger and greyer, B and C are smaller with B more of a dark grey and C browner.

 

[zif]

Getting those NLDs to finish far from the equator is such a fun idea.

Love the improvisational approach. =)

 

[aliceklar]

Planted 60 seeds of AKauto x (MMxWR):

20 each of A, B, & C lines, in 5 7cm pots per line, with 4 seeds to each pot. Mix of pasteurised peat free organic compost with c 50% perlite.

Aiming to grow out 6 healthiest F1 females to produce healthy F2 seed preserving the diversity in the 3 original maternal AKauto seed lines. Will select on early emergence, male scent & flower form, earliness of female flowering - and best 2 females from each line will contribute seed. This run is really just to make the F2 asap - the 25% autoflowers will appear in the next generation.

Will initially select down to healthiest plant per pot (selecting on early emergence and vigour), pot the females into 1 litre pots. use most aromatic healthy male in each line to pollinate the healthiest, early flowering females.

 

[bibi40]

Any pics , please, bro or sist ...

 

[zif]

How much veg time are you planning?

 

[aliceklar]

Wow... the photo interface is a mess now! Annoying. Anyway... I've attached what I've managed to upload.

First emergence was 7th Oct. Currently 100cm under a sf1000 QB on 18hr light cycle. Have already culled a couple of unhealthy looking ones that had problems with escaping the seed. Pics below are from the 8th Oct - lots of growth today - will take some more pics. Love the rapid stage where they are changing hour on hour

zif I'm planning minimal veg time - I'm not topping or training them, and will keep the pots small. I dont aim to bulk these up for bud production, just want to get to the F2 seed asap, so as soon as they look viable they are gonna get flipped.

 

[aliceklar]

100% germination, and I've started thinning down.

 

[aliceklar]

All growing well, and lots more obvious non-contenders culled. There were a few cells where it was a no-brainer and one plant was stand-out, but there are lots now where its down to two per cell - I imagine they're eying each other nervously... Tough to choose.

Will give them another few days before I do the final cull - time for early champs to slow down and slower germing seeds to take off, or other attractive or unwanted traits to manifest. Have been deliberately keeping some of the plants that germinated later, as well as many of the shorter plants - dont want to inadvertently cull all the females... and want to preserve as many phenos as I can, as I'm planning to inbreed these a few generations as well as using them in other auto projects, so want to get plenty of material to explore (inc from the Medical Mass grandmother & White Rhino grandfather). Fun times.

 

[aliceklar]

One of the reasons I didnt immediately cull all the shorter plants, and select only for the early, tall, plants, is that I really dislike having to support seedlings - I prefer them to be strong enough to stand up by themselves, so upright seedling vigour is a definite selection goal. A few of the taller ones have started to lean over, but their leaves are turned to present to the light, which is a good sign. If any fall over, thats it - they are out of the race!

Light now c 50cm above the plant-tops, having incrementally moved down over the past few days to reduce stretching.

 

[aliceklar]

Initial culling done. Down to one plant per pot (apart from the C3 twins - decided to keep both - so 16 total). Have top-dressed them with a richer compost mix with a little bonemeal, and will wait until their roots have filled out. Next step then will be potting up to 1 litre pots. No topping or training.

 

[aliceklar]

Growing rapidly now - had to space them out on the tray to prevent crowding. The new flower space (under construction) can take two of these trays neatly, so once I've potted these up into 1litre pots & they've bulked up sufficiently, thats where they'll go.

Distinct vein patterning on the first true leaves - lots of them are showing a large gap with the 3rd-5th veins widely spaced and some not quite reaching the leaf edge - makes a kind of arrowhead pattern. Noticed that the Medical Mass x White Rhino father, and the Medical Mass grandmother, both also had this trait.

Looking at Cheesebuds AK47 auto grow, the 1st true leaves of this also show similar vein pattern, so maybe its also from the AK47. Or maybe its just a v common trait of young weed leaves. Hadnt noticed it before now. Sadly didnt get any good quality pics of my AK47 auto mothers' first true leaves.

 

[aliceklar]

OK, can anyone advise? The AKxMMWR F1 babies are starting to look a little yellow compared to the other plants I'm also growing (first pic, AKMMWR are on the right). Some of them are also showing dead patches and a little warping and crispiness on the older leaves. Any ideas? They are in tiny pots, with a very sparse compost mix (below the top dressing its about 50% perlite) so I was wondering if they were just getting hungry. Time for some feed? Is it too early to put them on into something meatier?

 

[zif]

Looking hungry to me. Maybe acidic soil? Is the mix just perlite and compost?

 

[aliceklar]

Looking hungry to me. Maybe acidic soil? Is the mix just perlite and compost?

Thanks Zif - yeah, its just a mix of perlite and compost (I did top-dress with a richer compost mix that included a little bonemeal, but tiny amounts and I doubt it has made much difference). The compost should be neutral... (its a reasonable quality one) and my tap-water is super-hard (I amend it with a little citric acid) - I normally struggle with keeping the PH down...

Am going to try to repot some and see whether that helps. There are some roots showing through at the base of the pots, so hopefully there'll be big enough to transplant.

 

[aliceklar]

All potted on into 1 litre pots. They were ready! I took the opportunity to pot on the rest of the plants too, which were a few days behind this batch.

 

[zif]

Roots are looking good!