Diary 2023 on the Chernozem: Zacateca Tribute and PCK crosses

[yoss33]

Hey there!
I'll use this thread as a grow diary for my outdoor adventure this 2023 season. The place is at 44 degrees north, on the Balkans, with semi-mediteranean, semi-continental climate, with relatively dry autumns. The soil is fertile black, called chernozem by the locals, hence the name of the thread.

The plan is to grow 3 plants:
1 x Zacateca Tribute (regular seeds, Green Mountain Seeds)
1 x Purple Mexican x Pakistan Chitral Kush (regular, own cross, PM from Cannabiogen, PCK from Ace Seeds)
1 x China Yunnan x Pakistan Chitral Kush (regular, own cross, both from Ace Seeds)

Also planning to make some crosses, in case I get (good) males. I started more seeds in oder to select my 3 females to grow outdoors and to have some females and males for the crosses. Also started some seeds from Kullu Valley (regular, Khalifa Genetics) and a Purple Mexican clone, both to be used in the making of seeds.
So, 8 ZT, 5 PM x PCK, 2 CY x PCK, 4 Kullus and 1 PM fem clone in total.
My main goal in making seeds is to cross Kullu to something early in order to bring its flowering time down but keep the sativa high. Also hoping to have 2 different ZT males (one BSHW dominant and one Oaxaca dominant) in order to make F2 seeds with similar females and so to have more-BSHW and more-Oaxacan F2s.
So far, the PCK crosses are lagging, but this was expected as PCK is a slow starter and the Purple Mexican mother that I keep a clone of was also a slow starter. The Zacatecas had some issues with sprouting, all of them eventually did, but 4 out of 8 sprouted later, with deformed cotyledons and first leaves.

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[Creeperpark]

This will be fun friend. I'm going to ride with you for while I love Ace seeds.

 

[Perdido]

Hallo Yoss
I grow at the Danube too, just at 48°. I always thought how cool it would be to grow in Serbia or Ex-Yugoslawia because of your climate. Mid November is often foggy and wet in Vienna/Bec where I grow.
This year I have some late Sativas and the Zacatecas Tribute.
Will be fun watching how yours are doing and compare. Hope you let us know when flowering sets in and such things AND that everything survives.
Срећно

Aaah Sorry, Bulgaria I just read.

Късмет

 

[flower~power]

I’m watching… all from N.Y. USA

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Very cool, nice selections. I'm an Ace Seeds fan too. Will follow, and best of luck.

UB

 

[yoss33]

Thank you for the interest, people! I'm sure that at some point as the plants grow big enough in their outdoor spots, it will all become much more entertaining to the eye. A few more weeks and I'll transplant outdoors, sometime in the second half of April.
Hey, @Perdido , it'll be great to compare the Zacatecas growing up and down the Danube You are welcome to post photos here!
Mid November is generally the start of foggy and bad weather here too. But we usually get relatively dry autumn till then, so only the true tropical sativas like Oldtimer's Haze and Thais have no chances. This season I'm growing only quick flowering strains, so I won't need much luck, worrying only for two-legged predators...
An update from the growbox:
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Here are 2 of the 4 more vigorous (and early sprouted) Zacs, that are more "sativa" in leaf shape and both have their vegging tops smell hashy (and a bit catpiss), let's call them #1 and #2:
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And here's the most vigorous Purple Mexican x PCK, which also has a hash-smelling top:
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[El Timbo]

Great start! They all look luscious! Are they under artificial light for the moment?

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Hey there!
I'll use this thread as a grow diary for my outdoor adventure this 2023 season. The place is at 44 degrees north, on the Balkans, with semi-mediteranean, semi-continental climate, with relatively dry autumns. The soil is fertile black, called chernozem by the locals, hence the name of the thread.

The plan is to grow 3 plants:
1 x Zacateca Tribute (regular seeds, Green Mountain Seeds)
1 x Purple Mexican x Pakistan Chitral Kush (regular, own cross, PM from Cannabiogen, PCK from Ace Seeds)
1 x China Yunnan x Pakistan Chitral Kush (regular, own cross, both from Ace Seeds)
......

Just a thought, transparent pots will invite algae, which feed on the N in your food.

Nov. last year I upcanned indica seedlings out of 20 oz Styro-Cups which I direct sow after soaking seeds until they sink. Algae was pretty heavy. I germed seeds later in those same pots that I had painted black and had no problems.

Good luck,
UB

 

[yoss33]

Great start! They all look luscious! Are they under artificial light for the moment?

Yep, I start my ganja and tomato seedlings indoors under 2 x 50W white LED. They have some compost (about 30%) in the 400 ml cups, and receive very little ferts once or twice after that for the 1-1.5 months they stay indoors.
No strong light, no strong food, no problems.
And yes, I also get little algae on the cups, never been a problem, I like to see the roots of the seedlings. If you feed with N salts, you'll get more algae, but I wonder if that can be of any harm at all? The roots of your plant look fairly healthy among those algae.

 

[Perdido]

Hey, @Perdido , it'll be great to compare the Zacatecas growing up and down the Danube You are welcome to post photos here!

Yes, that would be great, an international danube grow happening. mine will start only at mid April or beginning of May. And "Guerilla Style",but really close to the danube.

 

[yoss33]

My spot is about 30 km from the Danube, but a friend of mine who grows guerrilla style close to our town grows some 100 m from the river. I'll give this friend one Zacateca and one CYxPCK once they show sex.

The weekly update, hopefully soon the plants will start showing preflowers:
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[yoss33]

Looking at how the Kullu's grow, I have the suspicion that the short couple of them are not Kullu, but Kullu x (Zamaldelica x Kullu), a backcross I made a few years ago. When I was bringing the seeds out of the fridge 2 months ago, I was considering whether to grow (and use for making seeds) 2 Kullus and 2 Kullu x (Zam x Kullu), but as far as I remember I settled on 4 Kullu's (2 original seeds from Khalifa, and 2 of my small Kullu reproduction). I remember I settled on 4 Kullus, but maybe my memory serves me wrong.
The 2 tall plants (normal height for Kullu) are in the cups labeled to be the 2 Khalifa seeds. The other 2 plants seem too short to be Kullu, though the stem smell of both is all Kullu. I haven't grown other Kullu x (Zam x Kullu) plants, so I don't know how tall they grow, but Zam is known for producing compact phenos (as the Zamal mother, Gerrit's cut).
All going well, I'll try the smoke of all seeded plants (including the Kullu's) sometime in the second part of June, so I'm curious if there'll be any difference in the effect of the 2 short and the 2 long Kullus.

 

[Perdido]

but maybe my memory serves me wrong.

 

[Perdido]

Chernozem - a dried sample I collected from a mole hill in the very east of Austria.
Its not the normal chernozem, but its' darkest form called "typical Gley" in German (engl gleysoil) with a high amount of "Anmoor"-Erde (half-bog soil).
Below is a soil profile from that spot. What a phantastic soil.
A few hundred meters away from the moorish soil the chernozems colour is ochre.
Its not where I grow, I have very alkaline soil.

The profile is from here https://bodenkarte.at/#/center/16.8054,48.3091/zoom/13

 

[yoss33]

Looks black enough Somewhat like warm castings... Hope your plants will love it!

The weekly update. Unfortunately my camera's batteries ran out, so no photos of the Kullus and most Zacatecas. Next time...
Most plants have showed their sex. Today I selected the 3 plants to transplant outdoors and will do it perhaps tomorrow... a bit early, but their cups are small and I have to transplant them into bigger cups if I am to keep them indoors... so, outdoors they go...

Zacateca Tribute: 4 females & 4 males
Out of 8 plants, there are 2 (#1 and #2 on the photos) with a bit thinner leaves, more purple stem, very vigorous roots, hungry (first to yellow the low leaves) and no "indica" in their stem smells - they are more like citrus fruits and mint. They were also the first to show preflowers with pistils and since one of them (#1 on the photos) has a pungent hashy top (unlike the other ZTs), it was selected to be transplanted outdoors.
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China Yunnan x PCK: 2 females
One of them a bit shorter, darker and with the loudest coffee / hashy top of all 20 seedlings, its stem smell is hash and citric fruits. Selected for transplanting outdoors.
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Purple Mexican x PCK: 3 females, 2 still unknown
Quite a variety. The tallest one (#1 on the photos), with small medium green leaves, pungent hashy and skunky top and a very interesting stem smell - of indica astringent and almost artificial (bubblegum) melon flavor, was selected to be transplanted outdoors. The other 2 plants that showed female preflowers are the shortest ones, where #2 has a very pure rich coffee / hash top smell and indica astringent and hash stem smell, and #5 is also quite stinky (but not as much as #2 and #1). If #2 was more vigorous, perhaps it would have been the chosen one, but so far it seems to have the lowest vigor. Will pollinate it with a ZT or Kullu pollen, to put this rich coffee flavor in use.
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Kullu: 2 females (the tall ones), 2 still unknown (the short ones)
All of them have typical Kullu stem smell (herbal, greased iron and anise).

 

[Perdido]

If you select the purple stem Zacatecas i will test the greener phenos if i have some.
I must say I enjoy watching you going first.
The dark soil is at the slovakian border, where the chernozem belt ends (or begins), not where i grow.

 

[yoss33]

Two weeks after switching the lights to 12/12, here's the flowering tent:

3 Purple Mexican x PCK females and 1 red male:
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3 Kullu females and 1 male (the shortest one, the last photo), all of them still only with small preflowers:
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2 Zacateca Tribute females and 2 males:
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[yoss33]

The Zacateca Tribute plants (4 females and 4 males) are fairly uniform, like a true F1. Very tall, with huge stretch upon 12/12. Their leaves are not the thinnest ones, typical "Mexican".
Truely fast onset of flowering, faster than Purple Mex x PCK and a Purple Mex clone next to them.

 

[dubi]

Always a pleasure to know you will be sharing your this year' canna endeavours with all of us here in this new thread like every year @yoss33 Glad to see you going deeper into your favorite sativa and indica lines, that's the way to improve them. Good luck with the new selections from seed and with the outdoor season!

 

[yoss33]

Welcome to this year's thread, Dubi!
This year I have the Zamaldelica and descendants on pause, as I have enough jars of ZamZamKullu A few months ago I let my Zam mother clones die because I don't need her any more - I have seeds from her from 8 different fathers and out of them the crosses to Kullu (Zam x Kullu and Zam x (Zam x Kullu)) are the ones to truly capture the spirit and potency of the Zam mother, in an even more sativa way.
This year I hope to get nice hybrids of Kullu, which in its pure form is a bit too long flowering for my climate, but is otherwise the most "sativa" strain I've grown, so hybrids and back-crosses have a lot of potential.

I'm now in the middle of pollinations, the Kullu male is just about to start dropping pollen and the Kullu females are just producing their first flowers. Their partners are awaiting them

The 2 Zacateca Tribute females have a lovely sweet and very sour fruity flavor, reminding me of the strain Nirvana Special (or Royal Flush) that I grew more than 10 years ago, which was Mexican sativa x Jock Horror. The sour of the Zacs is not citric but of some temperate-climate fruits like cherry. Can't wait to try the high, first of the seeded plants and then in the autumn - of the "proper" flowers.

We had some cold weather recently, so the plants that are outside didn't make much progress, but they are picking up momentum in the last days:
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