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

[aliceklar]

So I started another batch of seeds, all from the C1 line, in a fairly tall 7 litre pot. Aimed for a dozen, but there was a gap, so I made it a lucky 13. Seemed apt for Halloween.
I'm hoping for at least one female auto. Was trying to figure out the odds but got confused

 

[zif]

I think it's about 82%, in theory.

 

[aliceklar]

I think it's about 82%, in theory.

Thanks zif! I thought it was something like that those are decent odds. and now I've got pollen banked I can just keep popping seeds until I get a female.

I'll be composting the remaining non-auto plants from the first batch this evening. Sigh. Seems such a shame... but there you go.

 

[zif]

Thanks zif! I thought it was something like that those are decent odds. and now I've got pollen banked I can just keep popping seeds until I get a female.

I'll be composting the remaining non-auto plants from the first batch this evening. Sigh. Seems such a shame... but there you go.

Culling like a pro!

Looking forward to seeing what the girls look like.

 

[aliceklar]

So, the last batch all now culled apart from the sole male auto, which is still gamely shedding pollen. And the lucky 13 seeds I planted at Halloween are starting to germinate (6 up so far).

 

[aliceklar]

Good rapid germination so far. Nice.

In other news, a friend I'd given a batch of seeds to is also growing some (c40!) - so the odds are going to be better this time round. Between us, and with the pollen I've got in the fridge, it wont be long before we've got a ton of 100% autoflowering F3s to start playing with.

 

[aliceklar]

13/13 on that C1 seed batch. Nice.

 

[aliceklar]

Got a bit of tip burn when I fed them some leftover nutes that I was using to water other plants. Lazy! Flushed with ph'd plain water & I think they'll be fine now. No more nutes till they are bigger.

 

[PCBuds]

I've got a bit of tip burn too. lol

 

[aliceklar]

 

[aliceklar]

 

[aliceklar]

The spooky 13 continue to grow happily. I've been training them out a bit to make sure light gets to the smaller ones in the centre. Will be expecting any autos to show sex in a week or two.

Also have a friend who now has a couple of confirmed females (and some male branches kept in a jar of water), so one way or another there will be an F3 pure auto generation from this.

 

[aliceklar]

This has been a ride!

My friend who was growing the batch of 40 selected down too soon and ending up keeping only a couple of photoperiods that were just showing a few early preflowers, that he mistook for autos. And then having them on 20/4 for a few more weeks they just exploded. Had to do some serious pruning and bondage on them to keep them in the tent, & told him to go to 12/12 to get them to actually flower.

So, that was a dead end. But the Lucky 13 came up with the goods - two females (one kinda runty, but hey). As well as two hermi-males. Thankfully I still have pollen from the last batch in the fridge Nearly there... Not the best looking plants (they've had a tough, crowded life) but definite auto females.

Hermi male

 

[goingrey]

Ouch! I think I'll go 24 and make sure they're fully flowering when I get around to doing some auto breeding to prevent the same. Which may be sooner rather than later got some PCK regs and Auto-Duck growing rn.

 

[aliceklar]

Yep. I was unlucky. This round in total we planted almost 100 seeds and ended up with only one good male and two female autos. Definitely a numbers game. Thankfully now I have auto x auto I can soon start testing smaller batches of F3 seed in larger pots.

 

[aliceklar]

Well, this has been a learning experience. It looks like the pollen I banked in the fridge is not viable. Not sure if there was a problem with the donor male or whether I didnt keep it properly.

Any advice on storing pollen, both short and long term? I just collected it in a sample tube and put it in the fridge, but it seems it doesnt last v long that way...

So, I have two healthy flowering female AKA autos, but no auto male pollen. sigh. I used an earlier batch of fresher pollen to do outcrosses with Highland Thai, Johaar, and Lemon Candy (a Johaar hybrid), and I'm still not sure if any of that took, so we may have reached a dead end here. Back to the F2 seeds, of which I have maybe 100 left...

 

[goingrey]

Gotta dry it first for long term storage.

 

[aliceklar]

Gotta dry it first for long term storage.

Thanks gg - what's a good method of drying it? Would putting open tubes of pollen in a sealed container with dessicant for a couple of days work?

 

[goingrey]

Open tubes in a box of desiccant sounds sensible but haven't tried it.

@StickyBandit did something similar with a sealed container with oven-dried rice but used a foil tray instead of tubes: https://www.icmag.com/threads/stick...-chutney-royal-gorilla.18050602/post-18114810

Spread out on some cardboard on top of the fridge and into the freezer in stamp baggies when dry (after a few days) has worked for me.

Once I read about mixing the pollen with some flour. That did not work at all, as a word of warning in case you come across the same "tip".

 

[zif]

Open tubes in a box of desiccant sounds sensible but haven't tried it.

@StickyBandit did something similar with a sealed container with oven-dried rice but used a foil tray instead of tubes: https://www.icmag.com/threads/stick...-chutney-royal-gorilla.18050602/post-18114810

Spread out on some cardboard on top of the fridge and into the freezer in stamp baggies when dry (after a few days) has worked for me.

Once I read about mixing the pollen with some flour. That did not work at all, as a word of warning in case you come across the same "tip".

Just spreading pollen on printer paper also works well for drying.

Flour (or another carrier) is usually added to "extend" small quantities of pollen, that is, to allow working with tiny quantities of pollen, or to facilitate pollination of more flowers than would otherwise be possible. For that it works well - I've tried it with cornstarch to good effect. If you were going to freeze pollen with a starchy carrier, it would be a good idea to make sure that the carrier is very dry, as starch is extremely hydrophilic.

I read a patent claiming that a lactose carrier improved, or at least did not harm, pollen storage over a few species (but, mainly corn). Might be worth a shot if other carriers fail.