Breeding for drought and crappy soil...

[Artistick Seeds]

I come to present to you my new project.

The country I live in is suffering from drought, and the only crops I can grow on my farm are olive and carob trees.

I work without irrigation, I don't work my soil and I don't use fertilizer. I just grind the pruning branches from my trees.

I now want to acclimatize autoflowers to these poor conditions, because I want to work with what nature can offer me, without needing to make external contributions to my crops.

I have a small stock of autoflo seeds that have been lying around for two years, not necessarily the best suited to my growing conditions, but it will do the trick.

10 Chronic Ryder Reg
5 Fighting Gorillaz Fem
5 Critical Kush Fem
3 Shockwave Fem
13 Silver Fox Reg
5 Superior Freak Fem
5 Maestro Fem
5 Mazarilla Fem
7 Cinderella Jack Fem

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Yesterday I soaked the seeds for a period of 12 hours.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

And today I transferred it into two boxes on a sterilized damp cloth.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

I have prepared 3 spots on the heights of my land, in the parts that I have not yet cleared.

Spot 1:

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Spot 2:

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Spot 3:

 

[Artistick Seeds]

It is a clay-limestone soil, rich in stones. the pH is around 8, which is of course not the best for this type of plants.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

I chose to leave as many plants around as possible. Most are aromatic plants, which can be an advantage for preventing harmful insects, but will also create competition for access to water and nutrients.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

I am starting this session quite early in the year in order to take advantage of the little rain that my region receives. This will also allow me to do this first stage of selection/reproduction before the heat wave that will begin in June.

As soon as the weather forecast announced a week of continuous rain, I immediately started germinating my seeds.

I will not use fertilizer and will only water to prevent the plants from dying.

I don't expect anything but seeds, anyway, in these conditions, and with non-acclimatized seeds, the yield will be poor.

But this is only the first step in my plan, as I will be doing a second grow later this year to test and reproduce another generation, which should already perform a little better.

The males will grow up apart, in another spot, so that I can control pollination.

I could have chosen landraces or varieties that are already better suited to my growing conditions, but these would also have brought their share of challenges, such as hermaphroditism.

Also, starting from polyhybrid, I trust the genetic lottery to bring me some nice surprises.

In any case, I await your suggestions, your criticisms or the sharing of your past or current experiences.

 

[bibi40]

Great selection and project , good luck mate !

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Thanks! I'll need some luck and rain...

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Yesterday I put the seeds in the ground, under plastic bottles until they come out. The 13 Silver Fox seeds have still not germinated, none of the 5 Critical Kush and only 2 of the 7 Cinderella Jack have germinated.

 

[Lesnah]

This is interesting....i will be watching thank you for posting

 

[dilettante]

Interesting project. Good luck!

 

[RegularRebel]

The country I live in is suffering from drought, and the only crops I can grow on my farm are olive and carob trees.

I have a drought resistant heirloom strain that comes from desert lands. What kept them alive is that they have large leaves and many leaves that store water and nutrients. They also have the most aggressive roots I have ever seen. They see 3 or 4 rains in their lifetime. You said you use polyhybrids to try and gamble with success. Genetic lottery. If you have interest I can provide the drought resistant genetics. But once you cross it with the ruderalis hemp the drug content will go down a lot. Or if crossed with a drug plant, then variation will show up, which can be a help, or not. Different gamble. Better chances perhaps. To save time I can provide pollen from a male or 2 that has these large leaves and abundant secondary growth.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

I have a drought resistant heirloom strain that comes from desert lands. What kept them alive is that they have large leaves and many leaves that store water and nutrients. They also have the most aggressive roots I have ever seen. They see 3 or 4 rains in their lifetime. You said you use polyhybrids to try and gamble with success. Genetic lottery. If you have interest I can provide the drought resistant genetics. But once you cross it with the ruderalis hemp the drug content will go down a lot. Or if crossed with a drug plant, then variation will show up, which can be a help, or not. Different gamble. Better chances perhaps. To save time I can provide pollen from a male or 2 that has these large leaves and abundant secondary growth.

Indeed, this could be interesting. Thank you very much for this suggestion. Can you tell me more about this plant please?

 

[RegularRebel]

Indeed, this could be interesting. Thank you very much for this suggestion. Can you tell me more about this plant please?

Sure. I got some seeds from medical cannabis activist from Pakistan. His mother was sick and he got cannabis medicine in India which helped her greatly. So now he tries to change things in his country. Researching true medical strains from antiquity, I got in touch with him and we talked many times and began a sort of friendship. I recieved some heirloom varieties from him, searching for medicines myself. Out of these, a desert variety has survived in conditions of little rainfall and occasional drought. I have interest in more ecological friendly growing, and using less water and needing less nutrients than the popular modern polyhybrids was aligned with my attitude for growing. Curious I grew them to study what I could, noticing physical differerences by comparison. Mainly aggressive roots, and the leaves mentioned earlier, but also form. The form is shorter nodes, and combined with big and dense foliage I theorize the form itself helps the plant hold moisture sort of like a humidity dome would. Perhaps it relied on and utilized morning dew. In the process of making seeds I collected pollen, and I still have some from 2 males. One of which is more suited for drought resistance. Using the pollen from this male would save you a growing season, and you could simply pollinate a successful female of this year. Next growing season could be the test run of your new hybrid. Just an idea. Or perhaps these are clues for selection among your own population. These are powerful drug plants, and crossing them with a ruderalis hemp would lower their drug content and greatly reduce the duration of the effects. But if grown and consumed in large quantities, this quality difference from the hemp cross would not be so important. You could just grow quantity if you need them to flower automatically. I'm not sure how they will perform in your environment. These I have were grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Crossed with a successful female of yours, could help them possibly "take" in your environment.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Lovely! Thank you very much for all these explanations. I would not be against your proposal.

This beginning of the season I only launched autoflos, but later, in a month or two I will use regular seeds too. So I would potentially have several mothers that could be pollinated.

There are two reasons why I used autoflos for this experiment.

The first is that I like the idea of a plant ready in 3 months and that I germinate it in March or August. This offers me great flexibility.

Secondly it is to not have a frozen variety. This will force me to make it live, to make it evolve over time. No mother plants no clones, just a perpetual reproduction.

 

[RegularRebel]

The pollen from the male that is drought resistant is a dark green plant and it is low odor that smells like lavender and laundry detergent/soap, dank wet earth. Good for stealth. I didnt take any pictures. Its curing. As for soil, they are used to soil with some sand, rocks with some clay. That's why the roots are aggressive, searching deep.

But another similar option is the Black Afghan, it's just a beast, very hardy and strong. Good yielder too. Here is the main cola with the bottom half and side branches cut away.

That bud is about a foot and a half long, but I only had a 200 watt light for indoor winter growing. (Poor mans grow) Better conditions would bring out more of it's full potential. It does have a noticeable smell of chocolate and mango. Not stinky, but noticeable. I only have the Black Afghan in seed form, but they are fresh. Fresh as in harvested about a month ago. The bag in the middle is the Black. I have more than I need.
Just think about it and let me know if I can be of help. Good luck with the endeavor! I will be following along because its interesting. Good stuff.

 

[Artistick Seeds]

Both seem very interesting... And worth a try. Let me know by message how we could proceed.