Bunch of (Malawi x PCK) x PCK getting run

[kamyo]

Hi friends. Recently did a PCK pollination from a male I found in a reproduction run of Ace PCK. I'll go ahead and break down the whole PCK lineage in the garden. It gets pretty long and I apologize if it's confusing.

Initial Malawi x PCK keeper girl from Ace fem seed run:
Well call it the MPCK. Nice, manageable hybrid expression. Very purple, little leaf, nice resin, 10-11 week flower time at 11/13

MPCK pic:


Initial PCK plants from Ace seed run:
PCK 1 (nice, purple girl. Still have her.)
GPCK (green or less colorful male. Didn't keep after pollination)

PCK 1 pic:


Plants from PCK 1 x GPCK run:
PCK A (colorful male that leaned more pink. Still have him.)
PCK 2 (a pink girl that I didn't keep long-term but is important later)
2 other stocky, purple males (did not keep...but should have)
2 other stocky, purple girls (did not keep)

PCK A pic:


These 5 plants from the PCK 1 x GPCK run were open pollinated, and I threw in the PCK 1 girl in for good measure. The resulting seeds were all mixed up between the different moms into the PCK 2021 pack for the stash.

At the same time, I used the PCK A male on a bunch of other girls (Bubba Hash, MPCK, Mimosa, etc.), but also used pollen from the other 2 males on the MPCK girl and a PCK x PanamaDC girl I have.

At some point, I flowered out that PCK 2 girl. She had that pink thing going on, but lacked color otherwise. Tiny pink/purple calyxes were obscured by the leaf and resin. She's still important later on.

PCK 2 pic:


The first run through these MPCK x PCK girls was done earlier this year and was amazing. I noticed a few distinct expressions. There were some with very little color, some with more color, and some very purple plants. I noticed that the ones with less color tended to have a tighter structure with less leaf and a good amount of resin, while the more purple plants were often (but not always) leafier and more open, with the anthocyanin bleeding into the leaves as it tends to do. Another trait of those was that the underside of the leaf was mad purple. Those who have grown PCK or the hybrids know what I'm talking about.

Couple of MPCK x PCK girls:


The same happened with the (PCK x PanamaDC) x PCK I ran alongside the MPCK x PCK. Some insane color, some not so much.

Because I'd used 3 different males, and 2 distinct expressions (2 purple boys, 1 pink boy), I kind of had an idea that maybe I fucked up in the pink male that I kept (PCK A). He definitely had color, but he wasn't passing it on well. It showed up, but not like the purple ones I was seeing. They were on a different level. He did pack on the frost and produced some interesting terps in the crosses.

Was he the male version of the PCK 2? He was passing on traits that you'd expect to see from the PCK 2. I wanted a male that passed on traits like the PCK 1. That's what I was seeing in those MPCK x PCK girls that I loved so much.

But I needed to test that theory before I go look for another male. So I've run a bunch of stuff lately. Some Mimosa x PCK A, and some Bubba Hash x PCK A. Those all turned out very similar expressions to the tight, less colorful PCK males. If you told me that the PCK 2 was the mother in that cross, I'd believe you. It was the male counterpart, but you get the point.

So now I have a few options:
- Run more of that initial PCK 1 x GPCK run I did to find a male, but the stock is low.
- Run more PCK 2021, see what we have and find a new male
- Run through a bunch of MPCK x PCK to see what kind of cool shit I find.

I'm in the middle of flowering out some 2021 PCK stock. The purple male has been found (I think). I found that pink expression as well, so it was easy to tell them apart. The purple one is more squat with fatter leaves. I haven't used him yet, but he's in veg.

And now I'm doing option 3. Running the rest of the Malawi x PCK. All 30 of them.

 

[kamyo]

Here are a couple MPCK x PCK girls that seem to lean more towards the PCK A boy. Can definitely see the MPCK influence, but can also see influence not found in the more colorful ones. These ran about the same time as the purple ones.

The second pic is a plant that I ended up revegging and taking a clone of. She's actually got some decent color and a really nice structure. She's numbered MPCK x PCK #26 since I kind of had to fold her into the seed run. They're all siblings, so it's fine.


MPCK 26:

 

[kamyo]

Here's a little update. Colors are starting to show and I found a nice male that I took a cutting of. Also took cuts of the most colorful girls. Will probably take more cuts later to reveg. Couple pics:

 

[kamyo]

Here are a couple girls at 6 weeks. I think these will be the ones I keep around. About 40-50% have the strong purple color, although all of them show some sort of color on the flowers.

This cross and a few other PCK crosses have been a fun exercise in using the PCK in breeding. Definitely going to find some new girls to pollinate and still have a PCK male I found earlier this year that I haven't used yet. Also kept a male from these, so we'll make F2s (if you can call it that, but you know what I mean).

 

[kamyo]

Sorry, here's another one that I like. That first pic above was a different one. Didn't keep a cut of her. I kept a cut of this one. They weren't grown very well and were all in 1/2 gallon pots. So we'll put them in something bigger and I think they'll be pretty spectacular.

 

[sneezydog]

Wow beautiful dark purples... nice breeding organization for a multi level approach!

 

[dubi]

Beautiful flowers, pics and project @kamyo

Colorful PCK parental plants most of the times do not breed 100 % true for colors in outcrosses (at least in the released-not so inbred generations) . Most of the times they easily pass the trait to a high % of the F1, but usually a backcross of colorful chosen F1 back to the colorful PCK is required to fix the pigmentation, or/then inbred the line (F2,F3 ...) for colors. It is very complicated to breed for a specific color since intensity of pigmentation in cannabis (and therefore color) is also very environment dependent, and not only genetic linked.

There's lots of fun and joy in the inbreeding process of such colorful PCK hybrids lines, almost guaranteed you will finish with something beautifully colored and up your taste.

I usually prefer the fire of the straight pure sativa x PCK F1s (like in hybrids such as Malawi x PCK, Panama x PCK) since the potency, yield and vigor decreases in the inbred generations compared with the F1s .... find those F1 winner females and keep them in clone form, further inbreeding rarely improves properly bred F1s, unless you can play with time and bigger populations throughout the inbreeding process to tune finely the inbred generations for terpenes, effects, chemotypes .... although will, taste and skill are also fully required and i'm sure you are strong in such points

 

[kamyo]

Thanks, Dubi. What you described is exactly what I'm noticing. As well as how the PCK males like to express. The "pink" tends to really tighten up the bud structure and produce good resin, and does really interesting things with the smells.

The purple tends to have the smaller floral clusters and a darker smells. But it also really seems to promote the purple bleeding outward in the leaves. So a leafier end result, but just gorgeous.

I totally agree about crossing to a sativa. The MPCK was amazing, so I'm now going to run through some sativas to find a couple of moms. And also the bx approach. Find a killer specimen from the 50% PCK F1 stock and do an actual bx, or just back to the PCK. 75% PCK at that point, but should express much different in yield and vigor and other areas. The MPCK I used probably wasn't the best, but was a really cute plant that had the most color.