Genetic backup- what steps have you taken?

[stinkyattic]

No one wants to imagine the worst, having to break down and bail out, possibly destroying your mothers, or taking a raid and losing everything.
So what have you done to protect yourself? Do you have a friend with a tray of small plants in his basement? An envelope of seeds in a safe-deposit box?

f you got that prickly feeling on the back of your neck, or a knock n talk, would the prospect of losing your genetics keep you from doing the safe thing and clearing out your house?

I have my genetics collection spread all over the region from sharing with friends, and a box of seeds that is about to get moved to the home of a family member in another state. It still doesn't feel like much... but...

So what do the rest of you guys do to protect your investment?

 

[DocLeaf]

So what have you done to protect yourself?

We sent 1000s of seeds across the globe,, hopefully if anything happened, then someone along the line may repay the favour with genetics. A fruitful insurance policy is to keep good contact / friends with as many growers / breeders as you can.

 

[Snagglepuss]

Everything that comes throught my hands thats any good ,turns into seeds.Be it crosses or selfed.After i get a certain amount of seeds .I gotta find a safe place to store just in case.

None of my friends grow,but they do smoke.Maby burying in the ground somewhere safe?It must be nice to have a few grow friends,to help in an emergency.The family members house thing sounds like a good idea.

 

[olddrifter66]

And dont forget a nice stash of your favorite pollen. It can be a lifesaver...

 

[Fatt Daddy]

that's a really good question stinkyattic. Never though about it, haha.

Does your family member know that you're dropping off weed seeds at their house? just wonderin... if they do not and still don't mind; that's really cool.

 

[stinkyattic]

Yeah, this family member does not grow or smoke, but has been very supportive of my work. One of these days I'll corrupt him... heh heh heh! This person is an engineer and the first time they see a hydro setup I know those cogs will start creaking and there'll be a big pile of white plastic in the cellar before ya can say BOO.

 

[johnipedestran]

my favorite lifesaver is in multiple hands across the USA. chances of all being lost are almost nil.

I have never considered keeping seeds somewhere else. Good idea.

I have never considered my grow an investment, but I do not have anywhere near the list you got my friend.

good thread

peace
jip

 

[kokua]

two words...tissue culture. You can take the scraps from a cuttings session and have all you need to culture some cannabis. The great thing about culturing is that their is no maintenance required. You put the node in the jar...seal it up...come back 2 1/2 - 3 months later and take out your microcutting. That easy. Hell you could have clones of every elite in the world...and not have a live cannabis plant, how beautiful is that idea? I know a few guys in California that are doing this right now...culturing for med clubs. Disease free, Pest free...Guaranteed!! And they are getting something ridiculous like $25 per test tube, and they don't have any 'plants' at their home, just plant material.

Culturing is a dream for those that want to back up clone genetics without having to give clones out to people. #1 Rule for growing...don't tell, It's hard to follow that rule if you are sharing cuttings.

 

[Fatt Daddy]

two words...tissue culture. You can take the scraps from a cuttings session and have all you need to culture some cannabis. The great thing about culturing is that their is no maintenance required. You put the node in the jar...seal it up...come back 2 1/2 - 3 months later and take out your microcutting. That easy. Hell you could have clones of every elite in the world...and not have a live cannabis plant, how beautiful is that idea? I know a few guys in California that are doing this right now...culturing for med clubs. Disease free, Pest free...Guaranteed!! And they are getting something ridiculous like $25 per test tube, and they don't have any 'plants' at their home, just plant material.

Culturing is a dream for those that want to back up clone genetics without having to give clones out to people. #1 Rule for growing...don't tell, It's hard to follow that rule if you are sharing cuttings.

now this is interesting! Would you mind discussing this further?

 

[kokua]

sure man...what do you want to know?

 

[Deviant420]

Plant Tissue Culture is a practice used to propagate plants under sterile conditions, often to produce clones of a plant. Different techniques in plant tissue culture may offer certain advantages over traditional methods of propagation, including:

* The production of exact copies of plants that produce particularly good flowers, fruits, or have other desirable traits.
* To quickly produce mature plants.
* The production of multiples of plants in the absence of seeds or necessary pollinators to produce seeds.
* The regeneration of whole plants from plant cells that have been genetically modified.
* The production of plants in sterile containers that allows them to be moved with greatly reduced chances of transmitting diseases, pests, and pathogens.
* The production of plants from seeds that otherwise have very low chances of germinating and growing, i.e.: orchids and nepenthes.
* To clean particular plant of viral and other infections and to quickly multiply these plants as 'cleaned stock' for horticulture and agriculture.

Plant tissue culture relies on the fact that many plant cells have the ability to regenerate a whole plant (totipotency). Single cells, plant cells without cell walls (protoplasts), pieces of leaves, or (less commonly) roots can often be used to generate a new plant on culture media given the required nutrients and plant hormones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_tissue_culture

 

[stinkyattic]

For a way to try TC without huge investment, look up 'kitchen culture kits'.
I'd be interested in someone posting actual medium recipes (rooting medium and multiplication medium) that actually have been proven to work on cannabis.

 

[whiskeytango420]

Stinky, I think you and JIP hit it on the head. Good people that you have met here, or others that you trust...Spreading the love is how to maintain I think. Also A good seed library at a buddies house. I got a friend that let me put a small safe in his closet. I got about ten varieties in there....not too much, but they are ones I dont wanna lose.

For you to even be asking this question really sucks though. Wife and I wish you all the best in whatever is going on....let us know if we can help in any way.
good vibes to ya stinky...
whiskeytango

 

[stinkyattic]

Thanks WT. It's been a rough winter.

 

[accessndx]

The simplest solution: share the love! I'd have no compunction about spreading my strains about....
This way you're giving the gift that keeps on giving and at the same time preserving your ability to recoup from some unfortunate turn of events.
I have a bunch of seeds on reserve of new strains and existing strains also.

The only issues I have with trading relate to security and sterility. I've seen problems with people trading mainly because of the interchange of pests and diseases....
That's the primary problem. I don't trade with people that are sketchy, so the security isn't an issue as much as the worry about bringing back some particularly virulent spidermites or other little mofos.

Other than that......what a simple and effective solution to any bad thing that could interrupt the world's greatest hobby....

 

[kokua]

For a way to try TC without huge investment, look up 'kitchen culture kits'.
I'd be interested in someone posting actual medium recipes (rooting medium and multiplication medium) that actually have been proven to work on cannabis.

That looks like a good kit. I've use the kit called Super Starts Plant Tissue Culture Kit. You can buy the kit direct from the guy who makes them at his website...
http://www.planttc.com/products.html
You can also get them at several online specialty garden shops.

What I liked about the super starts kit, is it comes with a step by step dvd that shows you exactly how to take cultures. It always helps me to see the process first...

stinky...as far as mediums specific to cannabis, There aren't any. Cannabis is a weed, a really easy to grow weed. Multiplication and rooting mediums are not going to be any different for our weed than it would any other plant you would culture.

The most common formula is made by adding 1 mg BA (Benzyl Aminopurine, a cytoknin that promotes shoot growth), .1 mg NAA (Naphthalene acetic acid, an auxin that promotes root growth) and 1 ml PPM ( PPM is a registered name for Proprietary Preservative Mixture) per liter of water.

Here is a recipe I found for hops establishment/multiplication given by Dr. Zlata Luther:
-Ms Basil Salts
-1 ml BA hormone (1mg/ml)
-20g/l Sugar
- Agar (8g/l)
- 1 ml/l PPM

I found a rooting or what the culturists call callus inducing media for hops:

- MS Salts
- 2 ml BA (1 mg/ml)
- 5 ml IAA or NAA (.1 mg/ml)
- 18g/l sucrose (sugar)
- 7.8g/l agar
- ph to 5.8
- 1ml/l PPM


Really tho...generally speaking, the establishment or multiplication medias should contain more cyto's than auxins. The callus or rooting medias should contain more auxins and less cyto's. easy peasy japaneasy...

The formulas' look foreign and the process looks complicated and confusing from the outside looking in...however the kits that are available really simplify the process so that anybody who can mix nutrients for a hydro res can mix media for tissue culture. Not hard at all.

I would advise anyone looking into this to check out the super starts tissue culture kit. I gave one to my mother and she has had success...if she can do it, you can too.

 

[stinkyattic]

Thanks for the info Kokua- I am just not familiar with what is referred to by 'basil salts'. Are we referring to basil the plant or to a TC researcher publishing under the surname Basil?

 

[kokua]

I spelled it wrong...it's basal.

basal - 2 a: of or relating to the foundation, base, or essence : fundamental or being essential for maintaining the fundamental vital activities of an organism

Families of basal salt solutions, generally named after the inventor, have been developed around the early discovery that cells have a basic requirement for five ions: calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and phosphate. Each balanced salts family of products differs in the concentration and "salt form" of these ions.

A “Basal Salt Mixture” contains macro- and micronutrients, but no vitamins, carbohydrates, or growth regulators. A “Basal Medium” contains the macro- and micronutrients, but is incomplete as it typically lacks an organic compo-
nent: vitamins, carbohydrates, or growth regulators.

The MS stands for Murashige and Skoog. invented by plant scientists Toshio Murashige and Folke K. Skoog during Murashige's search for a new plant growth regulator. It is the most commonly used medium in plant tissue culture experiments.

There are other basal salt mixtures that are used for tissue culture...the MS Basal salts are the only ones that I have experience with and work great for cannabis.

 

[DocLeaf]

Sharing genetics is the BEST and most resourceful back-up policy available,, IMO.

Be it via either the 'underground collectives' or the 'professional breeders' that circulate plant genetics globally (in seed and clone). Ultimately the herbalist (be they commercial or free-range same thing) make plant genetics available to all yo' homegrowers !!

An invaluable asset to the future,,, is the BREEDER,, if they aren't already. Jah bless ALL of them,, all warriors in their fields

What got us interested in ICMag originally was a packet of seeds given to friends in Dam by Gypsy. The pack read "Please share these seeds" ,, that was, and still is, a radical concept,,

dig it, sow it, watch it, love it, reap it, smoked it ,, then give a few seeds back to the global cannabis community,,,

 

[kokua]

Sharing genetics is the BEST and most resourceful back-up policy available,, IMO.

The #1 rule of growing is don't tell...kinda hard to do if you are sharing cuttings. I am guilty of telling and sharing with fellow growers so I don't really have room to talk, but I don't know that breaking the cardinal rule would be considered the best and most resourceful backup policy.

Anyone can make backup seeds and store them offsite, but for those that want to keep their favorite clone genetics backed up without fear of loosing mothers to sickness, disease, pests, etc...culturing is the answer.

Culturing isn't just for genetic backup's either...it is the only method of asexual propagation that guarantees disease/pest free genetics every time. If you are trading cuts, more times than not you are also trading mildews and molds and pests.

Want to piss off a fellow grower friend...give them a cutting with mites or pm. It happens everyday. Hell the last 3 times I have got cuttings from friends they have had issues with bugs/pm. That sucks... Get with the program, start culturing your genetics. That way when you do want to share your prized plants with others you can do so without fear of sharing more than the genes.