7 Crosses of Sherb Cream Pie - An als_weed Pheno Hunt

[als_weed]

I am reconstructing the beginning of this thread from my other forums where this was originally posted. I will indicate when the thread is caught up and current. Please feel free to comment or ask questions at any point, I realize many of my methods may be new to many members. -al

7 Crosses of Sherb Cream Pie

In our experiment with reversed Sherb Cream Pie, we didn’t get the seed production or all the crosses we wanted. But we got enough to pheno hunt several crosses of interest.
Seeds:

Here we go!

To the cups!

We got 96% germination. Let’s see how they do in the dirt.

-al

 

[als_weed]

A Short Time Later . . .

40 cups and 35 through the dirt. I am perimeter watering with straight RO water. This prevents washing out the tender seedlings and setting them back in their development. I keep an oscillating fan gently blowing on them at all times. This promotes strong stems and greater air exchange. It’s surprising how much a simple fan can improve your plants, even at the earliest stages.

I had a mysterious death problem with the SBRPs. 4 out of 6 sprouts just rotted, and the ones that lived were feeble looking. Dumping out the cups, it became suddenly obvious why. When preparing our 1 quart cups for this strain, I had forgotten to poke some drainage holes. Doh!!!

Just another lesson in humility to keep my farmer ego humble.

I soaked a few fresh seeds to get our sprout numbers back to where the science needs them.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

-al

 

[als_weed]

--

An update on the Seedlings

Seedlings:

We have 40 girls through the dirt. I will start their training with a skirt trim soon.

See ya then!

-al

 

[als_weed]

Time for a Skirt Trim

Here’s our girls before:

Before:

After:

Group After:

These got a little big on me. I normally start this process a little earlier.

So a skirt trim is about removing bottom leaves, exposing the bottom branches to more light and air. This also helps with litter and pest prevention.

After all, our goal is to produce great branches to harvest for the cloner. Then we just need to keep the original plants alive while we bloom out the clone.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

 

[als_weed]

To the Cloner

Group Before:

Almost everyone has at least 2 branches large enough to be cloned. So here we go!

The first thing we do is assign everyone their ID number. I generally do this by height. This gives me a little help in planning for vigor. This early tell is not perfect, but is right most of the time.

WTCP Lineup:

Before:

After:

I take the top and the 2 largest branches. This gives us the best chance of getting a rooted clone of each individual. Our original plants are now ready to hang out for 4 months while the cuttings get rooted and bloomed.
Cuttings:

To the Cloners:

There were a few plants that were stingy with branches, but we got 3 cuts from most.

Our strain list breakdown:

Our 40 individuals that made it to the cloner.

Mutilated moms:

These girls look pretty bad but it will be a struggle to keep them in cups for the next 4 months.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

-al

 

[als_weed]

And Here We Are

This thread is now current and part of the als_weed network.

The als_weed Network:

Forums I Host:
als_weed forum on Overgrow
GreenRushFarms forum on mjp

Other Places I post select threads:
THCFarmer
Marijuana Passion

The als weed Youtube channel hosts all my video walk throughs. (no _ allowed on Youtube - Meh)

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

 

[als_weed]

Cloner Update

We have roots for almost all individuals. I’ll take back up cuttings soon after the dead or alive roundup for anyone still not rooted.

One of the main reasons I take 3 cuttings as opposed to just cloning the top, is getting everyone rooted at once. I want head to head data, and running stragglers is not acceptable. I plan on sending 2 waves of 20, 2 weeks apart to the bloom room.

The center top has different hormones than the side branches. You can see this happening in this pic:

This is very common. The center top normally takes longer to root. This makes them more susceptible to attack, even while running beneficials.

Extra rooted cuttings can be used to replace the original mom if she is too distressed in her cup. I always like options and sending the best possible representative to the bloom room.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

 

[Lesso]

I like your style. Love a good pheno hunt. Right now I have possibly 36 plants with plans on keeping 24. I have a 3x3 for veg and I might copy your pattern. I usually top them really early, but this time I'll let the go vertical for 4 weeks or so. I think I can fit 24 tall 1gal containers in a 3x3 flood table.

 

[RosterMan]

Seems like a lot of work

 

[Lesso]

Seems like a lot of work

^^^not wrong

 

[user 60570]

a labor of love

good luck on the pheno hunt!….always a lot fun!

 

[archtype111]

That is a great tutorial on cloning and skirt trimming methods. Thank you.

 

[WeedHopper]

Cloner Update

View attachment 331588

We have roots for almost all individuals. I’ll take back up cuttings soon after the dead or alive roundup for anyone still not rooted.

One of the main reasons I take 3 cuttings as opposed to just cloning the top, is getting everyone rooted at once. I want head to head data, and running stragglers is not acceptable. I plan on sending 2 waves of 20, 2 weeks apart to the bloom room.

The center top has different hormones than the side branches. You can see this happening in this pic:

View attachment 331589

This is very common. The center top normally takes longer to root. This makes them more susceptible to attack, even while running beneficials.

Extra rooted cuttings can be used to replace the original mom if she is too distressed in her cup. I always like options and sending the best possible representative to the bloom room.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

I have grown from start to finish in those neoprene inserts.

 

[als_weed]

There Can Be Only One!

I have gone through all the clones and selected the best individual from the 3 cuttings. I will let them grow out for a bit before separating them into our 2 groups.

Root development ranges from spikes to ready to rock. We had 2 individuals drop into the straggler group when all of their cuttings failed. They will have to wait for a roundup several months from now to get a second chance.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

 

[user 60570]

There Can Be Only One!

I have gone through all the clones and selected the best individual from the 3 cuttings. I will let them grow out for a bit before separating them into our 2 groups.

View attachment 331896

Root development ranges from spikes to ready to rock. We had 2 individuals drop into the straggler group when all of their cuttings failed. They will have to wait for a roundup several months from now to get a second chance.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

what criteria do you use to pick the best?

 

[als_weed]

what criteria do you use to pick the best?

Just the best looking roots and growth tip.

So now we have 38 plants to get ready for the bloom room.

Thank you for your interest.

-al

 

[user 60570]

Just the best looking roots and growth tip.

So now we have 38 plants to get ready for the bloom room.

Thank you for your interest.

-al

vigor and growth structure , good building blocks

do you look for other qualities and traits as the plants mature and if so , what are they?

thanks

 

[als_weed]

What you see in veg does not always translate into the bloom room.

I'm always looking at vigor and structure along with smells in veg. But don't let your nose lead you astray. Finished flowers can change attributes as hormones triggered from dark cycles kick in.

Structure can completely change. I have had tall plants in veg stall out and become the shortest of their peers.

The best advise I can give is to just observe and grow everything out in pheno hunts. There really aren't any shortcuts to success.

Here is a recent video where I evaluate a pheno hunt at the finish. You can see some of these concepts in action.

This is part 1 of my current pheno hunt of crosses of BlackTruffle.



Our Sherb Cream Pie hunt will go through the same process.

Thank you for your interest.

-al

 

[user 60570]

appreciate the video

once you finish the evaluations , what do you do with the selections?

make it a clone only strain?

do an STS reversal and make feminized seeds?

thanks for sharing

 

[als_weed]

All of that and more.

I have several crosses of at least 18 strains crossed to reversed elites documented online.

I do pheno hunts of those progeny documented online like this thread.

I do relic hunts growing old rare seeds.

My current project is gathering regional best collections from across the country. I will grow them all together in a "taste of the town" competition. Right now I have 3 and looking for a couple more.

If anyone is interested in joining the grow off, PM me. I have 2 original Chocolate Diesel phenos and of course my most treasured beauties,

So my net is large in searching for the very best.

Thanx for giving me an excuse to ramble and drag out my pics!

-al