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Growing Culture

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img_6700Last month I started an experiment trying to produce pollen from female plants. Because female plants carry only female sex genes any flowers pollinated using this pollen will result in seeds that will all become female plants.

Three different chemicals were tried: 30PPM colloidal silver sprayed daily, silver thiosulfate (which is a combination silver nitrate and sodium thiosulfate sprayed three times) and a commercial product advertised for the purpose that was sprayed daily.

Each liquid was sprayed on four plants, one each of Blue Dream, Candyland, Sour Diesel and Girl Scout Cookies. After 30 days the only plants that responded in any way to the treatments were the four plants that received the commercial spray.

It has been 30 days since the experiment was started and on the four plants sprayed with the commercial formula the male flowers are large and profuse. They look like they are about to open and to release their pollen. These plants have grown no female flowers.

My plan is to collect the pollen from each of the bearing plants and then to use this to pollinate unsprayed females. The “unaffected” sprayed plants will also be pollinated to see if they are fertile and capable of producing seed.

While this is happening, I am setting up another two groups of four plants to try different versions of the colloidal silver and silver thiosulfate experiment:

  • Rather than use the colloidal silver at 30 ppm daily, the concentration will be increased to 100 ppm with daily spraying.
  • Rather than just spraying the silver thiosulfate weekly, the plants will be sprayed with a different regimen. Several are being considered. All of them involve more frequent spraying.

img_6750I was disappointed that the colloidal silver and STS didn’t work, but I attribute it to a flaw in method since both are successfully used all the time.

The new plants will be clones transplanted to 6” containers placed in a 4’ x 4’ tray. They will be given continuous light for three days. Then they will be placed in the flowering section, which is a greenhouse that will get between 11 and 10 hours of sunlight daily, dwindling as autumn progresses. The sun is supplemented with a 1000 watt HPS lamp that is on for 12 hours daily.

As the new plants commence flowering, the seeds resulting from the successful pollen production of the earlier experiment will be maturing. Shortly after they mature, representative samples will be germinated and flowered in standard 10” x 20” trays to check their femaleness and for hermaphroditism. At the same time, it will be a study in flowering plants directly from germinating seed.

TIP OF THE MONTH

-Some gardeners have refrigerated or frozen the fresh fan or trim leaves from the harvest and manicuring. This leaf can be used to make a special bubble hash.

-In the living plant there is little THC. Instead the plant holds it as an acid, THCa. It only becomes psychtropically active when it dries and decarboxylates, becoming THC.

-When the glands go through the liquid sift as bubble hash is made, the THCa never has a chance to change over to THC.

-If the hash is burned or vaporized, the heat will quickly convert the THCa. However, if I used in preparations in which it is kept cool and moist or wet, most of it may remain as THCa.

-Since it is not psychotropically active, THCa can be used medically in large doses. To retain these qualities, it should be used in formulas or recipes that are not heated.

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