Sorry, the title isnt as clever as Rick and Morty..
NOTE/WARNING! NEVER SMOKE BUD THAT HAS BEEN TREATED WITH C.S. SOLUTION! THE VAPORS FROM C.S. ARE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH!!
...you should probably wear gloves as well..
The purpose of this will be to explain..in words and some pictures.. what I have been doing for the last year or so of my life..
The best place to start is wisely, at the beginning..
I initially heard about the colloidal silver solution, from Granny420 on 420mag forums. Sorry, Nebula, I used your guide for the rest of the grow though
https://www.420magazine.com/communit...silver.155554/
So, props to her for coming up with a step by step there, but it was such a long forum, I wanted to shorten it and put the information, collectively, into one space. Its really not that hard! I will then go through several experiments that I have done, and give myself some notes for future use, and anyone who wishes to utilize this as well. I have heard of Silver Thiosulfate treatments as well, but since that requires an entire plant, C.S. is going to be my go to for keeping wonderful strains around.
Steps behind C.S. treatment.
1. You are waiting for the flower phase to begin. In photos, this is when you switch to 12/12, in Autos, this is..gonna happen..at some point. I wait specifically for pistils to start forming. You can treat the whole plant (not necessary!), or just a stem (recommended). I like picking nodes that are going to be closer to the light. I just feel that with more energy, you will have more of a chance of getting viable pollen.
2. Once you see pistils, treat with C.S. solution. When I say, I started "to treat with C.S." I mean that once to twice a day, I would take a spray bottle with the C.S. in it, and spray every node along the stem of my plant with a good spritz until the node was wet looking to me. Dont spray the leaves, and be careful of your overspray! This is supposed to happen when you see pistils forming, and not before. I have heard of people using droppers, which is something I would like to try next. The C.S. solution is not cheap, and spraying the way I do, not only wastes the majority of the bottle, but the overspray onto other nodes/buds is not going to be welcome when I start doing this for real.. AGAIN, PLEASE BE COGNIZANT OF WHERE YOU ARE SPRAYING YOUR C.S. SOLUTION. IF YOU SPRAYED IT ONCE; ITS NOT SMOKEABLE!!!
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!! I have heard you are supposed to keep up with this treatment for at least 20 days. To be honest, I have not counted exactly how many days I have kept this up for. I used an all out approach the first time and sprayed the entire bottle, and it failed, and a "feel it" approach the second time and it worked, which isnt very scientific at all, so next time, I will count and be better with pictures.
The time that I had this work, what I did was spray the nodes only on one branch of my female until I saw pollen sacs forming. I quit spraying the nodes once they formed. They will look like small buds at first. You will immediately think, "this didnt work, and I wasted my crop/time/money", and your first instinct will be to "fix" the solution by giving it more C.S. Before you do, and I say this to myself most of all, is grab that eyeglass thingy and look at it closer. You will clearly see that it is not bud, and is the start of something else. You are done spraying my friend.
4. After that, you wait. I have bred male X female and let me tell you, the male plant, is a producer. He wants to pollinate, and its very obvious that he does, because he will spill his seed over EVERYTHING! The female, however, is a little more.. elegant in her approach. I didnt see any pollen. None. It was as if it she was trying to be too polite to fart in front of company. It was a bit frustrating, but then one day, POOF! All my plants were pregnant! You can tell if your plant is pregnant by looking at the pistils. Typically, pistils will be a whitish color, but when impregnated, they get thinner and red/brown/amber colors. Soon after, calyxes form, and your plant will look like its gonna be that very first brick weed got when you were a kid. But, its your brickweed. Enjoy it.
5. Seeds will take 6-8 weeks before ripening. You can tell when a seed is not ready for harvest by simply plucking one and pulling it from the calyx. If it is nothing but a wet squishy mass in between your fingers, its not ready. Seeds at the top of the plant(s) you impregnate will finish quicker than those at the bottom. Giving your plants a small Nitrogen boost during seed production is also helpful. It is also important to note, that while most seeds are typically considered good when they are darker, there are also strains that produce whitish colored seeds as well. The only real way to tell if you have viable seeds is to plant them and find out first hand.
Theory behind it all (as I understand it..loosely)
The idea is that as the pistils are part of the reproductive organs of the female plant, the C.S. solution blocks the female hormones from going where they need to in the pistils. Kinda like you do with your shopping cart and a pretty girl in the store.. Anyways, this blockage leads to male sacs being grown in place of flowers. These sacs will contain female pollen and when mature, and timed properly, you can pollinate another female who also has pistils showing! This gives feminized seeds that can be of the strain you are treating with C.S. and a whole new strain if you use the C.S. treated plant to pollinate others!
But the real question is.. are the newly created strains stable?.. Well, I guess that is a problem for down the road.. For now, however..
I am not one for holding onto evidence, so my pictures, and my thoughts are scattered.. honestly, I cant even believe I still have any of it (pictures, not thoughts, c'mon!
), but I did just clean out a closet and found an old i-phone with some pictures on it. I figured I would put it here for anyone, for myself as well, for future reference as I plan on continuing this work for my own reasons.
I have done this experiment twice so far. The first time it did not work, so if you want to skip ahead, go for it, but it is good to know what went wrong, and how it was fixed.
This is where I have the majority of my pictures, but it was a year ago that I started working on this, so if my memory is a little fuzzy and I forgot something, please feel free to ask, and I can always edit for clarity's sake.
I started off with a 108 watt draw, 600 watt equivalent led I got off of some dude in a tire shop, and using Happy Tree Frog soil, and General Hydroponics Go Box, I began an auto lemon and an auto diesel.
They both popped within a few days of each other, and thus began the early seedling/veg state. During this phase, I only fed them filtered water and fed them roughly 75% of the recommended feeding schedule on the back of the Go Box. I did this, because I wasnt worried about end flower production other than getting some feminized seeds, and I wanted healthy plants going into flower mode.
My first mistake was not recognizing when Autos switch properly. I mistook a growth sprout on the Lemon as the final stretch before flower, and I began spraying C.S. solution early!
Wait until you see actual pistils sprouting from the nodes, and not just when the stipules cross! I cant say this enough, apparently.
Timing, I believe was my second problem. Even though these plants popped in the same week, I stunted my Lemon so severely by starting the C.S. treatment early, that I may have missed the pollination window on the Diesel. It seemed that after I started spraying the Lemon early, it was stunted almost 2 weeks, while the Diesel took off, and started growing pistils. It wasnt until the Diesel had already had some flowers budding out on it, that the Lemon started forming large pollen sacs.
My third issue, I think, was that I sprayed the entire bottle of C.S. onto that poor plant.. OMG.. I mean, just look at that poor girls claws! Knowing when to start C.S. treatment, and when to stop C.S. treatment can be tricky.. Starting is when the pistils form, right, but stopping, is roughly around the time you see it actually working. I mean, you'll be spraying for weeks, and see little to no change other than the fact that your stressing the smack outta your plant, and then one day.. BAM! stop C.S. treatment here.
Just take these guys advice, and remember to breathe. Its hard doing an experiment that lasts months, and hinges solely on you, the pot growing, bong ripping, edible eating stoner to be on the ball at just the right instant.. twice!
What I did this first time, was I kept spraying my plant after the pollen sacks had fully formed, and I believe that the C.S. solution allowed for the male sacs to form, but did not allow the pollen it created to become fertile because the C.S. solution blocked ALL hormones from coming in. This is, at least, my other leading theory on why this experiment did not work. I kept this experiment going until the Lemon literally died on the stalk.. or i stopped feeding it and gave up.. anyways,. ~5 months.. It never produced any viable pollen. I kept it, bagged it up, stuck it in the freezer, and tried sprinkling it on other grows that I have done, with no effect.
If you do wind up doing this, and you freeze your pollen, I keep a little bit in separate ziplock bags with some flour, (like a 1:4 mix, you can go higher with the flour, its ok. pollen is potent, but at some point, your just wasting flour..) then stick that in a mason jar. When you remove the jar from the freezer, let it warm up to room temp before you pull the lid. This way, you will avoid unnecessary condensation getting into your pollen container, which will make it worthless.
Takeaways:
Wait until you see actual pistils sprouting from the nodes, and not just when the stipules cross!
Timing (Dont miss your window for pollination on your host plant!)
It takes a good 6-8 weeks for seeds to finish to the point that they are viable (good to plant)
Dont keep spraying C.S. on your plants! Remember to stop when its time. This may differ on your plant as well. I have heard to treat for 20 days, and then stop, but honestly, I would wait until you see the male sacs starting to form. They will be small at first, and look like early bud for a few days.. but you will quickly notice a difference and that is when you stop and wait.
Final thoughts on this experiment
My first cab was home built and has poor ventilation, and poor reflective side panels.. they are made from cut up fire blankets.. noisy stuff btw. It was also a LED from some dude in a tire shop! I first attributed these to my problems, but looking back, it may have been a good combination of the issues I wrote about above. I really feel it was the continuation of C.S. that produced inviable pollen. This is something that I will test out further after I have mastered using C.S. in dropper form. It was my first time growing Autos as well, so at least that bridge has been built and crossed now.. This was a decent first attempt, and I am glad to have revised my methods along the way. I at least got to see some of the steps and transformations involved, and since these were free promo seeds with my last order anyways, no harm, no foul.
NOTE/WARNING! NEVER SMOKE BUD THAT HAS BEEN TREATED WITH C.S. SOLUTION! THE VAPORS FROM C.S. ARE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH!!
...you should probably wear gloves as well..
The purpose of this will be to explain..in words and some pictures.. what I have been doing for the last year or so of my life..
The best place to start is wisely, at the beginning..
I initially heard about the colloidal silver solution, from Granny420 on 420mag forums. Sorry, Nebula, I used your guide for the rest of the grow though
https://www.420magazine.com/communit...silver.155554/
So, props to her for coming up with a step by step there, but it was such a long forum, I wanted to shorten it and put the information, collectively, into one space. Its really not that hard! I will then go through several experiments that I have done, and give myself some notes for future use, and anyone who wishes to utilize this as well. I have heard of Silver Thiosulfate treatments as well, but since that requires an entire plant, C.S. is going to be my go to for keeping wonderful strains around.
Steps behind C.S. treatment.
1. You are waiting for the flower phase to begin. In photos, this is when you switch to 12/12, in Autos, this is..gonna happen..at some point. I wait specifically for pistils to start forming. You can treat the whole plant (not necessary!), or just a stem (recommended). I like picking nodes that are going to be closer to the light. I just feel that with more energy, you will have more of a chance of getting viable pollen.
2. Once you see pistils, treat with C.S. solution. When I say, I started "to treat with C.S." I mean that once to twice a day, I would take a spray bottle with the C.S. in it, and spray every node along the stem of my plant with a good spritz until the node was wet looking to me. Dont spray the leaves, and be careful of your overspray! This is supposed to happen when you see pistils forming, and not before. I have heard of people using droppers, which is something I would like to try next. The C.S. solution is not cheap, and spraying the way I do, not only wastes the majority of the bottle, but the overspray onto other nodes/buds is not going to be welcome when I start doing this for real.. AGAIN, PLEASE BE COGNIZANT OF WHERE YOU ARE SPRAYING YOUR C.S. SOLUTION. IF YOU SPRAYED IT ONCE; ITS NOT SMOKEABLE!!!
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!! I have heard you are supposed to keep up with this treatment for at least 20 days. To be honest, I have not counted exactly how many days I have kept this up for. I used an all out approach the first time and sprayed the entire bottle, and it failed, and a "feel it" approach the second time and it worked, which isnt very scientific at all, so next time, I will count and be better with pictures.
The time that I had this work, what I did was spray the nodes only on one branch of my female until I saw pollen sacs forming. I quit spraying the nodes once they formed. They will look like small buds at first. You will immediately think, "this didnt work, and I wasted my crop/time/money", and your first instinct will be to "fix" the solution by giving it more C.S. Before you do, and I say this to myself most of all, is grab that eyeglass thingy and look at it closer. You will clearly see that it is not bud, and is the start of something else. You are done spraying my friend.
4. After that, you wait. I have bred male X female and let me tell you, the male plant, is a producer. He wants to pollinate, and its very obvious that he does, because he will spill his seed over EVERYTHING! The female, however, is a little more.. elegant in her approach. I didnt see any pollen. None. It was as if it she was trying to be too polite to fart in front of company. It was a bit frustrating, but then one day, POOF! All my plants were pregnant! You can tell if your plant is pregnant by looking at the pistils. Typically, pistils will be a whitish color, but when impregnated, they get thinner and red/brown/amber colors. Soon after, calyxes form, and your plant will look like its gonna be that very first brick weed got when you were a kid. But, its your brickweed. Enjoy it.
5. Seeds will take 6-8 weeks before ripening. You can tell when a seed is not ready for harvest by simply plucking one and pulling it from the calyx. If it is nothing but a wet squishy mass in between your fingers, its not ready. Seeds at the top of the plant(s) you impregnate will finish quicker than those at the bottom. Giving your plants a small Nitrogen boost during seed production is also helpful. It is also important to note, that while most seeds are typically considered good when they are darker, there are also strains that produce whitish colored seeds as well. The only real way to tell if you have viable seeds is to plant them and find out first hand.
Theory behind it all (as I understand it..loosely)
The idea is that as the pistils are part of the reproductive organs of the female plant, the C.S. solution blocks the female hormones from going where they need to in the pistils. Kinda like you do with your shopping cart and a pretty girl in the store.. Anyways, this blockage leads to male sacs being grown in place of flowers. These sacs will contain female pollen and when mature, and timed properly, you can pollinate another female who also has pistils showing! This gives feminized seeds that can be of the strain you are treating with C.S. and a whole new strain if you use the C.S. treated plant to pollinate others!
But the real question is.. are the newly created strains stable?.. Well, I guess that is a problem for down the road.. For now, however..
I am not one for holding onto evidence, so my pictures, and my thoughts are scattered.. honestly, I cant even believe I still have any of it (pictures, not thoughts, c'mon!
), but I did just clean out a closet and found an old i-phone with some pictures on it. I figured I would put it here for anyone, for myself as well, for future reference as I plan on continuing this work for my own reasons.I have done this experiment twice so far. The first time it did not work, so if you want to skip ahead, go for it, but it is good to know what went wrong, and how it was fixed.
This is where I have the majority of my pictures, but it was a year ago that I started working on this, so if my memory is a little fuzzy and I forgot something, please feel free to ask, and I can always edit for clarity's sake.
- Strain: RQS Auto Diesel, Seedsman Auto Lemon (The lemon is the one I treated with C.S.)
- Growing Medium: Soil; Happy Frog dirt, both in 5 gal fabric pots
- Grow Light: 600W LED
- Start Date:unknown, but it was a couple of autos started at the exact same time, so.. just remember, plan ahead and timing is EVERYTHING with this
- C.S. Solution used: 50ppm Colloidal Bio Silver.. dark blue bottle
- Final Determination: experiment failed.
I started off with a 108 watt draw, 600 watt equivalent led I got off of some dude in a tire shop, and using Happy Tree Frog soil, and General Hydroponics Go Box, I began an auto lemon and an auto diesel.
They both popped within a few days of each other, and thus began the early seedling/veg state. During this phase, I only fed them filtered water and fed them roughly 75% of the recommended feeding schedule on the back of the Go Box. I did this, because I wasnt worried about end flower production other than getting some feminized seeds, and I wanted healthy plants going into flower mode.
My first mistake was not recognizing when Autos switch properly. I mistook a growth sprout on the Lemon as the final stretch before flower, and I began spraying C.S. solution early!
Wait until you see actual pistils sprouting from the nodes, and not just when the stipules cross! I cant say this enough, apparently.
Timing, I believe was my second problem. Even though these plants popped in the same week, I stunted my Lemon so severely by starting the C.S. treatment early, that I may have missed the pollination window on the Diesel. It seemed that after I started spraying the Lemon early, it was stunted almost 2 weeks, while the Diesel took off, and started growing pistils. It wasnt until the Diesel had already had some flowers budding out on it, that the Lemon started forming large pollen sacs.
My third issue, I think, was that I sprayed the entire bottle of C.S. onto that poor plant.. OMG.. I mean, just look at that poor girls claws! Knowing when to start C.S. treatment, and when to stop C.S. treatment can be tricky.. Starting is when the pistils form, right, but stopping, is roughly around the time you see it actually working. I mean, you'll be spraying for weeks, and see little to no change other than the fact that your stressing the smack outta your plant, and then one day.. BAM! stop C.S. treatment here.
Just take these guys advice, and remember to breathe. Its hard doing an experiment that lasts months, and hinges solely on you, the pot growing, bong ripping, edible eating stoner to be on the ball at just the right instant.. twice!
What I did this first time, was I kept spraying my plant after the pollen sacks had fully formed, and I believe that the C.S. solution allowed for the male sacs to form, but did not allow the pollen it created to become fertile because the C.S. solution blocked ALL hormones from coming in. This is, at least, my other leading theory on why this experiment did not work. I kept this experiment going until the Lemon literally died on the stalk.. or i stopped feeding it and gave up.. anyways,. ~5 months.. It never produced any viable pollen. I kept it, bagged it up, stuck it in the freezer, and tried sprinkling it on other grows that I have done, with no effect.
If you do wind up doing this, and you freeze your pollen, I keep a little bit in separate ziplock bags with some flour, (like a 1:4 mix, you can go higher with the flour, its ok. pollen is potent, but at some point, your just wasting flour..) then stick that in a mason jar. When you remove the jar from the freezer, let it warm up to room temp before you pull the lid. This way, you will avoid unnecessary condensation getting into your pollen container, which will make it worthless.
Takeaways:
Wait until you see actual pistils sprouting from the nodes, and not just when the stipules cross!
Timing (Dont miss your window for pollination on your host plant!)
It takes a good 6-8 weeks for seeds to finish to the point that they are viable (good to plant)
Dont keep spraying C.S. on your plants! Remember to stop when its time. This may differ on your plant as well. I have heard to treat for 20 days, and then stop, but honestly, I would wait until you see the male sacs starting to form. They will be small at first, and look like early bud for a few days.. but you will quickly notice a difference and that is when you stop and wait.
Final thoughts on this experiment
My first cab was home built and has poor ventilation, and poor reflective side panels.. they are made from cut up fire blankets.. noisy stuff btw. It was also a LED from some dude in a tire shop! I first attributed these to my problems, but looking back, it may have been a good combination of the issues I wrote about above. I really feel it was the continuation of C.S. that produced inviable pollen. This is something that I will test out further after I have mastered using C.S. in dropper form. It was my first time growing Autos as well, so at least that bridge has been built and crossed now.. This was a decent first attempt, and I am glad to have revised my methods along the way. I at least got to see some of the steps and transformations involved, and since these were free promo seeds with my last order anyways, no harm, no foul.
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