Project Sam

[UndergroundFarmer]

The Skunk/GTH cross is off as of yesterday. The shorty at front right was confirmed as a male! So the girls here are 4:1 which beats Surf City by a factor of 2.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 3 is here and so is Skunk #1 pollen, although not nearly in the quantities in Psychonaut. I'm still impressed at how sturdy and beautiful this plant is! I only wish the lone male was as tall as the tallest female. Still, it ought to be big enough to help replace the seeds I spent on this project and then some. I started trying to spread a bit of pollen from the preflowers that opened first. It's almost a bit of a shame to mess up all those pretty white buds, but this is business!

I now have to keep a bucket of water for my hands so I don't spread pollen from one tent to the other. It also helps to keep the RH above 30%. I was finally able to unplug the heaters today and I won't miss having to work around them. Next post, I hope to have the Skunks catching up to the GTH in seed production.

[SoOrbudgal]

How come folks use skunks and haze for pollination? Just curious i see alot of breeders using these strains. Thank you for increasing the seed populations LOL.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I can see why Skunk is used in so many crosses because it is a sturdy and beautiful plant that isn't hard at all to grow. I remember the high being particularly nice too. I'll have some to try in another month or so! I'm guessing Hazes get used for their psychoactive effects. I think most crosses with Haze happened because the weed was killer but it too so long to flower and needed a lot of space to stretch.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 4 of skunkiness! Sorta. They smell more sweet than anything else with a hint of earthy funk just now creeping in. Pollen is still slow in coming. I might just use that to my advantage and let most of the buds go unpollinated. The girl in coco is the only one getting fertilized much. There are a few scattered orange stigmas on other plants but only a few. I think I'll cut all the males down in both tents and save pollen for later grows.
The GTH in project Psychonaut won't leave me with much after the seeds come out. That's fine because GTH seeds aren't so easy to come by. Skunk #1 is everywhere. Even though you'd have a hard time convincing me at this moment that Sensi's version isn't the best-growing Skunk, these seeds likely won't carry much weight in a potential trade. So I think two or three dozen seeds will be fine until I'm ready for more Skunk.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 5 of flower is coming along. It's a bit hard to tell where stigmas are turning orange because of pollination or from age. The buds that only got a few flowers pollinated may be closest to the weed I remember from about 1990. The girl in coco is almost totally pollinated from standing next to the male plant (now departed) and is heavy with seed.

I believe I may grow this way with regs only on the first go-round for each variety. Afterward, I can just axe the males and pollinate a few buds with saved pollen to replace the seed used. More regs are on the way, including Crockett's Tangie which I have been trying to obtain for months now.

The girls continue on, looking strong and lovely!

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes they sure are growing and are healthy tall gals

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 6 begins with things not much different save a a few dropped fan leaves and ever-swelling buds. Things are moving - I've ordered another 4x4 tent and Platinum LED panel for the grow room. It will be used mostly for growing out feminized seeds of various breeds in coco with hopefully enough room for manifolding and cola management the way I see it done by some of my betters on this site. The hydro setups I've built are fine for a topping or two and a ScrOG net but manifolding requires space I did not build for. I'm leaning toward growing out DP Blueberry in this tent for more seed. I'm having a hard time justifying growing out anything but Cinderella 99 for seed in the big hydro tent just because the beans were a pain to get and now I have 'em! Lavender, Super Lemon Haze and a variety to determined later (Strawberry Lemonade, Trainwreck, Northern Lights?) will likely go in the new tent. I'm tempted to post my seedbank inventory and ask for recommendations.

But yes, the Skunks are all still doing well and making me proud.

[JohnEmad]

looking super nice.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks! Skunk is such a pretty plant, you'd think more folks would grow it.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 7 is here! No sign of seed dropping like in Psychonaut but things are still moving along. Skunk, even with most of its buds pollinated is still making the buds bigger, unlike what Psychonaut did.

Skunk is still making more flowers as you can see in the middle photo. I will likely get much more smoke from this tent! Chop is probably in two weeks, so I'll know better by then.

[SoOrbudgal]

How exciting to be able to designate different tents well you sure got yourself a hobby now. From hobby to seed producer good for you.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks. I'm up to four tents in the grow room and a tiny 2x2 tent that no longer has a place in there. That's two 4x4s, one 3x3 and a 32"x32". It's necessary now because I'm growing for three patients now instead of just me. The whole seed production kick started from paranoia regarding access to seed last year. I recommend to any grower with a bit of experience to get some regs and let them do what comes naturally. It's an education about the plant you can't get from a book or website - you just have to do it and soak in the experience.

The more selfish side of all this is that I will have seed stock enough to produce certain desirable strains when I want them and I will be able to replenish when needed or cross say Crockett's Tangie with DNA Kosher Kush to produce my own 24K Gold (my daughter's favorite from the dispensaries).

Seed independence!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 8 is halfway finished! The skunks continue to drop excess fan leaves and buds are swelling and even putting out new white stigmas on the off chance they might get pollinated. They won't of course. Not a seed has dropped to the floor yet. It seems that sativa buds drop seed as soon as the seeds are mature while indica buds hold the seeds until the plant is dead. Saturday I will decide to chop or not. If I do, that will be three weekends in a row that I've harvested.

Coming soon: Project Deuxberry - Blueberry regs from Dutch Passion will be grown out for seed.

(I already burned the Project Blueberry name and Project Blueberry Prime just didn't work for me.)

[SoOrbudgal]

Excellent name LOL

[UndergroundFarmer]

It's now week 9 of flower because I want these buds to have a chance to mature into something smokable. I'm noticing purpling and yellowing, particular in the buds near the light panel. Also, I have a pile of green seeds from Project Psychonaut. They aren't that big a deal compared to the enormous amount of seed I've collected from the floor and am yet to glean from the drying buds, but I'd rather give these girls a chance to really finish. I only topped off the reservoir with water and adjusted pH this time. They didn't seem to be eating much anyway.

[UndergroundFarmer]

On Sunday, I gave them yet another week after looking at trichs. Ten weeks isn't too crazy for Skunk. They do seem to be winding down. I'm seeing color in the buds closest to the lights and yellowing leaves elsewhere. Chop will absolutely happen Sunday this time. I accidentally left the white light on all night and forgot to turn the LED panel back on so now I'm just leaving them in the dark until chop. Stay tuned.

[RagWeedDWC]

Buds look tight, and I agree on timing

[UndergroundFarmer]

Chop happened for the three Skunks in hydro this morning! I moved the "portable" Skunk to the new 4x4 tent to finish up one more week in the company of four Purple Haze clones just getting well into flowering. Trichs on the hydro girls were about 80% milky, 10% amber and 10% glass. They all sprouted fresh flowers just about the time that the seeds were becoming mature. The girl in coco was started about a week later as a backup and is showing about 70% milky and 30% clear now. The Skunk from the right rear may be one of the heaviest yielders I've grown so far.

Pics will follow. I've only found one seed on the tent floor so far. GTH dropped well over 200 by the time I chopped them. I'm hoping that for the smaller number of seeds in the Skunk grow that they will yield far fewer green seeds because of the extra time. I think the smoke/vape test will show that the extra time was worth it too. I add vape because I bought a Pax 3 for my wife after she got her medical card for her condition. I liked it so much, I bought my own yesterday. The flavors from buds really shine in the Pax as opposed to combustion. I tried Acapulco Gold first and it tasted heavenly!

Back to work. I've got a hydro setup to dismantle!

[RagWeedDWC]

Can relate to dismantling hydro.. Following your grow has convinced me to go back to photo's, I like the consistency of having closes. Great grow, and great pictures!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks! The hydro setup is indeed torn down now. I'm finding crap in the black tubing and I think I'm going to replace it with flexible tubing in both setups. I've still been paying for moving plants from coco into hydro because that coco is a bear to get out of everything and the bits stick in roots and cause root rot. I noticed rot in the skunk's root balls and I believe it is caused by that. The nutes I use may not help there too because of the organic matter in them. I might switch to clear liquids in hydro and keep the other for coco grows.

[RagWeedDWC]

I never did coco, but did grow in "Dirt" years ago, bag seeds the who shabang. Picked growing back up using hydro and never went back. To me, it's easier to control, cleaner and better yields. (Have not proved that yet when compared against some of the grows on this site). Good luck to future grows!

[UndergroundFarmer]

The Skunk in coco gets yet another week. Trichs were about 90% milky and 10% glass with a few ambers. I think last week's estimate was off a bit. She's ripening just fine under the new LED and the Purple Hazes getting serious about making flowers are loving it too. It's been a week of high RH so I took a trip to the grow shop for a hanging drying basket. I thought I had one that was about 12 inches in diameter until I pulled it out of its case and it unwound to fill the 3x3 tent! That did help explain the cost of the thing seeming a bit high! Anyways, I cut buds off stems after a week of slow drying with stems still flexible to speed this stuff up. I like the colas I got from my first try at manifolding.



Here's the top of the one left in coco:



I'm hoping to get all that bud into jars after Wednesday. I need to get Project Deuxberry running!

[RagWeedDWC]

Very Nice

[UndergroundFarmer]

The one survivor from a few days ago - she's even more purple at the top and much more ripe today with amber trichs not hard to find. I may take her down tomorrow or Friday. The bud from the rest are going in jars tomorrow. Also, if you zoom in, you can see a ripe seed poking out!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Yesterday I flushed her with tap water and put her in the dark to await her fate. Chop is probably tomorrow. It was either this or just keep the silly thing for a pet!

I've only started collecting seed from the others. The remnants of a few of them make a cameo in this picture. I gotta say that I like having my fingers smell like the resin. I finally got all the bud in jars - it took seven quart jars to contain it all. After trimming, they might all fit in five. No wonder the black market growers loved this strain.

[UndergroundFarmer]

The Skunks are producing a higher percentage of usable seeds, so the extra time paid off that way. It also paid off because this stuff smokes very well even without a good long cure. Even seeded, it still can get me off, just like old times. Speaking of those, the buds I've pressed the seeds from look very much like the ones I used to get from our dealer. Hmmm. That's why we didn't find too many good seeds back then. Another memory brought back is the real reason it's called Skunk - it isn't for the smell of the live bud or the drying bud, it is only skunky when you burn the bud!