Something new to me, hoping that someone that has done it like I plan to do it can give some insight.
Anyway the plan this spring is to outdoor grow a few kinds of autoflowers, I know that the grow time period of autoflower is tight for this idea, but here is my plan.
As soon as the autoflower gets to a point where I can pull a clone off, I plan to do that for several of them, take these clones and with colloidal silver treatment grow them initially outdoors in pots but then move them indoors before they drop any pollen and finish them off indoors. I fully understand that being a clone and having to start over while not being able to reset the bloom time period means the gender-bent “males” will be stunted but I still believe they will grow well enough to produce enough pollen to make collection worthwhile. And being able to move them indoors has its obvious pollen collection advantages as well as no worries about natural pollination. And this way no worries about harvesting some bud off the partially/manually pollinated plants, and no concerns about colloidal silver contamination on the females.
The question is, has anyone tried this? Any input?
Since cloning autoflowers for sustained grows isn’t an option, I’m simply brainstorming how to (easily) get enough of my own feminized autoflower seeds going so that I don’t have to purchase new seeds every year and also have the ability to cross-breed some autoflowers.
And one other big perk, if I get that one plant that expresses some exceptional phenotypes, I will be in the position to get seeds from that plant and its gender-bent “male” clone vs a one and done grow.
Give it a try. I’ve got a friend in Maryland, whose brother clones autos all of the tim. He told me that you have to get em going early. I had an auto that I grew reveg after harvest and I grew it out and got a few more ounces. I chopped it down and put the pot in a dark corner thinking nothing of it. My wife called me at work one day and said, your not going to believe this but, that plant is still growing. I said WTF, sure as shit I got home and a few places that I missed were starting to re-sprout. After the second harvest I yanked the stalk outta the pot and practice this regularly now. I throw enough monkey wrenches into my grow. @Fieldofdreams this was some of the Bubble Gum 00 that we burned, I think the last time y’all were over. That weed is over 3 years old and was my first indoor plant start to finish indoors. I can dig up some pictures if you want but, it’ll take me a minute.
As far as what @mingleme is asking, I know it is possible because one of my friends brothers clones every auto he grows. You are correct some are smaller plants some actually surprised me. He does this to create a SOG, with fewer seeds. Don’t know about the reversals but should work from what I know. Another lesson I learned with autos is once you stop spraying with STS, it will revert back to female. At least that is my experience. Only did Colloidal a time or 2 but, that was just a test to prove to myself that I could do it.
I hope that this helps. I would be willing to discuss it more but don’t want to clog up the thread.
Gary
I’m probably the last one to be asking. I’m just a dumb ol country boy that has no clue what he’s doing. I’m just out to prove that I can break all the rules. Like I always say, the only givens in growing weed is, there are no givens. What works for one, might not always work for the other.
Have a great evening Kim. Be Safe
Gary
Use silver thiosulfate - colloidal takes forever and frequent applications. Sts gets applied once every 3 days and is effortless generally.
Personally I’d probably just grow an auto and reverse one cola, and allow it to self-pollinate. From the resulting seeds, you could grow multiple plants out and reverse the best grower(s) to breed with other promising phenotypes. That allows you to have lots of seeds early, and be more strategic about what traits you hunt/preserve as you go toward preservation of specific traits.
Then again, like @repins12 , I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. I learned everything I know about breeding by just doing it.
The problem with that is how do I prevent pollination of everything else in the garden? I don’t want to waste my summer grow to just make seeds and get seed loaded buds from everything in my garden. I had considered doing the single cola, but clipping and finishing that cola’s branch in a vase of water inside but that adds one more variable of hoping that I don’t stunt or stall the pollen creation while it sits in the vase of water and slowly dies.
Use silver thiosulfate - colloidal takes forever and frequent applications.
I’ll consider that
My end goal is to cut as much cost and work, while creating a viable year after year outdoor grow that is enough to coast until the next harvest. I’m just a casual user so I don’t need huge amounts and although recreational is legal in my state growing isn’t so I have to keep it on the low down. I have grown it (and a bunch of other stuff) on and off, indoors and outdoors for decades, but not consistently, just one offs here and there as up until the state legalized it law enforcement and snitches busting growers was a HUGE and HUGH risk threat in my area. And in addition to being a casual user I want to be a casual grower, so it’s still fun and not a job, I have done enough high maintenance grows of other plants and flowers and that took all the fun out of it. And as said cost, my wife will kill me if I spend any more on indoor grows, so I’m trying to transition to all outdoor.
Take the plant inside by itself once it’s showing the beginnings of male flowers, and finish it under whatever ya got indoors. A single plant won’t need anywhere near as much as a full garden would. Someone around here not too long ago used GE LED lightbulbs to grow some plants. They were decent plants and I think the bulbs were like $20 a pop or something like that - not real expensive. So I’m betting whatever you have preexisting for growing anything indoors, whether it’s weed or some houseplants or tomatoes, it would probably do just fine for an auto (especially since you have the liberty of picking the light cycle)
That is what I plan to do with the “males” I make from clones, but if I did one cola on each plant that would be far too many to move indoors and then I face the same problem a they are now all indoors along with the pollen. This is why I decided I would try to avoid doing just one cola.
Are you talking about the fact that some strains happen to toss up a male flower near the end of life? If so by then it’s too late to use that pollen to self-pollinate, and I’m likely going to harvest the plant before those late male flowers get anywhere near mature if it happens at all.
I have similar thought to Repins12, give it a shot and see.
I also feel that Graysin has point, why bother with clone?
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why these have to be autos and why it has to be from clone i guess. Sure it’s all possible, but while cloning auto is possible chances you’ll get plants like Repins buddy aren’t as likely. Some autos don’t really behave like autos should, if you get these will be easy money. But then this would also defeat the purpose of having autos and breeding a plant that behaves more like a photo to get more autos. Im guessing you want early maturing plants or maybe fast flowering because of weather?
Yep, as I said above my fall schedule is full, add in that the weather in my area could change at any time, especially in the fall, resulting in me being forced into a harvest when I have not time and that could result in disaster. Autos allow me to avoid those risk and basically schedule their harvest at an ideal time for me and around my schedule.
Higher level of containment and prevention of inadvertent pollination. If I clone and hermie just the clones, they can all be moved indoors totally isolating the pollen from the females still growing outdoors, allowing me the ability to pollinate only what I want and only as much as I want.
I could always grow two sets of autos from seeds, but I’m trying to avoid that, if not for anything more than cost reasons and my minor OCD that feels it’s a waste of seeds. After I start getting my own seeds, I might very well do that, but initially, my plan is to mix and match seeds from multiple seed banks and see how each one’s genetics pans out and cross as needed.
As I said, even though I have grown cannabis over the years, I have never really done much beyond just growing it just to grow it. On the other hand, I have been growing and crossing poppies (for ornamental use) for years and focusing on strengthening genetics from season to season, so I’m really OCD on inadvertent pollen spread and contamination. When I’m growing my poppies I actually grow them at entirely different locations to avoid cross pollination, not real practical for cannabis as growing is still highly frowned upon in my area. Thus as I enter doing this for cannabis that pollen containment and collection OCD is carrying over.
and get seed loaded buds from everything in my garden. I had considered doing the single cola, but clipping and finishing that cola’s branch in a vase of water inside but that adds one more variable of hoping that I don’t stunt or stall the pollen creation while it sits in the vase of water and slowly dies.