Garden Update - Day 38

Hello Everyone,

Today we're making clones!

First let's have a look at the outdoor garden.

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Everything is looking pretty great, and I've not had to do much at all to maintain this garden. It's just been doing its thing.

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Tomatoes are already starting to form and they're looking pretty healthy!

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The squash is by far the most dominant plant in this garden.

We can see its giant flowers starting to bear healthy squash. Hopefully everything will continue in this direction with these somewhat crowded squash plants. I've already had to cut them back a couple times because they are trying to overgrow everything else.

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Like the eggplant that is directly behind the squash. I need to ensure they don't get overgrown by the dominant squash. It already looks like they are a bit light hungry and competing with those squash.

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The same can be said about these cucumber plants. They're getting blocked pretty good by the tomatoes and squash, but there's not much that can be done about it at this point, I'll just hope for the best and try to chop back some other plants so that they can grow some cucumbers for me.

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The youngest plant in the garden is this Cherokee tomato plant that I grew from seed. It should grow some amazing tomatoes as long as the squash doesn't overrun it. I'm going to do my best to make sure that doesn't happen though because this is an awesome tomato plant and it would be a shame to have it die from overcrowding.

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This little green bell pepper was the first plant to flower and produce anything. The pepper is touching the ground and it is raining out as I type this. Tomorrow I'll have to take a look at that pepper and ensure it's not rotting. Maybe I'll try to hoist it up somehow.

I'm not expecting a big pepper because this plant is super tiny. I just think it looks kind of cute and pretty healthy considering it's such a small plant.

I have some bean plants germinating right now and am planning to put those in the front of the garden to fill that empty space.

Now let's check out some Crack Mack Cannabis cloning.

First let's have a look at the three Crack Mack plants pre-clone state.

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They are some real beauties.

The mother plant for the Crack Mack is Green Crack Auto.

The pollinator plants are Big Mack Superstar and Miracle Mack.

The pollination was accidental with pollen coming from the strains listed above.

At first I wasn't very happy this happened, but I've come to see it as a blessing in disguise for a few reasons.

The Green Crack exhibited freakish traits with size and quality of the high it produced, and the Big Macks have always produced really good quality bud, so I expect these plants will carry some very desirable traits through the mixing.

The fact that there was two variations of the Big Mack genetics in the mix, this gives me a higher variation of genetic differences between all of the seeds.

I have no way of knowing which of the plants it took more pollen from, so it will be a guessing game as to figure out which genetic traits come through.

I feel I am well adept to figure it out however, because I became very familiar with all of the different phenotypes laden throughout the Big Macks during my grows with them.

If the traits come through the way I anticipate, this bud will be some of the best in the entire world, and that's a claim I am willing to make confidently based on my experience with the genetics involved with this grow.

The research I've done into seeding auto flowering cannabis plants with photo period plants, tells me that the first generation of seeds will be photo period, because auto flowering ruderalis is a recessive trait, and that trait takes a back seat during the first seeding. In order to bring the auto flowering trait back into existence with the genetic line, a backcrossing would be necessary. This would entail a male Crack Mack to pollenate an Auto Green Crack. (or an entirely different auto strain, but this would muddy up the genetic line too much) The result in such a backcrossing should bring forth ruderalis as a dominant trait, while incorporating Big Mack traits, but the downside to this is a genetic disturbance, and the rate of ruderalis may not be 100% backcrossed, so it is typically preferred to keep auto genetics as isolated as possible to avoid the undesired negative genetic variations, which would be not 100% auto.

But enough with all this science talk, let's get to choppin'!

First let me ensure I have everything prepped.

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Clone tent is ready to go 👍

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Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, let's fill some pots and pluck and go! 👀

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This looks pretty good to me!

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The tap water here is a bit high for cannabis, so it's important to always ensure the pH is adjusted. It's hard to get a perfect measure with this style of testing, but I have my measurements down and this is the reading I typically always get, which tells me I am rocking around a 6.0-6.2 pH. This range has been working well for this grow.

When taking clones it's important to remain as sterile as possible.

I use gloves and a clean razorblade to make the cut.

It's important where you cut and how you cut as well.

It's best to cut directly beneath a node at a 45 degree angle, and to quickly put the cutting in water so that the stem does not have the opportunity to start sucking air.

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In this little gif we can see futuremind performing the surgery.

First I removed the foliage at the node, and then I make the swift cut. After the swift cut I swiftly add the cutting to water, and this should take no longer than one second.

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In the past I've used powder based cloning hormones and still have some left, but recently someone gave me a bottle of this Clonex, which is supposed to be some of the best stuff on the market so I figured I'd give it a try. Hopefully it works as well as I've heard and I get a successful rooting on these three clippings.

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When all is said and done, the clipping should look like this.

There's some debate regarding whether or not one should clip the foliage, as some claim it does not make a difference, but OG growers insist that it indeed makes a difference, and the concept is rather simple to comprehend. The plant cannot photosynthesize properly due to the nonexistent root system, so cutting back the foliage aids in reducing the photosynthesis and essentially helps the plant focus its energy better on root production. I am an advocate for leaf clipping.

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The clippings should look like this when the procedure is complete.

It is always a good idea to put the clippings in a less light intensive environment, because of the need for less photosynthesizing. Putting these clippings in the same tent as their mother plants would be a recipe for potential disaster.

Ensure the clippings are misted at least a few times a day, and keeping them in an 18/6 light environment will be pretty optimal.

Remember what the plants looked like in the beginning of the post...

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They look pretty brutalized.

Because they are.

I decided to put them through an intense stem crushing after taking the clippings.

I would have employed this training method earlier in the grow but had to ensure they are photo period plants first.

The transformation after this procedure and training will be huge.

In a few days the training will not even be apparent, and these plants will begin growing to monstrous proportions.

As long as all of the clippings take and all of these plants are female, I will have my pick of which one I will want to keep for a clone line.

The goal is to isolate a fire pheno.

Fingers crossed 🤞

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This cloning technique can be applied to other types of plants as well.

What do you all think of this process?

I'd love to read your thoughts in the comment section!

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a good day! -@futuremind