The Daily Bud

Imagine it being necessary to move a seven plus foot cannabis plant when it’s one week into bud, well that’s just what happened to us in July of 2005. I was gifted a few cut’s of 180’s Jack Surprise that was created using my notorious Jacks Cleaner mom x Grapefruit x C99. I had seen photos of her and heard a lot about her but never had a chance to grow it. Kryptonite was nice enough to get a cutting to me, via another friend of ours. She had a long rough journey that really tore her up.
We always keep new incoming cuts separated from our main grow, so we quarantined these little ones in our sunroom. One day, just as the ladies were starting to repair and grow new shoots, they were attacked by a cannabis hungry feline. Apparently the interior door to the sunroom was left ajar and our cannabis hungry cat sensed fresh tender cannabis, so he pushed his way into the sunroom and had himself a stony feast. I was not at all happy but I knew the plants would be fine as they were well rooted and had a good bit of healthy growth on them. The very next day our baby bunny was let out to get some ‘hoppity’ exercise, apparently she is cannabis-hungry too! When the bunny was done having her stoner-iffic brunch the little Jacks Surprise clones were basically nubs. At this point we realized our pets were herb-lovers, so we built a shelf and placed the ladies on it, away from the stoner critters. As they grew they started coming back as bushes, we decided it had so many shoots the only way to do it justice was under the sun, in the great outdoors. We kept one Jacks Surprise and gave the other to our friend and TGA member, SunyCheba.
Even though we grow legally under our state guidelines, we normally do all of our grows, indoors. It’s one thing to grow legally and it’s another to let everyone in tight-ass America know you grow weed. We were living on some acreage at the time. There was a hidden full sun location, with easy water access out back near the pump house; this is where we planned to place her.
First we had to get the Jacks Surprise lady adjusted to outdoor life. We put her in a two-gallon pot and placed her outside on mild, sunny days. As she grew bigger and stronger and spring solstice approached, we placed her into a thirty- gallon muck bucket and carried her out-back. I used some older super-soil that I had previously used for the indoor garden. I reconditioned the soil with bone meal and bat guano. She grew fast and I tended her faithfully through the hot summer, sometimes watering her two times in one day. My faithful dog protected her from wandering deer or other unwanted visitors. She kept growing and growing, taller than the dog, taller than MzJill, finally taller than me.
One day we received notice from the landlord, he wanted to visit us to check on a leak in the roof, which we had previously made him aware of. About four weeks later we received a letter asking us to vacate within thirty days, as they want to re-roof the home. So we were left with thirty days to find a new home for our family and our cannabis-hungry pets. What the hell do we do with the plant out back that has grown now, to over seven feet tall?
We were able to locate a new home that was on one hundred acres. While MzJill and the children were checking out the house, I wandered off to find a place for our monster marijuana tree. I walked and toked and walked some more, I was out in the middle of nowhere. There was a forest full of huge pine and oak trees, and hills overlooking huge open fields. I was caught up in the beauty of the land, just wandering. I found myself at the top of a hill. I started running down, faster and faster until I reached the bottom and I jumped on what appeared to be a log in the tall wild grass. Next thing I knew I was falling into a dark hole filled half way with water. With my fast stoner-like reactions I was able to grab the sides of the hole to keep myself from falling into the dark water below. As I pulled myself from the hole, and limped with broken ribs towards the house; I realized that my plan needed revising. I hadn’t found an area in direct sun, while still being hidden from the farmers working their summer crops, as well there was not water access nearby. I still don’t know what we are going to do with this huge pot plant.

We had a lot of work in front of us, and a short time to get it all complete. We sent the children off to Girl Scout camp, and we got busy. MzJill’s and the homeowner’s idea of clean, are not the same; not even close! We set out to make this house our home; bleaching, sterilizing, painting, new kitchen counter and carpet shampooing; finally able to start moving in after lots of sleepless nights. Constructing new efficient grow rooms, while tearing down the old grow rooms and keeping the crops on cycle. Finding someone who is a state legal medical marijuana grower, whom can provide a home to a seven-foot monster, isn’t as easy as it may sound!
The outlook on finding a home for this healthy, bug-free seven-foot marijuana plant was grim. Until Grandma stepped up! We have a grandma who has had some problems with chronic pain. In the past Grandma has had some major relief from a few of MzJill’s medical grade cannabis cookies. So we set out to get the ball rolling on getting Grandma her medical card. Then the fun began! How do you go about transporting a seven-foot pot tree to a home forty miles away? Did I mention that the route weaves through the heart of downtown in our capitol city, past the city cop shop, past the skater/thug park and down the freeway; before ending at the final destination in a residential neighborhood?

It’s not illegal to transport a giant pot plant through the city under our state guidelines, but it’s probably not a real smart idea to let everyone see it being done. The first step was getting our Cannabis Tree from out-back to up-front in the driveway. With the help of our good friends CptCrunch and SugarLeaf we came up with a plan. We used CptCrunch’s small Toyota truck to drive across the backyard around the trees and flowers, finally out back to our Cannabis Tree. The picture of MzJill holding up the huge plant while CptCrunch weaves his way back up through the yard; is one of my favorites. We used twine to tie-up the plant like a Christmas tree. Then we laid her out on a large tarp, and wrapped her up neatly, once again wrapping with twine. We hoisted her into the bed of Grandma’s Ford truck, thirty-gallon bucket included; laying her diagonally across the truck bed. We then took Astro Turf and wrapped her up a little more. Our pot plant looked some-what like a dead body when we were done getting her ready for transport. Just to spice things up a bit; while transporting the Cannabis Tree, a city cop followed Grandma all the way through the heart of the city, but he was just headed in the same direction.
Grandma has a son, whom we will call Joe; he was very excited to become the caretaker of this Jacks Surprise lady. He did a great job giving her a new home. First Joe dug a huge hole in the backyard and loosened the surrounding soil; he refilled the hole with soil from the local nursery. When he transplanted the lady into the ground, he put her deep, the entire root ball down into the ground, up to the lowest branch. This helped to lower the overall height of the plant so she wouldn’t be seen above the fence tops. He watered her regularly and I made a few visits with five-gallon jugs of organic nutrients (Pure Blend Bloom and Liquid Karma).
We had a sunny long autumn but late into September it started cooling off more during the night and dew began forming on the buds. I had previously warned Joe about mold and mildew. He built a roof over the lady with a clear piece of four millimeter plastic, to keep the dew off at night yet allow the sun to finish maturing her numerous buds. Anxious Joe and his two Pit Bulls protected her from theft; and she was protected from the dogs by a short wire fence. Although she was no longer in full sun by November, she was showing amber trichomes and nice purple shading to the buds. The Grape Fruit genes influenced the fragrance, but there was a spicy undertone as well.
When it was harvest time, I went over to Grandma’s house to help process the plant and make sure it was properly trimmed and dried. I like to cut all the large fan leaves off and discard them then trim each stalk down close, saving the “sugar leaf” to make bubble hash. Each stalk is placed onto a hanger and then hung in a warm room with plenty of air movement, until the buds get crispy feeling on the outside. The trimmed buds are then cut off of the stems and are placed in large pans to finish drying for a few more days (in our climate). The stems will snap if bent, at this time we place the buds into glass jars and open or burp them a few times a day for the first few days, then every couple of days for the first few weeks.
One surprising thing was how much different the same clone tasted grown indoors in organics. There is much more resin on the indoor plants and it has a sweeter flavor. After final processing, the outdoor plant yielded a little over a pound of nice smooth dank buds. We shared the smoke with our other patients and considering all of the set backs that this little clone was able to grow past, I was quite pleased in the end with a quarter pound for my efforts.
Subcool is the Author of
Dank, The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana
www.tgagenetics.com

I recently attempted to transplant a flowering SpaceQueen from a 5 gallon bucket into the ground and it took with very little to no shock. I credit most of it to TGA cause its just a killer strain. I was kinda shocked that it worked to be honest, but it was a WIN WIN situation for me at the end of the project. FIRE IN DA HOLE! BTW SUB,.....YOU DA FUCKIN MAN!!!

High times is famous for its amazing pictures of Cannabis Flowers of mostly the female species. Cannabis is a dioecious plant, which means that the male and female flowers develop on separate plants, although monoecious examples with both sexes on one plant are found. Sibling crosses draw genetic traits from both the mother and father plant, the male plays just as important a role as the female does but its rare to see male cannabis plants in full bloom and pollen collection and use is almost a mythical craft. I will do my best in this article to shed some light on the ways pollen is collected and dispersed.

Before we talk about collecting pollen let’s talk about staggering. This is a trick I learned by trial and error that allows us to get the maximum number of seeds per plant. This doesn’t apply to those just working with a branch or two.
When pollinating a mother plant for seed I will start her into 12/12 a full 7 days before I move the male into budding room. Keeping in mind that each strain is going to be a bit different on time frame but this 7 day rule has worked very well for us. Once the male is flowering well the females will be entering a window around day 21-24. Most Hybrids I work with are done in less than 9 weeks so 3 weeks in is good place to start. You can pollinate up to day 30 but you stand a good chance of the seeds never getting mature so I find each strain perfect window. Apollo-13 is closer to 21 days and Jacks Cleaner is better at say 26 or so.

One thing I must insert and I am not trying to be rude for your younger inspiring breeders out there concentrate on producing the best herb you can and mastering the craft of room set up. Again no offence but you can’t breed properly in a cab I do it in a limited space granted but I have been growing successfully some 32 years and didn’t start breeding till I had around 20 years under my belt. It doesn’t hurt to experiment that is how we learn but I think at least a few years as a grower are in order before anyone attempts breeding even though I lay out every single step. If you think its easy ask a grower how many complete garbage strains he’s grown out from so called “Established Breeders” It takes an eye and that is gained from experience.

Ok so now we have our male in full bloom and we have our females in the breeding room. This area should be completely separated from main bud area preferably in another building completely. If the two rooms share a common HVAC duct system you will get pollution into your main area. Pollen is serious stuff and flies everywhere and you cannot see it. It will stick to your clothes, pets, etc. You must change cloths and bath after entering your breeding area.

Over the years I have budded out quite a few males and each one acts a bit differently. Some bud extremely fast while others tend to release pollen over a longer period of time. The best males to work with are one that matures in a short window maturing and releasing pollen in a short time span.
I prefer to simply allow my males to hang out with my mothers for a few days with a small fan positioned on the male with females in the air stream. As the stamen open the pollen naturally flies into the air providing max coverage. We also like to pluck off ripe pods and gently roll them between our fingers over each cola head. This is how we capture the amazing suspended pollen shots I set as a standard and later Jill perfected.

One trick I have used in the past is the pollen trap. This trick takes a good eye for when the male is about to open. If you can figure that out simple take two large Tupperware containers and form a box that will hold a cup with water. Wax paper in bottom and along sides and tops you have cut off the mature male. Place the tops to hang over the wax paper and tape the entire box shut this allows you to have it in a non secure place like a vegetive room. Warning don’t spill the water it ruins the pollen don’t put more into the glass that you need to I used a heavy bar glass that wouldn’t tip over.

One thing we should cover is male cluster formation. When selecting a male for breeding we run him as a mature full size plant and we want to see even if he has met all our other breeding criteria that he makes big gnarly male clusters this indicates the bud formation he might pass on. If you male produces small clusters he most likely will not pass on larger yields to the offspring. This is not set in stone but it is a very good indication.


Once the plants are fully pollinated I wash the females off with a spray bottle of water and if its raining I place out doors for a night up high on a barrel where no bugs could possibly get to her. I prefer a gentle long rain to a spray bottle as it removed any access pollen. Once I have redundantly rinsed I place the mothers back into my main bud not in the main air stream of my blowers

Back to the male we have used for the breeding party. I will bend his branches over and cover them with a V spaded hanging trap I make from wax paper. This is the process I will get Jill to shoot here in about 3 weeks and add to the thread. One thing to watch out for is the male flowers they contain water and must be removed from pollen. I find the hanging traps I make can be shaken and the flowers being heavy fall to the corners and can be removed from the pile.

Collecting pollen is a bit like milking a gnat, when you manually roll a pod and it falls it may be a million grains but its is barley visible to the eye it also tends to stick to the wax paper but the solution is to mix in some dry flour. I used a ratio of about 5 to 1 and ended up with a yellow looking mix that resembled cake batter. I allowed the flour to dry well and microwaving wouldn’t be bad idea to remove any moisture that might remain in the flour.

The male Cannabis plant is amazing in its own right and in the game of creating hybrids a male known for his attributes can be worth a lot more than the most elite female cutting

Sub, that story about the moving plant is awesome man. I move mine a lot too. Is that article going to be put into a mag? That's an incredible story and it goes to show that weed is a pretty hardy plant once they're started. Good read man.
Hybrid

In ran in Treating Yourself in 2007
Remember were going back in time on this thread

Sub

Here are some of the pics from that article that wern't in that folder

Ha i forgot this was a time travelling thread! Those pics of the truck and plant are pretty funny Sub, did anybody notice this at all? Not that it matters in California since you're legal, but still somebody had to get a kick out of that!

I always have a lot of catching up to do when I sign back on RIU and check your thread- thanks for all the posts Sub! Loved the story and pictures.

Its always good to have some fruit with breakfast

Sub

This was the first time my recipe appeared in a national magazine

I hope the one thing everyone gleams from this post is how hard I work. What I do is not luck but dedication IMO.

Start, Finish, Start, Finish for over 20 years now

Making some resin bombs

I agree Sub, people just have to work. Nothing good in life is free, besides joints of good bud passed your way...those are, but little else. Great job man sent ya a PM