/ Growing Cannabis at Home, Right of the Leaf Grow Blogs / By

Exploring New Genetics and Goals in the Grow Room

 

As we enter the final quarter of 2024 and begin to prepare for 2025, the fall season is now upon us all. The leaves have changed and started to fall here in Northern Alberta. Many outdoor cannabis gardeners are harvesting and preparing to close up shop for the year. At the same time, the indoor growers prepare to battle the dry and frigid temperatures heading our way shortly. 

 

As we dive into this fall season, I am excited to start a new mass genetics and phenohunt with you all! This winter, I am to assist Mike Borg, the breeder behind the Garafrax Goodies Lineup of genetics that has been crucial in hosting our annual Goodies Grow Cup. I will drop 50 of his seeds to help nail down some possible winners for future crosses and projects. Across these 50 seeds, I will be hunting unique profiles and bud structures from 5 different crosses.

 

Additionally, I will be hunting out some fruity crosses from the legal market with the Parkland Flower and Tiki Madman seeds, bringing the seed total to 66 seeds across eight genetics. I am excited to find a blend of fruity and funky flavours in these genetics, and I can’t wait to see which one is my new favourite!

 

Returning Favorites from Previous Pheno Hunts

While I am excited to be hunting down some new medicine and tastes with all of these seeds, I must also keep some trusted genetics in the rotation. The first genetic that I have enjoyed growing and consuming enough to keep is the Shiatsu Kush F2  from Thumbprint Genetics. Its unique rubber terp and heavy body-focused effects make it a crucial aid in my medicine cabinet of weed. The large, dense, sticky nugs help provide some top-quality bag appeal. After a few optimization grows, this genetics could provide some unreal top-quality flowers.

 

While I have confidence in the Shiatsu Kush F2, the other two genetics, I will continue working with for a couple more flower cycles before I can confidently call these phenotypes ‘stable.’ The Tokyo Pave is a cross of the Shiatsu Kush F2 and Compound Genetics Strawberry Pave. The other genetic is the Blizzard of Oz, created by Greenlab Genetics. Both of these crosses have some significant potential and medicinal effects to offer. I want to lock these outstanding genetics into a stable, high-yielding option for myself and others. 

 

The Shiatsu Kush F2 is 40 days into its extreme stress flowering period, with an anticipated finish of around nine weeks. With every stress introduced to the remaining Shiatsu Kush F2 plant, I am confident this is a very stable and resilient genetic. With the number of setbacks and hiccups that have happened with these plants in flower, causing nutrient burn and poor pH balancing due to my readers being uncalibrated, and sewer backup in the basement affecting my grow area, this year has been full of opportunities to troubleshoot issues I never thought would arise. 

 

New Genetics to Hunt For Desirable Traits

Starting the week of October 28th to November 1st, 2024, we’ll be dropping an exciting array of new genetics aimed at hunting specific and desirable traits. Here’s what we’ll be adding to our garden:

 

Garafraxa Goodies Genetics:

    • (Black Hole x GMO Bx3 #5) x Guicy Zane (Garlic Tardus) – 10 Seeds
    • Garafraxa Funk F1 – 10 Seeds
    • Meat Madness x Guicy Zane (Higher Stakes) – 10 Seeds
    • Sour Apple Rntz S1 x Garafraxa Funk – 10 Seeds
    • Peanut Butter Breath x Garafraxa Funk – 10 Seeds

Parkland Flower:

    • Blue Dream x Mendo Breath – 10 Seeds

Tiki Madman:

    • Head Hunter x Lemon Cherry Gelato Sherbert – 3 Seeds

Unknown Breeder:

    • Zoom Call – 3 Feminized Seeds

With the addition of these fantastic crosses,  I am excited to fill out my garden and chase down my next great medicine. Optimal morning smoke helps kickstart my motivation and creativity for the day before transitioning into a more intensive and sedative body-focused experience for the later afternoon and evening sessions. While blending the two effects would provide potential all-day relief, I am excited to find optimal smoke for each part of the day.

 

Current Goals for the Garden: 

 

As I prepare for my first significant seed drop, I have outlined a few goals I will aim to accomplish over the next six months. Most goals focus on optimizing my growing environment and the genetics I grow regularly. Additionally, I want to showcase and compare the many nutrient systems I can access. 

 

  1. Start and Maintain Accurate Grow Diaries – Utilizing Growdiaries.com as a tracking system for the progression and experiments conducted with the Shiatsu Kush F2 for now, and eventually the Tokyo Pave and Blizzard of Oz genetics. With Remo, Success, and Mills Nutrients, all available alongside my Living Soil blend, plenty of experiments exist to conduct. 
  2. Clone and Stabilize New Mother Plants – With the Tokyo Pave and Blizzard of Oz, plants have almost completed their revegging process and already have a couple of clonable branches. Since I lost the original clones earlier this year, I will try to preserve these genetics if the flower turns out well. I want to take a fresh batch of clones from these plants and test them through a flowering cycle to see if the revegging process brought out any issues with the plants. 
  3. Hunt Out Desirable Traits – These are the traits that I am aiming to identify with each of the new genetics. With the feminized Zoom Call seeds, I have no history or knowledge of that genetic, so I am just dropping the seeds to see what we can find in the plants.
    • Garafraxa Funk: Aiming for cheesy and skunky taste and aroma over fruity profiles.
    • Peanut Butter Breath x Garafraxa Funk: Exploring bad breath and death flavours.
    • (Black Hole x GMO Bx3 #5) x Guicy Zane: Looking for an acidic garlic taste with a spacey medicinal high.
    • Higher Stakes: Focusing on a tighter, more compact bud structure and a fast-growing male plant.
    • Sour Apple Rntz S1 x Garafraxa Funk: Targeting a rotting apple and cheesy apple flavour and aroma.
    • Blue Dream x Mendo Breath: Seeking a stable, fruity, energetic, heady high.
    • Head Hunter x Lemon Cherry Gelato Sherbert: Hoping for fruity, vanilla, and cake flavours that provide full-body relaxation and a cerebral euphoric experience.
  4. Stabilize and Maintain 6 to 8 New Moms – Find within the new genetics to ensure a reliable supply for future growth.
  5. Upgrade our Main Flower Tent + Add a 2×4 Veg Tent—To optimize our growing environment, we will Upgrade from a single 4×4 flower tent to two 5×5 Flower tents and add a dedicated 2×4 veg tent.
  6. Set Up and Optimize the Environment –  With the new seedling and early veg tent arriving this week, I want to ensure a healthy start and growth for our new seedlings. 

I am excited to start working with these new genetics and improve the yields and outcomes from my other three genetics. Additionally, I have some Blackened Berries and Breakfast Waffles from Thumbprint Genetics that I started at the end of September. I would like to find some hidden gems for future projects and be able to showcase the potential of the gems I do have