Lukes next grow...

[Luke Skywalker]

Here's a close up of the tip, you can see the two shoots which are now the dominant tops. *rubs hands gleefully*

 

This strain is extremely bushy anyway, but it does benefit, as do many strains, from a tipping at about 4 - 7 nodes.

[Luke Skywalker]

Okay, now we move onto the other blue widow.

 

It's a BOY! Hee hee I'm proud to announce I've brought forth a healthy, happy baby boy into the world.

 

Now, most growers would go, ew, a male, get rid of the thing! And normally, I would totally agree with them. But in this case, I plan to do some breeding with these plants. As it's so small, it may not shed too much pollen either, so I'm going to have to be careful in my pollen collection. I'll let everyone know how I go with that at a later date, probably tomorrow once I've bagged up the plant in preparation for pollen shedding. No flowers are open now, nearly, but not yet. The first ones will likely pop tomorrow IMO.

 

This pollen will be stored, eventually, in a small film container with a dessicant to remove any moisture/air inside the container. This in turn will be within a bag, sealed from the outside air. The bag and container will be then placed in the freezer until it's needed. I'm unsure as to how long it can survive in this state, but it doesn't need to be long. Maybe a month? Anyone got any idea on the avg livelihood of pollen in a freezer?

 

Anyway, here's the first pic, I'll show a few of them, these pics may help someone to id a male in their own garden before it opens. I'll try and take some close up shots of male flowers when they've opened too. They can be quite pretty ya know.

[Luke Skywalker]

Here's the boy from above. You can just see the point where I tipped it. It only showed sex after tipping tho... which is interesting.

 

Another interesting thing is that these plants are on a 24 hour light schedule. But that's not always a guaruntee with males that they'll still veg. Ah well.

[Luke Skywalker]

You can see a couple of balls here...

[Luke Skywalker]

More balls....

[Luke Skywalker]

One more shot of the male's unopened flowers, and that'll be it for this update.

 

Well, there ya go. I'll put another one up in a few days or so, and if there are any questions, or anyone would like any particular shots, just ask.

 

Here's to all your plants, and may they be strong with the Force as you are.

[TUGBOAT]

It only showed sex after tipping tho... which is interesting.

I had the same thing happen to the last batch of seeds I germed. Tipped them at the 6th node and two days later all the males showed.

 

Bizarre

 

Looking good Luke

 

What you plan on breeding with the blue widow?? They are some lovely genetics

 

Tugboat

[Luke Skywalker]

Hell yeah. I'm not sure yet. I might see if I can cross it back to a mother WW plant, see what the resultant plants will be like. There are so many plants out there which call themselves "white widow", that I'm certain there'll be a wide enough genetic pool to avoid too much damage in the backcross. Well, the proof is in the pudding really, we can only see.

 

I'd like to collect and save a bit if possible, and cross a few plants selectively on a branch or two with a small amount. I dunno, does anyone have any suggestions as to potential crosses?

 

heh heh, I just remembered something I'd wanted to do when I'd first sowed these seeds and got a male. I was going to see what the F2's would look like. There would be a varied and interesting bunch eh? Particularly since there was a substantial difference in the F1 generation. I have some clones at the moment of the indica pheno BW cloning, they're pretty ratty, but I think that a few should make it, and that's all I need.

[Luke Skywalker]

High all, thought I'd do a mini-update on the male plant. This has now been bagged and set aside in a cool, dark place to shed pollen. I'll show some pics of the sacs, perhaps these will assist newbie growers identify the balls before they pop.

 

Here's the first pic, and all these pics are from the 3rd. This is the plant overall...

[Luke Skywalker]

And a closer shot of the lower part of the plant. You can see that the stretch has happened very quickly, pushing the flowers a the top of the plant higher and higher to disperse pollen out. That cluster of flowers before the stretch point is where I tipped the plant. Obviously not well enough.