Today I transplanted the second Goblin Queen seedling cutting. There was also my variegated Goblin Girl cutting that got transplanted into 4" pot like GQ. Not much else going on.
Wow the trainwreck and the chocolope look stunning, and they're all so healthy! I picked up some chocolope today at the coop and it really tastes like chocolate/mint/earth, really delicious in the vape, and a great uplifting buzz too. Definitely a contender for future grows
Thanks for noticing the ladies. I'll let them know that you find them stunning. The Chocolope and Chemdawg are on the outs in my garden. These are the end of the line because I have so much variety right now and these just aren't making the cut. Trainwreck right now is still a contender but she is the one on the bubble. Mildred is safe. These ladies are running on water only and nothing else. No teas, no foliar sprays (I don't count IPM sprays) so I'm pleased with my soil mix. I've got about 10 more days or so till harvest. No yellowing of the leaves. This is the healthiest, best looking grow I've had. Organics is the only way to grow this herb. You're wasting your time if you're using any other method.
Variety, I've found, can be frustrating. Having the same soil mix and getting totally different results, is driving me a little nuts. I can't wait to have my favorites, and (gently for leafy) terminate those other mofos! Good job dude, your grow is impressive! -matt
Thanks matt - I've got lots of variety and I'll have to make some tough decisions. As of now Mildred and Trainwreck are keepers. Behind them I've got some Swami gear and some Sanctuary Garden gear and I'm sitting on some beans I breed. For now I'm going to keep Neon Purps She is just too pretty. And I'm liking the variegation on Goblin Girl so I'm keeper her. View attachment 137474 So those are my cloning mothers for now.
We'll see if I can get the same coloring out of the one I've got. I'm hoping that I can duplicate it. I've got a couple more weeks before I turn her.
I sent off for a Chapin PremierXP Poly Sprayer, the one gallon size. I was getting too tired hand pumping the manual sprayer. The teenagers are getting too big so I tried it out last night. It worked well. I didn't get tired and the plants looked great this morning. I'm still going to get the Chapin concrete sprayer of the vegetable garden.
I have read many posts about whether or not continual cloning of succeeding generations of the same plant may or may not lead to genetic drift. The only way to know for sure is to do a genetic test on the clones over time and see if in fact it does change. I'm not going to do that but what I am going to say is the genes may not change but the pheno type of outward characteristics can present differently over the generations. I'm basing this on my own anecdotal experiences. For years I cloned the same UofW plant without any noticeable difference between clonings. I'd take a couple of cuttings before turning them to 12/12 and that would be my next run. I don't know how many generations I went through 25-30 generations. Then for reasons I don't know I got a clone that was significantly inferior to the previous generation. I was never careful about what cuttings I took. I just grabbed something off the lower branch. Some looked robust but others seemed weak and small. It didn't seem to matter. I don't know what was different but I do know that my UofW run came to an end and I was left having to get clones from a friend of a friend of a ... You get the picture there wasn't anyone I knew to get some new clones. I was growing isolated in my cellar. But in the PNW you seem to be only a couple of degrees removed from some indoor grower. Recently I got some cuttings from a friend. My friend gave me two cuttings off each plant. One of the cuttings looked like your typical marijuana plant. The other cutting (same mother) had some variegation in the leaf of yellow and green. It was something I never had seen before. He wasn't sure if the variegation would continue to be part of the growing plant and thought it might disappear over time. Well it didn't. So now I have two plants from the same mother that look very different from one another. Plant with leaf variegation View attachment 137725 Plant with no leaf variegation View attachment 137726 There may not be genetic drift but the physical characteristics expressed by those genes can be different between sibling cuttings. I do like that yellow and green leaf patterns. An ornamental plant that's good to smoke.
Evolution involves the mixing of DNA to create new combinations of genetic material that ultimately leads to a better outcome for survival. There is no mixing of DNA with cloning so the genetics should be stable. There can be damage to DNA that will cause new expressions of the genes but I don't think that is what is going on here. My guess is that the DNA has different triggering mechanisms and some genes can be turned on and off. For this one branch the gene that produces variegation was turned on and for the other branch, ie cutting, the gene for variegation was turned off. I also think that when I lost my UofW plant the gene for resin production was turned off or greatly reduced and it produced an inferior plant. Even the next generation didn't improve it so I tossed it. This is all speculation on my part but it does for me have a ring of truth.
Yeah, I've been trying to wrap my head around this ever since you posted that. You're reproducing asexually, so each plant should have exactly the same DNA, save for some random mutations that can happen. I wish I took more Bio classes so I know more about gene expression. The leaves on the colorful, "Goblin Girl?" look like it's been affected by the Mosaic Virus or something: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Alfalfa_mosaic_virus.jpg/220px-Alfalfa_mosaic_virus.jpg I think genetic drift can occur in asexual reproduction, just not as fast as you've noticed a difference. Either it comes down to a genetic mutation, shift, deletion etc, or just phenotypic expression differences. It seems like you were playing a long-term, genetic-version, of the, "Phone game". Where a message is passed on by whispering in your neighbor's ear, and, when it reaches the end, the message is very often completely different. In this case, the UofW plant just forgot to whisper, "high resin content."
I'm not a geneticist so this is based on my fragmented understanding of genetics. DNA carries the 'instructions' for building an organism. Within the DNA structure itself there are portions of the strand that act as triggering mechanisms that will cause a gene to express itself. Now when the cells are created these triggers will determine via the genetic component how it will be expressed by the plant. Plants cells grow a little differently than the cells in our bodies. In a plant they have cells similar to stem cells in humans that have the capabilities of becoming any number of different types of cells. So if you have a plant that is producing leaf cells and those leaf cells have a trigger that creates variegation then you get variegated leaves for these cells. Anyway that's what I'm thinking from my readings and speculation from my limited knowledge.
I think it's only going to be speculation for me, too. Genetics are awesome and mysterious, part of the reason growing from seed is so fun. For some reason it just makes sense to me that a plant would get worn-out after being so many generations of a clone. So, assuming the clone's phenotypic expression is already set in stone while it's merely a branch on the mother-plant. And seeing how there can be variations between the clones and their parent plant. There can be phenotypic deviation between branches of the same plant: coloration, potency, resin production... ?
I don't know about the wearing out. I think it has more to do with the characteristics of the cuttings. I'm going to be getting my hands on a Blue Orca cutting that is reputed to be from a plant originally grown in 1984. That's 30 years of cloning. I do go along with the phenotypic deviation between branches though. I think that is wrongly called genetic drift. It seems to make sense to me to think in these terms.
I don't have much to show today but a shot of my Cascadian Frost. I'm thinking this is a girl but I haven't taken any cuttings yet. I'll let it grow another 6" or so. It just such a bush. Cascadian Frost View attachment 137756 Some may wonder about the variegated plant so I'll throw up this full shot. Goblin Girl View attachment 137758 I didn't get to the ladies before the lights went off so I'll get some shots tomorrow.
Here is another one of my seedlings that I'm not sure of the sex. Goblin Queen View attachment 137760 Neon Purps View attachment 137762 Neon Purps is a girl because this was cloned.
Here is what's up with the ladies at the end of week 7. The 3 ladies are on the finishing lap of their grow. Maybe another week or two. Trainwreck View attachment 137783 Trainwreck is filling in nicely and the buds just keep getting fatter. I think this might be my biggest yield yet. I'm liking the topping of the plant. It seems to give the lower branches a chance to fill out too. Trainwreck bud View attachment 137784 The buds are getting frosty. I'm looking forward to using my new screens and get some dry sift off those sugar leaves. Chocolope View attachment 137781 This lady has lots of buds too. I had to put a dowel in there to give a little more support. Those buds are so heavy the whole plant is swaying in the breeze. I don't want her to break her main stem. The branches are strong though. Chocolope bud View attachment 137782 This one has the longest pistils I have seen on any bud. I grew her before in ProMix and bottled nutrients but she seems to like organic soil better. She may have to go for a couple of more weeks. Chemdawg View attachment 137779 I'll let the picture speak for itself. Chemdawg bud View attachment 137780 This is the frostiest lady of the bunch. Maybe another week for her. These ladies are all running on water only. I'm liking my organic soil mix.