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After two days, only eight out of 57 seeds have not opened. Some appear to have started opening before I left the room two days ago. Damn males, I thought to myself. The majority of the nine uncracked are six AK47, which are about six years old. I knew they were probably past their peak, but I was still hoping to sneak one female out of the six remaining seeds. The one that has opened seems suspiciously male. Time will tell. This strain is not as high a priority this year as I thought it would be. I love it, but I have several others I’m growing this year that I love as much, or more. That’s probably why I waited all these years to try growing AK47 again. This might be a snooze, you lose situation. I will give the remaining uncracked seeds a full seven days before I discard them. Experience tells me that older seeds can take longer to wake up. I had that happen with some nine year old Harle-Tsu seeds two years ago. 

I am delighted by what has opened. Twelve out of twelve West Marin Mystery seeds opened and I’ve had those seeds for five years. Given how much we all enjoy this plant, and that it’s one of the two plants that I give to a stroke victim nearby. The other is Honey Tsu, which six of seven seeds have opened so far. This person gets the WMM for daytime and Honey Tsu for night. The supply he’s had will be exhausted before the end of the year, so it’s time to grow him new medicine.

All seven remaining Fruitcake opened and I have to believe at least one female is in that group. If AK47 doesn’t produce, growing an extra Fruitcake could happen. But more likely, there will be an extra S. Thai plant, because 11 out of her 12 seeds have opened. After growing our record terpene percentage last year with this strain, we are anxious to try her again. Last year, we only started her seeds in late May. This year, she’s going to get a full season of growing. Honestly, the little plant we grew last year is one of the finest highs any of us have experienced. It’s deep.

I’m also excited to be growing Rose, a strain I’ve read about for years, that has a profile similar to Fruitcake. 

There is always an exaggerated excitement when seeds start opening. As a grower, I’m certain that I’m going to get the female plants that I want. And I usually do.

But, it doesn’t always turn out like that, and that’s why I have backups started. Readers of my blogs know that some years, you can get a disproportionate number of male plants. If you’ve been growing for a long time, I’m certain that some of you have your own, “sack festival” stories. 

So I am mindful, from the outset, to have a backup plan in place and that backup plan involves feminized seeds, and growing extra regular seeds. I’ve had years where I had empty beds, due to my own lack of long range planning. An empty bed is not the fault of the seeds, it’s the fault of the grower. And as I alluded in my previous blog, if it’s a good year, with mostly or even 50/50 males, you can always give away your starts if you have extras. I have a friend who’ll do some tree work on my property in exchange for starts. That’s a good barter.

In the past, I’ve usually started five regular seeds from each cultivar. The odds are that at least one female will be in that group of five. Having been burned by that as recently as last year, I’m starting more of the regular seeds this year. I’m virtually doubling the amount. I have to believe I’m going to get what I want, when I have eleven or twelve sprouts of a given strain.

I was planning only growing one of each feminized seeds that I start, but that is also subject to change. Both of the Cherry Punch seeds are over an inch tall after only three days. I’m very curious about this 50/50 cultivar. I might grow both. With ordinary seeds, if any grew this tall so quickly, I would put an X on the cup to remind me of a possible male. But these are feminized, so they might be growers.

A quick reminder to those starting seeds for the first time: Make sure you plant the seed with the crown up, and make certain you water the dirt before putting in the seed. If you water it after planting, the seed will sink and you might lose it. That has happened to me. One year, the seed that was buried and unfound emerged from a three-gallon container that had been transplanted with something else.

Once the seeds are in cups, I won’t water the soil again. Water only goes in the reservoir below.

However, I will continue spraying my water/peroxide mixture twice a day on each cup. The peroxide kills any germs that might impact the sprout. The formula for this is ½ cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water. I use that gallon to fill the spray bottles I use on the plants.

These first weeks for the plants are where you can begin training your plants in terms of water. You want to give your plants just enough water, to make them look for more water. This is how they grow. If you give them too much direct water, the plants will become stagnant and won’t grow properly.  You can kill them with too much water. In these early weeks, you can teach your plants when to expect water. Obviously, when there’s a reservoir, baby plants keep drinking. But by not watering them directly, you’re already teaching them to look for what they need. 

Once my plants go into the outside growing beds, they get a good soaking the first day, in order to let all the soil settle. But after that, they get water one day a week, Saturday, always in conjunction with a quart of freshly brewed compost tea. 

My goal is to drive my plants to find the fungal network that exists beneath my beds. Because once they connect to the mycorrhizal network, I won’t water them again. To reach that goal requires just enough water, and not too much. If you notice your plant is not growing very fast, stop watering. It’s probably drowning. I understand that seems counterintuitive to a new grower. The knee jerk response is almost always to give them water, because if they’re not growing, they must be thirsty.

This is wrong. Unless you are flushing your growing medium, less is almost always more when it comes to watering. 

A reminder that you can’t water like this with clones. They don’t have the tap root that you get from a seed. Without that tap root, which literally goes into the soil and looks for moisture sources, you have to water more often.

My original plan for this year was to plant feminized seeds directly into beds. In thinking it through, I realized it’s better to start the seeds in the cottage and then plant them immediately after cutting off the cotyledons. They’ll grow exactly as intended in the beds, without transplant stress, because their roots aren’t long enough yet. But it’s safer to start them indoors. 

I put each feminized seed directly into soil in a cup. I then covered where the seed had been planted with a piece of clean tissue. I sprayed the peroxide on that tissue and kept tissues over the seeds for two days. I suspect I’ll be taking five of these to the beds in about ten days.

Meanwhile, in the beds, worms are busy sucking nitrogen into the soil, and the entire Corvid family of birds are helping themselves to the fresh straw we put on the beds. It’s nesting time around here, and I always make certain to add extra to my beds, just for the crows and jays. I know they appreciate it, and I love being friends with corvids. All of them are incredible birds.

Ok, we’re five days in and there are a lot of sprouts. I will give the remaining unopened seeds two more days. My guess is we’re finished with seed cracking. This year, the goal is to only grow those seeds that open now. I’m not starting any seeds later. I don’t want any plants having abbreviated grow times.

Right now, I am thinking about the configuration of this year’s grow. I had a certain plan in mind before starting seeds, but the plan is changing, based solely on the number and quality of sprouts I’m getting. 

Of the feminized plants, Giant White Haze is my least interesting choice this year. It’s a giant sativa. It’s the plant we originally thought would go in the aviary. Currently, both feminized seeds appear to be potential duds and this is ironically good news. Giant White Haze seems like a plant I’ll grow when I’m not growing many other cannabis plants. It seems like one to concentrate on. It will probably require some sort of trellis, and I have no experience, to date, with a trellis.

So I’m thinking it’s good if those seeds are duds. I can grow this strain another year. I am much more interested in growing the other cultivars. 

I need to grow multiple West Marin Mysteries, both for our dispensary, and possibly for the stroke victim. We’ll run out of West Marin Mystery 18 later this year, so I want to be prepared. To that end, I’m also growing other strains that might be perfect for him. Both Cherry Punch and Special Queen 1 are well documented 50/50 type plants, with terpene history showing dominant amounts of Beta Caryophyllene and Limonene. Depending on the strength of those terpenes, they might be perfect choices as well. And then there’s Rose, with its unique 60/40 indica hybrid and all sorts of front end euphoria. Royal Kush is another choice, as it is half the parentage of the West Marin Mystery.

I take this responsibility very seriously. Taking care of this terribly damaged person, helping out his caregiver wife to the best of my ability, is where I get to practice what I preach.

I have a mantra. “If you grow something special, share it. If someone is in need, give it away.”

West Marin Mystery from bed 18 is one of the most special plants I’ve ever grown. She yielded well over two pounds and her terpene percentage was over 3%. Every single time I tried this plant, I felt better. Happier, more engaged, inspired. Truly, a plant we’ll never forget. Because of all those things, she was the perfect plant to dedicate to Mr. M. He needed it, and his wife desperately needed him to benefit from it, more than any of us needed it. That plant was grown with him in mind. It was serendipity. Meant to be.

The West Marin Mystery in bed 18. 

All of these cultivars are also known to have adequate amounts of Beta Caryophyllene and Limonene. The Beta Caryophyllene is for mood stabilization (it keeps the sativa from feeling like a clown car), and the Limonene is for nausea.

Of course, all of these possible choices will become clearer once males begin to show in a couple of weeks. I’m currently feeling extra enthusiastic, because I had a brutal year last year regarding males. Typically, a bad male year is usually followed by a more reasonable year, in terms of getting females.

Knock on wood.

Finally, I hope that the excellent man at Toyota of Marin, Erwin Mulimbayan, who took such good care of me the other day, reads this blog. This one’s for you, bro.

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Or contact me directly with your idea (good seeds are always welcome–and if I grow them, I will get the flowers tested and share with you the results.

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