Subcool's Library

I am driven up to the location early in the morning and arrive to see the land clouded in a dense "Mist" that seems to almost hide the property. I drive up a gravel road through a security gate that has been left open just for our entry. A nice home sits on the front of the property well kept and the lot rises upward to the rear of the land where nestled in the trees is a long Tube style green house open ( for now) on each end. Shrouded in the heavy mist the whole seen is very surreal and I am almost giddy with excitement at what I am about to see.
As Part two of our story unfolds, the plants have been in the flowering phase since about August 20th. This is when the old timers in the area have taught me the days are short enough for just about any strain to start budding. I learned at the Garden of Weeden that the Kush plants tend to start sooner and finish a bit faster. In this garden in appears the Jack Herer may be quickest out of the gate in that aspect and even on my first visit I can see the first start of buds setting in. The larger plants already tower over my six foot frame and the weight of the limbs had started to drag the plants down. Pat and his care takers are discussing the best way to support these already massive plants. While they talk I walk through this amazing garden where the plants have already started to create shaded areas to hide from the suns glare. It's hot in the green house and I work up a sweat as I go from plant to plant snapping pictures and then setting up a few ladders to shoot some video.
The main difference I can see at first glance is how neat and organized the garden is. The plants are laid out in a grid pattern and it looks almost symmetrical through my lens even though there are multiple strains in the garden. There is a 4 man crew tending this garden all day every day and as always I am amazed by the amount of work these growers have put in. Outcast by society do these appear to be lazy people with no work ethic? I think not!
I wasn't able to return to the mist for almost 3 weeks and man what a difference that time made. To start with the workers had come up with a brilliant way to support the plants. Using large bamboo poles and 15x15 Canopy nets they formed large net boxes to support the side buds and a series or plant yoyo's to support the upper colas. From the looks of the garden it looks like they had been at this project the entire time I was absent. Literally thousands of bud sites had been trussed or netted up to form these massive "Box Plants" you see in the pictures. As I walked into the massive shaded area under the canopy I was delighted to feel the temperature drop as I walked into the rich oxygen enriched air. Large cannabis gardens like this always amaze me and almost make me feel giddy with excitement. The smells of all the strains combined to create one amazing smell and the one word that screams into my brain is "Dank".Third Visit
The sun came up above the trees my 10 am and I was able to get some really nice shots using the sun and the blue sky as a back drop. At first these plants were being watered each day but it was recommended by Dioxide to actually not water the plants so the root systems would go in search of water forming a much larger root system. I saw no negative effect when the watering schedule was reduced to allow the roots to expand. You can see how full and lush the canopy is in these over head shots of the garden.

I tried to be consistent in my timing of every two weeks, and I made my third trip up to The Mist in mid September. The temperatures in the area had finally started dropping in the evenings and the plants were all starting to form bud set. The Jack Herer that I mentioned as being a faster budding strain was well into budding and even small cola formations were visible. The smell coming from the buds was a lemon mint smell that reminded me of a natural toothpaste and it was quite intoxicating. I took the time to document the growth that had taken place over the two weeks but I was more excited for more return trips when I knew things would really start to happen in a big way.
This is also a time of great stress for the care takers in this garden and the crew moved a small camper up right next to the garden. Each night a different worker would camp out next to the garden just to make sure nothing went missing. This garden is very secure but and hidden but it never hurts to play it safe.

Stay Tuned For Part 3
The Buds Come!
tgagenetics.com

I would like to thank everyone for following along with the story so far and also thank the great design team here at Weed World. As an artist layout is very important and I can't wait for each issue to see what magic these talented people have performed on my content.
As the final chapter unfolds the weather is pretty bad with early rains, warm days and cool nights and the boys are working overtime to prevent mold and mildew.
The cooler night time temps that came early in October created a need for heat so a huge 300,000 BTU space heater has been installed to try and both warm and dry the garden out.
The plants some over 12 feet tall tower over my head and I have to use a step ladder to get any of the upper buds into frame. I have been documenting growing for a long time and I never stop being excited about giant plants like these. Before I took a single picture I walked through the garden for like 1/2 hour just blown away at what I was seeing. The smell was over powering and heavenly to me as the heavy citrus smell of the Jack Herer combined with all the other fragrances of Cannabis to create one hell of a Dank bouquet. After snapping a few shots of the ginormous plants I got down to business and set up my camera on a tripod with my Sigma 105 Macro lens and ring flash. Shooting anywhere outdoors is challenging because of air movement. The best super macro is done when the subject is perfectly still but I did my best to get you guys some nice close ups to drool over.
The Blood Wreck cutting is named for her dark pigmenting trait and her buds were already changing color. The Jack Herer plants looked close to harvest already and my arms were covered in sticky lemony resin from brushing against the plants. The Heavy Duty Fruity were not nearly as far along but her buds were just plump and big as a mans fist. The Orange Velvet plants were tallest in the garden with top cola's towering above 12 feet and almost touching the top of the greenhouse.
In my final visit harvest of some of the more mature plants had started pretty much on a branch by branch basis. The room created allowed me to get a few full plant shots just before they were harvested. Some wider than a passenger van I used a 10 foot ladder to get above the canopy to shoot video and I still had to use an extended monopod to get a decent angle. Imagine trying to get a shot of an oak tree inside a tent.
There was some loss due to mildew and mold but as soon as any sign appeared it was quickly chopped out and removed. This is one down side to growing in the mist especially in really poor weather years like this one. Some of the biggest cola's in the garden had to be tossed out when they got to close to the ceiling of the greenhouse where condensation formed at times. This time of year temperatures can vary outside as much as 40 degrees. The rise in temps cause moisture to condensate on everything and as the sun comes out and the temperatures rise the warm moist conditions are really conducive to mold and mildew. The good news as that it was only about 20% of the total crop and many beautiful flowers were untouched.
The crew was using a commercial trimmer at first but on inspection it was obvious that the hash trim was being destroyed by the machine. As the leaf is chopped off by the blades and vacuumed into a bag it came out looking more like mulch than hash making trim. While it did speed things up the time savings was not worth the loss of quality bubble hash.
Day by day the garden was taken down and as the dried flowers became ready each patient came and took away their legal state limit. There are limits to the amount of dried medicine based on weight a grower can possess, so to stay within guide lines the whole process actually takes longer. The plants slow to mature where left until the end of October when the sun went away for good and temps plummeted and then ready or not everything came down. I asked Pat if he planned to give the location another go the following year and I was surprised when he said no. He explained that even with all of his efforts and investing a great deal in technology he felt the weather was too big of a factor in the area. He did not like harvesting early due to bad weather. Not every location will work and the only way to find out and it wasn't a great growing season for anyone that year.
I few weeks later I was able to sample some of Jack Herer in flower form and some bubble hash that was made from the trim. The bud was so good I was inspired to include Jack Herer in my book Dank 2.0.
I'd like to thank everyone involved in helping me tell this story, from Dirt Diggler to the growers that helped him. Thanks to Weed World and it's readers.
Subcool
tgagenetics.com

I had the idea to start 20 Vortex seeds and find the best 3 males to do a Apolo-13 cubing project. We were only blessed with one lone male out of 21 seeds started and that kind of defeats the concept of increasing our male selection pool. The good news is I ended up with 17 females. Every one a keeper in there own right. I wasn’t expecting so many females and the three I killed early in seed stage would have been no different than these but enough is enough and 17 is enough. I have passed out the extra clones to friends all over and there input will help determine which is the best clone when they finish. I Took pictures of about half of the plants to give you an idea of how nice and even they all are with just slight differences in smell and shape.

The plants were budded in square 2 gallon pots and placed in 12/12 as soon as they showed sexual maturity about 24”. I used super soil in the lower ½ and Roots soil in the upper portion. The plant were budded mainly under a 400 watt HPS in a room that was averaging 60 degrees so I’m sure they are a lot happier now under a 1000 watt HPS with temps in the 70’s. I fed the plants about a week ago as these are really small pots compared to what I normally bud in and it looks like I pushed them just right as just the leaf tips are fried a tad.

I’m very impressed with the quality and stability of this many plants from seed and over 75% look just like clones. This is a very strong line and I am extremely pleased as I have been telling people for over a year how good it is based on the 5 seed run we did last year.

As the plants in bud matured and the clones rooted we started passing the females to more local med growers to run in there gardens. While I knew one would stand out every plant was a keeper in my opinion. I kept three that I liked based on smell and structure and ran all three again through the bud room to determine which was the absolute best to me.

The three phenotypes we kept were named after Chat members on my website. Pistils, Speakers, and SuperRV311 were the tag names they received and it was a lot of fun to have each member pulling for his favorite plant.

The clones were placed in full sized 7 gallon pots and run in my normal fasion on the second run.

The Pistils variation was very Apollo dominant and tasted of Spicey Pepper and fruit. The Speakers variety was sweet and fruity but the high was mellow and not as complex as I prefer. SuperRV311 was just right with a combination taste/smell of Grapefruit and Pineapple that got better and better as the sample cured in a very large glass jar.

We culled the other two females and cloned Super to run in our main medical garden. As with many clones by the third run the plant was performing better than from seed and the buds were extremely hard and dense with a liberal coating of resin.

Everyone that tries Vortex from seed finds something they love. The females are all very similar but slight variations are present and make it easy for each grower to find one that has the taste they like the most.

Super was alone this time and on her third trip through the garden she really hit her stride and the Cola shots from her are simply stunning.
Rock hard resin encrusted Grapefruit buds with just a few ambering up at day 54. I will place her in the dark in two days and let her mature to my taste.

She has so much of what I love in a strain, the sour flavor and offsetting contrast of sweet fruit. Heavy resin and a great Bubblehash strain she will be in my garden for some time to come. Enter the Vortex and see what all the fuss is about.

Subcool

I have 4 females out of a 5pk in day 1 of flower...last time I didn't save a clone....it was so dang dank this is my second run from seed....Searchin for the Super pheno.....The hardest part will be selecting the keeper

I have spent most of my life looking for special and unique attributes, effect, and flavor in cannabis seedlings. I want to pass on a few things I have learned about the process.
Seeds have many benefits; the most helpful is that they do not introduce pests or problems into a garden like clones can. Another benefit seedlings can provide is health and vigor since sometimes clones can be old, tired, or even diseased without it showing visibly. When you start good hybrid cannabis seeds, you get to select a taste and effect that is more customized to your needs.
Many growers opt for feminized seeds since less selection and space is required to find a female plant worth keeping, but I feel the seed industry is partly to blame for heavily advertising feminized seeds as the easy way to grow. In my 48 years, I have found nothing in life that is easier is better and anytime you put in more hard work and effort, the results are always worth the extra details. The male plant is very important in breeding and many traits such as pest resistance, fungus resistance, and even potency are passed on from the male of the species.
The main reason people choose feminized seeds over regular seeds is space constraints. I have found many elite plants by starting just five seeds and selecting the best female, not only with TGA seeds but other breeders’ as well.
When selecting seeds, do some homework online and find out what real medical growers are actually raising in their gardens and not what’s being advertised by the Dutch re-sellers. Make sure your selecting based on grower feedback and not some huge advertisement or some fixed cannabis competition. While TGA seeds have an excellent reputation among medical growers, there are many talented breeders who not only care about their product but test extensively to ensure quality. Most are smaller breeders who cater to the medical community however.
Feminized seeds are notorious for containing high ratios of hermaphrodites and to an inexperienced grower these can wreak havoc among your sensimilla crop.
You would be surprised how many veteran growers have problems with getting seeds started. The most common mistake is to use a heat mat, which cooks the seeds. Cannabis is a weed and, as long as the seeds are viable, it’s hard to prevent them from germinating. I have had seeds germinate under the floor mat of a car in my youth and recently some of the seeds I deemed not viable germinated under my BBQ grill in gravel in the cold winter. I see people soaking or treating the seeds in god knows what products and I just shake my head.
All a seed needs to germinate is moisture and a temperature range between 50-90 degrees Fahrenheit and you’re good to go. There are other factors involved though, and if you germinate your seeds between 70-80 degrees you will have a better ratio of females. Warmer temperatures tend to produce more male plants.
Many growers still use the tried and true method of soaking seeds in a paper towel. With the invention of “Rapid Rooters,” a product made up of composted organic materials bonded together with plant-derived polymers, this trend is changing. These plugs are manufactured using a scientifically controlled process that yields large populations of beneficial microbes in the medium. We started using them to clone in about three years ago and when I tried starting seeds in them, I knew I would never do it any other way.
I flip the cone-shaped rooting plugs upside down so they have more stability. They are made to fit into sectional trays, but that just adds cost and I try to keep things simple and low frills. Wash your hands well with a disinfecting soap to remove any oils or contaminants. Make a small hole with a poker and place the seed point side up into the plug about ½” into the rooter.
Place the plugs into a domed container and place it under florescent lights. I like to use plastic/Tupperware shoe boxes stacked on top of each other. They’re low cost and easy to find at any department store. Not everyone has access to a fancy grow shop at all times. Don’t let the cubes dry out. That is really the only thing to worry about. It’s best not to drown them, but as long as they don’t dry completely I have always had great success using this method.
Once the seeds sprout, I transplant them into one gallon pots filled with good quality potting soil such as Roots or Biobiz Light or even Scotts seed starting mix. Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil does NOT work well on seedlings and is known to contain root aphids so be careful, but almost any good soil will work.
Do not feed seedlings. This is a common mistake. Once plants have established a good set of roots, I simply transplant them into the final container.
When they have matured and have five sets of leaves, you can choose to top the plant, forcing it to branch out and have multiple heads. This cutting can be rooted and once sex is established and quality determined this clone will be a duplicate copy of the mother plant. I do not top my seedlings since I prefer the tall, single cola when testing. This way the plants take up less space.
I started five Pine Queen seeds last year and found two males and three females. Clones were taken from the three females and the seed plants were grown to maturity out of the three females. One was a stunning, resinous female with an amazing taste and effect along with heavy resin production. It went on to become one of my top five favorites ever and it was found in five non-feminized seeds. These same results using just five seeds have been repeated with such strains as Third Dimension, Qleaner (featured on the cover of West Coast Cannabis) and surprisingly, our treasured Space Queen male plant was found in just 10 seeds started.
Don’t be so quick to take the easy way out. With passion and hard work, you can find many elite cuttings in non-feminized seeds and the keeper plant will be more stable, easier to grow, and something special that you selected for your needs, not some watered down genetic copy created by someone interested in a quick buck instead of the best genetics created by hard work and passion.
Remember, every elite famous cutting that growers drool over was started from a seed and saved by some grower and passed on to the masses.

Besides vortex and space bomb what are the best hash making strains????????

Hey Sub, i just found this thread and all i can say is WOW! My Nerd, the knowledge you share is like the strains you produce....."infinite dankage"!!!

It was about 12 years ago I stared a 10 pack of seeds labeled Killer Queen from a guy I met online nicknamed Vic High. That I first found an amazing phenotype of Killer Queen that was G-13 dominant. If anyone were to be called my "Mentor" it would be Vic. We spent literally hours arguing every point about growing and breeding cannabis. The guy was a cannabis genius and I should have spend more time listening than arguing but through it all he taught me some very important basics about growing and more importantly breeding. Vic was responsible for strains like Space Queen and Grapefruit as well, and then one day he just disappeared from the internet and no one has seen him since. I was left with only a single pack of Space Queen which we used in many of our breeding projects and where our legendary male plant "The Dude" came from.
Out of that original pack of Killer Queen seeds I got 4 nice female plants that we grew out and then cloned and flowered to the end. Two distinct variations were present an obvious G-13 dominant and the Cherry resin monster I actually ended up keeping. At the time the movie American Beauty was out and G-13 was mentioned my Kevin Spacey in the flick and it had taken over the smoking world. Every stoner I know has a buddy that worked at the farm in Mississippi who had magically acquired a cutting of G-13 and we all know it's a BS story. So with all the Hyperbole surrounding it I was mentally turned off on the whole G-13 craze. Even though a good friend Dayhiker was literally blown away by the G-13 one I discarded. I liked the way the Cherry smelling one grew and it's amazing red hairs that to me reminded me or Panama Red in looks alone. I loved the cherry cut and we grew it for years, later using it to create one of my first commercially available strains Dannyboy. It was later that I actually met Airborne who convinced me he did indeed have the G-13 and let me grow it that I recognized how potent it actually was. I never really loved the flavor but we weren't really thinking of medical uses back then just if we liked something or not. So a few years ago I started thinking I had made a huge breeding mistake not working with this particular phenotype since this was before we could actually test strains for Cannabinoids. I lost contact with Airborne years ago so I couldn't get our hands on an original G-13 cutting. Then 2 years ago I came across an amazing cutting of Killer Queen from a young grower named Titan. It was obviously G-13 leaning and one of the most resin covered plants I have ever seen than I did not breed myself. I say that not in boost but it is a fact that resin production drove my breeding direction for many years and still does. The plant when grown properly is covered from base to leaf tip with over lapping resin heads or Trichomes and we call them now. The resin from this Killer Queen cutting has a particular characteristic of producing bubble hash that appears dry as soon as it comes out of the 90UI Bubble bag. It looks and feels like sand and while it melts it doesn't seem to want to stick to itself, almost like each trichome is covered in a thin layer of oil. I was extremely intrigued but also busy with other projects so I placed the cutting in storage. During one of our seeding sessions TGA's lead breeder Dioxide dusted the Killer Queen with some Jack the Ripper pollen and made about 200 seeds. These were grown out by a small number of core TGA medical test growers and the results were amazing, every single grower reporting resin production off the charts and a very strong pain relieving medicine.
The breeders at TGA were very busy trying to keep up with the demand for it's established strains now that the medical community has become familiar with our work. We are a very small company and do everything by hand ourselves so we often fall behind and run out of many popular strains. Finally catching up some this year we made a larger batch of the hybrid Killer Queen X Jack the Ripper and gave it the name Jack Skellington mainly because we like pirates and it has to be called something. I had seen the results mainly in form of reports from growers and I was blown away the first time I actually saw the strain growing in Super Soil at Grower X's house. This tour was featured on my show on You Tube, "The Weed Nerd" Episode #37 if you care to check it out. Then I actually smoked some of the cured buds and after 3 hit's my ears were ringing so I knew it was powerful as hell and we had achieved the desired results. Some strains really cross well together and you get just what you expected and this was the case with this combination. Other times we do all this same work only to scrap the entire project like we recently did with the Oregon Blues project.
Then came my favorite part I made some water hash using my 1 gallon set of Bubble Bags and what we found in the 90UI bag changed history IMO at least as far as Hash making is concerned. The ratio of clean trichome heads with a very thin waxy coating are captured and it has the consistency of sand until it melts back into itself. It has a almost clinical flavor not fruity or skunky just very clean and with a hint of margarita flavoring. I recommend that all the Hash and extract makers take a look at this new hybrid bred pretty much specifically for resin production. Jack Skellington can be found at many of Weed World Sponsors like Attitude Seeds. It takes a good bit to impress me these days and this new creation really blew me away I am just sorry it took so long to release. Check out Episode #37 on "The Weed Nerd"
You Tube Channel Subcool420
Subcool

Jack Skellington was just restocked at your favorite retailer


tgagenetics.com

I'm wanting to mix up some Chernobyl with Tutenkhamen. Any thoughts?

Jacks Cleaner Myth or Legend


You may not have heard of the strain Jacks Cleaner, but among collectors of Elite genetics it has become somewhat of an urban legend. This is due to a few factors. The first is I grew it for many years before other respected growers tried it and let me know it was probably the best Sativa Hybrid in existence. In 1997 I had a gathering known in breeder circles as “Jamaica 1” several respected under ground breeder/growers met at my place and we spent 3 days toking testing talking and feasting on BBQ and southern food. We had a un official judging and JC won every first place vote. Now maybe the guys were just being nice because I tossed the gig but I knew at least I had found a great strain. But where did it come from?
I got my first PC in about 1994 it was an Acer 133 and soon found a great deal of information on Cannabis, certainly not anything like today but it led me to grow chats where I met others that shared an interest for growing. One of the first I became close online friends with was a guy with the nick ‘Skoosh’. I was amazed that there was another seriously hard working tax paying Loyal American that waked and baked everyday of his adult life. We swapped stories online, toked while we typed and found out we both love ice cream. He offered me some seeds and over time traded around what we each had. He sent me about 200 seeds of a old strain called Skoosh that was pretty infamous in his circles and I started cracking large treys looking for a keeper. The make up of these seeds were Pluton, Lambs bread, Purple Haze, and Northern Lights. What mix or pattern these crosses occurred I am not sure. Most of what I found was not impressive, super thin spindly sativa’s and mutants with whorled leaves. I did find a few that seemed normal and grew them to maturity. Of all the seeds I started over a period of a year one phenotype stood out. It was a extremely resinous ultra lemon wonder. It reminded me of a house hold cleaner named “Mr Clean” So I named it “The Cleaner”. It had one poor trait and that was weak stems and smaller size. I had not yet read botany and we all thought breeders were smarter than god so it was just luck I had a Jack Herer male from Sensi Seeds that I was to lazy to kill and just placed in a dark garage. It refused to die so I placed a small 12” Cleaner clone with him and she produced about 35 seeds.
From these I selected the best female and tossed all the males. From these was the Phenotype many now consider to be the holy grail of Cannabis, Jacks Cleaner is a large heavy producer with ultra white raised trichomes that actually give the plant a gooey appearance. Heavy citrus with over bearing lemon smell and taste I have yet to see anything like it. In 2003 we out crossed the P1 mother with a JC X blueberry offspring and created JC bx. This first stage back cross recently won third place in the 420 cup in Amsterdam by a grower named HOG. It had a 12 day cure and blew everyone away as he was an unknown in there neck of the woods. There is some confusion cause many that have the JC bx misstate the fact and say they have JC leaving off the BX indicating a back cross.
This year I started Space Queen by Vic a hybrid cross of Cindy-99 and Romulan. I never considered it something impressive but it has blown Jill and I away. It is extremely potent fast maturing and just an amazing flavor. Pineapples and mangos with a candy like fragrance it has become our stash smoke. We have now decided to cross the JC P1 with the best Space Queen male we found.. Many would argue you need thousands of plants to start with for selecting to be considered a ‘True Breeder” but I think 30 years of growing and a keen eye for recessive traits can compensate starting from a smaller gene pool and the feed back from our medical users backs up my theory.


You can see by the photo’s that JC is not a normal hemp dominant plant. Just the speed of resin production makes her somewhat of a freak .You can see how the large raised resin heads give some shots a glass effect. I will attempt to describe toking JC from a clean bong, the smoke is crisp and thick with a heavy lemon oiliness that seems to coat the sinuses with citrus, it is a bit harsh and tends to make me wince, then the expansion starts and if you took a small enough hit and don’t cough the buzz is instant. At first the buzz is visual and very cerebral. Then the other side starts creeping and you feel as if you smoked some heavy indica. The munchies come on and after you eat plates full of bizarre food combinations you are ready for a nap. Once you are used to the high it has amazing analgesic properties and a good friend said it even made him last longer with his GF due to it’s pain relieving aspects.
Jacks Cleaner

1985 SSSC (Nevil's)
NL#5 X Pluton
Back crossed into the original NL#5 mom.
NL#5/Pluton X Purple Haze
Backed into the NL#5 mom
Outcrossed to Jack Herer

tgagenetics.com

This is the story of Jack the Ripper and it is a fine example of what can happen along the way during a breeding project. I have always wanted to have Jacks Cleaner in seed form. I have been prompted to Self her using STS but I don’t believe in that type of breeding I feel a male plays a vital role in breeding projects. About 6 years ago I used a Blueberry to outcross the Jacks Cleaner to. Bushy Old Grower used some of these seeds to create the famous lifesaver. Two years ago I used the Jacks Cleaner x Blueberry to back cross the Jacks Cleaner to and created Jacks Cleaner back cross. Lost yet? I’ll try and untangle this mess as we continue on this journey.
Even though the JC bx kicks ass, has won awards and is used in breeding projects it was not what I was looking for. Also about that time I ran Vic’s Space Queen and found it to be some of the best weed I ever smoked. We also found an amazing Space Queen male that Jill used to create Jillybean and we used to create Spacejill. It was not an easy decision but we decided after working with Space Dude he was a much better choice for a parent to outcross Jacks Cleaner to and re started completely over passing on the Jacks Cleaner back cross and Jacks Cleaner Blueberry to other members of TGA.

We used our standard breeding methods and completed the project on schedule and promptly started a test run of these new seeds. One weird trait of this new hybrid is twin seedlings. Many growers have reported duel sprouts form one seed but it’s normal for one not to survive when this occurs. All the seeds were started using rapid rooters with no pre soaking. I like to be as rough as possible and I never pamper test runs, once seedlings came up and developed nice roots I transplanted them into 1 gallon containers and placed under a 400 watt Metal halide light. Once the plants matured the males were taken to a separate area and the best possible females were tagged and the rest tossed. We ended up with 3 females we felt met or selection criteria. The plants were topped and trained and vegged for about 45 days and reached a size of 24” with multiple growing heads.
Once in bud the plants quickly started swelling with buds and by day 25 copious amounts of resin had become visible. Once in bud things got interesting when we had visible resin at just 2 weeks of budding and by week 3 we had a nice build up of trichomes and the first hints of the Lemon smell I was looking for.

One of the female plants stretched so much I had to bend her severely to keep her close to equal to the rest of the crop. Even the lower buds drip with resin and I am happy to report the mango lemon smell I was looking for I nailed it dead center. Normally I top all plants in our garden but with test plants it takes up less room if I leave them un topped and as I usually am moving them about a lot taking pictures and such it just makes them more manageable.

You can see in the picture the plants developed nicely grown in only my own super soil and in a 5 gallon pot fed only water the entire run to test her natural ability to produce without being pushed you can see the results speak for themselves.

Maturing much faster than JC was another hopeful goal and at 50 days I’d say we nailed that trait as well. All three females are alike with the exception of the height of the one female. To avoid numerical confusion we gave each female a name. Lemango became the tall one that looked more Space Queen dominant. Soylent Green was apparently the largest of the three as far as cola size and the plant most resembling Jacks Cleaner with her predictable resin leaf curl was given the name Pink lemonade. This is the plant that became the star during multiple sessions in front of my lens.

The trichome production is off the chart and she has the classic raised head on a tall stalk that’s so classic of JC. I feel this represents the total sum of what I’ve learned and collected doing this my entire adult life. To be able to pass on traits I have seen attributed to the mother plant and then to actually create a Phenotype with the same qualities and maybe even some improvements is truly humbling. The plant has Pink resin ok? I mean would you be happy or what? Now I have a gene pool to work with and continue the Cubing of the original Jacks Cleaner f1 to produce a more stable line but variety is the spice of life among tokers and each of the females we found is a legendary keeper in itself. I enjoy each plants smoke equally but there are subtle differences that make it nice to choose from according to my needs.



I think the best news about this strain is there available now. We have a lot of cool things from tasty to pretty to sativas to crazy combos of berry and lemon but I’m taking this to the pot snobs party. Lets have a look at the end results, Lemango was more Space Queen dominant and has a nice citrus and Fruit taste as her name implies. Soylent Green did indeed yield the most coming in at just over 2 ounces of cured dried bud. She has a nice Lemon Berry taste that is my favorite in a joint having a much smoother draw than the parent JC. Finally Pink Lemonade is the most potent and most like JC. Incredible expansion as all the resin melts away on the bud and your lungs simply explode and your head follows shortly after, it only takes 3 bong hits to make me smile like a Cheshire cat.

Jack the Ripper is available at
www.tgagenetics.com

Males and Pollen 101
By Subcool

Most growers never have the opportunity to learn the male of the species in detail and I thought it would be fun to discuss what I look for when choosing a male, how we go about collecting pollen and how we breed a full sized plant.

Before we talk about collecting pollen lets 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 we will discuss this also.

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 seven day rule has worked very well for us. This allows the female plant to develop enough pistils to produce a high volume of seeds. 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 pollinating the females at 3 weeks in is good place to start. You can pollinate up to day 30 of budding but you stand a good chance of the seeds never getting mature so I find each strains perfect window. Ealier maturing strains should be pollinated closer to day 21 and longer maturing varieties closer to 30 days.
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 any grower how many complete clusterfucks he’s grown out from so called “Established Breeders” It takes an eye and that is gained from experience.

Here are some things we look for when selecting a new male. The earliest plants to indicate sex are always tossed out. In nature Cannabis is a hemp dominant species and the drug traits we seek for medication have been bred into the plant over thousands of years my mans intervention. In the wild these hemp dominant males acclimate the variety and the drug traits are dominated by other traits like fiber production and vigor.
Smell plays a huge roll in my selection process and once a male plant is sexually mature at about day 45 I analyze each plant by rubbing each stem and making notes on the ones I like best. This may seem very basic but its been my experience that a skunky sour male will lend this smell trait to a new hybrid. Conversely if the male doesn’t smell incredibly dank the results are less than satisfactory. The final attribute I look for is a new male is resin. The number and frequency of non-glandular trichomes on a young male plant can be a huge indicator as to the quality of the plant. If a plant smells great and is covered in resin at day 45 I will absolutely give him a try with one of our best females. By comparing the sibling crosses to the original P1 female we can determine what characteristics are passed on. There is certainly much more to it but this is a basic guide line of the external characteristics we look for in a male plant.

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.

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 that can be used if you don’t want to pollinate an entire room is the pollen trap. This trick takes a good eye for when the male stamens are 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 veg 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.
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.

The male Cannabis plant is equally as beautiful to me as a huge cola. He carries half of the genetic code that is responsible for creating the Dank and without him we could not create flavor combinations like Lemon- Berry or Mango Orange. So remember the next time you kill a group of male plants they have there place in the world and are beautiful in the own way!

Those pics are so gorgeous.............

As we board the plane to Denver I can hear the late singer John Denver singing in my head "Rocky Mountain High Colorado" and it just seems so fitting. The beauty of the snow capped vista's took my breath as we started the approach into Denver and I could barely contain my excitement about my first visit to wild wild west of the Cannabis frontier that is Colorado. If you have not heard yet pot shops line the streets like Starbucks or Subway only there are a lot more Dispensaries than places to eat in some locations. Speaking of food, Denver has some a great places to dine at with a wide range of flavors and an overall party atmosphere and the people are Very nice! I think it's the sunny weather myself but everyone being medicated may add to that general feeling but MzJill and myself simply loved the city and it's people. We checked into the hotel and unpacked our medical cannabis that we legally fly with simply by writing our medical card info on and checking with our luggage. The first thing I see is a magazine with an article Tittled "Reefer Madness" about two prominent attorney's that are spear heading the movement and how this man and wife team are a very different face of legal Cannabis. I took the time to get a shot of the story with Denver in the background knowing it would make a great start or inspiration for a story. Welcome to Colorado it seemed to say to me.

We had some good friends that used to live in Oregon that now live near Denver come in and show us around and take us to one of the dispensaries in the area the first called 420 wellness. This first place was not what I expected and although everyone that came in to get medicine had proper paperwork the over all feel of the place was of a dorm room more than a legal Cannabis clinic. I am not trying to make anyone mad and the owner was a super nice guy with cheap prices that obviously cared about his patients but it had much more a package shop feel than a medical dispensary. Its also possible since the owner "Rich" believes in giving such good deals he hasn't been able to invest in upgrades to his spot yet. His 1/8ths were 35$ when some other clubs charges as much as 80$ for an 1/8th. He had people medicating on site and later when we visited a nicer club I learned this is strictly prohibited. He showed me some amazing looking Melt product but when I smoked some it crackled like it was full of impurities like butane so I didn't actually medicate at the first place. I am legal in Colorado before you ask I actually am legal in like 8 states now. Check out this amazing map of all the dispensaries in Denver alone.

The second place we went to was really nice and much more what I expected to see a quality shop to look like. Discreet and classy with art decorations and steel doors leading to the different areas. You show your paperwork and then your buzzed in to a waiting area. Then there is another secure door before you can make a purchase. I was impressed to see TGA genetics for sale in both seed and clone form. This is the shop that had the CO2 Critically Extracted med Wax that blew me away but you will hear more on that later. The owner Scott was really nice to us showing us around and letting us take a few shots behind the green door as it were.
The third place we went to was even nicer, Denver Relief was located 2 doors down from a Cop Shop and after speaking with the owner he told me that the landlord actually provides free rent for the cop shop to make the community a better place.. The business before had adopted that policy and when the Pot shop came in the owner explained that the cops would be forced to move and instead the owner of the building offered to honor the contract keeping the cops close by to keep things safe. Denver Relief's Bio- Diesel was the 2009 Harvest Cup winner. The shop was super nice with close circuit cameras and nicely decorated and spotlessly clean. This would be my shop of choice if I lived in the area out of all those we visited.


Sunday evening was the actual event we flew down to attend. The famous Cheese Cake Lady was hosting a Hash Bash and I had been asked to speak and sign books ate the event. We arrived early to get our passes and then made a trip around the displays. There was tons of killer looking Hash and Bud and every type of medicating utensil you could imagine. We met some really cool people and even a former Professional Hockey player that suffered a severe injury and was now a medical cannabis user. Everyone was super friendly and glad to meet us, it was a nice change from the drama that can be the internet to be honest. One grower came up to me with a grin and said " I have a complaint Subcool, I planted 100 seeds and only 99 grew" then his smile got bigger and he gave me a big hug. Another grower had just germinated 150 TGA seeds with only 3 duds. The third person I spoke with handed me a bud of Chernobyl he drove 400 miles to show to me. I gave him the proper respect I hope rolling a joint for everyone else from my stash and rolling me and this cat PCG a joint of his amazing Chenobyl and we shared the whole spliff together. I told him it was as good as our mother buds and he smiled. 'Coming from you Sub thats about the best compliment I have ever received" It's awesome to make people feel so good with just a few kind words.

This is the stuff that impressed me the most of any thing I saw there or in the 8 years I went to Amsterdam to be honest. While they would not reveal there method and they charge 100$ per gram for this stuff it must have been amazing as it's the first cannabis I have paid for in some 7 years now. From what I could piece together there using Super Critical c0@ extraction with Dry Ice. I found a few links if you want to read more.
http://www.sioxmachines.com/?gclid=CIPR7YqM0KAC
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7574131/Super-Critical-Fluid-Extraction-in-Plant-Essential-and-Volatile-Oil-AnalysisFQNciAod-Fn1zQ

I think they are using some type of extraction tube and liquid CO2 along with the dry ice to keep the CO2 in a liquid form as it passes through the extractor. I have also not given up on getting the inventors to tell me more but at 100 a gram I do understand why they want to keep the method to themselves. If They tell me they know I will tell the world. I have never smoked anything so pure and even made with a strain called Blue Dream it was phenomenal I can only imagine when they start producing it with Space Bomb. When any heat is applied it forms a golden pool and then its gone. They smoke it over coals and pull it through upside down bowls but I like the screen method. The only problem is when it cools it clogs the pipe and then forms a pool of pure wax in the bottom of the pipe which I actually heated up and got more hits. This stuff was just the coolest and I quaickly smoked up 100$ worth in just 2 days.

At 8 PM they asked me to head upstairs and give my talk and answer some questions. There was a good many people present and I was actually a bit nervous at first but I simply spoke with passion about soil and breeding and organics and breeding and when I finally took a breath and asked for questions I was over whelmed by the interest in what I had to say. When I was speaking I couldn't tell if they were learning or thought I was an idiot, judging by the number of Books we signed and the fact I had was swarmed for almost an hour after really made me feel like what I had to say was worth hearing. I met so many cool people that were growing my gear and using my soil. One really clean cut guy told me my recipe cahnged his life then proceeded to show me like 7 strains he had grown in my soil. When I asked if he ever used liquid fertilizer he replied. I just add water Sub like ya told me. He actually picked up my recipe from THC farmer a site I am now banned from. If you guys wonder why I post my info on so many sites even if its cut and paste this is a perfect example.

The next morning I was asked to go out to a remote location at 10,000 feet high to see a TGA garden. Canyon Road was so cool as a road cuts deep through the rocks next to a stream that I assume dug the canyon millions of years ago. The lights were off and we fumbled in the dark a good bit but I was able to capture these pictures to show you guys that whats going on all over the state. There Growing Dank and helping treat people naturally and with love.
It's obvious to me that some regulation needs to take place but the thing everyone reading this needs to remember is this. The people of Colorado voted by a margin of 2/3rds to change their constitution and its not going to change back. These life loving people have made the decision for responsible adults to medicate with cannabis and not to put everyone in there state in jail for wanting a natural cure to many of lifes problems and ailments. The people that don't support our movement might as well get used to us just like I put up with drinkers and cigarette smokers when I go out in public. We should have the same rights they do as our drug of choice is much less harmful and toxic to them than theirs are to us.
I can't wait to go back to Denver
But the Colorado rocky mountain high
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high. John Denver

Sub - Love this archive you are building. One small suggestion, please put the date (or at least year) you wrote each article on the post.

Feeding and Sucanat




I want to caution everyone again if you use Super Soil as directed don’t feed your damn plants!! I can’t be more clear and even though I knew this I ignored my own advise (I do this a lot) and last crop was one of the worst ever as far as yield, amazingly Jill and I were just commenting that burning the plants with to much nutrients seemed to make everything finish faster? Lets hope there is not a lot of experience on this theory.

Over feeding is very common for a few reasons. People want to rush there plants and nutrient companies offer so many products and make such outrageous claims that people are easily swayed into trying every product on the market and over doing it.

I believe less is more and its better to under feed a strain and make small changes the next round. Knee jerk reactions and poorly planned feeding schedules can really affect your end product. When growing in soil changes do not happen rapidly so when you do decide for sure you have deficiencies allow some time for your corrections to take place.
I have seen people feed a plant that’s lacking and continue to do so each watering until they are now over feeding the plant by the time the plant has absorbed the first application.

In Smaller pots with larger plants it may be necessary to feed with Cal-Mag and possibly some Organic Bloom fertilizer around day 30-45 but I prefer to use top dressing as spelled out in that chapter.

If a certain strain shows early signs of nutrient deficiency then I will adjust the amount of Super Soil concentrate to take this added need into account. For example Space Queen always faded rapidly when using ½ concentrate and ½ potting soil but when we upped the amount of concentrate to ¾ the problem went away and yields went up.


In these pictures I have some plants started in roots soil as seedlings and I make the mistake of watering a few of the plants with water I used a few nights earlier to feed some plants a light bloom mix along with Sucanat sugar and Sweatleaf a sugar and citric acid product that I believe really enhances the taste of cannabis flowers. Even though the mix was mainly just sugars there was enough Pure Blend Bloom in the water to burn the young plants and give us a good idea of what not to do with young plants.

Notice the healthy plant that wasn’t watered with the solution but only clean pure water. Plants use small amounts of nutrients at first and almost any good soil especially one designed for growing cannabis will not need any of the many nutrients people use for seedlings.


This plant was prefect till I poured from the wrong jug!

Now lets look at a plant that has been fed only water

If you haven’t heard of Sucanat It stands for Sugar Cane Natural. It's sugar in its most natural form - pure cane juice with only the water removed. This process preserves all the vitamin-filled molasses.
The way it works is it gives carbohydrates to the plant. These carbohydrates would normally be made during photosynthesize, so it reduces the work load on the plant and all the extra carbohydrates can be used to build bud, and you also get the added benefit of the enhanced flavor of the weed. I am also convinced in increases resin production.
This works my taking advantage of the Krebs cycle.
The Krebs cycle is named, after the discoverer, German biochemist, Hans Adolph Krebs.

Within the Krebs cycle, energy in the form of ATP is usually derived from the breakdown of glucose. Since glucose can pass through cell membranes, it transports energy from one part of the plant to another. Hence the Sugars and carbohydrates we add at day 30 and day 45. I use 1 cup of Sucanat and ½ Cup Sweatleaf by Advanced Nutrients.

Most people that try this swear by it and it becomes part of there normal routine and day 30 and day 45.

The First TGA Kush Hybrid
You can't travel more than 3 feet in Cannabis circles these days without hearing about some new Kush strain thats all the rage. I for one am not a fan of the earthy taste of most of the popular Kush variety's I have tried and that includes Chem Dawg and Headband grown by Chemdawg himself. I found all of his buds to be incredibly potent but they all shared that same taste that I think taste like acorns or hazel nuts. Over the past few years while we were creating strains like Vortex and Querkle our fans were urging us to come up with a TGA Kush strain like all the other breeders but I held out for something special. With the help of TGA we collected and grew out dozens of Kush cuts and even though many were very potent with high CBD ratio's I would fail each one over taste and flavor. I do need to tell you about Space Dawg real quick so everyone understands the full story about my dislike of Kush's in the past. One of the strains that Chemdawg brought down that I did like was the Snodawg and I actually created a test hybrid using his cutting combining it with Space Queen which we called Space Dawg. TGA gave every single seed away to say thank you to all our great fans and as a dig to another breeder who at the time was knocking of Chems gear and charging 300$ a pack. It may not have been the most mature thing I ever did but it was my way of replying to some comments made about me and MzJill and I called the strain, "The Reply". I never released Space Dawg as a cross and not a single seed was ever sold. As people started growing out the freebie seeds I started getting feed back from growers telling me it was the Dankest thing they had ever smoked of mine and many telling me it was far better than the Snodawg. This always stuck with me that so many people thought the only Kush I worked with to be so special I kept a Kush Hybrid project in the back of my mind. Over a period of two years TGA team members scoured the medical states for a Kush Cutting that would impress me. This searching sometimes cost dearly as one particularly hard to acquire Hellfire OG cutting spread Mildew into Dioxides grow rooms and he spend a year and lost dozens of cuttings before he cleared the area of the spores. Many of these Kush cuttings are still being tested you may have seen one particularly beautiful Bubba Kush Cutting in the last addition of West Coast Cannabis in the Touch Shed article. If they pass my test you may see them appear in the medical community as test crosses soon.
Now that you have some history about my feelings on Kush hybrids enter a little Pink bud called Black Cherry Soda. One day Dioxide brought over a sample bud of a strain called Black Cherry Soda. The sample looked stunning being almost completely pink from the inside out. The smell was of a strong Black Berry Kush and the high was very pleasant. We acquired a cutting and after growing it out decided to try and add some potency and resin to a very unique set of traits mainly a plant with green leaves and pink calyx and the unusual smell and taste of the Black Cherry Soda. We outcrossed the BCS mother plant to three known males the Space Queen male known and 'The Dude" the Jack the Ripper Male and also the Querkle male known as "Doc". This is the best way to learn about a new mother plant by out crossing and then growing out the sibling hybrids. The first cross completed was the BCS X "The Dude" and we gave it the test name 'Pink Lady". The strain was grown out my 10 medical growers documenting the results at Green Passion a medical website that I like to frequent as well as a number of medical growers locally at all different skill levels. Even half way through the reports starting coming in on the unique berry smell and about half of the female plants were showing signs of Pink and magenta Calyx.
I started six seeds myself and got 3 nice females that I grew out in super soil in 5 gallon pots. I left the plants un-topped and basically un touched except for routine maintenance like watering and supporting the branches with bamboo stakes. The two smaller females had the best berry smell and the deep Pink coloring and are my favorites over the larger more Indica dominant phenotype. I generally like the smaller plants more as they always have more resin. The total yield on all the females was still over 6 ounces for there size and placement under the 400 watt lamp I am pleased especially considering the quality. All the plants were completely frosted to the leaf tips and all of this "Sugar leaf" was trimmed off to and frozen to make bubble hash my favorite treat as a grower. After some consideration we changed the name of the hybrid to Plush Berry and it will be released next month in a new fancy magenta colored pack. A TGA Kush hybrid has been a long time coming and I am happy to share this new creation with the patient community. Look for Plush Berry and your local dispensary soon.

Make sure you check out my You Tube page for lots of cool videos of Plush Berry

http://www.youtube.com/user/subcool420

Smoke Report on Just dried Plush Berry:
Buds are hard and Crunchy with a heavy coating of cyrstals, The chopped bud appears Pink inside with an overall Pink, Purple, Brown coloring the smell once broken up is even stronger. Passing around a small cut up pile MzJill says strong berries with hints of lemons I think it has a raspberry smell but one thing is for sure and thats the fact is a very New smell for us. Loading a small bowl into a clean 16" Tube loaded with ice:
The smell is fully delivered through the smoke and unlike some strains that smell good but lack flavor this new hybrid is the complete opposite. Very clean burning due to being fed only water for the full bloom cycle with sugars only being added at day 30 and day 40. It din't take but a few seconds for me to feel the first hit and the flavor is still lingering on my taste buds it is Very fun smoke. I can just barely taste the dry Kush flavor while its still present its covered up nicely by the berry and tart flavor. Its very fast acting cause I have a silly grin on my face and the urge to sit back and relax has come over me. I was also listening to some Rock ( Candlebox) and I have switched over to Miles Davis now as it fits my mood better. I took a third hit and I think I am good very nice flavor and my head is in a great place. The only reason I will take a forth rip is the flavor alone I nailed the taste I wanted and I am really enjoying this smoke even fresh and un cured. The high continued to build for about 1/2 hour and now at 2 hours its just starting to fade away. if I stopped moving I would most likely end up taking a nap.
[h=3]Plush Berry[/h]


Plush Berry is the first TGA offering from the Kush family. While this strain has a unique trait of Pink/Magenta Calyx this was not the motivating factor is the selection process, from the start it was all about taste and smell. The Black Cherry Soda carried a strong Black Berry smell and taste and our goal with this new Kush Hybrid was to use this terpine profile combined with Space Queen to increase potency and resin content. Tested under the name Pink Lady this new kush hybrid called Plush Berry has a very strong Blackberry smell and heavy resin coating. The coloring trait is present in high numbers and adds to the over all bag appeal of the strain but its the smell and taste that is truly unique in the field of Cannabis. One of a kind terpine profile.

1) Phenotypes- Two main varieties occur the smaller dreading pink phenotype is my favorite
The larger more Indica dominant phenotype is the heavy yielder
2) Height- Very tall when grown untopped from seed Clones topped tend to stay shorter
3) Yield- Medium yielding plant with lots of resin encrusted sugar leaf for hash making
4) Indoor/Outdoor
5) Best Way to Grow- Top and train into a bush.
6) Harvest Window-55-65 days
7) Sativa/ Indica 20/80
Hybrid- Black Cherry Soda X Space Queen
9)High type- Relaxing and heady very calming and good for stress
10) Taste like Black Berry Jam, Raspberries, Life Savers assorted pack, strong fruit over tones
11) Best Smelling plant I have ever grown