It's a gloomy, rainy day here in West Michigan this Sunday morning. What better thing to do today than to journal a bit? This post will focus on the art of breeding and will also include the scope and focus of where I've been taking our Peanut Butter Breathe.
Breeding to me is just a different subset of art. Each of us has an IDEA of what we want to create, improve upon or achieve, but sometimes you get the rare nuts (Like myself) that believe in the chaos and randomness of it all and don't expect ANYTHING. There are so many artists out there that claim to be breeders, and even the breeders that do not claim to be breeders are sifting and creating genetic lines that they enjoy.
I describe the different types of breeders above because I believe it's important that if you follow a specific breeder you should know what their style ends up being. Are they looking to stabilize an already developed line? Are they hunting for a brand new unique terpene profile that the market has yet to see? Are they using one selected male for their projects or are they using an open pollination method that more accurately passes on an array of phenotypical expression?
The Grass Menagerie follows many breeders and certified genetics. When I am looking for preserved strains that have been touched minimally from today's breeders I first and foremost check out what Bodhi Seeds has been up to. From what I've seen Bodhi Seeds has personally gone to the different parts of the world to collect and preserve land race varietals. Adopting our motto of preserving heirloom genetics from them! I enjoy that he uses open pollination methods to create his seeds because if you pop 10 seeds you have the chance of getting 3 or more different leaning phenotypes. A Phenotype is what the plant “physically looks like”.
Another great project that we follow is Kre8 Genetics. They are all the way out in the Bay area of California. We follow their work because we have found that the different types of berry terpenes that can be found in his works are second to none! He prides himself on growing colorful cultivars coining the “Pebbles Punch” Forbidden fruit F2 as his own.
The last company I will shill to you in this blog is Green Bodhi. I follow his work because he has kept his head down and bred what HE finds are his favorite cultivars. He doesn't breed with hype, only what works. On top of that he has made it at the top of his priorities to working with water4lifeglobal.org. He has been apart of creating safe drinking water wells for many villages in India.
So now I will lay out my line of thinking when it comes to our “Purple Abazaba” Feminized seeds. In 2017 Peanut butter breathe had been circling around West Michigan for at least a year now and everyone that had been looking for it had gotten their hands on it. The Grass Menagerie went to the Clio MI High Times Cannabis Cup looking for some genetics to pick up and Fresh Coast Seed Companies booth was hands down the company we were going to support. I remember they had a whole catalog they tossed in front of my face and I ended up buy a couple packs of their cup entry for that year: Abazaba , which was a (Special Candyland x Peanut butter breath) x OGKB.
That OG Kush Breath paired with the Peanut butter breath made for some golf ball size nugs that were just dusted from top to bottom with frost I could barely believe was on my outdoor crop. It smelled very creamy, it had a menthol , or minty inhale with a savory exhale and flavor.
This creamy, savory smelling plant did not pierce your nose like most other super potent medicine, which I didn't mind because the glimmer that was given off by these snow ball buds made up for the excitement that I missed out on when the smell usually rips through my nostrils. I kept wondering how much more enjoyable this medicine would be if it had a fruity kick to it. As for all of my other strains were fruity I only had to look into crossing one of them on over to this Abazaba, but it was trickier than that. I only had females of all my favorite strain...I didn't have any access to the seeds that would give arise to a male of the same strain so I had to get creative.
My living situation was always changing and I had found out that I may end up losing my Purple Rhino strain that I kept going because of how well it helped out my ailments. This was a perfect opportunity to learn how to create feminized seeds. After reversing the Abazaba and dumping that pollen over the Purple Rhino we got seeds that hopefully would resemble my Purple Rhino mother.
After hunting these feminized seeds we noticed that there was a nice split of 3 different phenotypes that you can find in those seeds. 1) A short a squatty plant with a menthol creamy smell. 2) A tall plant with menthol creamy smell and quick finisher (8 weeks) and the keeper we were hoping for 3) A tall plant that smells like Pink Starbursts and is a quick finisher (8 weeks).
The beauty of this may seem like we are done! We got our end result and are happy with it! A nice perfect mix of both parents that beefed up the enjoyment of both cultivars. So then why then would I be dumping pollen from our 88'Hashplant preservation project on our Purple Abazaba (Breeder cut)? The answer is stability. While hunting these seeds we noticed there is a slight case of hermaphrodite characteristics occurring. We noticed that within the first 2-3 weeks of flower some plants will throw bananas. If it is ignored and even not spotted the plant gets over this period, or phase and stops producing bananas or “male parts” but for large scale operations this is not worth the risk.
With these findings we know for a fact that our creations can be fine tuned and inch closer to perfection. I am crossing my fingers that this cross doesn't sift out my fruity terpenes replacing it with the classic Hashy/Chemical nose of the father!
I am grateful for followers on my journey. Sending Love.