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CaneDog - Off-Season Season 2018/19

Thought I'd post a few pics of what I have going on indoors this off-season.  I used to do a winter indoor grow about every season, but this will be my first in a couple years now.  I went a bit over-board with the number of plants, as usual, but I've culled a few already and I have expansion room if needed.
 
I'm using a handy little extra walk-in closet to start things out. Keeps temp well and makes it easy to chill and work with the plants.
 
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Most everything's potted up into 1g Boxer Browns now.  Here's a few of this season's players.
 
Baha Goat
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Fatalii
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Bhut Jolokia White - topped it early on as it was already wanting to branch like crazy
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Butch T
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Kathumby starting to bud up
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And this guy is a 7 Pot White that sprouted late right up against another plant, so I yanked it out.  It had what seemed like only about 2mm of root still attached, but I stuck it in Kratky and it not only survived but seems fairly happy.
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CD
 
Click to expand...
CaneDog said:
OK PaulG, this one’s for you. 
 
After watching the vid you posted on germinating old seeds – and your comment that someone might be able to make this work DIY  – here’s my initial go at it.  It’s kind of fun to have an excuse to break out the old home brewing / yeast management gear.  It’s been a good year or so since I’ve worked with some of it.
 
Quick summary if you haven't seen the vid - and I'm paraphrasing.  Guy in video discusses his proprietary "kit" for germinating really old and/or valuable seeds. Essentially, says the issue is the enzymes may be weak and unable to adequately break down the complex sugar stores into simple sugars for growth and that the key is getting them infused with simple sugars and oxygen. Also key is to kill off any fungi or other pathogens on the seed coat.
 
The kit/process has these steps:
  1. Treat the seeds in a 0.15% H2O2 bath for 30 – 60 minutes.
  2. Float the seeds in a sterile proprietary oxygenated sugar-water solution until they sink.
  3. Plant the seeds into a sterile coco coir medium dampened with a sterile proprietary oxygenated sugar-water mixture contained in a sealed vial.
  4. Wait and be amazed.
 
So, in the interest of seeing whether this might help with situations of difficult, lengthy, or uncertain germinations, I took a (very) simple run at this. If there's some indication of success here, I'll probably try this again putting a little more thought and effort into it.
 
Getting Started - Obligatory "all-the-gear" shot.  I chose a wild seed (though not a particularly tough one) because they're usually tougher to germinate.  There's some other varieties I may try next if the seeds pop faster and stronger, some rocotos and perhaps this other variety I just happened to get my hands on recently...
 
 
First step was to soak 4 CGN 19198 seeds in a 0.15% water/H2O2 solution for 30 minutes.  I’ve previously used a 1:30 ratio versus this 1:20 ratio over a longer soak, but want to limit the duration of the soak so the seeds are less hydrated when they reach the sugar-water soak step.
 
 
Next I prepared the flasks. The first flask contains a sterilized sugar water solution (Crystal Geyser bottled water and 5% dextrose by weight boiled for 15 minutes then cooled) oxygenated to an targeted 12ppm - for high-OG and lager fermentations this is normally 60 seconds of pure O2 flow into a 5 gallon carboy using a sterilized stainless steel diffuser wand, but I swagged this at about 25 seconds given the small volume of water.  The second flask was prepared as the control and contained only plain Crystal Geyser bottled water.
 
 
Next step, I transferred each set of 2 seeds into its container. I'll keep them like this for the next 4-6 hours
 
 
When they're done soaking I'll transfer them to plates/Petri dishes lined with coffee filters, dampening the filters with either the sugar-water or control water.
 
I'll post up a pic after they get transferred, then it's just a waiting game.
CD
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Way to go 'Dog! I will be following this process with interest.
I am impressed by your attention to detail.
 
Dogmessiah said:
Not a bad problem at all. Are you going to split them into their own containers?
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Yep, that's exactly the plan.  One plant per container.  The plan was/is to give these time and let them root in pretty well before moving them - often I separate and transplant the sprouts pretty early, but that's always taking a bit of a risk of a real problem.  The first two would be easy to let grow a while and then separate without losing any soil off the root balls, so not setting them back at all.  But this 3rd one so right on top of the other one the roots will probably mix as they develop and I'll likely end up disturbing them more than I'd like to - or worst case scenario the little one ends up with just the stub of the wishbone when I separate them.  Really no big deal though. Just feels like the stakes are a little higher with these guys than is usually the case.
 
The graft looks just beautiful, 'Dog.
 
Post #123  :rofl:
 
My $.02 - If you want to take the little one out, do it
now while there is just a bit of tap root. Use a pick
to loosen the soil a little and tease it out. Other option
let it grow a bit, then root it as a cutting.
 
It's always fun to mess around with this stuff  :D
 
PaulG said:
The graft looks just beautiful, 'Dog.
 
Post #123  :rofl:
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Paul. I've been super happy with how the plant's responded!  I'm trying to do my part now and turn it into a finished product that looks more like 1 cool plant than 2 plants someone just stuck together.
 
PaulG said:
My $.02 - If you want to take the little one out, do it
now while there is just a bit of tap root. Use a pick
to loosen the soil a little and tease it out. Other option
let it grow a bit, then root it as a cutting.
 
It's always fun to mess around with this stuff  :D
Click to expand...
 
Always appreciate your $0.02.  I think you would have swayed me to tease it out, but despite how good the hook looked it came up with the seed coat on tight.  I managed to remove it, but the seedling isn't looking great so it's wait mode for the time being. Seems like some of these HH's have the growth tip rot (maybe ?) or at least have the growth tip soften and die after testa removal when they look like this.  Was wondering if a drop of 1:3 water/H2O2 on the coty followed by a drop or 2 rinse water would make a difference.
 
[edit: not looking so good so went with the H2O2.  I haven't thought before about using a drop of maybe 25% - 33% solution of 3% H2O2 in water (0.75% - 0.10% H2O2 concentration) on the seed coat when I first see I have an HH.  Would both soften the coat and maybe address potential fungal issues. Since it's so young and the seed coat would absorb the H2O2 maybe a more diluted solution would be safer.]
 
Looks decent from head on, but the side views aren't pretty.
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Yea, that small one looks pretty ragged, but ya
never know.  Life force is strong!
 
Yeah, it sure did.  I hit it with 0.75% H2O2 and it's actually looking better now about 4 hours later.  The cotyledons are forming and separating and that gooey brown crud isn't spreading. Don't know that the H2O2 influenced that, but if all goes well I might give it a second shot tomorrow just in case.
 
Following day follow-up on the ragged little sprout that looked like it had some kind of rot/fungus going on after removing the stuck-on seed coat.  I dosed it around 3:00pm yesterday and again first thing this AM with a 0.75% H2O2 solution in an attempt to prevent the growth tip from rotting and dying.  Basically, I just took an eye-dropper and put 1 drop on the cotyledons/growth tip area and repeated this once or twice over about 5 minutes before rinsing it off. If you're careful the drop will sit there pretty nice encompassing all the affected tissue.
 
The seedling is looking much better already, with the cotyledons opening and the color changing from brown and yellow to yellow and green. The mushy brown areas seem, rather than spreading, to be dying and drying off from the good growth. Plus there's some happy-looking green showing up in the middle of the cotyledons.  Can't say whether the H2O2 made the difference - or even really that it helped - but at least I know that a 0.75% concentration on a new weak seedling doesn't seem to hurt and probably could help in some situations of trying to control fungus.
 
It ain't pretty, but it seems to be surviving.
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Well, life's had me on the ropes a bit this week, but I've carved out a little time for some pics and an update on a few of the varieties that are producing now.
 
Baha Goat is still getting the job done.  A really cooperative compact indoor plant and bunch of good-sized pods.
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Hard to get a good shot of the pods underneath, but there's quite a few in there and the shape is looking right.
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Kathumby Black is also producing a decent number of pods. The plant wanted to stretch more than I could let it, so it needed more aggressive maintenance to keep it reasonably low.
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Scotch Bonnet Chocolate and Scotch Brain each produced a few, then stalled, but now (hopefully) appear ready to start setting the remainder of a decent batch.  Both are showing a cooperative indoor growth profile.  These guys and the baha goat seem to be perfectly happy sitting under the T5's.
 
SB Choc
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Interesting pod...
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Scotch Brain
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Tough to get a good pic up under this guy, but the pods are looking great.
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