TopShelfTrees
In Bloom
Quiet Drop in effect at GLG right now guys, only one Noni left. Crazy buy 1 get 1 @lambchopedd and the rest of my fellow Schwaggy enthusiasts.
Man.... if someone gets the Chem D BC ... I'm working on ordering something so I can nab that.... his Chem D is the very lovely dirty diaper scent profile.
@Bad Dawg
Is there any particular way the freebies show up? I can't decide between the Skunk and the other Skunk....
Yeah man, I snagged 2x packs of the HAOG when I saw the glg instagram post MINUTES before clocking in to work ?I can’t believe there’s still so much stock left tbh, @Schwaggy P work is cheap to begin with but this makes it 25$ a pack with the B1G1 ! If I wasn’t broke I’d grab 3-4 of each, every strain listed is dank fire from imho one of the best breeders out there . He must have sent in a ton as usually the HAOG is gone within minutes, along with anything new.
Trying to make genetic theory work for the small-scale breeder is about taking things in small digestible bites and building a bigger picture "full stomach" made from the successes of these individual targeted bites. Looking at the 5-trait P-square and thinking about what it would take to try to do all of that in one shot is too much. But focusing on 1-2 traits at a time and slowly building makes the process possible. Even if one never tries to apply these things, it can help gain a better understanding for what is going on.
☢️ I DID A THING ☢️Short Version
I forced mutations with radiation on seeds which have manifested in early veg.
Long Version
I’ve been experimenting with forced mutations (Induced Mutagenesis) secretly in an undisclosed location for the safety of myself and the broader public. This was a test to see if I could force mutations on ungerminated and recently germinated seeds (same seeds, just at different stages). This idea came to me after reading a book about Plant Mutation Breeding which described various radiation and chemical means of altering DNA. The book described many interesting methods using chemicals not available to the public and radiation methods involving specialized equipment. So I decided to come up with a DIY radiation mutation inducer. This was not a rigorous testing but just a conceptual probing to see if anything happened. I’ll have a conclusion that goes over why what you are about to see is not definitive proof, etc..
Quick background about the concept of mutation breeding:
- The idea is to alter the genetic code of the plants to gain some improved feature that is not just a “one-off” trait but can be considered a heritable trait which can be bred into successive lines. For example, when you treat a female plant with STS, that plant will manifest male anatomy and produce pollen but this is not a heritable trait that can be worked into other lines. On the other hand, bombarding a plant with radiation of specific energy and time can create mutations such as improved root growth that can be considered permanent changes that are heritable.
Method of Mutation
I decided to go with radiation instead of chemical mutagenesis. If you remember back to your high school or freshman college physics textbooks, you may know that your smoke detectors have radioactive material inside. This little piece of metal is Americium-241 and it emits a constant stream of particles. Because these particles are so weak (they pose no real threat to you as configured) and constant, any smoke particle that break the stream triggers the smoke alarm. So I just got a few smoke detectors together and harvested the Americium-241 (Am-241).
View attachment 147591
The two circles below show the Americium-241 extracted and the other two samples were left in their housing. The two in the housing are still exposed yet offer a nice place to keep the seeds along with the other extracted Am241.
View attachment 147592
View attachment 147593
I placed 11 seeds (Green Crack S1 x Chocolate Trip F4) in the setup.
At this point, I realized that I could amplify the radiation from the Am241 (well, Enrico Fermi came up with the concept, I’m just applying it). I wrapped the loose Am241 pellets with aluminum foil and coated with beeswax. The radiation interacts with the foil to release a kind of particle that excites the beeswax and “charges up” to eventually release 4 times the original radiation. This allowed me to get more gamma radiation for my small setup.
The seeds stayed in this setup and were rotated daily for about a week before going into paper towels to germinate. The Am241 were added to the paper towel and allowed to sit with the germinating seeds for 2-3 days. Once popped, the seeds were treated as any other and the Am241 was no longer involved. I just started to grow these 10 plants waiting for any observable mutations.
There was nothing to indicate any change had occurred with the speed of growth of these 10 seeds. All plants seemed normal, at first. There is one pheno that is expressing some strange structural and leaf mutations.
This plant has multiple mutated oddities
View attachment 147598
Incomplete leaf blades
View attachment 147599
Deformed and discolored leaf blades (this is the most prolific mutant trait so far) All are different leaves
This mutation is also manifesting on sugar leaves
View attachment 147604
The top of the plant is beginning to show more pronounced oddities. The terminal growths 1 and 4 are emerging without the presence of fan leaves (these seem to have mutated too badly to form beyond just yellow crinkles shown in the circle). The double top; The terminals 2 and 3 are showing mixed apical dominance.
View attachment 147606
Here is a better shot at the yellow crinkles. The stipules seem unaffected.
View attachment 147607
Conclusion
Is this irrefutable proof of DIY at home radiation induced mutagenesis? No. I could have germinated a control group of seeds without the radiation to compare. This could just be a one-off from the seed line. In my experience, most mutations that I've encountered (natural mutation) are very minor and don't last beyond a few nodes of the plant. I wasn't shooting for scientifically rigorous; just wanted a pseudo-"proof of concept" and to satisfy general curiosity. To that end, I'm happy and will assume the observed mutations were because of the Am241. The mutations are not targeted at all and are effectively a roll of the dice as far as what gets mutated. There is a chance this plant may accelerate the mutations to a point that actually kill the plant (leaves too mutated to photosynthesize, etc.) There may be even more oddities in the flowering stage of this plants as well as the others. There's no reason to assume that because the other 9 plants have not shown any clear mutations, that there will not be any later in the life of the plants, especially when flipped. I'll just continue growing out these seeds and watching for anything interesting. I now have a good reason to continue experimenting with this method of induced mutations with more Am241 and more rigorous side-by-side growing.
***I have no intention of releasing these mutants and I am fully aware of the ethics surrounding GMO
☢️ I DID A THING ☢️Short Version
I forced mutations with radiation on seeds which have manifested in early veg.
Long Version
I’ve been experimenting with forced mutations (Induced Mutagenesis) secretly in an undisclosed location for the safety of myself and the broader public. This was a test to see if I could force mutations on ungerminated and recently germinated seeds (same seeds, just at different stages). This idea came to me after reading a book about Plant Mutation Breeding which described various radiation and chemical means of altering DNA. The book described many interesting methods using chemicals not available to the public and radiation methods involving specialized equipment. So I decided to come up with a DIY radiation mutation inducer. This was not a rigorous testing but just a conceptual probing to see if anything happened. I’ll have a conclusion that goes over why what you are about to see is not definitive proof, etc..
Quick background about the concept of mutation breeding:
- The idea is to alter the genetic code of the plants to gain some improved feature that is not just a “one-off” trait but can be considered a heritable trait which can be bred into successive lines. For example, when you treat a female plant with STS, that plant will manifest male anatomy and produce pollen but this is not a heritable trait that can be worked into other lines. On the other hand, bombarding a plant with radiation of specific energy and time can create mutations such as improved root growth that can be considered permanent changes that are heritable.
Method of Mutation
I decided to go with radiation instead of chemical mutagenesis. If you remember back to your high school or freshman college physics textbooks, you may know that your smoke detectors have radioactive material inside. This little piece of metal is Americium-241 and it emits a constant stream of particles. Because these particles are so weak (they pose no real threat to you as configured) and constant, any smoke particle that break the stream triggers the smoke alarm. So I just got a few smoke detectors together and harvested the Americium-241 (Am-241).
View attachment 147591
The two circles below show the Americium-241 extracted and the other two samples were left in their housing. The two in the housing are still exposed yet offer a nice place to keep the seeds along with the other extracted Am241.
View attachment 147592
View attachment 147593
I placed 11 seeds (Green Crack S1 x Chocolate Trip F4) in the setup.
At this point, I realized that I could amplify the radiation from the Am241 (well, Enrico Fermi came up with the concept, I’m just applying it). I wrapped the loose Am241 pellets with aluminum foil and coated with beeswax. The radiation interacts with the foil to release a kind of particle that excites the beeswax and “charges up” to eventually release 4 times the original radiation. This allowed me to get more gamma radiation for my small setup.
The seeds stayed in this setup and were rotated daily for about a week before going into paper towels to germinate. The Am241 were added to the paper towel and allowed to sit with the germinating seeds for 2-3 days. Once popped, the seeds were treated as any other and the Am241 was no longer involved. I just started to grow these 10 plants waiting for any observable mutations.
There was nothing to indicate any change had occurred with the speed of growth of these 10 seeds. All plants seemed normal, at first. There is one pheno that is expressing some strange structural and leaf mutations.
This plant has multiple mutated oddities
View attachment 147598
Incomplete leaf blades
View attachment 147599
Deformed and discolored leaf blades (this is the most prolific mutant trait so far) All are different leaves
This mutation is also manifesting on sugar leaves
View attachment 147604
The top of the plant is beginning to show more pronounced oddities. The terminal growths 1 and 4 are emerging without the presence of fan leaves (these seem to have mutated too badly to form beyond just yellow crinkles shown in the circle). The double top; The terminals 2 and 3 are showing mixed apical dominance.
View attachment 147606
Here is a better shot at the yellow crinkles. The stipules seem unaffected.
View attachment 147607
Conclusion
Is this irrefutable proof of DIY at home radiation induced mutagenesis? No. I could have germinated a control group of seeds without the radiation to compare. This could just be a one-off from the seed line. In my experience, most mutations that I've encountered (natural mutation) are very minor and don't last beyond a few nodes of the plant. I wasn't shooting for scientifically rigorous; just wanted a pseudo-"proof of concept" and to satisfy general curiosity. To that end, I'm happy and will assume the observed mutations were because of the Am241. The mutations are not targeted at all and are effectively a roll of the dice as far as what gets mutated. There is a chance this plant may accelerate the mutations to a point that actually kill the plant (leaves too mutated to photosynthesize, etc.) There may be even more oddities in the flowering stage of this plants as well as the others. There's no reason to assume that because the other 9 plants have not shown any clear mutations, that there will not be any later in the life of the plants, especially when flipped. I'll just continue growing out these seeds and watching for anything interesting. I now have a good reason to continue experimenting with this method of induced mutations with more Am241 and more rigorous side-by-side growing.
***I have no intention of releasing these mutants and I am fully aware of the ethics surrounding GMO