Of Grails and Males

Marcus_in_the_Darkus

Well-known member
Greetz MNS grail seekers! Herewith the first post in the first thread about the newest and most intriguing MNS strain - Holy Grail.

I ordered a couple packs when they were first released. Covid slowed the mail down...took almost three weeks to arrive. I had just germinated some
ángeldorado seeds when I placed the order, so didn't have much room for the holy grail. I popped only three seeds on July 11. Two came up and one never did. A couple weeks later I went rooting around in the coir looking for the dead seed...found two seed husk halves and no evidence whatsoever of the embryo. Maybe a pest ate it? Dunno. So I popped another seed. That one sprouted, but just never took, shriveled up and died. So I popped a fifth seed. Meanwhile, the two remaining seedlings from the first few seeds I popped were extremely scrawny and spindly. Barely growing and showed no sign of standing up on their own. This is about when I read Musashi's post that he plants seeds in half-full containers, and adds soil later to help them grow straight. Maybe next time. This is when I also almost guillotined one of the first seedlings. I tried to repair it but it, also, succumbed. So I popped 5 seeds and ended up with only two plants. Both very weak and scrawny seedlings. I don't know if this was a problem in my grow media (coco and perlite), but I use this same technique for all my other grows and never had problems before.

The two seedlings were still not standing four weeks after I had first popped seed. There was no time to veg them and take cuts, as my ángeldorado cuts were rooting and almost ready to flower. So, remembering Shanti's advice to go 12/12 from seed with this strain, I simply put the two seedlings in the flower tent on August 11 in 5-inch pots. Here they are, after about 24 days of flower. HGA, on the left, is one of the first three seeds I popped. HGB was the fifth seed I popped a few weeks later. They straightened up after a couple weeks in 12/12, but they're still pretty flimsy.

Holy Grail F21 a.jpg

Holy Grail F21 b.jpg

Both are males, so I'm not going to be able to give any smoke reports anytime soon. I'll try again...

But, holy pheno spread Batman, I've never seen such a huge difference in two F1 seedlings. Given the stated pedigree, I was surprised to see how Indica leaning HGB was...he was culled, of course, in accordance with my pro-sativa selection criteria. Aromas were pretty subtle, but HGA had more pinene, which is the terpene I select for when I encounter it in sativas. Both plants showed an unusual structure in the early fan leaves where the leaflets overlapped a good bit. Both also showed variegation in some leaves.

I seriously considered culling both plants becasuse they were such weak spindly seedlings...I don't want to pass that trait on. But I'm kinda digging how HGA looks. Never seen such deep leaf serrations in MNS gear. So he got a stay of execution. I'm going to let him have his way with some ángeldorado seed plants that I'll flower outside.

I wish this grow would have given me at least one female to flower out, but it is what it is. I'll be very interested to see other MNS members grow the grail, especially my brother Musashi, who is a plant whisperer.
 
Great post!
I suppose if I had to choose a male I would choose a Holy Grail that survived that. Good tip from Musashi. Also, plant seeds pointy side up. For decades I was planting pointy side down. Seeds sprout wearing a little shell cap,
Once I figured that out my “germination rate” when up 20%
 
Greetz MNS grail seekers! Herewith the first post in the first thread about the newest and most intriguing MNS strain - Holy Grail.

I ordered a couple packs when they were first released. Covid slowed the mail down...took almost three weeks to arrive. I had just germinated some
ángeldorado seeds when I placed the order, so didn't have much room for the holy grail. I popped only three seeds on July 11. Two came up and one never did. A couple weeks later I went rooting around in the coir looking for the dead seed...found two seed husk halves and no evidence whatsoever of the embryo. Maybe a pest ate it? Dunno. So I popped another seed. That one sprouted, but just never took, shriveled up and died. So I popped a fifth seed. Meanwhile, the two remaining seedlings from the first few seeds I popped were extremely scrawny and spindly. Barely growing and showed no sign of standing up on their own. This is about when I read Musashi's post that he plants seeds in half-full containers, and adds soil later to help them grow straight. Maybe next time. This is when I also almost guillotined one of the first seedlings. I tried to repair it but it, also, succumbed. So I popped 5 seeds and ended up with only two plants. Both very weak and scrawny seedlings. I don't know if this was a problem in my grow media (coco and perlite), but I use this same technique for all my other grows and never had problems before.

The two seedlings were still not standing four weeks after I had first popped seed. There was no time to veg them and take cuts, as my ángeldorado cuts were rooting and almost ready to flower. So, remembering Shanti's advice to go 12/12 from seed with this strain, I simply put the two seedlings in the flower tent on August 11 in 5-inch pots. Here they are, after about 24 days of flower. HGA, on the left, is one of the first three seeds I popped. HGB was the fifth seed I popped a few weeks later. They straightened up after a couple weeks in 12/12, but they're still pretty flimsy.

View attachment 46190

View attachment 46191

Both are males, so I'm not going to be able to give any smoke reports anytime soon. I'll try again...

But, holy pheno spread Batman, I've never seen such a huge difference in two F1 seedlings. Given the stated pedigree, I was surprised to see how Indica leaning HGB was...he was culled, of course, in accordance with my pro-sativa selection criteria. Aromas were pretty subtle, but HGA had more pinene, which is the terpene I select for when I encounter it in sativas. Both plants showed an unusual structure in the early fan leaves where the leaflets overlapped a good bit. Both also showed variegation in some leaves.

I seriously considered culling both plants becasuse they were such weak spindly seedlings...I don't want to pass that trait on. But I'm kinda digging how HGA looks. Never seen such deep leaf serrations in MNS gear. So he got a stay of execution. I'm going to let him have his way with some ángeldorado seed plants that I'll flower outside.

I wish this grow would have given me at least one female to flower out, but it is what it is. I'll be very interested to see other MNS members grow the grail, especially my brother Musashi, who is a plant whisperer.
I’ll take a seed from that my friend! A Puntodorado x Holy Grail male...sounds like a winner.
 
I got 16 out of 18 just fine... sometimes old coco does that to you. When planting anything i paid for i try to treat the medium like i would treat it for clones, but instead of half strength i use 25% veg nutes and the same 3 drops of pure bleach (not thickened or scented) every 2gal. Raises the chlorine level high enough to disinfect without harming anything. N flush it thoughroughly with solution till im comfortable then plant n spill a little more. The 2 that failed i dug up because i thought they were dead n snapped the tails off. So i put 3 of my own to replace it.
20200920_060339.jpg
 
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Hope u been well my brother. Hows life treating ya?

Came back to the city n started working on some home projects. Took a clone from someone and it came with spidermites i didnt see until they were webbing. Transforming all mothers to micro, so i can physically wash every leaf bottom n top every 3 days. Im a little stuck in veg till i get rid of these bitches so everything has time to mature before i start taking cuts. Got 60 in a 2x4 space Lol
But rebuilt a little micro breeding box to play with while im here.
 
Hey, cyoheights, it's been a while! Glad to see that the germination problems I had are my fault, and not defective seed. I hope you share this grow with us...you're running decent numbers so I expect you'll find some amazing plants.

Herewith is my last picture of the Holy Grail male that I retained, taken yesterday. He had been in the tent flowering for 3 weeks before I put him outside for the pics in my first post. He ended up flopping over while outside, and eventually righted himself. Since I moved him from 12/12 to outside before the solstice, he experienced a light cycle change and threw a few female bits. Not entirely unexpected but not a good thing either. Then last week after some cloudy and cool weather moved through I noticed he's showing quite a lot of PM on his leaves. None of his outdoor compadres experienced this. Considering how floppy he was in veg, intersex traits, and PM susceptibility, I decided that he was not suitable breeding stock. Furthermore, to be really picky, I didn't like the rounded apexes of his flower colas. Looks like skunk influence from the Haze AC. He has been culled.

I'm still interested in this strain, and I'll try running Holy Grail again. But this attempt was, unfortunately, a complete bust.

HG male sep 19.jpg
 
It has been a little while hasnt it? lol I forgot a very important tip a 24hr soak in water in a red cup with a capfull of hydrogen peroxide covered somewhere warm like ontop a fridge or above your fluorescents is a step i always do when popping. Seems to help me anyway.

Yeah large (relative) selection is literally the only way I find my gems. I think its a must for a strain like this. I usally do 3 packs at a time, in little mouthwash cups of coco bottom fed and sit to drink few milliliters of feed every 3-4days. Let roots search n then refill. Then make clones into mommas easier to keep compact than seed plants. The space of the cloner tray holds an 18pack fairly well. Newly popped i top feed till they are drinking everyday then do the above. After selection is done I make some real momas. I wouldve popped the other 2packs but there was some discrepency about wheather a payment was made or not. After a very peaceful exchange between the higher ups I received it about 6wks after ordering. Figure I would deal with my pest problem first.

Im getting some interesting smells in a few and hardly in others but thats just the stem rub in veg I have been surprised many times before. The smells Im getting from the HG are baby powder, genuine leather, pine, pad thai curry(without the gamey animal), pure frankincense, and one plant smells richly sweet like some sort of candy from childhood that im failing to identify right now. There are a few different franks, the one im referring to is boswellia serrata, the 100% pure esential oil vitamin shoppe brand smells exactly like that and reminds me most of the SSH i lost. That one and and the sweet one has me the most interested.

Breeding is hella fun as I'm getting scents that were no were near and of the parents sometimes. The pinsol/cured lemon tea smelling Happy Brother Bx1 male crossed to a Super Silver Haze i had before 2005 and lost to these fricking spider mites gave me a female that smelled of bubblegum in the yellow and blue rapper mixed with frank. I took that mother n combined it with another mentholated male from that gen n all the progeny(F2) is some form of mentholated mango. It doesnt look nice on paper but it really smells amazing. Those are going into flower with the HGrails once these things are delt with. Really trying to work towards a compact form of my favorite 4hr lasting high i got from a large SSH selection i did many moons ago, but finding wonerful things along the way.
 
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What smells were you getting of your selected male you eliminated? I do the same quite often, if its not an impressive male i do not waste time slicing n dicing.....
 
Agh... definitely sounds awesome....

Not sure why these have me so excited...i was doing another wash today...n trying to identify what spice i was smelling on some of the other shorter stature deeply serated ones now that they have a few weeks maturity to them...

My girl was telling me cinnamon, but that wasnt quite it...a few smells exactly like clove. Crack a bottle n did a stem rub side by side, exact match. N the sweet one smells exactly of ripe mago now she has some age to her...only one to smell like ripe mango though..there are a few very different phenos just from stem rubbing n washing...

Are u popping any more of these?
 
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