Mango Haze Run – Setup & Planning Questions

[More Soil]

Hello everyone,

The time has finally come: I’m planning my first phenotype run with Mango Haze. My original plan was to start two packs (15 regular seeds each) in order to select a few interesting mother plants.

About my setup:
• Grow box 1: 1.20 m × 1.20 m with 2.20 m height (including a 350 L living soil bed)
– Lighting: 2× Sanlight LED Evo 5
• Grow box 2: 1.00 m × 1.00 m with 2.00 m height
– Lighting not finalized yet, likely Sanlight or Greenception

From what I’ve learned so far, a living soil bed doesn’t seem ideal for a classic phenotype run. I’ve been advised that phenotypic expression and direct plant comparison are generally easier to evaluate in separate pots.

This leads me to a few questions:

1. Would my available space be sufficient for a meaningful phenotype run, or would it make more sense to start with just one pack of 15 regular seeds and potentially repeat the run a second time?
2. My plan would be to take two cuttings from each female plant as backups and potential future mother plants.
3. For the later maintenance of mother plants, I would like to use Grow Box 1 with the living soil bed — but not plant directly into it. Instead, I’m considering placing pots on a raised platform above the bed. The bed itself cannot be moved due to its weight. Despite the ~60 cm height of the bed, there should still be sufficient vertical space. With regular training and pruning, the plants should remain relatively compact.

I’m especially curious how many plants you would consider realistic under these conditions, and whether you see any fundamental weaknesses in my approach.

I’ve already followed several interesting selection and Mango Haze projects here in the forum and would really appreciate your thoughts, experience, and advice.

Thanks a lot in advance!


Best regards,
More Soil

 

[quinxstar]

amazing plan look great you can start one tube in my opinion with a short grow period
when you will discard the male you can have 9 or 10 girl should be great

 

[Swifty]

Sound like a good plan more soil.
Keep grow box 1 for mothers, planting the in smaller pots to maintain them should work fine.
Once you've selected the best you can grow them in the living soil bed, I will be watching.

That leaves you with grow box 2 for your selecting, I follow quinxstar here.
It will be very doable to veg and sex them in there if you start in small pots and up pot them once they are sexed to take cuts and go into flower.

It is however also possible to have 4 25L pots in there and put 7-8 seeds per pot.
You will have to top and prune them a bit to keep them small and once sexed you can cut the males.
In one run you can have an idea where the better females to run for a second time.
I've done similar selection grows before with Mango Haze and Neville's Haze Mango.
I find the Neville's Haze Mango thread a good reference:

https://mrnice.nl/forum/threads/nevilles-haze-mango-in-search-of-a-keeper.18668/

In any case, I wish you good and luck and I hope you find your special MH!

 

[Diesel840]

From what I’ve learned so far, a living soil bed doesn’t seem ideal for a classic phenotype run. I’ve been advised that phenotypic expression and direct plant comparison are generally easier to evaluate in separate pots

I'm not sure if you have looked through @Swifty Mango Haze? One of his runs he grew them in communal pots, to smashing success.

Edit, I hadn't scrolled down yet. Looks like Swifty already posted a link.

 

[More Soil]

First of all, thanks a lot for all the previous replies and input on my post so far — I really appreciate the time and perspectives shared.

So, if I understand your method correctly, Swifty, this is actually what fascinated me when I first followed your documented run. I remember being very impressed by this rather unorthodox approach.

My main question is whether phenotypic differences are really something I should pay close attention to during selection. I'm still quite inexperienced when it comes to hunting and evaluating phenotypes. I’ve often read that keeping plants in individual pots is preferable, since shared or interconnected root zones can make it harder to evaluate each plant fairly and compare performance.

From a practical standpoint, however, your approach is very appealing to me. My initial idea was to germinate all seedlings directly in a large living soil bed, let them grow in place, remove males as soon as they show, and then train and manage the remaining females in a similar way to your method.

This setup would allow me to dedicate my 1m x 1m x 2m tent entirely to maintaining mothers and rooted clones, while the selected females finish flowering in the living soil bed, ensuring the best possible quality in the final product.

At this point, my focus is honestly more on the final effect and the cured product than on plant structure during growth. I only really feel able to evaluate and compare properly after a full cure and when I can actually test the finished product.

Until then, I would likely keep a mother of each female to preserve genetics anyway. That leads me to wonder: how critical is it really to focus heavily on phenotypic differences during the grow phase? If selection is ultimately based on the cured end product, then the visible variation during growth might be less important than I currently assume. I’m still not entirely sure about this, so I’d really value your perspective.

Another question is about plant numbers. If I use the large living soil bed from the start, would it make sense to sow all seeds from both packs at once to maximize the selection pool? Or do you think there’s a point where too many plants becomes counterproductive for a meaningful selection process?

I’d be very interested in your thoughts—your approach seems significantly more practical than running large numbers of plants individually.


Mango Haze Pheno Search (Target Profile)

I’m looking within Mango Haze for a phenotype that ideally expresses a noticeable mango or fruity tropical character, but I’m also open to herbal, spicy, or incense-like Haze expressions. Terpenes are secondary, as long as the overall profile feels balanced and enjoyable.

What matters most is the effect:

I’m looking for a clear, uplifting, and stable mental high that feels warm, friendly, and emotionally positive, without becoming racy, anxious, or overly stimulating.

Ideally, the experience sits in a “sunny” mental clarity space with calm, slightly contemplative qualities. Some mental activation is welcome, as long as it remains smooth and grounded.

In short: positive, clear, warm uplift with stability and no mental overstimulation — terpenes flexible, effect is the priority.


Thanks in advance for your help and support.

 

[Swifty]

Hello More Soil,

I will start to say that the reason I pheno hunt in that way is just pure economicals.
The aim is to go through as many seeds to hunt for more unique pheno's.
I always found that this is mostly a numbers game even when you start with "decent" seeds.

My main question is whether phenotypic differences are really something I should pay close attention to during selection. I'm still quite inexperienced when it comes to hunting and evaluating phenotypes. I’ve often read that keeping plants in individual pots is preferable, since shared or interconnected root zones can make it harder to evaluate each plant fairly and compare performance.

I would say that if each plant is in good health, has enough food/ light you should certainly see it's potential from the first run in the smoke.
First grow is to see where there is potential, the second and third grow is to grow them as best as you can to possibly reach their full potential.
Smoke tests after every grow and taking notes and will lead you to your answers. If a plants stands out you will know it by then.
Phenohunting is time consuming, certainly for an amateur like me and I also don't want to throw the baby with the bathwater so to speak.
As each step in the selection process passes you put in more effort and resources as you come closer to the best of that hunt.
I'm not educated in plant biology and genetics so I have no idea if this has any effect on clones but I would presume not.
Pherhaps @Mate Dave could say what he thinks?

From a practical standpoint, however, your approach is very appealing to me. My initial idea was to germinate all seedlings directly in a large living soil bed, let them grow in place, remove males as soon as they show, and then train and manage the remaining females in a similar way to your method.

This setup would allow me to dedicate my 1m x 1m x 2m tent entirely to maintaining mothers and rooted clones, while the selected females finish flowering in the living soil bed, ensuring the best possible quality in the final product.

At this point, my focus is honestly more on the final effect and the cured product than on plant structure during growth. I only really feel able to evaluate and compare properly after a full cure and when I can actually test the finished product.

Until then, I would likely keep a mother of each female to preserve genetics anyway. That leads me to wonder: how critical is it really to focus heavily on phenotypic differences during the grow phase? If selection is ultimately based on the cured end product, then the visible variation during growth might be less important than I currently assume. I’m still not entirely sure about this, so I’d really value your perspective.

Your plan sounds good to me, I would do it in the same way.
I do grow like you for effect first, smell/taste second and ofcourse I want a stronger plant.
I did found some great plants in the past but after some years they got culled because they were "weak" in growth and difficult to keep so in a way I do choose the more strongers ones eventually.
If you were a breeder you might want to look at it from a different angle but as a smoker this will suffice.
You have breeder cuts and coffeeshop cuts, each has its purpose...

Another question is about plant numbers. If I use the large living soil bed from the start, would it make sense to sow all seeds from both packs at once to maximize the selection pool? Or do you think there’s a point where too many plants becomes counterproductive for a meaningful selection process?

Sow every seed is my advise but cut/prune/defoliate where is necessairy to give each individual a chance to develop as good as possible.
First run is not about amount of branches or budsite, just to grow the plant with a good health to get an idea of what she has to offer.

Mango Haze Pheno Search (Target Profile)

I’m looking within Mango Haze for a phenotype that ideally expresses a noticeable mango or fruity tropical character, but I’m also open to herbal, spicy, or incense-like Haze expressions. Terpenes are secondary, as long as the overall profile feels balanced and enjoyable.

What matters most is the effect:

I’m looking for a clear, uplifting, and stable mental high that feels warm, friendly, and emotionally positive, without becoming racy, anxious, or overly stimulating.

Ideally, the experience sits in a “sunny” mental clarity space with calm, slightly contemplative qualities. Some mental activation is welcome, as long as it remains smooth and grounded.

In short: positive, clear, warm uplift with stability and no mental overstimulation — terpenes flexible, effect is the priority.

You are looking at the right strain in my experience!
NHM is also in that direction, My keeper MH was replaced by NHM#4. Not saying that NHM is a better line than MH but the plants I saw were similar and I just choose the best one for me.
MH is very special in effects, with a little bit of luck you will find your plant in these 2 packs.

I Hope this helps you a bit further!

 

[Mate Dave]

I think the space is ok for 30 SOG 12/12 from seed.

I dunno about those lights I would use HID but the pots is a great Idea, 7 or 10 litres and having a place for them to drain to is a great idea. Even cutting the bottoms off the pots so they can go direct into the bed and you can use smaller pots like I did here in the 20ltr growbags in 1.6 ltr pots. You can get amazing plants in these pots with care and attention. Waterlogging was an issue in this grow for me the plants had an 'Edema' issue as indervidual watering wasn't easy to achieve.


I played about one time with growbags and this idea with my favourite plant to see about the grading of cuttings. It worked well you can get 40+ in like this in a 1.2m2

These are the roots at 2 weeks in allmix fed the Maxicrop regime from Mike who has the local company to me. The bags are light mix.

With 30 seeds you will get a 99.9% chance of finding a rare genetype but 300 or 3000 is a better look at it mathematically for a true superior specimen.

With pots you can weight them, look and test things, pull plants out by their stem and see if they are good.

I wrenched this from a pot no mercy style tonight to take a pic for you as I buried it.

No issues with these roots or genetics This is soil I took from an abandoned grow and re-amended with tripple action, water no pH. The water is usually hot too.



In a 1.5M2 tent you can hunt 64 plant in. I borrowed a few pics below from LEPTOSOMA who learned me a lot, these are some examples of how to set a test area up. The Crazy monk taught me a lot of lessons.




These tents about are all passively running from the same ventilation in out in out in out through 3 tents.

Here's a few of the SSH F2's he grew from So7oman that we have been growing for decades on a pheno hunt.


The seeds he got from Shantibaba. He also got some from Franco. These are in 3ltrs of coir flipped from seed after the true leaves.



I would get a Swiss test kit also known as a 4-Ap kit as the first £5 spent to typify the plants if you are looking for specific effects you can narrow it down really fast.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://protestkit.eu/4-ap-en/&ved=2ahUKEwjCgNjBsYWVAxXbTqQEHSFNHBoQFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0v3qwDwun1shUuDVzif05s

Here I have turned a DR60 on it's side and have some SSH from Shantibaba who gave them to Shinobi at an expo and he passed them to me to hunt what he didn't grow.

I also did the Hy-pro Amnesia, it was a better use of space for me.



This plant is a mother in a 3ltr pot in the tent #portrait mode.



I think sowing directly into the bed you won't get the even growth or water on the edges I think that you will get gaps. You also will have a diffent form of selection with penetration, (BD) and height will be a issue as you cannot use the totipotent stem and bury them to the cotyledons with a broadcast sowing unless you 1/2 fill the bed and top dress.

I've got 2 straws of Early Pearl Skunk HazeC going and they are taking up a lot of space and selection time. Bloody amazing plants I'll put some pics up but 1st...


This is a Mango C5 from Wally, below is the rest of the garden.


Testing out pot types and so fourth in the heat. I did white, black and terracotta One of my projects was alternatives to plastic pots.

Hazes want to get big.

I will continue in another post where I can upload more images of the current grow.

 

[More Soil]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Lots of useful information in there and definitely some things for me to think about. I can see the logic in focusing on finding potential in the first run and then letting the clones prove themselves later on.

I'll take some time to go through everything again and adjust my plan a bit. At the moment I'm leaning towards running a larger population (30 Seeds) and keeping backup clones of all promising females, then making the real decisions after flowering and cure.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences. It's much appreciated.

 

[Mate Dave]

Try to grow tham as you would grow them for production in the method you do that so you don't have a smoke test there and a shit plant like Cookies or OG Kush's or Chemdawg's when not 12/12 from seed. That's my best advice. You won't get anything that bland with mango




Pot's this size or a bed and you'll get too much growth. people grow haze 12/12 from seed in 1 litre pots.

CheesexNL, Psychosis & Blues

Psychosis is the best plant IMHO for production i've grown.

I grow like this inside. 100 day cycles. I don't like beds I can't move



This Kush was grown in 1ltr pots. 25 in a 1m2 tent lots of controll in smallpots..

Much depends on how the plant want's to grow how much maintenence you have time for. I think for the haze you want the full 2.2 m height. I don't like running out of room.



Amnesia and SSH in those big pots was too much