[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]

In our post about “Foraging for Wild Cannabis“, I showed some pictures of wild C. ruderalis plants I had found, and was lucky enough to find at the right time to gather a few seeds.

These smaller, harder wild seeds seemed adapted to the local climate, and made me wonder if the auto-flowering properties of this wild plant could be crossed with a more “bud-productive” commercial strain (I chose a personal favorite, “Double Gum”) to produce an early flowering plant suited to outdoor growing in northern climates that would produce significant buds. The ruderalis strain produced flowers, but they remained small and leafy, even in a controlled grow. They do have a wonderful orange/pepper aroma that I’d love to experience in a larger bud.

Foraged C. Ruderalis seeds.

This strain of ruderalis seems to begin flowering around midsummer night (June 21st) rather than the autumnal equinox (Sept 21st), leaving the plant plenty of time to flower and spread seeds before frost can interrupt the life cycle. How I love this adaptable, wily little plant! Probably the escaped ancestor of hemp cultivation before prohibition of marijuana, life finds a way, and these fine-leaved, short plants pop up along roadsides, gravelly riverbeds, and vacant lots in parts of northern Europe.

I’m happy to report that pollinating a female Double Gum plant with flowers from a male C. ruderalis produced viable seeds that grew vigorously. (That’s the title photo above). Even more interesting is that the plant has grown far larger than any of the wild strain, yet has retained the slim leaves and lovely peppery-orange aroma of the father ruderalis. I’ll post updates as the buds develop – let’s see if mother Double Gum’s beautiful buds gene expresses itself over the next 6 weeks or so.

Here’s another peek at the plant – if you click for a full-sized view, you can see the fine clusters of white pistils that have developed in the last couple of weeks.

best regards

Glenn Panik

[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]