Pop more seeds.

How To Hunt More Packs As a Hobby Grower With Limited Resources and Space (Plus a toolkit for making the planning process even easier)

When I first started growing back in 2019, I planted 3 seeds.

At the time, I figured odds of one making it were better if I planted 3.

This is a mentality I want you to embrace, but we will come back to that.

When you first start growing, a seed = a plant.

Planting more seeds means more plants.

But not all seeds "work," so you maybe plant a couple extra, just in case.

You grow them out, cull any males (another reason to pop extra), and harvest.

Then, for your 2nd cycle, you repeat the process.

And, if you're like me, by your 3rd or 4th cycle, you're experimenting with cloning.

In the grow world, it's very common to hear talk about "cuts" and "keepers," prized plants that have been hunted from seed packs and found to be remarkable in one way or another.

This is where the road forks:

1. Option 1: You decide cloning isn't for you, and you'd just rather pop seeds for every round.

2. Option 2: You start looking at seeds as potential winners, not just individual plants.

Option 1 is the easy road. And, if we are being honest, the more efficient workflow for many growers. You don't have to have moms and you don't have to take clones. And you don't stress about losing "the one."

Option 2 opens you up to a new world of possibilities, and fears.

I fell down the rabbit hole of Option 2.

Most of us are familiar with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

I had FOLAK—Fear of Losing A Keeper.

Instead of finding joy popping seeds, I was paralyzed by a fear of losing potential keepers from packs I hadn't even popped.

This is hardly productive.

And it's more common than most growers would like to admit.

If you start hearing things like:

• "I'm waiting to pop that until I have space to hunt it"

• "I'll pop that when I have more room for moms"

• "I can't pop the whole pack because I don't have the cloning space"

Chances are, that grower has the same fears.

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Perfectionism & FOLAK

Every grower has heard the same horror story:

"Man, we used to have [keeper cut] and it was amazing, but we lost her and can never get her back."

And, if you can get them back, it's usually an adventure (read: tedious process).

Logically, the way you avoid this is by keeping moms until you have rooted clones.

Or, at the very least, not flipping your plants to flower until you have cuts.

But that's not always realistic.

Let’s look at my seed-popping goal for the year: 135 seeds.

If I kept a mom for every one of the 135 seeds, and then took clones (more than 1 per plant, because I'm not perfect), that quickly multiplies to way too many plants to take care of in a small tent setup.

This is a faulty perception that prevented me from popping more seeds.

From June 2019 to December 2023 (4.5 years), I grew 29 different strains from seed.

Most of those I popped 1-2 seeds.

A handful I popped 4-5 seeds.

1 pack got popped in full (12 seeds).

My plan was always:

1. Only pop as many seeds as you can keep clones of.

2. Clone everything twice (2 cuts per plant in case of failure).

3. Keep clones until cure has finished and you've had time to make a proper selection.

4. Sometimes: Keep clones until you finish multiple rounds.

This was a massive limitation.

Especially when you consider that not every plant is worth cloning.

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A Visit from Weed Shanty

One day, my friend Weed Shanty showed up at my house to share flavors from the garden, discuss the living bed progress, and catch up on all things life and growing.

Shanty and I met at The Grow-Off, and bonded over our ill-fated experiences.

Since then, I've gotten to learn from him and see a variety of his grow projects.

And one thing I noticed: Dude is always popping seeds.

Now, plant counts aside—The first rule of Grow Club is we don't talk about plant counts—I was shocked that he could pop so many seeds and maintain healthy moms and cuts until his selection process finished.

That's no small feat.

So, I worked up the courage to ask:

"How do you manage to pop all these seeds, hunt them, and keep clones of everything?"

His response:

"I don't."

I was floored.

Here's how he broke it down to me:

1. Always pop more than you need (even in small situations). Not every seed is viable.

2. You don't have to clone every plant. Not every plant is worth cloning.

3. You will have some plants that are runts. Most runts aren't worth keeping.

4. Every seed isn't a female. You will have to cull males (unless running fem gear).

   

   Male plant identified in the first week of flower.

5. Some females herm (show intersex traits like pollen development). Herms aren't keepers.*

6. Cloning everything is a waste of supplies, time, and space.

7. Plus: You can re-veg anything that you didn't clone but want.

*Some people swear that certain herm plants are worth keeping around. Not everyone agrees.

On top of this, I used to hunt in 5-gallon fabric pots, an additional limitation as you can only fit so many per tent, and it takes a fair amount of substrate to fill them (which gets costly if a male or herm slips through the cracks).

Again, Shanty advised adjusting my process: Use smaller pots to grow a larger amount of smaller plants.

With these guidances in mind, I took the leap and popped 37 seeds.

And then, this week, popped 43 more.

Here's how...

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The New Hobby Hunt Process

It's amazing how certain conversations give you permission to try new things.

My conversations with other growers like Weed Shanty often do just that.

They remove the limitations we set for ourselves.

So, what did I do?

Went into the seed vault and pulled everything out.

What would you pop if you weren't afraid to lose cuts, and instead were excited about what you might find?

I initially chose ~22 packs. Then threw in some bag seeds for fun. Why not, right?

Now, as much as I love the "Fuck it, pop 'em all" mentality, there is a limit.

Most hobby growers don't have the space to pop 22 packs at once.

Even if they're culling males and herms and runts.

So, I batched them out over the course of the year, allowing myself a few packs every cycle, like a seed allowance, if you will.

Old process for popping seeds:

1. Pop 1-2 per pack. 3-5 max.

2. Germinate, transplant, veg until big enough.

3. Take clones as soon as possible.

4. Wait for clones to root.

5. Either

   1. Veg plants until mature enough to flower.

   2. Cull seedlings, grow from clone

6. Make sure you have clones of the clones before flipping.

7. Keep clones around until after harvest, dry, and cure.

8. Make selections solely based on post-harvest evaluations, giving every plant a fighting chance.

New process for popping seeds:

1. In most cases, pop the whole pack (3-4 seeds per pack minimum).

2. Germinate, transplant, veg until mature enough to flower.

3. Cull any runts that are lagging behind the group or lacking vigor.

4. Take clones right before flip.

5. Flip seedlings while clones root.

6. First 2 weeks of flower (while clones root), cull males and herms.

7. Remove any clones of males and herms.

8. Flower out small seedling plants (1-gallon pots).

9. Anything you don't have cuts of that you absolutely want to save, re-veg at harvest.

Bonus: If you do get males, and you have a space, use them to make your own seeds to hunt through. My 2x2x4 tent has become the "Love Shack" for males to shack up with lovely clone ladies from my stable.

New crosses made in The Hobby Grow in a 2x2x4’ grow tent (more seeds to come, I only grabbed a few for popping while I wait for the plants to finish drying)

Remember: Not every plant fits for YOUR situation.

There's another paralyzing fear that I want to address:

"Well, maybe she has potential under different conditions."

This is why growers keep runts, and sad plants, and finicky fuckers that don't clone or require 3x the veg time or just overall want special treatment.

Sure, sometimes it is worth it.

But unless you absolutely must have this very specific expression of a plant, adjusting your entire process to make 1 plant happy (and create more work in the grow) often doesn't make sense.

And keeping clones of plants that "might perform better in a different grow" makes less sense.

Hunt for YOUR situation. Don't adjust your process for a single plant.

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The Tools To Give You Freedom To Hunt

Now, going from popping a few seeds to popping 30-40+ did require some planning to get comfortable with the idea, so I created a Hobby Hunt Toolkit to help.

First, I had to reimagine my workflow.

Previously, I had 2 flower tents, both treated as equals. One, a raised soil bed, and one, containers.

The raised bed became a keeper-only tent.

The container tent became the "Hobby Hunt" tent. And I made peace with growing in smaller containers to have more plants.

Second, as mentioned, I needed to batch my efforts, I couldn't pop all the seeds all at once.

That also meant figuring out timelines.

Third, as you no doubt are aware, I love my weed math and spreadsheets, and needed a tool to help.

So, I built a multi-faceted sheet to help me wrap my head around the "operations" required to proceed as intended, popping all the packs I wanted before the ball drops on New Year's Day.

Now, I'm sharing that toolkit with you.

The tool has 3 tabs: A list for tracking, and 2 timeline calculators.