2024 State of the genepool discussion.

[Dime]

I'd like to see fem and autos ditched,one narrows the pool ,the other pisses in it.

 

[therealpacific]

omg. Recessives are easily bred out? You have obviously not tried to do that in real life. Dominant is easy to breed out, because you can see if it is there, or not. Recessives hide, and they hide for generations...and then pop out so unexpectedly. I come from generations of registered animal raising family, and i've seen this in many circumstances. Have purchased breeding stock that was calculated to be 99+% certain to be free of a certain disease...after importation of my new critter, an overseas sister to this animal turned up with progeny that had the disease. Suddenly, my stock was over 50% risk to carry the gene.
It's sooo much easier to breed out the 'brown eyes'...blue eye to blue eye is VERY rarely going to result in brown. Brown to brown is easily able to produce 25% blue. (We've found that in eye color, it isn't REALLY that simple, but it is the 'go to' for simple explantions.)

There's a phrase that's been in my circles for decades:"Recessives are forever!"

100%

 

[Raco]

Mucho rehash

 

[eastcoastjoe]

I'd like to see fem and autos ditched,one narrows the pool ,the other pisses in it.

So by eliminating fems, we talking about eliminating intersex traits ?

 

[eastcoastjoe]

Some recent posts on here and elsewhere have brought this question up in my circle.

What do you think of the current state of the cannabis genepool in 2024 on a macro scale? I know there are a lot of people in their own lanes doing new things, some not so much. What's your opinion? Where would you like to see it go? What can be done for more variety?

There's no wrong opinion or answer. Would love to get a consensus here on IC. I feel that this place is one of the best representations of the community, if not the best.

I had to really think about this. I think in many ways, we are better off now then ever before. many offerings are more refined these days and much easier to find good quality.

People like to rave about oldschool weed but dont talk about all the garbage that needed to be sorted through to find winners. It’s much easier to find high quality now than before.

Then look at seed offerings. There are more landrace / vintage lines available to the public now than the last 25 years.

We surely have our share of homogenized crap through. I blame that more on the growers / breeders more than anything. If we all just keep chasing and breeding with the same clones, how do we move forward and away from this bottleneck ?

 

[Dime]

So by eliminating fems, we talking about eliminating intersex traits ?

No we broaden the gene pool with greater selection. Selfing is fast but limited.

 

[eastcoastjoe]

No we broaden the gene pool with greater selection. Selfing is fast but limited.

But it adds quality faster. There is room / need for both.

 

[Dime]

Yes there is depending on what the goal is ,for profit fem seeds is the way to go and if you can find a special one that readily passes on the qualities you like then they are worth it, for convenience and profit autos are popular but this doesn't better the plant and in fact dilutes it. Fems also keep knockoffs at bay but for breeding there is still the issue that they have to be able to pass it on and for that you need a large selection . The old seeds were much better,just like the lines prior to what we had 80's and forward were but I also believe indicas ruined the pool for quality of effects. This is why old stock is valued. JMO,to each their own .

 

[xtsho]

No. Anybody who was ever smoked real 80s skunk weed knows. Good genetics will grow itself. The shit is gone bud. It's not yours or my fault. I guess if we can blame anyone let's blame the Dutch. They got the ball rolling with the first round of landrace crosses in the mid 80s. The first seedbanks. They initially caused the downfall of the genepool.

I agree. I remember back in the early 80's when we were getting what we called Skunk. You could smell a gram of that a block away. I remember sitting in class at High School with a bag in my pocket and the teacher walking around sniffing and looking around because the classroom smelled like weed.

 

[JetLife175]

This is my take. We gotta go back to what we can all consider the birth of modern cannabis breeding.

The early guys were taking landraces and slightly worked unique lines and making true f1 hybrids and crosses.

The next generation took that work and it resulted in things like sour, OG, Chem etc.

So on and so forth we bottleneck further and further.

I genuinely believe we need to bring back a lot of the old things that people think are useless these days and start sifting through and crossing them to these modern lines. Some old genetics I feel can improve upon what we've built. Like a BX of sorts. lol.

 

[therealpacific]

This is my take. We gotta go back to what we can all consider the birth of modern cannabis breeding.

The early guys were taking landraces and slightly worked unique lines and making true f1 hybrids and crosses.

The next generation took that work and it resulted in things like sour, OG, Chem etc.

So on and so forth we bottleneck further and further.

I genuinely believe we need to bring back a lot of the old things that people think are useless these days and start sifting through and crossing them to these modern lines. Some old genetics I feel can improve upon what we've built. Like a BX of sorts. lol.

I agree with this. The lines are out there to make some great stuff.

 

[El Timbo]

No we broaden the gene pool with greater selection. Selfing is fast but limited.

How can it be broadened by selection? Surely that would be narrowing it?

 

[kaneboy]

its supply and demand ,fems are having their time seemingly ,instragram has created the era of pretty weed and peeps want to have whats hot which is just how it is
it is easy to find awesome genetics of all varietys in 2024,old ,landrace ,polys sure they mightnt be all they are meant to be but not much is, still i know dudes who collect the older less popular strains to keep for future projects,grows or just want in their personal librarys as in sours,haze,skunks ,hashplants,chems which in years to come will be the rage,not everyone has access to clones and has to go thru seeds to find their own,as someone else said here each to there own

 

[eastcoastjoe]

This is my take. We gotta go back to what we can all consider the birth of modern cannabis breeding.

The early guys were taking landraces and slightly worked unique lines and making true f1 hybrids and crosses.

The next generation took that work and it resulted in things like sour, OG, Chem etc.

So on and so forth we bottleneck further and further.

I genuinely believe we need to bring back a lot of the old things that people think are useless these days and start sifting through and crossing them to these modern lines. Some old genetics I feel can improve upon what we've built. Like a BX of sorts. lol.

I think we can all agree with that but the problem is, who’s going to do it ? I see a lot of people complain about modern genetics but when it comes time to do the work, where are they? Most people don’t want to sort through all the crap and do the work.

Honestly, I can’t even blame breeders for not wanting to. It’s not like people are willing to pay what all that work would be worth. And as soon as you release it , it’s getting resold lol. I’m just struggling to see a different path forward right now.

 

[eastcoastjoe]

I agree with this. The lines are out there to make some great stuff.

I will always be grateful for you guys who made the way for us

 

[Tynehead Tom]

This is my take. We gotta go back to what we can all consider the birth of modern cannabis breeding.

The early guys were taking landraces and slightly worked unique lines and making true f1 hybrids and crosses.

The next generation took that work and it resulted in things like sour, OG, Chem etc.

So on and so forth we bottleneck further and further.

I genuinely believe we need to bring back a lot of the old things that people think are useless these days and start sifting through and crossing them to these modern lines. Some old genetics I feel can improve upon what we've built. Like a BX of sorts. lol.

I pose a question..... what can be improved upon?
What are we searching for that can be viewed as an improvement to modern cannabis?
More Yield?
More Pronounced flavors
Stronger high?
Resistance to pests?
.... the list could easily be added to.

So the question I pose is what can be improved when looking at the modern gene pool as a whole??

I don't think there is an answer because it is all subjective.
As a 35+ year toker, my desires and demands from the cannabis I grow is simple.... I want strong flavored, potent THC laden cannabis with a lasting high but not so strong that I can't puff all day. I smoke joints, probably 4 to 7 grams per day. I want variety in flavor and variety in high. From the couchy make my back pain disappear to the cerebral that uplifts and energizes and has a staying power.

What else can be improved? Not much I say
The current availlability of cannabis from all around the world, landrace, hierloom and polyhybrid makes for a market that has everything a grower could desire. I don't think we have ruined the gene pool nor have we bottle necked it. It's like going to Baskin Robin's for 51 flavors of ice cream.... except the cannabis market has thousands of "flavors".
I don't see any issue with the emergence of fems or autos..... lots of growers are limitted by plant counts and space. They don't have space nor time to grow anything that takes longer than 18 weeks to veg and flower for one crop of 4 plants. That is the recreation limit here in Canuckistan. So people just want to grow thier own weed the most efficent way possible with only 4 plants. That leads to growers "needing" feminized seed or autos in order to remain self supplied. Even then with 4 plants most people I know are still buying govt weed when they run out between crops.
Those people are grateful for the availlability of fems and autos.

Reg seeds wil always be around and I think it is up to us as individuals to recognize excellent plants when we find them and to preserve lines with female/male breeding combos when we can.
My seed collection is fairly vast and everything will get passed on to the younger generation when I kick it. This ensures that there will be diversity 10 , 20 maybe even 30 years from now and beyond that if the hier of my seed stash puts it to good use hehehe

 

[Old Piney]

omg. Recessives are easily bred out? You have obviously not tried to do that in real life. Dominant is easy to breed out, because you can see if it is there, or not. Recessives hide, and they hide for generations...and then pop out so unexpectedly. I come from generations of registered animal raising family, and i've seen this in many circumstances. Have purchased breeding stock that was calculated to be 99+% certain to be free of a certain disease...after importation of my new critter, an overseas sister to this animal turned up with progeny that had the disease. Suddenly, my stock was over 50% risk to carry the gene.
It's sooo much easier to breed out the 'brown eyes'...blue eye to blue eye is VERY rarely going to result in brown. Brown to brown is easily able to produce 25% blue. (We've found that in eye color, it isn't REALLY that simple, but it is the 'go to' for simple explantions.)

There's a phrase that's been in my circles for decades:"Recessives are forever!"

Recessive traits do have that tendency to pop up out or nowhere, maybe it's nature way of protecting the genepool. On the flip side if you want to bread a recessive trait true all you need is both parents to have the trait

 

[troutman]

Started some Colombian Gold seeds today.
Should be all done in 5- 6 months.

 

[linde]

Dominant is easy to breed out, because you can see if it is there, or not.

Huh? This isnt making any sense. Dominant cannabis genes are strong and carry over into the offspring and overpower weaker recessive genes. Yes recessive genes can skip a generation a show up. But with cannabis it may pop up in an f2 but by that time the core genetic is changed enough that the recessive pine or skunk will still get overpowered by the dominant diesel or whatever the cross was to. Either way my whole point is that unfortunately a lot of cannabis strains were lost forever into oblivion by cross breading.

 

[linde]

It's sooo much easier to breed out the 'brown eyes'...blue eye to blue eye is VERY rarely going to result in brown.

Sorry this isnt correct either. If your parents both have blue eyes and you have brown eyes then well.... your mother was hanging out with the milk man while Dad was at work. Lol. 2 blue will never have brown. 99% blue. 1% green. 0 % brown. Recessive genes in cannabis are a motherf#cker because they usually are the most desirable traits. Desirable traits that are the first thing to disappear in a cross. Like the infamous skunk and pine bud of the 80s . Gone.