Breeders Seed Production for Autos

[grimcreeper]

How are autoflowering seedlines kept consistent since no clones are kept? Is is a constant selection process for the best plants?

If so, breeding autos and producing seeds must be more work than traditional seed production!

Anyway, I salute all those working with these strains and say ignore those detractors. I have been pretty happy with my auto runs and I havn't ventured beyond the Diesel Ryders yet. They were very consistent and uniform with only height differences. Stone was 6.5/10 and scent was pleasant. Autoflowered beautifully at 20something days from seed. Done outdoors in the dirt.

Sour60, Sweet Seeds and an unnamed breeder's wares have caught my eye now!

 

[mitch_connor]

All breeding is hard work..

But you're right, for example you couldn't keep your known good mother and daddy in order to produce for example the same consistent F1 cross again and again..

Back-crossing can be done sort of.. if you have a great male AF you could store his pollen (frozen) for a few years to use again and again..

With inbreeding AF's Growing big batches out.. and only selecting the very best to continue your line each time is the only real way.

AF's will keep getting better in quality as we move further and further away from the original crosses using LR1.. just using LR2 as breeding stock for the auto gene has improved Autos a lot.

SGS (ICC) did a post awhile back explaining that if you make an AF to non AF cross, inbreed it to be fully AF, and then back cross again to the non AF parent then inbreed again to be fully AF, and repeat this process a few more times, you end up with a plant with basically just the Auto gene - and 5% or less of the original AF used in the cross in the genetic make-up

Now of course, that takes a shit load of time and dedication.. but my guess is you would end up with a plant pretty much indistinguishable from the non AF strain you started with.. except it would Autoflower.

These are just my opinions and interpretation of AF breeding though so i'm open to be corrected.

hope that helps..

mitch

 

[grimcreeper]

Thanks man, good info.

 

[grimcreeper]

So do those who produce mass seeds use the stored pollen method from the very best males? How does say, Mdanzig or the Joint Dr. create a thousands of seeds and keep their lines consistent? There has to be more than one approach. Just curious, I have no desire to ever start a seed co.

 

[mitch_connor]

Again, this is just my theory mate, so i'm not knocking any of the big breeders at all here..
but many of the big breeder strains aren't stable when they first come out..
When LR2, diesel ryder, Sour 60 came out there were ALOT of phenos.

I think what happens is that they concentrate on getting their non-AF cross autoflowering.. and release it as soon as it is.. i would think they use a big room and do open pollinations using a few males to many females..
But then when the strain has been out for some time.. they have had more chance/time to develop them into stable lines so you see less phenos.

Don't take that as gospel though, it's just the way i think it would go down if I had to produce 10's of thousands of seeds

 

[Krull]

I think what happens is that they concentrate on getting their non-AF cross autoflowering.. and release it as soon as it is..

Sadly someone in the biz release it even sooner
Nice thread btw, an opinion from a big breeder would be nice

=K

 

[grimcreeper]

Krull, I think you are right about the well known traditional type plant companies putting out unstable plants with some LR genes in there just to cash in on the auto phenomenon. Heard lots of bad things about some of them not even going auto, and these are well known companies like Sagarmatha, etc. I had a World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder that was not auto in any way whatsoever. It was many months old (started in April), four feet tall and three wide before it even started flowering in the end of July. Had to end that one early because of a security scare. Plant was vigorous as heck though. Guess it was more along the lines of Guerilla Gold or something but it was advertised to be like LR and even had RYDER in the name. When I hear autoflowering, I think LR type of performance.

 

[Krull]

Yea bro, 'if it doesnt flower under 24/0 dont call it autoflower' should be the rule of thumb
The Autoflower Buyers Guide thread needs some cleaning...

=K

 

[mitch_connor]

Good points Krull!

In my mind, there is nothing worse than a strain you buy thinking it's AF, and it doesn't AF!

I think a lot of the big companies out-source their projects thesedays.. or they don't test their seeds properly before releasing them. Thats why I give my money to the little guys who know their shit and do things properly