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How to pick Mr. Right?
- Thread starter Superauto
- Start date
Maybe I didn't explain it well but I meant to use only one male, but if you have two or several males you have to choose one of them
Right-o!
Traits to possibly select for when breeding:
Growth Patterns - does the plant grow tall or short, long & lanky, short & bushy, how long until harvest (length of flowering stage), yields, etc
Hardiness - how fast plants tend to grow, resistance to mold or root problems, whether it can stand heat or cold, how strong the stems are, etc
Buds - Smell, Color, Appearance, Perceived Effects, Potency, THC or CBD levels, etc.
The bigger your pool of genetics (the more plants you have to choose from), the easier it becomes to find specific traits that you want to include in your breeding project.
Well, using all the males and all the females is not selective breeding and that's the opposite of my intention
Thanks this is helpful, but Isn't it kind of tricky to choose a male when they are done(mature and ready to pollinate in the spring) so much earlier than when the females are ready to be harvested(in the fall)
It's a whole summer between the males and the females life
Well, using all the males and all the females is not selective breeding and that's the opposite of my intention
Aaaaand you missed the point. You don't know what traits the male will pass on until you grow out the progeny. Your "selection" might be great. It might pass on shit traits. If you cull all but one, and he passes on shit, you end up with shit. Bottle necked shit.
You might say that by using all the males, you have more to select from. Just because a plant displays a certain trait doesn't mean it will pass it on.
I get it, but getting seeds from all the males crossed with all the females seems like a helluva lot of plants n seeds to keep in order, and I guess the police come knocking on my door sooner than later if I grow all those plants
G
Gr33nSanta
subcool often talked about the myth or fact that males that are the latest to show sex without being the runt will pass on more drug traits while the one that show sex the earliest will pass on more hemp traits.
toxic hippie
Member
Cultivating exceptional cannabis by dj short.
Marijuana botany propagation and breeding of distinctive cannabis by Robert Connell Clarke.
Both books are a great place to start.
Both can be found for free on google books
Marijuana botany propagation and breeding of distinctive cannabis by Robert Connell Clarke.
Both books are a great place to start.
Both can be found for free on google books
I get it, but getting seeds from all the males crossed with all the females seems like a helluva lot of plants n seeds to keep in order, and I guess the police come knocking on my door sooner than later if I grow all those plants
Well then, it's going to be luck of the draw. Hope you deal yourself a good hand. Selective breeding requires a pool to select from. The bigger the pool, the better the selection. Ask SamS how many plants he selected from to create Skunk. There are no shortcuts, other than blind luck.
Not really luck unless you count your ability to grow out huge numbers to select from. Comes down to genetic statistics.
Good males have traits you would want in ladies. Trichs the way you want, terps, flower density, flower size, can be leaf ya want to, more or less leaf, thin or wide blades. Just be perceptive. Potency would take lab tests or just roll the dice and select ladies down the line for that...but with autos again there is guessing.
Good males have traits you would want in ladies. Trichs the way you want, terps, flower density, flower size, can be leaf ya want to, more or less leaf, thin or wide blades. Just be perceptive. Potency would take lab tests or just roll the dice and select ladies down the line for that...but with autos again there is guessing.
G
Gr33nSanta
one has to be careful, some people try to impress with large numbers but I could say I selected the best female out of 10000 seeds, but I may not tell you that I only actually grew 1000 of the healthiest seedlings, of which 500 were males. out of 500 females there were 400 that were obvious losers, and at the end of the day I picked the best female I could out of 100, but when I tell stories, I say this was the best of 10000 seeds when in fact only a small percentage of them were grown to full potential. I am not talking about SamS story here but simply one has to be careful. People like to play with numbers.
Personally, I dont think you need to grow many seeds of a good cross, a good cross will produce good plants in almost every single seed.
That is just my opinion, I hope people do not get discouraged and think that one has to grow thousands of plants to find a special one, this is not the case, simply grow a few that are descendant of your favorite cultivars.
Personally, I dont think you need to grow many seeds of a good cross, a good cross will produce good plants in almost every single seed.
That is just my opinion, I hope people do not get discouraged and think that one has to grow thousands of plants to find a special one, this is not the case, simply grow a few that are descendant of your favorite cultivars.
B
beanz
in a lot ways if your after nice seed plant mother , its always best to know the plants first . same deal with the males .....by knowing the females might give you insight into the males .
by growing them out first ......you know what traits your looking for .
you can take note of characteristics of all the females , and look for similar structure and leaf pattern in the males as the females ......i also like the males flower density and structure as an indicator ......nice full solid blooms in bud formations ( chem plants i find different )
selecting ,males with similar traits to your females you like ""may"" lower variation in your seed .(everyone notice the ""may "" )
if your making crosses you can still do same thing , its nice to see what your dealing with first by growing them and knowing them ....
you can also take smells into account and normally don,t pick first or last male to flower . i also noticed recently after having over 30 males at my disposal .....some males pollen had certain smells ...most had none very few had heavy smells of pineapple another lime .
resin on males is always , nice thing too .....its not normally going to be present at the time you need the pollen though .
i don,t believe large numbers are needed to achieve great results ..... if your using the right seed to begin with from an experienced quality breeder who,s gear you like . if your looking for one in million then large numbers might make something different and unique stand out ,
imo theres only one true way to know " the one " grow the offspring of all males seeded to one female you chose .....this is going to allow you to decide which was the absolute best choice .....that takes time lots of time .
by growing them out first ......you know what traits your looking for .
you can take note of characteristics of all the females , and look for similar structure and leaf pattern in the males as the females ......i also like the males flower density and structure as an indicator ......nice full solid blooms in bud formations ( chem plants i find different )
selecting ,males with similar traits to your females you like ""may"" lower variation in your seed .(everyone notice the ""may "" )
if your making crosses you can still do same thing , its nice to see what your dealing with first by growing them and knowing them ....
you can also take smells into account and normally don,t pick first or last male to flower . i also noticed recently after having over 30 males at my disposal .....some males pollen had certain smells ...most had none very few had heavy smells of pineapple another lime .
resin on males is always , nice thing too .....its not normally going to be present at the time you need the pollen though .
i don,t believe large numbers are needed to achieve great results ..... if your using the right seed to begin with from an experienced quality breeder who,s gear you like . if your looking for one in million then large numbers might make something different and unique stand out ,
imo theres only one true way to know " the one " grow the offspring of all males seeded to one female you chose .....this is going to allow you to decide which was the absolute best choice .....that takes time lots of time .
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Well, using all the males and all the females is not selective breeding and that's the opposite of my intention
If you use ALL the males & females in 1 pack of seeds...
Selection has already been started for you.
Selecting parents starts with the selecting the seeds you pop.
To represent an entire gene pool for selection one would need roughly 2000 males & 2000 females... 4000 plants! (according to SamS.)
The 10 pack of seed you purchased represents .0025% of that populations genetic potential.
Your selection started with what you purchased!
Ditch finding Mr. Right....
Ditch finding Mr. Right....
You want to create an Auto IBL? Don’t swim upstream: keep all the males, but select the best female. Plant her seeds!
You can’t keep clones of the males, so you can’t reliably keep the best male (who is always the male with the best offspring). You have to keep them all and focus on traits you can actually observe (that is, the ladies’ traits). You CAN pick the best lady, and she’s the plant to keep if you want to select a single parent for each generation....
Ditch finding Mr. Right....
You want to create an Auto IBL? Don’t swim upstream: keep all the males, but select the best female. Plant her seeds!
You can’t keep clones of the males, so you can’t reliably keep the best male (who is always the male with the best offspring). You have to keep them all and focus on traits you can actually observe (that is, the ladies’ traits). You CAN pick the best lady, and she’s the plant to keep if you want to select a single parent for each generation....
Exactly.
Good males have traits you would want in ladies. Trichs the way you want, terps, flower density, flower size, can be leaf ya want to, more or less leaf, thin or wide blades. That's why you take pollen and store and watch the growth of the male.
We have lots of pollen bags we never used all by selecting best traits of males post pollen and like WelderDan says, growing out the prodigy.
Grow, collect, learn, keep a journal....repeat the process x ???????
