Phenos

[Jackalope]

We all know of pheno's and that strains have more than one of them. What a lot of people don't know is just how vast the amounts of phenos that can come from one strain. The main reason people don't know is that most will never grow enough seeds from one strain to see them all.

I will use a strain called Trailer Trash Betty my mentor bread as a example. Made from a cross of AK-47 and White Widow. Yep that's is what White Russian is. That is WHY it was bred. At the time White Russian was one of the strongest strains out there. Other things were crossed in over time to make it Trailer Trash Betty. Thing is the guy that made them has grown thousands of these plants. He flowers 45 to 50 females at a time which gives him a broad spectrum of plants to look at. Like most strains out there today it is not a stable hybrid. Same thing you will find in lots of the F-1 hybrids of today. There are tons of genetics involved in the making of them. That means almost anything can happen over time.

Like I mentioned thousand of plants have been grow over the last 20 years. In all those plants surprises still show up. He even found a Strawberry pheno that showed up once. He has been searching for it again every since. It has not showed back up. Different levels of terpene's and frost are always changing things. Alas Trailer Trash Betty is now on the side lines watching her offspring do the same damn thing LOL. While not as many plants have been grown from the new hybrids new shit still shows up to impress.

So how does that equate to us small time growers. Mostly it doesn't LOL. Too hard to compare plants that are not next to each other. 2 things need to be considered knowing this. Is that great mother plant you have the best pheno or the best pheno you have found? What the hell do you do when you find a 1 in a thousand pheno. I have lost 2 that I can remember.

Here is how I see it. 1 grow lots of new regular genetics. The more you grow the more you will find. I say regular only because there is so much more that will shine through. Even those Blueberries and Cinderellas are going to have something special show up sooner or later. Other strains will have much more variety.

The second one is where it really gets tricky. What to do with that special plant when you find one. Most of us do not have a place for more plants. Re-veg is the "Key" here place or not. It can't continue if it is not alive. You very seldom know that they are great early enough to take clones. Once you get it regenerated you can save it for a mother if there is room. At least you can now get some clones to grow. The legal world changes things some. If you find a special plant in a legal state. Try and share it. Not only is there a chance you could loose the genetics. Others want to grow great plants also. Someday one of them will become the new clone only strain everyone wants.

I know I really didn't answer much. Mostly I wanted to get this out of my brain LMAO. The thing here is keep growing and keep looking. That strain you think you know might still have surprises. Remember the best weed you have ever grown is still out there or in a seed in your fridge.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You can keep a plant alive more or less indefinitely in a space the size of a shoebox (or two if it's a boot box ). Means it doesn't take much in the way of resources to keep one around while you grow the next example, compare/contrast the two, then keep whichever one that turns out to appeal the most. Rinse/lather/repeat. You could still end up pooching something that (maybe) you should have kept, but that could help; a plant doesn't have to be the size of a centuries-old sequoia, and doesn't need to get a little larger every day.

- - - - -

What used to leave me scratching my head was when someone bought just one - or even just a few - seed(s) of a strain that was known to present multiple phenotypes, and then decide they didn't like the strain based on the limited experience with it that this gave them. Used to. Now, what leaves me scratching my head is when someone buys seed(s) from some half-assed pollen chucker "breeder" who has grown one seed of a strain and is now producing seeds to sell from that limited subset. The former is reaching into a bag of M&Ms, pulling out one, and deciding you don't like M&Ms because they're all {color}; the latter is letting someone else do it for you, lol.

 

[Jackalope]

Very true. I know I have grown a few strains that I decided I didn't like after only growing out a 5 pack. I have also ordered more of the same strain after only growing 1 plant.

For me it is what I see in what I grow. Is there anything I really like? Flavor type of high are the main thing I look for. Lots of times you can see where they were going with a strain. With these you may see something in there you really like. That is when you start looking for a best representation of that.

One strain I could never understand. Crimea Blue by Barnes Farm. It was a cup holder at one time which is why I ordered it. Flavor sucked, high was mediocre at best. In all I hated it. There was nothing in there I liked enough to put up with all the stuff I didn't. This could have been totally different if I had found the pheno they grew out to win a cup.

I grow from seed! I clone for a few reasons but for the most part I grow from seed. Because of this I want a few more good representation of a strain along with a great one here and there. If I like a strain well enough. All pheno's will have something I like in them. Making it worth while to grow just to find the great ones. Because I grow from seed as apposed to cloning one mother. I breed to those great plants when I can.

 

[Jackalope]

I should also mention that the whole mother plant thing won't work for me. I am sure other are the same. I like variety to much. I would need a minimum of 6 mothers LOL

 

[HydroponicFireman]

I agree, very little point doing any serious breeding with even 10 plants. When you get a special plant, you have to get seeds from it....unless you can just keep a few mother plants. A few dozen would be ideal.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I should also mention that the whole mother plant thing won't work for me. I am sure other are the same. I like variety to much. I would need a minimum of 6 mothers LOL

Well... "traditionally speaking," mother plants are large, many-branched bushes that regularly supply several cuttings at a time, sporadically supply large numbers of them, or both. But it's quite possible to keep - and maintain in good health - a cannabis plant in a small container for an extended period of time, and under low-power lighting. "How small," you ask, and, "how low-powered?" A couple gallons of soil, and a 150-watt HPS or equivalent?

LOL - you're thinking way too big!

I should point out that this post is geared toward the small personal-consumption grower. If you're dealing, use some of that income to set up a proper mother space. If it's a warehouse grow, build a nice room for them.

Years ago, I had three strains going and wasn't sure whether I'd want to continue them. So what's a person to do? Take cuttings, of course, and then, after they've rooted, stick them somewhere where they wouldn't flower. Hmm...

I was feeling particularly lazy that day. So I cut three candidates (one from each plant) and then... "Aw, screw it," lol. I grabbed three small Styrofoam coffee cups (6- or 8- ounce ones, I don't recall which), poured in an equal mix of soil, perlite, and vermiculite, stuck the cuttings in - and realized that I now had a close neighbor who could see my kitchen windowsill. Crap! I didn't want to put them in my (only) grow space, because I figured the bright light, hot temperature, and strong wind from the fans might dry the medium out too quickly. Plus, the space was pretty full .

(Again,) "Aw, screw it," I thought. "I'll figure it out later. Or tomorrow." And placed the three cups on top of the medicine cabinet in a small half-bathroom, then turned on the two-bulb light fixture above it (which had two 14-watt CFL bulbs in it).

I checked later that day, and the next. Cuttings looked fine. Kind of got busy and forgot about them for several days. Next time I looked at them, they were a little droopy (they were laying down on the job ). So I gave each cup a decent watering and reminded myself to check them every day.

Er... Several days passed, and I remembered them. This time, I caught them before they looked like tiny half-dead vines, and watered them again. Then I actually managed to look in only a day or two later and...

They were reaching for the light. Is number two a quarter of a quarter... inch taller? YAY, they've rooted. Now... Where can I put them, and where am I going to get some decent lighting? I'll worry about that tomorrow.

About a week later, I remembered them. Went in, saw three tiny dropping plants in dry cups, watered them and thought (yet again), "Screw it. I wonder if I can keep them going right there until they've got good root systems, and then worry about where to put them?"

Yes. Later, I lifted them out of their cups and saw many roots. But I still didn't have any real space for them. And it was about that point in time that I decided I didn't want to continue with the strains after all.

But one does hate to toss cannabis plants, lol. I decided, as kind of an experiment, but kind of a joke, too, to see just how long I could keep three plants alive with minimal care under just about enough light to shave with. I realized that I would need to water them regularly and feed them on a regular basis, too, since the nutrients in such a small amount of soil were probably already mostly used up.

Which, it turned out, translated to "water them when you remember they're in there, and feed them when you notice the sink is full of dead leaves ." (We rarely used the half-bath.)

And that's how it went. Months went by, and I was about to toss them, when I began wondering if I could keep them alive until their "birthday.

Yes. Yes, I could (and did). I even occasionally cut - and rooted - bits from them, just to show myself that I could use the plants for that reason. As you can imagine, there wasn't much in the way of growth, but there was some. I could have watered more regularly, fed more than - IDK, three or four times? - and added another light or switched out the two bulbs for slightly more powerful ones, and easily supplied a small personal perpetual grow with cuttings, especially if I rotated (only took from one plant at a time).

But the above... Well, it's kind of extreme, isn't it? However, it serves as a demonstration of sorts. Done with more... sanity, the thing becomes much more reasonable. Treat them like houseplants. Stick them in small (but not 8-oz. ) containers. Keep the light level low (but still reasonably close to help prevent stretching), and remember to run the lights enough each day that the plants never experience enough uninterrupted hours of darkness to enter the flowering phase. Keep the nutrient level low. Once a year or so, remove the plant from its container. Use a sharp knife to cut away an inch (more or less) from all around the sides - and from the bottom - of the soil/root mass, then place a one-inch later of fresh soil in the same container, return the plant, and fill the void around the plant with your fresh soil mix; give the plant a good watering. Important: The plant should be in balance in terms of "above and below" - so make sure to give your plant a good trim! You've just removed a significant percentage of its root system and, therefore, it will not be able to support the same level of "greenery" until it recovers.

If you decide to allow a plant barely enough resources to stay alive, it'll end up more or less in stasis. Give a little more and you get.. a little more. In other words, adjust things to suit your needs, and your resources; there's no real reason not to "go big" if you have the space, lighting, et cetera and happen to require lots of cuttings every week or two. But if you don't...

There is at least one thread here, and more elsewhere, on keeping small cannabis plants. A search for "mini mothers" or "micro mothers" would show you threads with more information along with a picture or three (and, probably, a few articles about midgets/dwarves raising families - it is the Internet, after all). But you now have the basic information.

So get those mother rooms started, lol. Or mother cabinets, mother boot boxes, mother medicine cabinet ledges, mother coffee tables, mother...

Edit: This can serve a purpose other than keeping one's grow space full, of course. You can keep strains (/phenotypes) alive from one grow to the next, for comparison purposes. Grow one or more strains. "Preserve" the ones you end up liking. Grow something different next time. Preserve the best (for YOU) from both sets. Rinse/lather/repeat, discarding the ones that turned out to not be all that special in comparison with the others. Soon, you'll have a nice set of the strains you found to be the best / most useful - and you can grow them in different combinations without fear that you won't be able to find that special phenotype again without growing out a dozen seeds, that the breeder will discontinue the strain, lose one of its parent plants, decide to "improve" it, etc.

 

[Jackalope]

I only do personal but a person only has so much room. I have been growing long enough to know all of the stuff you mentioned. While it would work for someone else it wouldn't for me. That would be why I said this won't work for me LOL.

For one. I think people that grow the same plant over and over are nuts LMAO. I never grow any strain back to back grows. At minimum I might try it every other grow. Even my most favorite strains don't get grown constantly. Tolerance is one of the main reasons I do this. The other is I truly like growing stuff I have not grown. Just to see what happens. I am far from the time when I have seen enough.

Good info though. I hope someone can use it.