Breeding basics

[Bilbobudkin420]

Hellooooo all!. Right so as some of you may or may not know I am shortly to begin dabbling in the breeding and genetics side of growing our wonderful plant. Of course this thread is mostly for my benefit but I thought it would be useful if we could get as much info in here as possible from the OG's so that everyone can benefit.
Ok so lets get the ball rolling with a couple questions.
1. Whats with the letters? Eg. S1, F1 etc.
2. What are some desirable traits to look for in males?
3. When are female flowers ready and ok to be pollinated?
I think that will do for the moment and hopefully once things get moving other people can drop whatever questions they have. Im gonna tag some of the OGs i know could have a great impact on this thread. Some of you i dont know that well but im certain you have something to contribute. @Pennywise @lazyfish @ilikemsticky @conradino23 @Van Stank
If any1 can think of any1 else who could contribute please tag them so they see this as my time zone is cack for getting at all the state side growers lol. ANY BREEDING INFO/TIPS ARE WELCOME!
Peace!!!!

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Oooo i just see @TorturedSoul in the threads maybe you have some input or general breeding tips?

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yeah, have her stand on her head for 15 minutes afterward.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Err... Sorry, meant to type a little bit of content before clicking on the magic button .

1. Whats with the letters? Eg. S1, F1 etc.

F₁ is the first seed generation. Grow a couple of those, breed them together, and the resulting seeds will be the F₂ generation. Et cetera. S₁ is the first selfed generation. In addition to F and S, there's Bx (backcross), which is, basically, growing out a seed from one of the child generations and crossing it back with one of the (original) parents.

2. What are some desirable traits to look for in males?

Presumably, whatever traits that YOU consider to be desirable, lol. Most people do not smoke parts of male plants, though, so trying to figure out the "potency" and other such traits with the male plant becomes problematic. OtOH, even that is theoretically possible (although access to a testing lab would probably be the most practical way). And if you're doing this kind of thing as a long term project, you can make a general assumption (which will not always prove to be the case, of course) based on the female parent and even the female parent of the male parent and so on, although with each remove, the information becomes less and less accurate, simply because the plants that you were unable to sample bud from (because... males) will still have contributed a portion of their genetics to the next generation. In other words: You're tall, your parents were tall, their parents were tall... but if you get a midget pregnant, your kid might not be an NBA superstar .

Things like height (or lack of same), sexual stability, quickness to flower (if this is important to you), et cetera. Basically any characteristic that you are able to detect/measure, I suppose. Ability to withstand cold conditions even.

3. When are female flowers ready and ok to be pollinated?

Well, when they extend their pistils, it's so as to provide a handy target for pollen. When those pistils have shriveled / "browned" / retracted, this is a sign that it's too late.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Yeah, have her stand on her head for 15 minutes afterward.

Haha thats cool. Titilation is always welcome lol

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Err... Sorry, meant to type a little bit of content before clicking on the magic button .



F₁ is the first seed generation. Grow a couple of those, breed them together, and the resulting seeds will be the F₂ generation. Et cetera. S₁ is the first selfed generation. In addition to F and S, there's Bx (backcross), which is, basically, growing out a seed from one of the child generations and crossing it back with one of the (original) parents.



Presumably, whatever traits that YOU consider to be desirable, lol. Most people do not smoke parts of male plants, though, so trying to figure out the "potency" and other such traits with the male plant becomes problematic. OtOH, even that is theoretically possible (although access to a testing lab would probably be the most practical way). And if you're doing this kind of thing as a long term project, you can make a general assumption (which will not always prove to be the case, of course) based on the female parent and even the female parent of the male parent and so on, although with each remove, the information becomes less and less accurate, simply because the plants that you were unable to sample bud from (because... males) will still have contributed a portion of their genetics to the next generation. In other words: You're tall, your parents were tall, their parents were tall... but if you get a midget pregnant, your kid might not be an NBA superstar .

Things like height (or lack of same), sexual stability, quickness to flower (if this is important to you), et cetera. Basically any characteristic that you are able to detect/measure, I suppose. Ability to withstand cold conditions even.



Well, when they extend their pistils, it's so as to provide a handy target for pollen. When those pistils have shriveled / "browned" / retracted, this is a sign that it's too late.

Ahhhh nice start there @TorturedSoul thank you very much. So "selfed" would be reversing a female and pollinating it with itself?

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yes, exactly.

Unintentional selfings also occur, both from stress-related opposite-sex flowers and from actual hermaphrodites (although the latter is to be avoided, IMHO), because even if the trait somehow manages not to be expressed in the next generation, it's still present.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Yes, exactly.

Unintentional selfings also occur, both from stress-related opposite-sex flowers and from actual hermaphrodites (although the latter is to be avoided, IMHO), because even if the trait somehow manages not to be expressed in the next generation, it's still present.

Ok so if you didnt reverse it yaself not a good idea to breed it for sake of convenient accidental pollen. Noted!

 

[Pennywise]

Meangenefrommendocino has a good video on you tube where he talks about choosing males for breeding. I’ll look it up this morning and post it here.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Meangenefrommendocino has a good video on you tube where he talks about choosing males for breeding. I’ll look it up this morning and post it here.

Ahhh you're the man PW

 

[Orlando Scout]

@Jackalope has his genetic and breeding game on point. I'm still trying to learn as much about breeding as I can for future endeavors. Great idea starting this thread Bilbo.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

@Jackalope has his genetic and breeding game on point. I'm still trying to learn as much about breeding as I can for future endeavors. Great idea starting this thread Bilbo.

Sweet OS. Yer im super excited to start playing god lol

 

[Orlando Scout]

I'm excited to witness you playing god brother!!

 

[lazyfish]

Yup TS summed it up pretty much. Breeding is fun but tedious.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Yup TS summed it up pretty much. Breeding is fun but tedious.

I can imagine its gonna be long to get em stabilised and stuff but thats the fun of it. Running through beans to fins the best phenos. Finding the best phenos that come out of the crosses of the best phenos until finally its there. Your baby!

 

[Conradino23]

The real question before any breeding project is what your objective is. Once you lock that down in your mind then you can move ahead. The usual ones are: yield, short flowering time, particular smell and taste, colours, THC or CBD content, this special high, excellent resilience to pests or pathogens.

 

[TorturedSoul]

The usual ones are: yield, short flowering time, particular smell and taste, colours, THC or CBD content, this special high, excellent resilience to pests or pathogens.

And then there's "trying to recapture the magic that the parent had when I was too *unwise* to keep a mother, and all I have to work from are some seeds that got produced" (which can be a long, futile journey - but one that occasionally offers up a scenic detour or three along the way ).

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

The real question before any breeding project is what your objective is. Once you lock that down in your mind then you can move ahead. The usual ones are: yield, short flowering time, particular smell and taste, colours, THC or CBD content, this special high, excellent resilience to pests or pathogens.

I hear you on that. I wouldnt say I have a specific thing that im looking for but i know what strains id like to cross and why I think they would go well together. Like i wanna cross the gipsy haze with maybe a critical or something with that kinda dense bud structure because the Gipsy haze was and is (from what ive seen on eva seeds) kinda airy. I was gonna use the critical jack cos of the bud structure but gipsy haze already haze jack herrer in the genes so it wouldnt take much flavour from the gipsy haze if that makes sense? but the gipsy haze bean didnt make it and dont wanna clone the crit jack for next run cos its all mutated and shit lol

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Ok so some amazing info so far!. Next on the agenda is Stabilising: how is it done and at what point is a strain considered stable?

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Ok so some amazing info so far!. Next on the agenda is Stabilising: how is it done and at what point is a strain considered stable?

By the way this question is taking into account youve found the traits and phenos you want.