Breeding with Reg seeds

I am beginning my second spring working with this wonderful plant. Last year I played around with the feminizing spray and managed to make some auto flower seeds. This year I bought some Girl Scout Cookies regular seeds (6) and would very much like to try to make more regular seeds as I am told this is a very good strain. I've done a good bit of reading on this. I understand the concept pretty well I think. I do however have a couple questions for which I haven't found an answer.

First.........I have a total of 6 of the GSC regular seeds. What I am thinking is to germinate all 6 of them together as I want my best chance to make seeds. I guess in an ideal world I'll have one male and then select my favorite 2 females to pollinate. I'm a realist and know that at my age I don't need 2,000 Girl Scout Cookies seeds. I would most likely pollinate 4 or 5 buds on each of the two selected females.

My question is.........Would you germinate all 6 together or do less and why?

Second............Is there a system/method used to have the male and female both reach their sexual prime together? Maximum pollen production at the exact time the female is filled with beautiful pistils? I attempted this last summer with 3 White Widow seeds. I ended up with a male and two females. Unfortunately the male did not start producing pollen until several weeks after the pistils on the females were shut down. I tried dusting one just in case. I took the female that looked the most promising and held the male over top of the female and shook the heck out of the male. I got three seeds out of the deal so at least I didn't strike out. But seriously, do you have to push the male a little harder then the females to get him to where he needs to be when the girls are ready?

Third.............This is a quick one. Can you "over-pollinate" a plant or bud?

Oh...............the breeding attempt will be indoors this year. Last year was outdoors.

Thanks for your help.
 
My question is.........Would you germinate all 6 together or do less and why?

Germinate all six and choose what you think are the three best plants. You won't know their cannabinoid content or how the smoke, but you will be able to choose the best growers. You want the best possible genetics for breeding.

Second............Is there a system/method used to have the male and female both reach their sexual prime together? Maximum pollen production at the exact time the female is filled with beautiful pistils? I attempted this last summer with 3 White Widow seeds. I ended up with a male and two females. Unfortunately the male did not start producing pollen until several weeks after the pistils on the females were shut down. I tried dusting one just in case. I took the female that looked the most promising and held the male over top of the female and shook the heck out of the male. I got three seeds out of the deal so at least I didn't strike out. But seriously, do you have to push the male a little harder then the females to get him to where he needs to be when the girls are ready?

As you grow indoors, put the male into flowering a few weeks before the females and collect the pollen.

Third.............This is a quick one. Can you "over-pollinate" a plant or bud?

No. Once a flower is fertilized the other pollen is locked out, much like human reproduction - there can be only one.
 
I agree with Old Salt on most of this. I'm not sure about the over pollination thing. Pollen is not locked out but stored. More pistils will grow after pollination that will still produce a seed. I'm not sure how much pollen can be stored though. If there is to much pollen then you might end up with immature seeds. If you only need a few seeds then any extra's or immature ones will be a problem
If you only have 6 seeds the chances of finding a great female and a great male might be tough. If you already know how to make female seeds you would be better off just choosing the best female and selfing it. Instead of trying to remake the GSC. Self the best and use the best male to make a hybrid with. That way your GSC genetics stay strong and the F-1 hybrids you make will hybrid vigor.
The best way to make seeds out of a regular pack of seeds. Is to grow them all out. Then cross all the males with all the females. This is the only way to lock down a large percentage of a strains genetics. By crossing just 2 plants of a certain 6 pack of seeds can severally limit the outcome.
 
I am beginning my second spring working with this wonderful plant. Last year I played around with the feminizing spray and managed to make some auto flower seeds. This year I bought some Girl Scout Cookies regular seeds (6) and would very much like to try to make more regular seeds as I am told this is a very good strain. I've done a good bit of reading on this. I understand the concept pretty well I think. I do however have a couple questions for which I haven't found an answer.

First.........I have a total of 6 of the GSC regular seeds. What I am thinking is to germinate all 6 of them together as I want my best chance to make seeds. I guess in an ideal world I'll have one male and then select my favorite 2 females to pollinate. I'm a realist and know that at my age I don't need 2,000 Girl Scout Cookies seeds. I would most likely pollinate 4 or 5 buds on each of the two selected females.

My question is.........Would you germinate all 6 together or do less and why?

Second............Is there a system/method used to have the male and female both reach their sexual prime together? Maximum pollen production at the exact time the female is filled with beautiful pistils? I attempted this last summer with 3 White Widow seeds. I ended up with a male and two females. Unfortunately the male did not start producing pollen until several weeks after the pistils on the females were shut down. I tried dusting one just in case. I took the female that looked the most promising and held the male over top of the female and shook the heck out of the male. I got three seeds out of the deal so at least I didn't strike out. But seriously, do you have to push the male a little harder then the females to get him to where he needs to be when the girls are ready?

Third.............This is a quick one. Can you "over-pollinate" a plant or bud?

Oh...............the breeding attempt will be indoors this year. Last year was outdoors.

Thanks for your help.


My answer and my opinions only.

If I were going to breed.....

All of the seeds if I had the space. This allows me to choose the plants I want the traits from. You may find the strain stable, and they are all the same. Doubtful though.

It does happen that the males are ready later than the females, but that is atypical to what I understand to be the norm. If that happens, you are just out of luck with that cycle. Mmmmmm sensimilla

As I understand no. It is impossible to over pollinate a female flower.

Just what I would do, and why.
 
If you only have 6 seeds the chances of finding a great female and a great male might be tough.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Being so new to growing as I am I probably wouldn't know a great female or male if it stared me in the face. So being me I would most likely make it as difficult as possible. If for instance I had two males immediately I would kill off what I considered to be the inferior plant. But did I just screw up? Would the dead male have been a better option? LOL

I would then try to get the timing right with the male and females. I would then pollinate all the buds on 1 or 2 branches on each of the four females. I don't need a ton of seeds, but would like to have some extra to share with friends.
 
If there is to much pollen then you might end up with immature seeds.

See I have a friend who has been growing for a number of years. He said one year when he was new to pollinating he over did the pollinating. The plant overproduced seeds and he felt the plant could not produce enough energy and nutrition for the seeds and it was a total bust. But he also said that was only his opinion, that maybe it was something else. That is what has me asking the question. I would want to get a lot of pollen on each bud to maximize seed production. But not at the risk of over pollinating the buds and potentially having a poor seed harvest.

Nature sure does make all this look easy!!
 
What is the ideal time for the pollination to take place? Research would lead me to go with 3-4 weeks into flowering. The flowering time of the GSC is said to be 7-9 weeks. I like to go a little longer, so probably 10 or 11 weeks. So just say 10 weeks flowering and subtract the roughly 6 weeks for the seeds to mature, and I'm looking at pollinating about week 4.

I guess if the seeds were all fully mature but the plant wasn't I could always just cut off the branch or two with the seeds and let the plant finish out.
 
Instead of trying to remake the GSC. Self the best

Somewhere I have it in my head that feminized seeds produced from a single plant using the CS (or other) spray produce plants that are less stable and less vigorous then regular seeds using a male and female. Although the Train Wreck auto seeds I bred last summer have all grown out fine so maybe I misread something somewhere.
 
Breeding female seeds from a single plant is no problem. Now if you were to continue doing this over time it would degenerate. Anytime seeds are made that are not hybrids you loose hybrid vigor. Most seeds will have better growth then clones. The F-1 seeds of regular strains will have this. Selfing one of these plants is no different then selfing a feminized seed. It all depends on the genetics you are working with.
One thing here that needs to be mentioned is that the seeds are regular. Girl Scout Cookies is was a clone only strain as far as I know. Where did they get the male to make regular seeds with?
 
Interesting. Worth a try. I would still stick with the selfing the best female. Its pretty easy to be a good breeder if you keep it simple. Breeding with males is a lot harder then people think. Its easy to notice great traits in a female. With the new sprays on the market or making your own. Making female seeds is fairly simple.
 
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