Hybrid Garden
New Member
Without knowing the genetic background of the Bomb we can only guess what it's made of, but when you self it you are going to find out.
My guess is it's a hybrid. When you self it you'll more than likely end up with a 1/2/1 ratio, ie 25% look like one parent, 25% look like the other parent, and 50% will be a combination of the 2 plants.
The only way it would turn out as a clone of the mother is if you were homozygous over the 10 alleles.
As an example lets label them A to J
AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, II, JJ - In this example we have all dominant genes and selfing would produce offspring that bred very true.
aa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff, gg, hh, ii, jj - In this example we have all recessive genes and selfing would produce offspring that bred very true.
Now lets say these are the parents of the Bomb, when they are crossed each parent contributes 50% of the genes so we get,
Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj.
This plant would look pretty much like the dominant gene parent, as the dominant gene masks the recessive gene.
Now when we self it, as we are only combining genes from one plant so we end up with say
aa, bb, CC, dd, EE, FF, gg, HH, ii, JJ
As you can see we now have both dominant and recessive genes expressing themselves and this is where the variation in genotype occurs, resulting in different phenotype expression in the F2 generation. Even though we haven't added any new genes to the mix, the way the different genes interact results in very different looking plants from the original parents.
Now selfing this plant will produce plants that look very similar in appearance.
Sounds simple right? Well it is, but those letters we are using represent 1 gene on each allele. So far we know that Cannabis has about 30, 000 genes so for simplicity each allele has 3000 genes on it
Now don't be discouraged, because in the F2 generation is where we find the elite combinations.
Sure, you'll find plants that look like the Bomb, but you'll also find super rare recessive combinations, maybe that one in a million cut.
Take your clone and self it, make a heap of pollen, then fertilise the other clone to make seed. Make heaps of seeds. like 500 to 1000. These are your S1 generation
Grab about 400 of those tiny little pots they use in garden centers, the ones that are like an inch round by 2 inches deep and sprout 400 seeds. put them in a grid of 20 pots by 20 pots. It will take up very little room, can even be done in a 4 x 4 growtent.
Now watch them sprout. when the first set of leaves grow look for anything that is radically different. There may only be one or two, but these are what we are looking for, the rare gene combinations. Set these aside.
Now place the others into groups that are similar in appearance. Take photo's. Now as they grow cull hard. Anything that looks less vigorous than the others kill it. Anything you don't like the look of kill it.
As you cut the numbers, start to pot them up. A 10 by 10 grid of 4 inch pots will still fit in a 4 x 4 tent. Keep them growing, select for traits you like, kill the ones that show traits you don't like. More photo's.
In the end you want to keep enough plants to fill your grow room. If you can fit 16 keep 16, if you can only fit 9, keep nine.
Now grow them out. take a clone of each and self every plant.
Harvest and do your smoke tests. Pick the best 4 plants. Label them say line 1, 2, 3, 4.You are now working with your top 1% of your genetic pool. The seeds are your S2 generation.
75% of your S2 plants will be homozygous.
Now pick 2 of the 4 lines of seeds and grow 4 of each. total of 8 plants.
Grow these out and make some crosses between the different lines.
You have just created at least 2 killer hybrid lines which will be uniform in appearance, have hybrid vigor and are probably much better quality than the Bomb ever was, without adding any new genes to the genepool.
