Could someone explain to me what the difference between an F1,F2,or F3's

[Purple Goose]

I am just wondering I have a strain of indicas from health canada that they label as an F3 I understand that if I was to say buy a pack of 10 regular ghs lemon skunk for instance if I was to keep one male and cross it back I would get f1 and f2's but can someone explain how they differ is it a matter of uniformity in the strain or the variation of phenotype's I just dont really understand how it works.

 

[Heks]

The 10 that are F3 are the third generation of hybrids crossed by the breeder to increase or minimize occurrences of certain dominant and recessive traits, when you mate those seeds with another strain and obtain F1 hybrids you will see more variation in characteristics among the seeds, when you inbreed those to isolate specific traits the seeds from those will be F2 and more likely to have the phenotypes you bred for.
I hope that helps. ^^;

 

[Purple Goose]

Ahh okay so F3's if left as they are and not bred will show less variation in offspring then an F1 or F2 so If I was to continue on as the breeder has and grow a male up which shows traits such as rapid development , disease immunity etc etc and then breed it back into a female of the same strain then there would be even less differential in the offspring and there traits which the father and mother both imparted will be reinforced?
So if I was to continue the inbreeding untill I reach the point where further inbreeding shows no improvement the only way that the strain can advance would be by introducing outside genetics and then to stabilize the strain it would require inbreeding from the new genetic donor to reinforce the fresh traits or would it be more a case of picking hybrids that show the advancement I am looking for and then breeding back into the original strain to force the strain back to a point of minimal genetic diversion?

 

[Heks]

Yes, you can really only push the % of occurring traits so far, usually enough to ensure genetic homogenization though, at that point it would be consider a true inbred line, which would take years and hundreds of plants.

You're trying to breed a male and female that have very similar geno/phenotypes, both with the 'disease resistance' and 'augmented growth', while keeping the undesired dominant/recessive out of or to a minimum in your breeding program . As you will need many plants, even males, to find not only the traits you want, but I guess heh, the highest grade of said traits. with genotypes being genetic it might not show, so you could be inbreeding in a dominant trait that hinders something which may not be affected by your growing conditions, but could make it difficult for others to grow.

To achieve minimal genetic diversity in your breeding program you might want to consider mating your F3 with an already IBL strain, to help isolate easier, although it will still take a long time.



I definitely don't know all the in and outs of breeding, but I will try to help you (and myself) understand as much as possible, because questions motivate us to learn and study more about this amazing species of plant life! I hope this has helped even a little, as I still have lots to learn!

in the meantime

 

[Stretchtastic]

If you take f3 seeds and cross them with Eachother you will get f4 generation seeds not f1 or f2's. If you took let's say lemon shunk and cross it with let's say afgani hash plant you would get an f1 generation seeds with both traits of each parent. If you take those f1's and cross them with themselves you get f2 generation seeds. While you can randomly cross plants with eachother and make random hybrids with random traits good and bad. To eliminate these unwanted traits you take two plants from the same stock with the desireable traits you want and cross them. After about the fifth inbred cross the plant is so far removed from the original stock that they in and if themselves are a new strain. That's about all I can explain without going in-depth and quoting damn near the whole breeders bible. Which if your going to try your hand at breeding I recommend picking up a copy of it. You'll get a much better idea then what we could prolly explain in forums.

 

[Purple Goose]

So in other words the higher the number after the F the less variation in phenotypes you will see and generally stronger and more vigorous plants will be .I was just trying to get an idea for when I select seeds as to wether F1 meant lots of variation in the plants the seeds will produce and the higher up the F scale you go the less phenos and more uniform in height vigor and health correct?

 

[Droopy Dog]

Not trying to be snotty here or anything, but I would REALLY suggest getting a copy of MARIJUANA BOTANY by Robert C. Clarke.

Written as a Masters or Doctoral thesis (don't remember which), it gets heavy into cannabis breeding along with the botany of the plant. Not a 'grow' book by any stretch and at times a bit technical and dry it is my #1 reference book.

I think you would enjoy and benefit from it. Especially if you are thinking about breeding. Hell, just the way you have researched over the last several months before you started your grow(s), convinces me you would enjoy this book.

DD

 

[Purple Goose]

Heh yeah I do love finding as much out as possible about cannabis at this time I dont think I will doing much breeding at all except for possibly a small box that I can move a male clone to and then flip it to 12/12 to make him as small as possible just so I can build a better seed stock right.

If this strain of F3's turns out to be as potent as the breeder claims which comes from a guaranteed analysis of the product they produce for patients which is this pot dried out to 14%water content and then milled as they call it which basically means they dry out the plant and then grind it into dust from there they say it tests to be 12%thc + or - 2.5% which would mean it is around the same potency as Green house seeds El nino or GWS strain so I started a couple of fems of those to use as a baseline comparison for the health canada strain if it turns out they are all about the same in strength I will prolly cross the HC strain into the GHS strains as these plants are growing way faster then either of the GH strains.

 

[Droopy Dog]

Breeding or no, I think that you personally would really enjoy that book.

Give it to yourself for Christmas. LOL

DD

 

[10ickyfingers]

I'm not 100% certain but I think saying the higher the number behind the F would be stronger and grow with more vigor is incorrect. From hanging out with some folks that spend millions of dollars on line breeding all kinds of agricultural seeds, they must cross plants with different genetics to regain the "Vigor" back into the plants they are trying to produce to be "super strains"

 

[warlord98]

great thread.

 

[The General]

great info! now I get it.