OlderStoner
Well-Known Member
I don't want to step on anyone's toes with this question, so if that happens let me apoligize upfront. But I'm curious about seeds.
The Internet is filled with places to buy cannibus seeds. And as we all know, quality is very dependent on genetics. So there is of course a huge incentive for consumers to buy quality. Thus suppliers of course hawk their wares as high quality. When in reality, can you really trust what you're getting as being what it's represented to be.
My latest grow was done from seeds acquired on-line and represented to be White Widow, White Widow X and Cotton candy. The grow turned out well, but the white widow and the white widow X were somewhat disappointing. Not that most people would complain about them, it's just that when I tried this strain on a visit to Amsterdam, I was taken by surprise as to it's potent and instant high. The white widow plants I grew were no where near this level of potency. It may have been the timining when I took the plants for harvest. I did not see any amber trichomes on them, but the red and brownish pistils were telling me that the buds were ready. The cotton candy strain on the other hand had those nice frosty buds and it has the instant and very intense rush and you get it from just one toke.
Okay, to my questions... I isolated one of the white widow X males, one of the white widow X females and one of the cotton candy females. All of the isolated plants were clones from the mother plants which were germinated from the seeds I purchased. I pollinated the females with the male and now I'm curious about how the genentics might turn out.
The white widow X female which went to seed produced about 30-40 seeds. I let the plant continue for about 4 weeks after it was pollinated and there were some regular sized seeds but many of them were very small. My first thought was that I did not let them ripen enough.
The cotton candy went to seed about the same time and I harvested only one branch and got about 50 seeds off of it. These seeds again varied in size but most of them were noticeably small. So to test the viability of them I germinated two of them using the wet paper towel method. It took about 4 days but they did germinate and I now have the seedlings in some potting soil pots to see what happens. Okay, so far so good. I got some viable seeds out of this.
Now, the Cotton Candy plant is an out of the park home run. The smoke is smooth, cool, very fragrant, gives an instatnt and very intense rush, but it doesn't taste anything at all like cotton candy. And the disappointment I have with the white widow X is causing me to think that perhaps these seed suppliers are not as sophisticated as they advertise.
Please understand I'm not complaining. This is a product of mother nature and I realize it's basically a crap shoot when it comes to the gene pools. And in this grow I gladly and willingly purchased seeds and ended up with a nice personal stash of some very high quality smoke so I'd gladly buy seeds again. And when I need another supply of genetic stock buying them will probably be the only way.
So one more question is about the pollination. Would it be considered cross-pollination when I did the breeding. I mean the male was White Widow X, female #1 was also a white widow X, but female #2 was Cotton Candy. So would it be considered that female #1 was pollinated and female #2 was cross-pollinated. And as I look at the specs, white widow and cotton candy are both indicas, so would it be considered cross anything?
To summarize, I think the seeds I get from the cotton candy plant are going to be a select choice for breeding stock. The white widow male did have close node spacing and the cotton candy was a very symetrical, healthy growing plant with a high THC content. I hope I've learned about this topic properly so that those seeds will be worth the effort I put into them. BTW...the last branches of that cotton candy female are being harvested today. I can see that there will be at least another 100 or more seeds from it that will soon join my seed bank.
The Internet is filled with places to buy cannibus seeds. And as we all know, quality is very dependent on genetics. So there is of course a huge incentive for consumers to buy quality. Thus suppliers of course hawk their wares as high quality. When in reality, can you really trust what you're getting as being what it's represented to be.
My latest grow was done from seeds acquired on-line and represented to be White Widow, White Widow X and Cotton candy. The grow turned out well, but the white widow and the white widow X were somewhat disappointing. Not that most people would complain about them, it's just that when I tried this strain on a visit to Amsterdam, I was taken by surprise as to it's potent and instant high. The white widow plants I grew were no where near this level of potency. It may have been the timining when I took the plants for harvest. I did not see any amber trichomes on them, but the red and brownish pistils were telling me that the buds were ready. The cotton candy strain on the other hand had those nice frosty buds and it has the instant and very intense rush and you get it from just one toke.
Okay, to my questions... I isolated one of the white widow X males, one of the white widow X females and one of the cotton candy females. All of the isolated plants were clones from the mother plants which were germinated from the seeds I purchased. I pollinated the females with the male and now I'm curious about how the genentics might turn out.
The white widow X female which went to seed produced about 30-40 seeds. I let the plant continue for about 4 weeks after it was pollinated and there were some regular sized seeds but many of them were very small. My first thought was that I did not let them ripen enough.
The cotton candy went to seed about the same time and I harvested only one branch and got about 50 seeds off of it. These seeds again varied in size but most of them were noticeably small. So to test the viability of them I germinated two of them using the wet paper towel method. It took about 4 days but they did germinate and I now have the seedlings in some potting soil pots to see what happens. Okay, so far so good. I got some viable seeds out of this.
Now, the Cotton Candy plant is an out of the park home run. The smoke is smooth, cool, very fragrant, gives an instatnt and very intense rush, but it doesn't taste anything at all like cotton candy. And the disappointment I have with the white widow X is causing me to think that perhaps these seed suppliers are not as sophisticated as they advertise.
Please understand I'm not complaining. This is a product of mother nature and I realize it's basically a crap shoot when it comes to the gene pools. And in this grow I gladly and willingly purchased seeds and ended up with a nice personal stash of some very high quality smoke so I'd gladly buy seeds again. And when I need another supply of genetic stock buying them will probably be the only way.
So one more question is about the pollination. Would it be considered cross-pollination when I did the breeding. I mean the male was White Widow X, female #1 was also a white widow X, but female #2 was Cotton Candy. So would it be considered that female #1 was pollinated and female #2 was cross-pollinated. And as I look at the specs, white widow and cotton candy are both indicas, so would it be considered cross anything?
To summarize, I think the seeds I get from the cotton candy plant are going to be a select choice for breeding stock. The white widow male did have close node spacing and the cotton candy was a very symetrical, healthy growing plant with a high THC content. I hope I've learned about this topic properly so that those seeds will be worth the effort I put into them. BTW...the last branches of that cotton candy female are being harvested today. I can see that there will be at least another 100 or more seeds from it that will soon join my seed bank.
) and so demands a better palate from a smoker 
Double blind methods should become standards in the nearest future and then we'll know. 
