What would happen if? (reg male X Autoflower)

[Wahtoogee]

Title says it... What would happen if you had a regular male plant pollinate an Autoflower?

My guess is a "grab bag"? Some male or female regular, some will autoflower, some will not?

And it could have autoflower male seeds?

Thanks.. "Just wondering".

 

[uptheholler2]

Hey Wahtoogee! I am making my own Auto seed this summer and you can too. I am crossing two auto varieties but you could conceivably do it with a regular flower variety, in fact I am helping a friend try to create an Auto Grand Daddy Purple.

The main thing with any breeding program is to maintain focus on the characteristic that you are breeding for. It is so easy to get off track as you stumble upon this plant or that which has a characteristic that you like. But, for the sake of this discussion we will talk strictly about auto flowering traits.

Most auto flowers have only 10-20 % of Ruderalis parentage in their genetic background. This is because breeders are trying now to increase potency and harvest totals.

In your project what you would need to do is first make your cross. If you don't want to pollenate an entire plant it is easily accomplished. I collect pollen by tying a small white paper bag around the branch of my male plant. I leave it on for 1 or 2 days and occasionally give the plant a good shake. As the flowers open you will collect pollen in this bag. I then simply remove the bag and carefully tie it over a top branch of the female that I wish to pollenate. Again I leave it on a couple of days, ( you know to give them privacy!) giving the branch a good shake occasionally.
After removing the bag let Mother Nature do her thing and you will have your controlled crossed seeds. Now comes the tricky part.

Grow out the seed. Now as the seed grows notice and mark the most vigorous growers. In the case of Auto flowers especially pay attention to the robustness of the root growth. It seems to me to be one of the characteristics of auto flowers. Grow the plants through their life cycles.
I tie small pieces of different colored yarn onto the plants in the order that they flower. For example blue for the earliest flowering females, maybe red for the earliest flowering males, etc. I also use different colors for the next batch that begins flowering. As you go cull out any weak or late flowering plants.
Now by crossing the earliest flowering plants you can some what begin to stabilize this trait in your new line. You will now see why I say to maintain focus. Because you will invariably find plants that are really smelly, or colorful or frosty it's easy to get side tracked. You can always increase these traits later in your line. But now you are just looking for auto flowering characteristics. I do always keep in mind the general vigor of any plant. So if I have 2 blue yarn plants I will make my next cross with the most vigorous healthy grower.

You can now see why breeders can earn their money IF they do the job right. There are some really good ones out there. Unfortunately there are also some that are not so good. I have been breeding my own weed for years with varying levels of success. But all in all it is a very rewarding hobby and for me a lot of fun. Regardless of if it is an Auto Flower that you are trying to produce or a new batch of that Wahtoogee Wonder Weed I think it's cool to know that no one else on the planet has exactly what you are rolling up! Have fun! If I can be of further help just let me know. Until then I'll be just uptheholler!

 

[Wahtoogee]

Good stuff.. Thanks