I would definitely like to get into doing some breeding both to try and develop a specific strain for my wife as well as for seed collection. I was wondering what other prefer when trying to build up their seed stock. Do you prefer doing a standard grow, isolating the males, and then pollinating specific plants and/or specific branches. Or would a quick 12/12 from seed grow be easier/quicker? If you prefer one over the other (or something else entirely) I'd love to hear about it. Why you prefer that method or why you don't like the other.
12/12 from seed is the only true way to test grow good cannabis. Just find your plant, flower and reveg/clone. That easy. I don't prefer one over the other. They both have uses. This is no easy to answer question. Do it yourself and find out. I never used a single book, never asked a single question I didn't already have a theory for, I did plant every seed I've had and by doing so you eliminate the mystery of what's inside the seed. 12/12 from seed is the best way to get over 3 grams plus dry per seed depending on genetics. My current ladies have all been grown out from seed under 12/12 starting early October. Done already but I'm working on the next batch of mysteries and watching them grow, naming them and having a close connection to them really allows you to understand the plant. Watching every day you notice its habits, reactions, patterns. I'm in love with crossing plants and finding BEAUTIFUL recessive trait plants (think of those recessive blue-eyed, blonde women!) I've had pink pistils from two mystery crosses and it was quite a low percentage 10% in my group hoping for more pretty ones. To answer pollination. My plants were, unfortunately for me, all mostly female. I'm watching my next set for a nice male. Once he's shown I'll isolate him and keep him small but healthy for pollinating all my ladies in the off-season grow, which is a lot smaller and mostly for genetics. Also this is the biggest pro of 12/12: no wasting time with males. They show in 18-21 days. 15-18 for the early boys. Some later or earlier than others. Also even if you got two seeds off the same bud, they might not grow exactly the same. They will share characteristics though. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Thanks for the input joseph. I have some ideas as to how I would like to try it, but I was thinking that more than a few people on here have already done the experimenting on something like that.
I have done 12/12 from seeds but not specifically for a seed run. For me, the issue is yield. I'm not spending 2-3 months time for 3 grams of herb. plus you will have very few seeds. Most seed runs I will just pollinate select branches. I can get 200-400 seeds from one plant this way and still a very normal sized harvest of sensi. If I'm doing a mega seed run I would just donate one whole plant to the process and let it get completely saturated with pollen. Thousands of seeds.
Thanks for the input. It sounds like just doing a regular grow and then decide if I want a lot of seeds, or a ton of seeds. The only reason I was thinking about 12/12 is the faster turn around. But if the return isn't there (either seeds or flowers) then it doesn't sound worth it yet.
yeah in the end you save 4-6 weeks of veg time but you pay for it in yield. If it is a long flowering sativa(14+ weeks) then this could work. But for a short flowering indica dom (<10 weeks) your yield is going to be horrible. You will need to dedicate your main bud sites to seed production.
Perfect. Right now I plan on focusing on indicas and indica dominant strains. So ill go ahead and stick with having at least some veg time. I've got about 10 seeds that I planned on using for this next grow, but if I keep them in veg I won't have enough room in the tent. I've read of people usually doing 3 seeds for every female they'd like. So 6 seeds should be enough for my 3x3 tent and still plenty of plants to ensure I get a mix of male and females.
If your interested, I've got a grow journal setup: http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1344971-First-Grow---Northern-Lights---600w---3x3-Grow-Tent First Grow - Northern Lights - 600w - 3x3 Grow Tent But right now I've got a couple nls going and 1 autoflower. But for the grow that I was talking about in here will be my next grow. I have some white widow and some afghani that I plan on growing out. I figured the afghani would give me a good base to start playing around with.
I'll check it out. The Afghani would be a good place to select a male from. IMO it's best to use a male from as close to a stable strain as possible when dealing with small numbers.
Thats what I was figuring. I'm hoping I can collect a good bit extra pollen and store it. Everything I've read says you can store it 6 months to a year if stored correctly. I'm hoping to use a afghani male and do a few IBL crosses and then do a couple crosses with some nl and some of the white widow. Both the nls and the ww are feminized, so I won't be using those to do any real breading with. I'll do those crosses just for seed and start doing some research to find a good strain to cross with the afghani so I can start breeding something for my wife.