I happen to have seeds from a few strains: - Krishna Kush (reported THC: 20-24%, CBD: <1%) - Freedom Dream (reported THC: <0.1%, CBD: 8-12%) - Warwick #2 (reported THC: 18%, CBD: 0.5%) I only have a couple Warwick seeds, but a few hundred of the other two. The Krishna Kush are feminised (made them myself), and the Freedom Dream are a mix (free giveaway from the mail). Was thinking of experimenting with breeding those two. I'd like something robust for indoor LED growing, and a balance of both CBD and THC. Don't have a lot of experience apart from the colloidal silver method. Any advice or go-to resources for reading?
I read a few of the top hits on Google, but didn't really learn much except that the first generation of crossing these two totally unrelated (but stable) strains would be called an "F1 cross"? The rest seems way too shallow to be honest. Breed the traits you like, throw away the ones you don't like, and backcross a few times to stabilize the genetics. It can't be that easy. I'd like to learn some of the non-obvious things. Like how I might expect a pure CBD/hemp strain to interact with a pure THC/kush strain. What can go wrong. How many times I might need to F1 cross, and what variations/combinations I should expect. If it's better for one or the other to be male. Things like that...
I'm currently growing to breed for CBD. I have one OTTO#1 female, >1% THC and up to 27% CBD. Scrawny plant with very little yield but will be making lots of clones so I can use regular males to get me some crosses with her. Already have a couple of crosses sent to me by the guy that sent me the Otto beans. Cannatonic x Otto he calls GoldFish and that crossed with Herijuana. To test for CBD in the pot I'm getting some potassium hydroxide to perform a Beam's Test so I'll know which crosses actually have CBD in them and can use those only in my breeding program. I find a hi-CBD strain cooked up in coconut oil to work best for my arthritis and depression so am focusing on CBD strains/crosses.
Wow that DIY test for CBD is really cool. Thanks for sharing that -- would never have thought you could do that so easily. The only problem for me will be finding 95%+ alcohol. It's banned in all parts of Canada except for Quebec, as far as I know. Too many kids were getting messed up on Alcool/Everclear or something. Fortunately I happen to be driving from the states (in Colorado right now), and am thinking of stopping to get some Everclear on the way back for just this reason (and it could also be useful for making some Green Dragon). I don't think there will be any problem driving it over the border? Based on what you are saying, are you implying that THC will dominate CBD in the offspring? That is there should be no trouble keeping the THC, while the problem is getting the crosses to contain a reasonable amount of CBD? Or is the problem that either you get a good yield (but no CBD), or a lot of CBD (and no yield)? Interested in following your experiments, hearing what you learn, and seeing your results!
Can get Everclear here in Alberta. About $35 for a 750ml bottle. You can also use methylated spirits which is just everclear with 5 or 10% wood alcohol added so you can't drink it. No liquor tax on it so it should be a lot cheaper too. I'm going to check the drug store to see if I can get it there. Also going to see if I can order the KOH from them too but can get it from amazon.ca. Any time you cross two strains you'll have a mix of both parents with some more like one than the other and many that are almost equal parts of both in the F1 seeds. The plants that grow from them will be even more widely different nad where you want to select further for the traits you want. I had read somewhere else that you could test the tops of vegging plants to see if they had CBD present so I need to find that again. That would be very useful in selecting CBD plants for further crossing. Eliminate the non-CBD ones earlier and save some time and space. After decades of growing you have to have experiments and projects of some kind to keep it interesting.