Hey GC, I've got some questions regarding the subject of cannabis breeding. I'm curious what the terms "phenotype", "f1", "f2" and also I'd like to know what does the Number mean in the Strain name (ex, Northern Lights #5). I'm sure I'll have more questions after that, but that's a good start.
You can find a lot of answers here Cannabis Breeding - Grasscity.com Forums which in turn will generate many more questions.
pheonotype - the outward physical characteristics of a specific plant. f1 - fist generation f2 - second generation the number means nothing, its specific to the breeders so their strain looks fancy. Like Heinz #57.
Well doesn't that make f1 and f2 also kind useless. If I understand correctly doesn't it take years of back crossing and breeding to stabilize a new strain? Certainly the first or second generation of breeding wouldn't have stabilized any of the characteristics you would want to see from the plant. So Phenotype just means what the plant looks like?
in order to solidify a strain you.... take a P1 and P2 (parents), they create an F1 hybrid. You continue to cross the subsequent F generations (F1, F2, F3, etc.) with the original F1 to solidify traits you like, or Phenotypes.
To understand this you need to get your head around Mendel's Genetics. You also need to understand the relationship between genotype (the genes) and phenotype (the physical expression of the genes) and how dominate and regressive phenotypes / genotypes mix based on random assortment. This leads to an understanding of Punnett Squares and genetic probabilities .... So read this... Basic Principles of Genetics: Probability of Inheritance and then your brain will explode