ill be honest with you guys...i use to think of growing plants as a "woman's" hobby and that all guys who grow are ****** (use ur imagination). of course this was mostly when i was in grade school/jr high... since growing my first plant a few yrs ago (mj of course) i realized its actually really fun even if mj wasn't the reward @ harvest....of course thats what lured me in! I regret not learning sooner. it almost makes me wish i could have a legit job growing plants. its a lot of hard work but watching that work turn into something amazing that YOU created all on your lonesome is pretty rewarding. i dont do it as much any more these days but i use to sit in my grow room for a few hrs straight sometimes...just observing the plants...pinching and smelling colas...(possibly my most favorite part of flowering). i love veg more though because i get to do things like top/fim, supercrop, lst. makes it fun... lately im also having a fetish with using different grow setups (sog, scrog, 5 gal monsters, compact 1/2 gallon grows, etc.) idk im rambling and off track. quick update: i went out to the store today and got some cheap soil...dont mistake my "cheap" soil as just getting any old soil...i did read some labels and picked the best looking one for the job. i also mixed some perlite in. cost me less than $20 for 6 cu ft. as a bonus its ORMI listed! i got myself some 18oz party cups...and filled them...also set up my friends hid light (which is awesome since it has a digital ballast! but the reflector is avg)...apparently he got it from HTG supply...at least the reflector as it has a "htg supply" sticker on it. another bonus is that he told me it takes HPS and HID (conversion system) so i can put my MH in there for veg!) i set that up as well... i couldnt fit all 200 cups under the light...i ran out of room and im in early parts of veg stage for the grow i was originally working on...that grow is right next to this new one that i got sucked into by my mistake (my light and his light are side by side on my light stand). i also decided to germ some other old seeds i had laying around via paper towel method ...just because those beans are pretty old and idk how viable they are even though the look really big and healthy. i didnt count the cups yet but im guessing i have about 150 or so under the light... now im just waiting on some seeds to pop and away i go. im gonna be super pissed if these beans turn out to not even be viable after all the work i did... im gonna make a grow journal tonight and upload the early picks of this grow. normally i dont keep grow journals but this grow seems like a unique situation so i think it should be documented and hopefully go down in marijuana forum grow journal history! yeah right...but anyway.
For future reference: If you accidentally get a seed wet, quickily dry it with a paper towel, and then put it in a jar with a good bit of flour, and shake it around every few hours for several days. Now, to address your problem, I have to kindly disagree w/ much of the above advice. You stated in your first post that these were intended for a breeding experiment and from bagseed. So, I'll assume that you basically paid nothing for them. Now, let the experimentation begin. If it were me, I'd take the first 80-100 or so beans to germ and place them in seedling trays. Put them under that 600 and when they start to overrun their area, cut by 50%, selecting the heartiest specimens. Soon after you'll have what, a few dozen plants showing sex? Take all the hearty females you have room to flower, and possibly isolate a nice male outside somewhere for pollen collection. That about sums it up. Oh, and be hard on them, you only want the most tolerant, and resistant to survive, that's what "selective" breeding is all about.
Yea, that's basically what I was gonna say. I think this is exactly what people do a lot of the time when they grow vegetables and other plants, since the seeds are cheap and there tends to be a lot of genetic variation that you can select the best from. Certain plants look greener, grow faster, healthier, etc., it's probably not hard to select top 20% within the first month or so. That could get you to about 20 plants, say you start with 100? The only caveat I guess is that I don't know how hard it is to select from young plants, maybe some plants look deceptively small and then turn out to be really healthy, etc., probably others know a lot more than me about this...
thanks for the help helio. great advice! also i made the grow journal (ill be linking to it in this post and ill edit my original post so others wont have to go searching for it...) http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...over-200-seeds-grow-journal.html#post10559933 thanks again guys.