Hey gents. I wasn’t too sure where to post, and I figured breeders may know.
Currently I’m popping seeds and doing the bonsai mom thing; and cloning. I’m running a few diff strains, but mostly trying to find a holy grail diesel.
Out of the same pack, or breeding; will I find very different plants? Like one is extremely potent, and the rest are “meh”?
Not cloning would obviously save me time. My thought was I don’t want to miss out on the “one”. I’ve gotten so many seeds here, I’ll never get to them all continuing this way. I’m very grateful for the generosity here, and sitting on seeds doesn’t seem like the intended purpose, lol.
I do prefer to clone everything if I’m hunting. I use an oxy cloner a lot of the time so I’m only wasting power really.
That being said, I’ve heard of at least a few breeders that just reveg if they find something special and take cuts from the revegged plant. It’s not that hard to reveg a plant, but also not always guaranteed.
Depending on what you’re running you could see drastically different plants in the same pack
Good to bare in mind that taking cuts is not always going to work. some plants are a pain in the proverbial to get to root. Similarly ‘revegging’ doesn’t always work either as some plants will senesce once flowered, no matter what you do unless you have above average facilities - unlikely if you’re a home grower.
Even if you do find the one, it’s hard to keep moms for a lengthy period of time. The best breeders struggle with this at times and try to develop a network of people that can share the burden of keeping plants alive. For one person, that’s very hard to do.
Probably the best option if you can afford the time, space and due diligence is to determine which plants you like. Keep for as long as you possibly can, as healthy as you can. Make seeds with that plant because the thing you like will be in the future generations - sometimes better plants can be found but also less impressive plants. Keep your mothers for as long as possible and share cuts with other people if you can. BUT always save space for popping new beans and store genetics in beans because variety is important. It’s all down to personal taste. A Haze lover might not be Kush lover etc. And pests and disease is also a considerable factor.
I’m currently searching through plants with a friend to find plants that tick all the boxes for us. We’ve been at it for a while now and gone through literally hundreds of varieties. We’re not throwing our hands up in the air every time we lose a more preferable cut. It’s just part of it. It’s a labour of love but fun.
In 16 years of growing and hundreds of varieties in, I can count the best plants on two hands. Lost all of them. Life gets in the way.
Subjective, just depends on what you want.
You won’t really know your variation
Until you grow them all out
A good Breeder will tell you what to expect
In phenos.
As of now you have no clue if you have the
“One”
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Good luck
Most of the time, cloning is a complete waste of time. I always take two cuts when going into flower, and I’ve learned to hang onto it for a couple of months after harvest.
But almost every time, backup clones end up being tossed. Not necessarily because they’re not good, but because they’re not really better than something else I’ve got going on.
After hunting a few packs the answer might become clear.
Personally, the variability with legal limits here make saving my “keepers” from hunting packs the way to go, or find someone else’s cut and try it.
@Mestizo this is excellent info here
Thank you for sharing all of this. As someone who just started working with clones last month, this is all great to know. Especially about spreading it around and learning to be okay with letting some things go.
I’ve bookmarked this post to refer back to it in the near future.
after cloning about 60 different varieties, i only found a single elite type of cut which i’ve run 5 or 6 times or so since. I found 2 other keepers that are pretty special or at least what i wanted and have run each 2 times. overall, i find variety to be more impactful on getting high than special cuts. yes, you do get a bad plant occasionally, but most are good smoke.
Ive been on the hunt for keepers for a longass time now. When I had the space, Id pop a good 100-150 clones. Veg em em real big, clone em to hell, and then run the clones to really test everything.
But I no longer have 1000s of ft of greenhouses to play in, and Ive found revegging to work just about as well with a few tricks. I flower a buncha seed plants vegged about 17 days from sprout in 1 gal pots, then Ill pull back and reveg at least 4-5 of the best ones(ideally all the same pheno). Ill put them under 24-0, and wait until the buds are ready to smoke to make any real decisions. Then if theres anything that really blows me away, Ill pot it up to a 2 gal to mom out/hope its a good cloner. Which is why when I had the space, Id clone up everything. It was wild how many times Id find plants that the buds were identical, but one would clone at 90+% and others at 40-50% at best.
All that being said, @Mestizo’s writeup is spot on. Hundreds of varieties under my belt, and I can also count on both hands the plants that really stood out. And keeping moms long term is a PAIN. Ive kept moms around a good 4+ years, but they usually crap out after a while. Which is why I focus on simple seed repros and good populations vs the best keeper moms around forever. If I lose a mom, I can pop a few more and find something that ticks all the boxes. After losing a big clone collection about 5 years ago, the pain of losing great moms with no backups isn’t something I wanna deal with again emotionally.
Bless up. Trying to as comprehensive as possible. Trained in horticulture which helps but it’s the boots on the ground practice and the plants teach you everything you need to know.
Besides taste, high and yield, you’ll benefit from finding plants with good root systems and the morphology of the plants. Do they fit your space or are they 8 foot giants. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It sucks when you have to bin plants because your expectations on yourself were just a bit too much.
Posting on here helps. People want you to succeed in your efforts and you’ll have the opportunity to do the same when you get to grips with the various processes. Nuff respec.
Hey @IKEA22 , have you looked into keeping snips in the fridge, while you figure out which ones you might want to try another round with? Saves room in the veg space by not having to hold rooted copies of everything. Here’s a link to how I wake them up after being in the fridge for an extended period.
and your thought is 100% correct. if it’s good enough to flower, it’s good enough to back up. being haunted by “the one that got away” isn’t a good time
besides, cloning is a critical/essential skill for a home grower, and time spent honing your cloning skills isn’t wasted.
plus…you never know what snip may fall in your lap. gotta be prepared!
It definitely pays to send out your keeper cut(s) to as many people as possible. I’ve lost things that if I hadn’t given them out for free/shipping cost, would be gone for good.
Another way to get the same place by a different route.
DEF seeds Rainbow Bright.
I had researched her while growing, knew to expect
Good things but she was unknown to me.
Well now I know her, and She’s one of the “ones”
Ok, so now I breed her, and will have her forever.
She’s special, even without alternation she provided
Lots so not worth the clone section for me.
I will just throw and grow beans.
That’s me though.
And keep in mind shit happens
You could get broad mites or some problems
Screwing up your plants.
With seeds you always have an ace in the hole.
But really this is good for you, it’s your curve
And really the fun part is learning Your own way.
Good luck
You guys are awesome! Thanks for the help and suggestions. I’ll continue my search. I do love the process and watching them grow. I’ll have to get/stay a little more organized and focused though.
Speaking of clones, I’m about to send a durban back to the member that gave it to me, and lost it. That feels pretty awesome. I’m thankful for all you guys! Thanks again.
They provide consistency, less vigor than seed
Plants but come already stacked.
You have to dedicate a mum and clone area.
Seeds if you make some from a keeper strain
Can do.as good yield wise, and have the added
Advantage that if shit goes south you always
Can remake her.
If your in a legal state do both, but it’s very subjective.
I clones of clones 60 times over that were so hairy
In veg and were done in 37 days (shoeless C99)
I don’t want to have a grow area and a clone area
Others will, I used to but getting lazy in my old age.
Clones are killer, but if she’s a keeper back yourself up and make seeds of her for when life happens.
i never used to take clones always looking for that next one going thru so many seeds ,20 years later lol i take clones of the strains that interest me just to see if i like em enough,easier to take a couple cuts than maybe never find again,funny thing i just finished a couple chem 91s no cuts but one was it so revg and fingers crossed never learn lol
