Best Way to Start Small & Make High Quality seeds?

Hard not to want to cash in lol local breeders are just starting to drop packs in my area

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They better hurry before everyone figures out the high-dollar packs are a big ol’ racket and crossing x to y still gets good results more often than not haha.

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Better hope I don’t stumble across some super stud I’ll hit all these clones​:rofl::joy::rofl::joy:

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Lol…perfect for chucking like I do…keep plants in solos and keep the solos in a tub for bottom watering (so much easier than watering each plant individually)…this will allow lots of plant to choose from, but wont yield as many seeds as keeping then in 5 gallon pots and vegging for 2 months.

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This thread grew fast. I only have outside stuff atm. I have a 3x5 ft closet thats finally getting close to finished. Got a door for it yesterday. Its painted and I have a sol strip light finally put together. Its happening pretty slowly tho.
I tried taking clones from outside to bring the best ones inside once I get to sample things. But I may have screwed that up, cause I still got no roots.
I’m still formulating a plan on what all will be happening in there once its done, but it’ll be very close to what Tappy just mentioned. solos probably or something similar in size. I dont care how much smoke I get. I wanna have fun toying with genetics and stuff. Eventually I’ll probably get a big tent and just use the closet for veg.

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I only picked the Cookies because I have a 12 pack of seeds and all my others are 3 packs and maybe a 5 pack. I was hoping to find one of the parents expressing itself in one of the seedlings.
I’m also using a Mandala kalichakra for some of the crosses since it seems to be pretty stable.
This is all just a learning exercise so far. and I’m still trying to refine some of my techniques and decide what direction to take the plants.

@ Worcestershire_Farms - aye there’s the rub - I don’t have any strains I’m familiar with (except the worn out genetics I’m trying to replace). And most of my seeds nowadays come in 3 packs or maybe a 5 pack. And I have a TINY amount of room. The projects in my little 2X2 tent are looking really good. I crossed some NL with itself and with the kalichakra. And the Kali with itself and the NL. Seeds are starting to form and the plants look really good. But it’s my 1st crop under LEDs.

Why do you recommend mixing all the male pollen instead of isolating 1 male? I thought that isolating would be the most efficient way since I have limited area- but I’m all ears. :grinning:

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That’s pretty much my plan for the next round with a new pack. Vader on YT seems to get really good results from a solo cup with 2 simple slits in the bottom, coco and bottom watering. I figured I’d transplant the keepers to 1 gallon pots and seeds those. I just want 20-50 seeds for myself and then I’d like to pass along the extras.
It would be awesome to see someone grow out my seeds. :heart_eyes:

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I agree with Pickle Rick. Just run with what you’ve got until you get your process down then get great genetics. If you screw something up with the seeds you have it’s not a big deal.

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12/12 from seed in solo cups will cut down on time and space and you can hand pick your favorites. Even in solos, your still looking at a nice pull of seeds…lol…I’ll grow some of your crossed gear…lol. Love throwing peoples home crafted seeds in the mix. Keep me in mind if you need a tester.

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Absolutely Tappy. You’ll be 1st on the list.
Should have some done in 2 or 3 weeks. My first real crosses.
Should be NLxNL, kalichakraXkalichakra and NLXkalichakra and kalichakra X NL

NL is from Nirvana and KaliC is Mandala. There’s also some SWT4 (ibl I think and looks like it may have been Spice of Life/Breeder Steve) and an unknown SSSDH F1 That I’ll outcross. Not sure what to hit that one with…LOL probably use some of everything I have. SSSDH might be Res, but the F1s have been vastly different from each other. (all both of them)
But the new crosses should be interesting.

You may just get a combo/variety pack. Like the lunch sized bags of chips. :smiley:

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Holy shit!!! I have 10 fem. ssh seeds I was gonna throw in my dwc.
I will do whatever you want with those seeds…for those seeds…ugh, need those…

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Well there is no wrong way to skin a cat, but this is how I think. The goal in any breeding project is always make sure the best male passes on his genetics. We should also have a secondary goal of keeping all the genes that don’t matter as variable as possible, so the plants can thrive in as many environments as possible.

The genetic code that makes up a plant is like LEGOs, with each allele being one brick. When two individuals reproduce the recombination is sloppy, and the bricks closest together in the original towers tend to be inherited together in the new structures.
So if you know what the best females look like, all of the males that look the most similar will tend to carry the other genes you want, and those that don’t match can be discarded.

Now you’ve got a pool of males to choose from.
One option, a clone of every female for each male. Test each batch of seeds to determine who’s the best male, and only keep the batches of seeds that produce plants better than their parents. Definitely makes the most sense given unlimited space.
The other option, one clone of each female plant gets hit by the mixed pollen. We know 100% the best male has reproduced, it’s just a matter of running enough seeds to find the standout children.

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Once you say it like that, I can understand the open pollination approach.

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Great explanation, thanks.
I see what you’re saying about pairing the male with a female that has the same desirable traits…but I was thinking more along the lines that the females are all fairly similar in make up - for example 4 sisters from the same family that are about the same in height, build and appearance.
If I mate them with similar/average guys I get mailmen and insurance salesmen. If I mate them with the 6’4" dude that works out and reads philosophy, I likely get uber healthy strong kids.

This assumes that the alpha would be best for the role :thinking:… but maybe it is the average couple that consistently crank out decent to slightly above average kids that would be better overall.
hmm… you’re making me rethink this…
I really need to define my breeding goals a little better too.

(and the Lego analogy provides a nice mental image to easily understand)

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And another one gets his wings. :rofl:

I saw your cloner- it looks like a decent setup. Did you use the Clonex on the cuttings?
How long have they been rooting and under what kind of light?
Clones can take 10-14 days in some cases.

I should have some new beans coming due in Sept. I’ll be happy to send some your way. I’d love to see what they did outdoors.
BTW- You might look into some diatomaceous earth(DE) around your plants to help with slugs. And the BT works well for catapillers AND Lowes has Chapin brand 1 gallon pump up sprayers for $10 and I think $20 for the 2 gallon.
Plain old Ivory soap makes a decent insecticide. Use a teaspoon or so per gallon and soak the plants down during veg. You can also dust them with the DE using a cheap dollar store sieve. DE is basically finely ground microscopic fossilized seashells. But for slugs and bugs it like crawling across broken glass. It’s about like flour so don’t put on buds. It washes off with water or rain pretty easily.
Glad your story has a happy ending. Best of luck bro-- and take care of yourself.

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@Non_Profit is exactly right about the DE. It works great as an insecticide. If you dust your plants with it on veg, mist the leaves afterwards. It helps it solidify on the leaves and when it dries back out, it is a razor field for everything. Aphids, spider mites, slugs, ants, spiders, pretty much any insect that attacks your plants.

Just make sure you use Fresh Water DE. The salt water version, used in pool filters, is bad for the plants.

I have started using it in my soil mix. It helps to retain water, retain nutrients, allows for better oxygenation of the soil. It improves yields and plant stability.

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This is where your own personal definition of the best female plants comes in. It might be the little females that you like best, and the gigantic females don’t produce the same quality of bud.
So then you’d have to find the gigantic male with the right genes to produce that same quality of bud. That’s not really easy to do when starting small.

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I read through a couple breeding articles, and I think the bonsai sultan method suites my preference. I too was just gifted some seeds from misterbee, and I plan on choosing some select males and females from them to cross/inbreed with. That will of course be a cycle or two out, as I’m still starting my first cycle (with bag seeds) as I get back into the hobby. When the time comes, I too will be looking for suggestions and volunteers for my crosses.

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I think you got the SSSDH IX1 maybe, from what I hear it has a lot more diversity because it’s an incross of Rez’s cup winning cut so you can choose the haze leaner or sour d phenos more, but he says it’s the same mom & pops that CSG used https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=4300768&postcount=4

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clones have been in cubes for a little over 2 weeks. I think I cooked them a little with a heat mat. And I think I cut them to close to the node I wanted to root. Might be too late to try again(starting to flower), but I may try another batch today if I still have no roots when I check in a bit. Yes I used clonex. I also got the cubs onto perlite right after the picture, so its likely 1 of those 2 things I did wrong.

I will read about this DE stuff too. I got hit pretty good, but I was expecting it with outdoor. I think 1 mistake I made there, was when/how I chose to cut the grass around them. I read the stem borrers like grass, and pick other stuff basically on accident. or outta desperation. I didn’t mow for a long time, so there was all this habit for them, then I mowed and they probably all got desperate.

Its to early to tell for sure what my outdoor plans are for next year. I guess it depends on how my first couple closet runs go, and if I end up killing everything. hehehe. Hopefully I’ll have seeds coming outta there to try. I’m trying 5 regular freakshow seeds on my first run which is probably a mistake. And if I have pollen I wanna cross it with stuff on my 2nd run. If I have time to run that cross against itself before spring, I’ll probably grow out some of that mess next year outside. There are a LOT of “ifs” in there though :slight_smile:

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