Breeding for Light

What’s your interpretation of this strain description highlighted?

Im not sure about that. It might be a bad translation into english.

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I’m not too familiar with the fast plants as I haven’t grown any or done a lot of background research. My guess from the translation is that increased dark hours increase the density of the bud, but I bet that is related to some ruderalis genetics.

I’ll have to look into these more before I can say anything with true confidence, but I will try to get some of that done this week!

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You very much can breed for lower light performance. It’s a bit of a niche trait but one I value for specific lines and growing methods.

Such lines exist, even a few popular cuts perform better neglected in the corner than in a more primo spot right under the light. I don’t keep a list but I encounter good examples somewhat often reading through grow threads. Recently saw a grower confused as to why his top buds were so small while the rest of the plant had soda cans buds.

Vertical grows using stacked lights where top and bottom lights are consecutively turned on for 6 hrs take advantage of this principle. Heath Robinson himself showcased this many years ago with great success.

Even though these projects are secondary, I do believe this to be one important aspect to destroying theorical yield barriers.

When I first started selecting for low light performance i would hang a 1000w hps over a 8x8 area and watch which plant defeated logic.

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@Mithridate that’s some cool information! Im glad to see that works! Selections for stuff like low or high light are cool and complicated because of how much physiological and biochemical processes rely on it. I would love to talk sometime about what you see with your lines, this type of selection is likely rampant indoors and we don’t always have a clear idea of what the trait is. Id be interested to hear if you’ve noticed any trade offs with other traits in the low light environment. Really cool stuff!

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I think with ever more efficient lighting systems we are systematically culling plants that would perform better in lower light levels as they are “poor performers”.

So, hyper-efficiency should never come with a loss in quality. Objective is a net positive.

One draw back or limiting factor under low input would be long flowering/equatorial/nld lines and their need for the high light intensity. Low light breeding has a limited range of type of high… not saying it’s impossible but incorporating a trippy high into a LL program would require mucho work.

Depending on goals, I’d watch for trigger hours… ie how many hours of darkness a line/plant needs to initiate flowering.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying they are linked but surely with enough pressure they tend to follow one another.

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Over the years I have found that some plants produce better quality smoke when they are grown in “dappled sunshine”. The kind you get when growing back under the surrounding trees. Not much yield but definately better for your head.

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I have a setup where sometimes my plants grow above the lights and thus get no light at the tops. They develop buds just fine.

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I received an interesting info from users around the web which I would like to share.
As mentioned there are different strains but Mandala Seeds developped this chart.


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Thanks Mithridate,
Any specific strain defeated better logic:) ?

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Great information!

I would make one argument that breeding for low light tolerance isn’t going to guarantee hyper efficiency. It may just mean you have a hidden trade off, we are learning more and more these can be rampant.

Have you ever seen anyone grow their low light and high light strains next to each other? I have a feeling a reciprocal transplant would be really interesting

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Objectives do not guarantee outcome, no :wink:
Hence the test grows.

While I do like to get my nerd on and expand my knowledge, the more I understood the less results I got.

Which brings me to this classic post

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Great post and share! I’ve got some ideas on the gene pool, and I do think bottlenecking is real in cannabis, but breeding is absolutely a numbers game! Everything is harder when you only have part of the story though.

When we can start giving cannabia breeders quality genetic data this will change. But the lines aren’t there yet and neither is the money needed to support this research. Business funding will only go so far, and is unlikely to become publicly available.

It reminds me of the early years of corn breeding before marker selected genes were possible. It took years to develop lines for breeding because it was all done based on mendellian genetics before quantitative genetics was wide spread.

I think its an exciting time to be interested in breeding, hopefully we can soon bring some more science into the art.

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We’re using the selected cream of the crop from mellenia of selections across countless plants in varying regional biomes. The good and great we see from small populations are mostly reflections of the work done for mellenia before us. Sitting on the shoulders of giants.

That said, I believe it’s energy too. Some humans seem to have the best most amazing plants and always finding more of them. I have a buddy that selects and discards plants in seedling stage that I’m always thinking dude you have no idea yet, it might be awesome. Nope, he doesn’t like how it looks so it’s gone. Same dude that seems to always find elite types. No rhyme or reason sometimes. I think so much in life is yes and no at the same time. Yes large populations are needed and at the same time no they’re not. It depends on who’s looking! Many blessings and much love

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I agree. :rainbow:

I found this very interesting article about a research done to figure it out the THC values of c.plants growth under different intensity of light conditions.
Unfortunately it is in Italian.
I link here the summary and and extract of the first page for those interested to read more about it.!
I am not sure about the results, as it seems from this study that plant under shaded sun are actually.producing more THC that the ones exposed ay full sun.

I am very interested in your comments.

IMG_20240205_185259|690x485, 50%

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also a comment that I heard once in re-guarding to 100% stativa’s light cycle - such as 11/13 or 10/14 and ect. the person commented that at the equator there is a 12/12 light cycle and that is were most of the 100% sativa’s come from of if they grow at 12/12 ( have pasted over the equator on a ship and can a-test to that cycle) used to use various light cycles but now going to do 12/12 for 100%sativa’s - lately have seen some very good panama and malawi grows using 12/12 (Ace seeds)

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Correct,
You are mentioning DJ short book : " cultivating exceptional cannabis".

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@Rhizome that book is great! @hawkman I think its such a classic ecological example, flowering conditions varying with light/climate! Or differences between plants from valleys vs higher elevation. Lot of really cool adaptations to different climates, one of the reasons its such an interesting plant!!

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you are right - one need to consider climates and regions

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