@PioneerValleyOG , are you able to keep cuts of the best plants from your initial “hunting” season alive until the next season? Sorry for all the questions, it helps me to narrow down strategies.
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I am not. I do absolutely no inside growing. Therefore I can only use seed I make. And pollen I make.
If I were to choose a goal, I would say rot and mildew resistant, a harvest that would occur in Mid September, spider mite resistant, and a strong narcotic, pain relief high. But isn’t this what most outdoor growers would want to achieve? Growing outside rot and mildew and spider mites are the bane in Western Mass, same as many places. A PM program is very effective, I don’t think you could create a cross that would defeat all these traditional obstacles. Only perhaps lessen the impact some.
Let me answer your question with a question. What would you seek in the creation of your own cross? What would your goal be?
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No, I’ve never but I am a crotch hair away from getting a small tent, but then I’m afraid I’d just get sucked away from my roots.
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Ok, great. Happy to help bro!
Backcrossing:
This is when you take a clone, then cross another plant to it. Selecting a male that are as identical to the initial clone as possible.
Backcrossing is all about quality. There are good and bad backcrosses, it’s about the most advanced technique a breeder can use. A high quality backcross is made by someone who knows the cultivar through and through, someone who grow in high numbers to find the best male possible and someone who uses multiple males to find the best possible match.
A good backcross will give you an slightly inbreed version of the clone and are great to use to find males for breeding.
Selfing:
This is when you take a clone and cross it to itself. This is quite easy process, but it yields quite low amount of pollen, so if you plant to get a lot of pollen you gotta use multiple plants.
Selfing are great to look through the genetics of a clone because you will find a range of phenos pop up, the range is from one parent to another.
Selfing should be used to either inbreed the cultivar very fast, or to find new better phenos from an initial clone.
Pz 
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I haven’t grown outside in years but I could never find one that checks all the boxes. Especially at 45° N. A plant with all those attributes I mentioned would be the holy grail and is more an ideal to aim towards.
It’s easy to grow out a bunch of different varieties and figure wich females did the best, at the end of the season, when the cure is done. The problems lay in the separation and contiament of pollen from several different males from several different genotypes and the application of said pollen in a controlled way, before the season ends. If you could do some work indoors, it may help your efforts. It’s a tough challenge, to be sure.
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@LonelyOC and @Budderton thanks SOO much for this information and guidance. It has helped me greatly, and I am truly grateful. You guys are the best! Everyone that answered this thread.
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