If the father is a 16 weeker and the mother is an 8 weeker, would you expect the F1 progeny to be around 12 weeks? Or would it be a spectrum from 8-16 weeks or would there be distinct long and short flowering types like 50% going 14 weeks and 50% going 9 weeks?
How does it usually shake out?
I hit a 14 with a 7 and it ended up at 12ish.
I’d expect the F1s would be pretty uniform but it’ll get very weird in the F2s
Although, generally, F1 hybrid offspring will inherit a combination of genes from both parents, resulting in a flowering time that averages the two extremes, we might also take into consideration the fact that the results can be a little more complex, due to polygenetic inheritance: Flower time is dependent upon multiple factors-- Dominant traits, genetic variation, environmental factors, and Phenotype vs Genotype… Unlike simple Mendelian traits, where a dominant gene might completely mask a recessive one, complex traits like flowering time are influenced by many genes, each with a small additive effect. If we assume that each of these two strains is homozygous with their respective flower times, then that makes the outcome more determinable… If the 16 weeker is a cross of a 20 weeker and a 13 weeker, that would introduce alternative resultant flower times of your progeny.
But ultimately, yes – Taking into consideration the above assumptions regarding the multiple dependent factors, you can assume an average flower time of ~12 weeks from an F1 cross of a homozygous 16-weeker with a homozygous 8-weeker.
This is a subject of interest to me and I’ve done test crosses to see how things inherit and combine between long flowering tropicals and faster flowering temperates.
This one shows the results of a 16-20 week 3 way Mullumbimby/Haze/ Malawi pollinated by a 8-9 week Afghani.
You’d be surprised how far one cross can pull down the flowering time of a long flowerer. The progeny from that cross finished 9-10 wks, with one needing 11.
Of course each pairing is different and results will vary, depending on whats put together. At the same time I grew out 24wk Columbian Gold x 10 wk Appalachia and those took 12-16 to be done and had much greater variation between phenotypes.
Both crosses resulted in a faster then "happy medium " flowering time. Now that was Tropical female to temperate male tests but i have yet to do it the other way yet.
Dang, that thing got a huge glow up 