Recently I acquired 5 seeds of an unknown Zacatecas plant. I want to get more seeds to explore all the different traits and phenos. Should I grow all the seeds and self all the females with them selfs and save any males that may show up. Or should I just do an open pollination if any males sprout. Im still very new to this so I don’t want to ruin it.
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If you are looking to explore the best thing in my opinion is open pollination.
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I agree with Doug, open pollination is the best bet to maintain as much genetic variation as possible.
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keeping the males and open pollenate, reason is then you will have more seed to hunt through for later if you decide to spray and keep the chosen female going. having the regs will be the best option to do
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You can also selectively pollinate parts of your females so you can have some unseeded bud to try. That way you can focus on the seeds from the plants you liked best.
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I disagree with open pollination. If you have 10 plants, 5 males and 5 females, surely you can eliminate the worst 2 of each and end up with better stock for it. There’s always at least one crappy plant compared to the rest. Open pollination will yield hemp eventually. The plant is always trying to return to a feral state.
With 5 seeds your options dwindle, though. Assuming they all germinate fine, even. If you end up with 2-4 plants it’s even harder and you’ll be more or less forced to use all the plants.
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Vernal, I get you point, but I feel the selections should happen in the divergent generation (F2). It is not uncommon to cull off types when you have a large enough population though
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I agree w no open pollination. IF you haven’t done that before, it’s a huge sacrifice to do and be ready for 1000-3000 seeds. Also observe and select your males. Each have distinct characteristics, some desirable and not so desirable visible traits as they grow. Strong, compact, hardy, plants are what I look for going into the sexing phase. Fuller cola formation of pollen sacks, minimal stretch and even growth profile.
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In this case 5 is like almost no wiggle room but anything larger…you can cull a bad plant. No point whatsoever in breeding a bad plant, even if you intend to do more looking in the next generation.
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If you have the space and the numbers to get rid of weaker ones, then you should. If you are limited and want maximum return, run em all.
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Depends on the project, if your making an f2 of something it prob would be best to have a lot to choose from to decide which is the best traits and cull the undesirables as it’s new genetics thrown together. If your just doing a seed run of something that is already worked to an f6+ then chances are ur gonna see a bunch of consistency as an ibl already and having a high plant count is gonna be nothing more that fine tuning at best but should already have a pretty uniform cultivar. If it’s a landrace then they been banging their Bros and sisters in an area for years with nature deciding who meets in that region so should also be pretty uniform good or bad. With 5 seeds I say throw em and let em all live and let nature take it’s course expecting an assload of beans and now u got a project following to see if they are all the same or if u can see any variance and if their is differences u can work those lines
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Following, I understand the basics just need to figure out how to get things setup. Want to pheno hunt these strawberry diesel x space dudes once I upsize my flower tent, then I’m gonna use one of my 4x4s for flowering males/pollinating females. Will a regular carbon filter prevent pollen from exhausting out the tent or will I need some sort of micron filter?
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Being that you really don’t know what the males will pass on, unless it is a line you are familiar with or know what you are looking for out of it To really get the most you could take clones, do a partial OP of all the healthy plants leaving some sinsemilla for sampling, sample the plants, then do selective pollination (with either select males or reverse females).
Not the simplest path to more seeds, but it would give you both selected stock to start looking through and a wider selection of the gene pool to come back to if and when you wanted.
Also, if you wanted to unlock the greatest number of gene combinations in a single generation of seeds, you could reverse clones of the females and mix that pollen with the male pollen for your OP.
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Just make a HEPA fan to attach to the exhaust outlet, 20" x 20" box fan with a high grade HEPA and pollen rated furnace filter ductaped to it, less than 50 bucks and works great to collect anything of concern
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@Enchanted_Yesca 
as you can see the debate isn’t settled on this question. 
Great topic.
Good on you for growing, making seeds, & thinking of preservation…all good things!
Perhaps deciding on your primary objective will help.
For true preservation keeping even the inferior ones, at least for a first go, can’t hurt too much. But sorting them & only choosing the best is generally a guiding principle for any planned breeding. (like why I’m not married…just too damned good 
).
And selective, manual pollination of some branches will definitely provide many more seeds than you are beginning with, while at the same time yielding primarily sinsemilla/seedless buds for your smoke.
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Youve set your goal as being able to make more seeds from the 5 you have so you can explore different traits and phenos. The best way of achieving that is to reproduce a large number of seeds via open pollination of the 5 that you have. If your goal was something els then other methods maybe better.
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Yes, yes…and yes….lol
Open pollination is definitely the way to go! Keeping as many stable phenotypes as possible for more phenotypical varieties is where you want to be…more options!
When I do seed runs I’ll typically put the females into flower 2 weeks ahead of the males for them to get a head start…males will generally flower and mature faster(dropping pollen) than the females. Doing this will give you a greater number of seeds to work with off of smaller plants! 
And that’s about it…keeping a keen eye on instability is key to having stable future generations without hermaphroditism…
Happy growing
Brian(Alaskagrown)
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Grow and blow. Grown again. Take some cuts or protect some branches for your own shelf.