lol, yea really…
heres pics of my Bubbas Gift from last year.
Strawberry pheno
Earthy/hashy pheno. i preferred the strawberry pheno myself.
Do you think the pollen from these big boys will be “better” than if they were grown indoors to a shorter height?
@WVMountainGhost no, not really. I would imagine all things being equal, it will be the same genetics/pollen.
What I am able to see tho is the plants get to a large size and its natural shape and phenotypical expressions I find show much easier outdoors, which would never be as large indoors. I dont mess with indoor right now. I have lots of room outside where Im at. It just so happens these Chemdog hybrid males are topping 6’6"-7 ft tall right now. I have 1 exception, its about 5 feet tall.
2 of 4 males are producing pollen sacs right now. The tallest 2 havent grown balls yet tho. Should show anytime now.
Yes, Blue Dream is a clone only. There are many seeds based on it. I haven’t actually seen any backcross lines or S1 seeds though, mostly just feminized crosses. Probably because it is fashionable to say “blue dream sucks” because it isn’t cookies or kush or what have you.
There are tons of OG kush lines/backcrosses/S1 seeds. Check out Scott’s OG from Rare Dankness.
I use several methods to select males at different times. It can vary depending on goals.
Here are some examples.
Branching/vigor/structure:
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Plants height is measured weekly, with notations of pot size. This allows me to compare them to their sisters or my other p1.
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I check and score topping response. I measure new stem growth daily after topping with notations on how many leaves are thrown in the new sets. I select for fast shoot growth and full leaf throw. Plants that take forever to respond or show poor leaf throw and short stem shooting score low.
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I measure internode spacing of the main stem every week up until week 4 in flower. The average gives me a good data if I want a tighter cola forming plant or wide open structure and grenades.
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Measure main stem width every 8 inches up the main stem weekly.
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Days in flower to final stretch. The 40/60 rule is pretty accurate indicator of overall flower time.
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Amount of stretch.
Resin production:
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Only use resin producing males ha.
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Resin production is graded and scored on flower through week 4. If it isnt producing well by then I dont use it. I also select for plants that produce massive amounts of the hairy stem trichs in veg.
Intersex selection:
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Jamb a finger in the dirt and disturb/abuse the roots on all 4 sides week 2 and 4 of flower. One of the best ways to test for intersex also known as the old school way to make fem seeds. Root manipulation is a strong test of stability. Discard any plants that show intersex traits.
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Overall observation for intersex throughout flower.
Terps:
- Stem rubs help if you know what you are looking for of course. Not all plants are true from stem rub to smoke. Drying male flowers then doing a crumble test in your hand is an excellent observation method albeit a little messy.
Color:
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Tom Hill put me on a tray of cuts in the fridge to evaluate for color.
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Color observations throughout flower.
Flower formation:
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Overall density of flowers. Depends on strain and your goals.
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What I call crowning is an idea of how much the top buds/colas grow past their last full leaf sets, this can be measured.
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Flower onset. That old dont select the first to flower line is bullshit. I record and select for the fastest flowering every time and my main line gorilla bubble has tested in the 30s. I want my plants to flower hard and fast. There is no linkage to early flower and intersex. They are two independent traits.
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Flower size, nut sacks can be measured individually like a single calyx and compared. Think giant sour d calyx or tight smaller c99 flower for example.
And on and on lol. These are just examples, of course it all depends on goals!
Thank you very much for this! Pretty sure it’ll take ages off my learning curve. 
I hope everybody is paying attention cuz that’s years of hard earned knowledge in a concise little package. I fricken love OG!
There’s an analytical mind. That’s good stuff.
Interestingly, in DJ Short’s book ( he of Blueberry fame)
his criteria is almost exactly like Shanti’s.
Kill anything that shows flowers prematurely.
Don’t use the 1st one that pops.
Don’t use the tallest.
“The next criterion for elimination, borrowed from Michael Starks’ Marijuana Potency,
involves stem structure. Large, hollow main stems are sought while pith-filled stems are
eliminated”
“The next and perhaps most important characteristic to examine is that of odor/flavor and
trichome development”
so…
“Gently rub the stem where it is well
developed and pliable, above the woody part and below the developing top. The newer leaves at
their halfway point of development may also be rubbed and sniffed. These are the places that the
earliest chemical signatures are apparent.”
and
“Males can be tested by smoking or otherwise consuming them. I use only fresh tips,
properly cured and rolled into a joint. Also, make sure that this test smoke is the first smoke one
consumes that day in order to best discern its qualities, or lack thereof|”
Look for good, solid male ‘bud’ or flower structure.
And use a loupe to look for trichromes on the males.
Akthually… I think Phylos is offering tests that can determine sex and thx/cbd predictions from the cotyledon leaves. Runs about 50 bucks per tests tho. You cake a pucnh sample of teh leaf tissue and send it in. They have card that hold 80 test samples at a time.
Or you can do some of it at home with a small centrifuge and a little 'lab in a box" that does the processing for about $3,000. (or about$10 a test).
Have you guys even done a big sift or pheno hunt project here?
It’s probably not cost effective to go the lab route for testing males, but if you start doing your own TLC it would only make sense to test and see what’s what.
That’s not really how it works. You only have a hypothesis, a theory is backed up by repeatable evidence.
Don’t get me wrong I’m no geneticist, but reversing a female doesn’t change the genes she holds. So unless the female is already a hermie, the rate should be unchanged — regardless of whether the pollen donor is a male or a female.
Prove me wrong. 
I was never good at math but because of the original overgrow.com I had a decent understanding of genetics and the terminology of biology. I finally got A+ grade in a “hard” class and my parents were very surprised i was doing so well in my biology classes. And I tried to absorb everything we were being taught when we finally got to genetics in biology class. I was surprised that i already knew all the information they were trying to teach us. So i ended up asking alot offlandish “loaded” questions to get around the fact that it was a cannabis related question. But i got my answers.
Now that I am finally breeding my crosses I have really seen what happens in a real-time setting and ive learned alot so far. But every single strain you breed can totally change the offspring in ways you didnt imagine happening. So its alot of just testing the offspring and seeing what comes from the fruit they bare. Identifing dominant parental traits in the phenos you get from the seeds you popped is very useful when determining what to breed with what. I like to breed one good structured male with as many different females as i can. Then pop those seeds and find out what it went best with the male. Then dispose of unneeded plants. Or take cuts and plan future breeding.
I may add to this later if I think of something i missed.
Bee Happy!
Please share your methods for finding a stud worthy of fertilizing your favorite ladies…
Ok this isn’t what I thought when I saw the title, phew. I have no experience in this particular area but will happily hang out and learn from the replies. Well all but mine.
Finding the best male starts with what your breeding goals are. You have to have something you are wanting to improve from your favorite female/line. Only then can you select the right male based on what you think he “might add” to reach your goal. Then, growing out the progeny of that cross is the only way to determine if your selection added anything or sucks.
Selecting a male based on anything other than what you intend to improve on in a line, well, you might as well just pick one and see what happens. The old saying throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks is applicable here.
Well, not really-
I’ve heard this almost as much as I’ve heard “use the search function”…
Home growers want to make seeds.
Most are not actually following a multi generation breeding program, with specific goals.
Let’s try to help the average folks pick a better male to make some seeds with.
Look for a lot of the same traits as females. Short internode, hollow stems, color to the flowers, good stem rub for scents, any trichrome production, they say not to keep early showing male plants because they can trend towards autoflowering traits in later generations.
For my sssdh I just kept my best smelling/ structure looking males and then only kept seeds from the best smoking females. It worked and produces great herb
I used to choose males that showed late, and used mr nice white widow to find males.
Following information from turn of the century OG 
If you just want to make some seeds, choose the male(s) that you really wish were females. beside structure and similarities in stem rub and structure to your favorite female, the only real way to see what a male may be passing on is to bloom it out fully and watch the bud structure. But that is just a cloud of pollen to control.
Some people dry male pods and smoke 'em LOL