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.
3 Likes
Some people dry male pods and smoke 'em LOL
2 Likes
Shortest node spacing, most resinous and earliest flowering…all 3.
3 Likes
I mean if you just wanna be quick about it, limited space/time. pick the male that looks most like your favorite female and call it a day.
Or if you have multiple phenos from an indica/sativa cross for instance and you’re girl came out indica and you want some sativa in there, use the sativa leaning male instead of the one that looks like your girl.
Ideally however, you need to set a goal when you’re breeding. Use your brain and think about the plants you might use. Every single little trait about them before you breed them. Then when you do finally breed them, you need to grow out the progeny and see if that was a good cross or not, if it wasn’t you need to go back and find a different male, not continue the line…
And Not just chucking pollen to everything “to see what sticks”. You can find some gold that way, but that is half the problem with all the seed sales, everyone’s just hitting everything with everything else with absolutely zero thought process behind it. And then putting them all for sale at 80+ per pack. Don’t be that guy. 
6 Likes
I just get a 10 pack of seed and throw them together. Call it a preservation 
2 Likes
JK
You tag and test each male with a proven female.
Keep it simple.
Yes, really.
Whether or not you intend to pursue a multi generational breeding program or not, your male selection should be done with a goal in mind.
Whether that is to improve on structure, add potency, whatever. I always let the males flower out completely as well. I felt that without seeing how they actually finish, how could I make an educated selection.
If one is just wanting to make seed with no goals in mind other than making seed, then why not throw all your males in and do an open pollination. You will get lots of seeds with lots of different traits.
4 Likes
With my state’s recent legalization, I’m chatting with several folks interested in making seeds. They’re on their first or second grow cycle, and just want to make good seeds.
I would think they’d be happy just to re-create plants as good as the bud that they seeded.
1 Like
Indeed - But you have to take account the genetic drift and possibility of locking in unwanted traits.
It is harder than it sounds, to replicate the bud you are smoking. A good place to start would be doodling some Punnet squares after studying a couple of them plantas
4 Likes
Teacher, when will I ever use this in real life?
We need to teach the teachers to answer, when you’re making weed seeds! 
14 Likes
@Badger HAHA!! What is funny is that,
I seriously only remember that one thing from middle school biology class 
Most of the time I was drawing in class so would get kicked out anyways… DERP
But I will admit that I needed a refresher when it came back down to the grind.
I was not a-growin in middle school. I think…
Or maybe it was high school… I don’t remember!
3 Likes
I watched this just now … Haha oh man. It’s actually pretty good
Ah. Cats and sinks make my day
5 Likes
Oh, believe me, I know…
I leave breeding to the people with more knowledge and the resources to do it properly.
But, anyone who can grow a couple of plants can make a batch of seeds-
It would be nice to be able to help people find their best male, even if they are only choosing from a few dudes, and have no official long term breeding goals in mind, and no real breeding knowledge at all…
4 Likes
That’s when you have to be like Nike & Just Do It ™
Scratch alladat!
It would be hard to piece it together in a posting. But perhaps, a thread…
But yes I agree - it’s a good point u make
3 Likes
Ok, so about to go down the rabbit hole and start breeding, more tinkering id say. Been reading and reading and reading. One thing that isn’t clear is the male selection.
I understand as the female.makes the flowers we are looking for certain traits that can be easily or identified in a female.
But many qualities the male is passing on pretty much are unseen in the male other than size, shape, vigor. What are you looking for in a male??
Lol, probably jumping the gun. My intention is to start with a Tora bora landrace but I just need to make more seeds, only got 12 regs. Guessing I’m not really worried about selection when just trying to make more beans to start with.
5 Likes
Not really an answer to your question, but if you have 12 regular seeds of a pure landrace and want to increase the seeds, please consider doing an open pollination including all plants (apart from hermies, weak plants and mutants). That way you preserve a lot of traits of that landrace and can do actual selection for things you like in the next step.
11 Likes
That is the plan to start with. I cant do them outside because to many other plants I don’t want seeds from. My original plan was to set up this new tent and use it as my chamber. Intended to just put one male in there with multiple fems and use a fan. This work?
Edit: ok read that again. I should use multiple males for more seeds?
5 Likes
Multiple males to preserve more genetic diversity
8 Likes
hopefully i can help you with this as i also had lots of problems finding info on male selection here is what i have come up with so far
- will the addition of the males gene pool improve a lacking part of the female line (flower time, yield, potency, structure, stability, terp profile, vigor)
if im sure or atleast think it will do one or more of these things then i select the male from the group based off of structure and quickness of flower…i see lots of people selecting longer to pop males as they want more bud sites for dude to pop on … i believe this only adds to overall flower time of both the seeds being made but also more importantly i believe it adds time to its offsprings flower time… thus i try to find one thats quicker because well i like 8 week flower times more than 16 … like others have said if PRESERVING a line use all the healthy males …but if making a hybrid by all means use what works for what your goal is my goal is almost always a quicker flower time
positive traits to look for in a male are
structure
stability
vigor
visible resin
stem rubs are so so just like the females so short of a plant taking over the whole room in smell i disregard this as much as my mind will let me lol
Negative stuff i try to avoid
slow growers
freaks
i kept one male 2 rounds ago was really hoping to find a male to breed with last round but none spoke to me the only one i liked was a black sur but it had some weird branch growth going on so i trashed it as well
i have been looking more for keeper males than females these days best of luck homie
4 Likes