Tissue culture has taught me something that may change the way I select males.
In a small sample I found that a male explant in an unvented tissue culture vessel is exposed to abnormally high levels of ethylene gas. Outside of other deleterious effects it begins to reverse the sex of the male plantlet. (Think Florel) I have healthy rooted male in vitro explants ready to be acclimated ex vitro but they are showing both sex.
I am unsure if this is an intersex trait or if all male explants put into a sealed sterile environment would do the same thing.
I went through my batch of skunks and I found 2 males out of the bunch and I need some advice on picking the best one.They both smell just as strong both fast strong growers no PM in a tent that had it both good eaters no burn on anything just one is a little more taller and has more open structure on the nodes.The shorter one is bushier and has shorter spacing on nodes.Which one is the keeper ?Id appreciate any advice on it.
Right now I’m going to pick the best female I have and she is a twin to the one on the left if any other female stinks more I’m going to grab her probably 2 females out of the 7 .I’m going to do what I did with my outdoor and pollenate one big bottom bud and leave the rest untouched on that plant.I only got seeds in that one and I got more than enough off that one bud it was loaded.
I’m going to go with the stocky one he has more of an Oger smell the more and more I smell it it’s a different type of funk on him now I think about it
@CapnCannabis I wouldn’t make the decision until I flowered them out and got a good look at them. It would depend upon my goal. I might choose one or I might like them both. I may collect the pollen from both separately and brush a nice bud on each female from each male and tag the branches. I might also composite the pollen in equal amounts and brush them.
The easiest thing would be to collect pollen from both males and mix it together. Use this pollen to lightly pollinate the lowers on each female. Test the females after the seed matures and keep the seeds from the females you like. This way you will narrow the genotype a bit, but still keep enough diversity to find different, interesting phenos in the same spectrum as what you liked about the parent stock.
If you don’t have room to flower both, choose one (I’d lean toward the tighter structure provided they have the same # of nodes).
If you mainly want seeds, flower both and mix the pollen.
If you can flower both and want to maintain the option of being more discriminating, flower both and pollinate separate branches on given gals. Grow the resulting seeds side by side and you’ll know what traits the respective males tend to transmit. The advantage here is that you’ll make plenty of seeds, but in a slightly critically elevated way that could enable a bit of line working should you choose. You never know, maybe one of these males is a real standout.
Lots of fun options, and it doesn’t seem like there are any really bad ones, so whatever you choose will serve your garden (and endocannabinoid system!) just fine no doubt.
Found my first frosty male, wondering how special this is and if indeed it is an important trait. Maybe it’s common in certain lines, for instance cookies crosses? I have had great results to date using pollen from more typical males, so am not rushing to crown this male as the best one yet just because of the frost …but it’s new terrain for me. Wondering if it’s a currently desirable trait (frost=better is the current mindset out there), but if most males are not frosty maybe there’s something not so desirable at play? Anyway this male comes from an Orange Cookies x Chocolate Diesel mama (seed from Useful) hit by pollen from a mystery male. I will sometimes group a few males that seem decent- different strains- and collect the pollen and hit lower branches with a little pollen. Not line work, more just to make some seed and to have a few seeds at the bottom of every jar. I am commencing on re-veg of this male but may just collect sone pollen from this guy and move on. Carrying a male for the next year to test out progeny seems like a lot of commitment and so far I have been happy with seed making results just using whatever pollen handy. Just started in on some f2’s of things, but not trying to get too complicated- want to keep it fun!
Breeders seem to be a little split on whether or not a frosty male is a positive/negative trait. I tend to think because of how rare it is that it’s got to be a good thing, but at the very least, it seems unique enough that I’d probably hit a branch and see what happens with the resulting seeds. Agree with you that holding a male is a commitment, but if he turns out to be a stud then you’re set up for more fun work in the future.
