After seeing some effort of a guy over here promoting the seeds of a friend, i actually found a perfect example of what is decoding a genetic material in a specific way. The GG#4 is actually a perfect example to illustrate the whole section.
Let’s invoke Seed-finder again, the goal isn’t to be surgically accurate, but to understand the dynamic of one given cut.
At first glance, you take it for what it’s not, in the order of the genetic weight:
50% Chocolate Diesel
25% Sour Dubb
25% Chem Sister
Reduced brutally and in grouping everything chem/diesel related under the “diesel” criteria :
Diesel = 62.5% (25%+12.5%+25%)
Katsu Thaï = 25%
BOG BBgm = 12.5%
Now let’s go straight to the core :
1 - Competitivity
The “diesel” can be carried directly by any good SD line, chem91 line, chem4 line, chemD line … whatever if it’s a BX or not. Eventually with the cuts in backup, to be sure to respect the 60% “diesel” of the original.
The flaw in the pedigree of the GG#4 is the sequence of the “Diesel” construction, that look like more randomly reinforced that really stabilized somewhere.
2 - Poly-hybridism
The job is too short in generations to permit a margin that identify the GG#4 as a true polyhybrid.
3 - Standard
The initial standard is globally decried. Even, about the cut.
From my point of view i don’t see any advantage to use all these watered-down Diesel injections so often, to finally do a labyrinthine BX.
It’s more about a question of time really spent in R&D than anything else.
The standard of cannabis is dual : Grade + Quality = Standard
The whole season of the farmer happens in two phases : the production then the processing, and represent the global quality aimed and rationalized.
Why spending more time and more resources on a cheap low standard made for the bulk market ?
How to increase the competitiveness of a genpool without increasing its standard ?
Like any farm, a smart strategy become fast a virtuous circle.
Production - Genetic Health
I can't list exhaustively all problems leading to a DNA denaturation, almost anything in an ecosystem can play this role at the right moment.
One automatic leverage of quality is the management of the health of the living DNA : motherplants are directly concerned.
To check the box of the “Genetic Health” leverage then to enjoy its passive gains, you should consider this as a sanitary profile mostly made from observations and regular maintenance.
Consider anything stimulating the primordial defenses of the plants as a potential denaturation of the DNA, then as a risk for the predictability and the grade of your selections. Off course we talk about epigenetics fators strong enough to modify the behavior of one progeny, not about a single mistake in the nute’s schedule or a season a bit more cold than the previous.
Now let’s consider the three cases that a HQ farm can encounter in breeding :
- max genetic health ressource (artificial peak, apogee, planning) = ready for genetic production
- P1 female wounded veg-mature and just before being transplanted in 10 clones of 100 seeds = production on hold, the line is entering in cares.
- P1 female wounded beyond the natural senescence and just before being transplanted in 10 clones of 100 seeds = holly shit, lets start an emergency BX and IBL.
In the diagram, the % of intensity of DNA is a shorcut to explain the mess it is when a plant is triggered on multiple fronts.
You saw already in previous sections the complex game of the heterozigosity and alleles for just one trait, imagine the war now when the plant have to read its DNA most of the time to face multiple lethal threats : most of its energy is wasted in emergency expressions, and not really to express its phenotype. It’s a fragile balance where the vigor and the congenital health play a role.
Production - Seeds Production
As stupid that it appear, nothing better to drive accurate selections than fresh, vigorous, well calibrated and matured seeds. And it’s another underestimated passive leverage.
With a weak progeny the DNA will be a bit excited instead being used passively as a blueprint for the phenotype. Not an advantage for the predictability of the progeny.
In this little graphic the whole purpose to only use the best grade of seeds to produce genetics.
In Green : A high grade and fresh seed that was produced in taking care about the regime of the mother. The dna will just be used by the plant for the architecture.
In Yellow : By mistake a cytokinin booster was given to the mother during the seed formation, making the cuticle (in pink) hard like dry leather. The seedling spend most of its energy and reserves to generate an expression that overcome a strangulating cuticle.
In Red, a seeded mother attacked by mildiew and gnats during the seed formation. In pink, an infected cuticle by mildiew. In red, a food reserve deprivated by the chewed roots of the mother. The whole energy of the seedling is spent by the defenses.
A streamlined high quality of the seeds used for the production of the genetics has a direct passive impact on the quality of selections : the breeding stock have to be stellar.
While your seeded clone is hardenning the ovulas in flowers, the plant is already determining the quality of the offspring. Spoiler : It’s (almost) all about the food given to the seeded specimens.
In green in the graphic, the direct production of the specimen during the formation of the seeds. It’s the hot spot of disformations and mutations generated during the formation of the seeds.
-
APEX (gibberelins)
Critical function : First node. Decide when the first vital photosynthesis will occur. The sooner the better.
-
COTYLEDONS (auxins)
Critical function : First and unique complex food until the first true photosynthesis (2nd node).
-
RADICLE (auxins)
Critical function : To colonize and to provide oxygenated water.
For the example, if during the formation of the embryos the mother receive nutrients enriched with hormones … it can compromise the quality of the seeds directly on three critical points.
-
SHELL (cellulose)
Critical function : The bunker of the embryo, during 4 months or decades.
-
CUTICLE (abscisic acid)
Critical function : The cosmonaut suit of the seed.
-
ENDOSPERM (auxins)
Critical function : The snack backpack of the embryo.
These points will be more affected by different cases of excess and residues in the medium of the mother : high Cal or high limestone in soil that harden the shell, cuticle hard like leather because the mother was P overfert, and for the endosperm it’s directly the first week of grow that is scheduled. It’s the food backpack of sprouts, and prepared also during the seed’s formation.
Keep it as a guideline to search your way :
- None hormonal treatment / enrichment during the formation and the maturation of the seeds.
- Dedicated feeding schedules that are copious but simple, zero flo boosters, basic micros.
- Between the hardenning of ovulas and the ripenning of the seeds, a streamlined grow that dodge hydric extremes.
To stabilize early the quality of the seeds produced is critical.
Processing - Harvest
Behind the apparent innocence of this step, the eventual leverages to increase the global quality are numerous and diversified.
First it’s important to identify the needs of the seeded female involved and its profile of flowers.
-
Early pollination, fluffy bud, normally resinous, low water content in vegetal mass, Haze female. We will maybe dry the plant entirely un-trimmed, then watch if the drying process isn’t too fast.
-
High yield pollination, rock dense buds, very resinous, high water content in vegetal mass, Kush female. Maybe we will trim directly the individuals buds and dry them in a net, watching the duration as well.
Tips : Take care about the strains that are very oily while seeded. They really need a “curing phase” to let the shell fully absorb the oil after the water. If dried too fast the homogenization will be bad and it can worry the germination rates.
Basically sorting the seeds by maturation, then by size. Useless to explain, but the leverages behind aren’t always considered.
Sorting the seeds by grades permit to pre-screen the best products for genetics uses.
AAA Seeds even with a good mother, are rares because exceptionnally shaped or sized. Genetic material.
AA Seeds should be 50%-75% of the whole production or something is wrong in the process or the timing. Genetic material.
Irregular A : Seeds perfectly mature and shaped but with various sizes or eventual disformations. For weed.
Grade B can eventually fit cheap freebies and bulk offers, i generally do the weirdest experiences I’ve in mind with these grades. Exotic germination, tests of new lethal epigenetics factors … For guinea pigs.
Below grade B it’s woody and dry immature seeds, they are good in salad.
This a practical example on how i manage this simply, a portion of my standard.
No matter the amount of seeds, i do it manually but it can be machined also.
Like a grand pa with a plank drilled with holes just below the right diameter or with 5 digits industrial machines that are quite impressive now in term of parameters.
This step is worth a dozen of tutorials and it concern the treatment of calibrated seeds. In the agronomy the sprectum of use is quite wide, from a targeted pesticid coating the seed to anti-fungi in passing by colchicine, girrebellic acids … the suject is really vast.
But in the concept of a standard it’s something to integrate even if the only process integrated is by example a “seed washer” to be sure to have a certified by labs “0% THC hemp product”.
The treatment of the seeds can matter for various reason. In term of standard of quality you can make a difference as a litle label or as a little gear if you prepare your seeds with banes improving the vigor or reducing drastically the necessary time to transplant a first time.
Dutch Passion (seeds pictured in the tittle) and Green House Seeds used this extra but more as an identification system for mixed packs, the approach was bad. Too expensive for the goal aimed, and seed-coating is strain-specific due to the principal production we are breeding for : the content of trichomes. “One line, one formula.”
The drying process is most of the time limited to don’t store the seeds with too much water. Preventing bad germination rates and fungi. It’s quite fast with experience to naturally feel with the fingers the right texture of the shell : not too slippery (water), not too greasy (oil).
Moisture analyzers to check the dry stage of seeds can be found quite easily and all prices. Those sold an hundred are generally enough and fast.
The generic rule, is to dry the seeds under 10%. Generally between 3% (freeze) and 5% (fridge), but the line can affect the sweet spot with the rate of oil/lipids in seeds.
Honestly just giving a shit normally of your drying process, is giving you an edge on the average commercial release. And you keep a track of the freshness of seeds, you’re already competitive.
Not much informative trick outside to dry your seeds with the care that you give to your weed. And you think about a label, well at least a stock management in head for seed’s age. All kind of wholesalers always appreciate.
So dry them slowly but dry them enough to only feel a light oily feeling on the fingers.
At this step it exist also a couple of treatment existing that i will group as “gas treatment”. Generally just after the pesticide bane, industrial seeds are directly dried by gas treatment. Various ones, from essential oils to ethylen gas. It’s generally redondant with the banes, to penetrate with gas what the solution doesn’t.
It’s not about the flashy sticker you will choose but more about the multiple flows you have to feed with an unique intermediate stock : genpool, protos, r&d, releases, stock refresh of one line … one time they are well processed and ready to shoot, you have a “bulk stock” that later will be dialed.
The rule is simple : seeds are a living material with a “best before” date. Of course, the better grade the better lifespan.
So treat it like food that need refrigeration. I personally prefer to reserve the stock in vacuum ziplock for their first meet with the fridge. But whatever hermetic and emptied from its air will do the job. Don’t forget : don’t break the chain of the cold and you should be fine for years with good seeds.
Processing - Storage & Library
These two categories are all about the planning of the farm, but also about the risk management.
An active library is where the selected specimens in production are : motherplants (clones production), the clones themselves (weed/seeds), the seedlings. the quarantine … it’s the genetic library in real time.
A passive storage is where the unselected specimens are : seeds of inbred lines, a nursery subcontractor, fresh entries in the genpool, but also the intermediate stock of seeds i was talking about previously.
Behind the dumbass consideration, a true decisional advantage while you’re producing one or a fews catalog at a time.
Let’s start with the library and its context :
- The A1 female was found in an IBL selection, offering many genetic and productive assets.
- The A5 male is the brother of the A1 and its equivalent in term of evolution of the genotype A.
- The B1 male is another ressources of the library planned to be used to produce the AB11 F1 with the A1.
The graphic represent the potential dynamic of one single specimen. Even if the specimens able to perform in the four directions are quite rares, it’s better for your organization to consider all specimens on this model. This way, their partial use can be left to the context.
On the top layer you have the recycling loop. If you maintain a given genetic reference, it’s that you don’t want to lose it obviously. At short term you have the propagation by clones and at long term the propagation by seeds. This section isn’t about breeding grade again, the field of the stoner. Ïn the farm you’re exclusively in the processes and the seasonal planning (indoor or outdoor).
So the very first dominance test of a cut is in the process as well that its stabilized version years later. It’s still 1 slot in the farm anyway for the daily routine. The difference being that you’re “jailed” to renew the motherplant (genetic health) until you outperform or at least equal it.
One time a (genetically) reliable BX or IBL is set, you’re free to go in seeds to replace the reference by better.
It’s always important to rationnalize what will cost the line overall when it enter in the genpool. Putting it in the balance with the rationnal genetic reward aimed is helping to launch the seeds at the right time, for optimal conditions.
A neat planning joined to known processes permit to have an idea instantly of how many time will cost a final hybrid from scratch. Whatever if it’s for a negociation or for the R&D.
This diagram is a fidel representation of a true cup winner circa 2008-2010, and beyond the presentation of the sequence there is some important prevention in term of storage management.
So we start with the A15 Gen1 in Jan2K, a fresh F1 checking all boxes to compete. Except the bag appeal, carried by a recessive NL that provide unstable results.
The goal was to stabilize plushy/round buds with long pistils and that were drying like stones. Not a dreamy shopping list at all, but the description of the reccurent expression to make dominant/stable.
Apr2K, a first selection was made with two different mendelian strategy and one of the two opposites pairings just failed when tested on the fly. The buds hunted just disapeared. Seeds were given, the A15 Gen2-B becomed the main WIP line.
During the test-round in Jul2K, i make a promising pairing but that failed by lack of linked traits with the “rounded buds”.
So i invoked the storage :
- I have launched all seeds remaining of A15 Gen3-B to have enough combinations to find a linked bud shape.
- I have launched all seeds remaining of A15 Gen1 to generate directly a progeny locked in the heterozigosity required.
I Jan2K1, the A15 Gen4-B2 gave the female and the A15 Gen2-C1 gave the male of a bankable female cut and seeds (not to retail, to trade with the cut).
What’s important to catch in this slice of breeding is the generational message that i will assume entirely. Past the “good enough” stage, the needs become more tailored and demanding at a time. So the breeding correlated with this kind of product, wich can’t be an easy and straight line.
The management of this genetic buffer is not only a time machine on demanding/cocky hybridizations, but also the insurance to be on the fastest at this game with a polished planning.
Just a feeling lol : The final line was a (Male F2 x Female F4) of the same initial line, making it a F5 (Gen5) BX1, as the final cut screened from this.
The productive STOCK
This is maybe the most complicated qualitative parameter to transmit to someone that never worked on high constraints. Mastering the tempo of the lab and germinating the seeds at the right moment still a critical factor to improve the quality of the lines.
In the chain of production, this stock is a buffer that depend entirely on the capacity. It’s the only checkpoint where the stoner and the farmer can merge their respective strategies for the sake of the common interest : improving the genetics.
Stay focused and try to extrapolate progessively the explanations to your case, even virtual. It’s more complicated that it look, and it literrally determine if you can integrate the market in a durable way.
Let’s consider a lab now with a single unit of production, a 4x4. But by the spectrum of the capacity in term of number of specimens.
This is the average stat i keep in mind for a 4x4 tent/space. This is not a maxima or a minima, but a safe stat to handle the vast majority of strains in a kind of sweet spot in term of constraints.
It’s not arbitrary numbers, and behind them there is bunch of considerations : the unit have to use the same equipment at different density, this density represent ratio between a comfortable environment for the plants and a valuable round of reproduction.
Now consider all of this (rvk, lights, watering strategy, feeding chart, artificial duration of the grow planned …) in letting work your imagination a little bit with two opposite strains.
Let’s take a comtemporary haze like the Jack Herer. It’s in the group of the narrowed shapes. The “spades” that are auxins freaks. So you can lower the zone of comfort for this strain a bunch : 50-70 in juvenile stage, 30-40 in mature veg, 25 in mature flo.
On the other side of the equation, you have strains that are quite bushy or that are naturally dominating with their perimeter.
A White Widow will be bushy (like all cytokinins freaks) within the second stage. But this genotype handle very well extreme densities in breeding. The zone of comfort of the strain being lower than the Jack Herer, the capacity increase proportionnally. Let’s say by a good 30%.
Now an underrated, still difficult, line that i appreciate : The California Indica (SS), that can be considered as a cyto-gib freak a bit like the Hempstar. This shit when vegged just want to kill everything around with its shadow, making in breeding the use of dense rounds quite expensive and less efficient than a perpetual germination. Until the stock for the round is gone. Better to stick with the reference with this one to do a proper job : 25-16-9/4x4
These slots change with each repro, selection, proto … it’s important to integrate it early even if it look overkill. Next time you have something to do with this line you will know instantly and accurately what represent the slots of such a round : number of clean pots to have, volume of medium to have, eventually nutrients cost and light cost … that become decisional tools.
This graphic show that the slots themselves are inflatable and deflatable, and this isn’t predictable.
-
The RED specimen shown none of traits hunted : the slot is free. It’s an opportunity to replace it with a spare seedling or seed, from this project or another.
-
The PURPLE specimen is a male selected and will leave the main space : the slot is free.
-
The BLUE specimen represent the full range of finalists : from January to March.
You do your homework so it’s what you got :
JH (Fn+1) IBL(main)
- Genetic funnel : 50->25 (50% screened)
- 2 pairs hunted : 4 finalists (92% rejected)
- Indicative duration : zeroveg, 120 days
- Operationnal cost : 500$
- Cost per Finalist : 1$/day per 4x4
WW (Fn+1) Repro(freshDNA)
- Genetic funnel : 65->35 (47% screened)
- 1 pairs hunted : 2 finalists (97% rejected)
- Indicative duration : 85 days (veg25-flo60)
- Operationnal cost : 425$
- Cost per Finalist : 2,5$/day per 4x4
CI (Fn+1) Selection (main)
- Genetic funnel : 25->9 (64% screened)
- 2 pairs hunted : 4 finalists (84% rejected)
- Indicative duration : 95 days (veg30-flo60)
- Operationnal cost : 330$
- Cost per Finalist : 0.86$/day per 4x4
At this point you can compare the rounds and to choose wisely when and how to start them. You can also prioritize the rounds : why not keeping the most expensive rounds for December, just before the rush of the sales of Spring ?
Even for a little surface, this kind of datas have their importances. That’s the down-to-earth aspect of the farmer’s side.
The Calendar
As crazy that it look, it’s not a common tool used by stoners. The farmer need oit to plan the saeson, but also to calculate the capacity.
In the single 4x4 of the example, the farmer can fit the three projects : the JH ibl, the WW repro and the CI selection. Let’s see if it’s strategic.
The three lines : a total of 140 specimens screened, 10 living materials extracted + a bonus of one round with a short line (<65 days).
Only the WW all the year with perpetual germination in perpetual grow : with culling that’s around 100 specimens per 60 days batch, 6 rounds per season then a total of ~600 specimens screened for 2 high accuracy living materials extracted.
Now the planning become a true leverage of adaptation.
The Trades
The stock of the farmer only concern the current season and the genetics used for this cycle. Everything else is not his business.
The trades concern the harvest of the seeds or the clones but also what come from the inventory, the genpool, in real time.
If the stoner forgot some seeds in a corner of the fridge, the farmers launch it automatically to maintain the stock the freshest possible. The farmer also kno if it’s th right moment to receive a new cut in production or not, with the motherplant to maintain aside.
Fresh DNA
Beside the flow between the genpool and the farm, there is a margin proper with having fun with nature : testing the line of a friend, receiving in emergency some old risky seeds to save for yesterday but also facing an emergency : all motherplants to renew in emergency, a test–line that say “throw all seeds of the last three generations” with the urge to use the time machine with seeds 4gen old.
For this don’t go crazy too often and stay around a 75% capacity to stay agile.
The productive GENETICS
The concept to grasp a portion of quality here, is to never blend the three categories until they have reached an singular evolution.
A portion of the genpool that stay constantly in evolution isn’t only waiting the last day of the freshness limit of the stock. Repetitive repros are handly to screen herms but don’t lead much somewhere outside the averages in general.
If a progression for the given genpool is wanted, each line of this type should be considered as first priority. If they passed the status of “simple repro” to a true genetic material, what’s the point to let it sleep in the fridge more than the others.
It’s important in term of slots and calendar too. A sedentary line planned to evolve is one of the most expensive in term of seeds and lab. The insurance to find a better pair than the previous one become harder with the number of generations, and the ratio of selection fall in underground.
You can “grow them all”. But in breeding you have to choose your horses to be competitive.
It’s virtually possible to maintain an evolution with 100 lines, but with how much staff ?
This is maybe the stronger leverage of quality of the whole but also the longer and the harder : reaching the point to create hybrids only with true "in house"genetics that evolve each other season. Take in count also that it mechanically improve the hybrids made from these materials.
The experience + the pragmatic Farmer’s calendar, will tell you how much lines you can handle this way. And don’t let a line sleeping in fridge because the name, if it’s not good enough and that you’re lazy to germinated it to improve it … maybe you should reconsider the presence of the said line, locking many slots for nothing.
First priority in the Farmer’s calendar.
The prototypes regroup everything related to the R&D. Generally single shots to map a dominance or to test a pheno, but it contain also more long and advanced methods like polyploidy breeding, different kind of reversal, and extreme experiments.
Here it’s more about the discipline. To transform the prototypes in evolutive genetic material before really using them. It’s not because you got this nice bud with this lucky pairing that it’s necessary a good bet on long term, transform this luck in a reliable asset and stabilize what you should be.
Second priority in the Farmer’s calendar.
Raw materials are considered as not mapped even if they are known and have already be grown. It’s not because you bought the strain XYZ 2018 that you will get the same genotype with the strain XYZ 2024.
You can put in this category different lines sent by the Stoner : sourcing a line, “motherize” a cut, entering a line that need to be cleaned, sourcing a landrace, even the seeds of friends to test. To enter in the genpool, they have to pass the quality check of the prototypes.
Last priority in the Farmer’s calendar.
We are now in the home of the Stoner and in the “call of the weed” of the hunting.
It’s no longer a question of competitive quality that everyone with a hint of regularity can reach. It’s about the grade of the work then directly in wich league you’re playing.
Come back in the introduction about the GG#4, and try to decide as a stoner what kind of project to do now 
-
An hybrid with something popular : seedfinder say that 686 referenced crosses are listed, enough to be considered as already crossed with “everything”.
-
Trying to outperform the reference : Now you’re talking. It can be on a single trait, a set or even only based on blind smoke tests … still better than the 687th chunk about it.
Don’t be this young dog running everywhere and considering everything as a potential release.
It’s just eventually an asset to build with the Farmer. Call him to know what it take to play this league, but only if you already have in mind the breeding plan.
Lead Breeding
A good lead breeding is the most adapted one in front of unplanned worries along the breeding plans.
Replacing a line, using a cut BX, using the time machine to hunt back something … it’s the lead breeding of the Stoner. The Farmer just impose the practical constraints of the project.
Unfortunately, this is not a spot where you can grasp passively some leverage like the quality. It need a constant observation of the averages, and regular comparisons.
The grade of a line is initially a decision that is setting the goals, then later the market is setting if your grade is competitive or not against a similar offer.
Breeding plans
The breeding plan is the temporary “how to” that the Farmer will apply in selection/maintenance. And “reducing flowering time” isn’t a decent breeding plan.
We saw in the Farmer’s production that many traits can help the passive gain of quality : cloning performances, answer to pruning, pest & disease resistance … to reinforce the genetic health.
If it’s leveraged from the lead breeding, the competitive quality become graded as well : weed + the most vigorous seedlings of similar offers. If in bonus you fix a problem of the initial reference (herms, bad cloning, lack of vigor…), it’s a jackpot to impose your line.
The same way it can be interresting to leverage the quality and the grade of the seeds produced : duration of maturation, calibre, germination rate, quality of the endosperm, nutrient’s tolerance …
At each step of the loop, the Stoner should think about what to bring on the table of the competitivity.
It’s statistically very rare to can cumulate passively all advantages of the productive linked traits, without building a backbone-line from it. But not rare to find at least one favorable linked trait linked with the weed (vegetal mass + chemotype) that only need an equal watching to be maintained or better, improved.
But checking during the selection if all rejected phenotypes are those that clone the faster and the better, by example, is also doing a job of prevention.lIt can teach what the weed hlnted represent in term of cost to the genotype and how to prevent it.
