Breeding 101 Subs Method

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Lets take a look at Breeding a Strain.

There are many schools of thought on this one many like A/B hybe and STP feel that using STS to reverse a clone and create a stress herm to out cross with or in Soma’s case he uses clones that have very late male flowers or naners. Don’t think we can’t do this JC and OV get these after day 60 so it’s not magic and I love Soma but IMO it’s the easy way out. My mom always told me anything worth doing is worth doing correctly. I feel the male is essential in the proper breeding of any hybrid and when working with 4-6 Elite mothers and fathers from the same genetic pool you get the magic island effect or the Galapagos theory. This is my own and in isolation with inter breeding among special hybrids can crate magic. Look at the amazing colorful birds on isolated island that did not get a chance to breed with the dull and or ordinary but instead the extraordinary. Got it?

Lets look at some pictures that I have yet to see other Established breeders post.

Selecting Sputnik for back crossing.
When cubing a strain it is important to start with a mom you know is very stable, with stands stress and shock well, is a strain you absolutly love and in my case I have cracked over 3000 seeds so I think I have a decent eye for what at least pleases me.
Now we do not work with thousands of plants but this is far from breeding in a trailer bathroom with 1 male and 1 female with plants covered in mites ( yes a fairly reputable breeder created a well known strain under these conditions)

Lets look at our test labs in other countries.

So we really are passionate about this stuff and our goal is to make better genetics for medical users to benefit from, the fact we make enough for others is what we call down south gravy.

Lets look at a few fems.

 

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So simplified Dank X Dank can make danker

Lets look at Apollo-13 and I will get into how to outcross.

Soul claims only 500 of these seeds were ever produced and the owners of the few females cuts to survive are somewhat of a cult. I created some waves when we first used her in a breeding project but after awhile it was ok as most remembered they didn’t breed her just find her and I am making her available again to the masses.

So what now? I have been growing this same clone for some 8 years and its so stable it’s crazy never seen a herm flower or any problems she will shift in and out of bud pretty easy and is easy to clone. She ships well to.

This is the strain I choose to work with for the last few years and into the future.
A truly amazing find.

I think its a good start.

 

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So we now had a Purple plant that I loved the looks the flavor even the buzz in the mornings. Black Russian even has scissor goo that looks like grape taffy. The problem is I am known for devastating potency and incredible raised trichomes. Now if you follow us at all you know I think Grimm’s Apollo-13 is the cure all to lack of potency and so far I have been absolutely correct. So we take a male using our same criteria with a new twist, we budded all the males out and selected the one with the most purple coloring. Now we can have a month long discussion on botany and argue if this works or not or like we did make it and grow it out and see what happens.

WE made the cover of BigBook 3 and the calender thats what happened.

 

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Once we had the Black Russian X Apollo-13 cross complete we gave it a name. Sputnik seemed like a logical selection and I think you can see we were beyond successful. We grew-out several seeds and we found that basically, we get two different phenotypes. The first is an eye-candy lady that you see so much of, starting with pink calyx and just oozing resin; we knew instantly we had achieved our desired results. Smelling like Blackberry jam and swelling to a wonderful large cola-covered-THC-factory. I will never tire of photographing this girl. At 4 weeks the pink stared changing to a magenta color and even the trichomes took on a pink to purple coloring. This particular phenotype, we gave the name Pinky. The other phenotype (Whitey) was a surprise to me and also a valuable learning experience! Whitey exhibited no purple coloring in fact the plant was ultra-white and during flowering, she almost smelled like a “blue cream soda”. As the plant matured it took on a weird pungent smell and before it cured out a bit, MzJill and I both thought it smelled pretty foul. After about two weeks of curing I decided to give it another chance and it knocked my socks off. A grower friend, who sampled it, said it almost gave her visuals. So we knew the cross had potential. Now how to improve on her again?

Back Crossing
The concept of back crossing, again is simple in theory, you only pollinate to your P1 mother plant using sibling male offspring. Selecting a male from the Sputnik 1.0 cross we then pollinated the Apollo-13 sugar mom, using a male selected by the criteria explained above. The first cross can be explained as a 50/50 and the second a 25/75 with 75% of her make up coming from the Apollo-13 mother. That 75% cross, or Sputnik 2.0, is now complete and ready for the final stage.

So now I have an established dank color strain but I am more intrigued with the Whitey genetics. We crack a load of Sputnik 1 and select a male that does not have any purple traits visible.

We use this male to Create Sputnik 2

So we grow out Sp 2 and basically we have a mystery. Its really good like as good or in some cases better than the A-13? It looks extremely similar to Apollo but has a added sweet taste that is very pleasing. We are also pleased to say that the Pink/Purple gene still lurks inside the Sp 2 just at a much lower percentage.

These are pictures of Sputnik 2.0 from friends of TGA

 

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So here is the big secret to real dank genetics.
I did not like the results and did not like the flavor the Black Russian added.
I scrapped all this work and started again

Thats right if you don't like the end results then you have to be driven not by profit but by the quest for Dank. In the end even with all there fame I abandoned these lines and made a fresh start!

What came next?

I guess you will have to tune in.

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[Seamaiden]

Alright, I'd like to jump on for the ride. This stuff's gonna be a bit tricky for me to absorb.

 

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I have been growing for some twenty-five years now, and I have started hundreds of different strains in my life. Recently I decided to start some Space Queen that I had stashed for many years. Vic High originally created this cross using his Romulan and Cinderella-99. I was never a huge fan of Romulan, although I liked the exotic flavor of Romberry.

This is what Vic had to say about the Space Queen cross.
“Space Queen was the only reason I invested in C99 in the first place. Ever since I heard the description of Soul's princess I knew her and Romulan would be the perfect match. Then prototype crosses between P75 and Romberry started pumping out the winners that have found keeper status in many select gardens. Each of these keepers, exhibit a blend of the C-99 and the Romulan characteristics. Space Queen is a Romulan/C-99 hybrid. Flavor and potency are sure things; both parents are known for their high potency and great highs. Lemon, pine, and pineapple all swirl in a pungent bouquet to tantalize your taste buds!! Vigor will be outstanding and you'll be able to cut back on the light intensity somewhat Flowering time will be comparable to Romberry, averaging eight weeks but depending on grower and grow environment. Yield will be above average, but she won't be a top production plant. I hope she puts a smile on a few faces.”

We started a ten pack of seeds just too finally; give this strain a run organically. We selected the best four males and best four females. I’m sure I will catch some heat from the larger scale breeders for starting with such low numbers, but it is the only pack I had to work with. Each plant was labeled and photographed each week to record progress. Resin was forming extremely early on the stalks and the undersides of the leaf surfaces. By week three of the flowering process (twelve hours of light-twelve hours of dark) each female had taken on a wonderful Pineapple-Lemon-Mango smell.

We selected the male which was the slowest to show sex, this theory is based upon “breeding selection processes” spelled out in my last article. We are looking for the ‘recessive drug traits’ in the male rather than ‘hemp dominant traits’. The male we choose was the very last to show sex and he best met all of our other selection criteria. (The other males were passed along to other TGA members for testing.) Large tight stamen clusters on a selected male is also a good indication of quality, as you can see; our dude has nice tight clusters. You can also see ‘resin blobs’ on his empty stamens. I have never before been able to see the ‘resinous glue’ on an empty stamen, mainly because I have just recently upgraded my camera and I am now able to photograph down to one centimeter. This male was tested by ‘out-crossing’ with a known ‘true breeding IBL’ Orange Skunk, known as Orange Velvet. The off-spring was grown-out to determine if the proper characteristics would be passed on. The out-cross of Orange Velvet and Space Queen was created by MzJill, the strain is known as Jilly Bean. This hot new strain is winning over gardens everywhere; with a dank orange-mango smell and more resin than the original Orange Velvet mom. My favorite phenotype smells like a candy store! We now have a male that we know will pass along the proper taste, potency and in the case of Orange Velvet, added yield as well.


By day 36 we knew we had a strain that might be a much better choice than Black Russian as an outcross.

 

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The female Space Queens were labeled as follows; they also took on nick names or trait descriptions to help us keep better documentation of each.
A.Smallest over-all with a funky semi-rotting smell.
B.The most resinous nicknamed Frosty-Queen.
C.Best internodal spacing, potency and largest buds.
D.Jolly Rancher
The females grew rapidly during vegetation period.
*MzJill picked the phenotype labeled C, as the best based on internodal spacing and over all look. As they started flowering, phenotype C still stood out as the best looking, based on size and overall growth.
*The smallest phenotype appeared to have the most resin, B renamed Frosty Queen is over the top with raised trichomes, forming all the way to leaf edge and tip. This is probably the most photogenic plant. You can see the raised trichomes and amazing coverage of resin.
*There is a red phenotype, labeled as D but renamed as Jolly Rancher. It is the strangest and the most unlike the other three. It has a hint of cherry and extremely red pistils that really stand out as the colas dry. My favorite of the four is A. It is less fruity than B and C and has the smell of Genius and Apollo-13. I say it smells like ‘baby poo’ but that’s not right really. It smells of slightly rotten fruit, a slight pungency mixed with fruit and citrus. It was not a heavy yielder. The plant only yielded forty-eight grams on a five-foot bush with four heads, so she was culled. She has been passed along to SunyCheba for safe keeping.

MzJill was completely right about phenotype C. She just became a tremendous plant with large dripping colas that started plumping after day fifty of flowering. She smells a lot like C-99, she has a sweet smell that reminds me of Granny Smith Apples cooked in vanilla. She yielded more than any other plant with four mass heads that just look like showcase nugs. As Phenotype C started curing the nugs took on a candy-like smell with a hint of apples, lime-green in color with bright orange and red hues accented by brilliant resin production. In sunlight it looks like jewelry sparkling like diamonds.

 

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At three weeks of curing the unique cherry smell of D or Jolly Rancher, seems to have faded and although the buzz is extreme, it doesn’t measure up to the other three and will be culled from the heard. Phenotype B known as Frosty Queen may be too small to keep for long term but for now she makes a great head stash with amazing cream colored kief. I still like the flavor of Phenotype A but she grows like a vine and is a bit hard to manage, so time will tell. Phenotype C will be in our garden for a long time and is used as our P1 mom for our Space Queen F2, aka, Space Jill. MzJill still keeps a jar of Space Queen, phenotype C, as head-stash. So now we have a proven male based on out-crossing with a known IBL (Orange Velvet) and we have a female of the Space Queen strain that would be a prize in any garden.

We grew out a good sized Space Queen C and placed her into flowering time, seven days prior to starting the male to assure a good amount of pistils to be pollinated. The male will start to show flowers at fourteen days and by twenty-one days the first stamen will open. We place the female in a room completely separate from our main growing area and place a fan in the room. Jill and I both like to use barely open male stamens to sprinkle grains onto each bud and try and capture the grains of pollen falling in the air. The plants spend a few days together under a 400 watt light with the fan gently blowing the pollen all over the female as each stamen opens. After three full days the female is then removed and rinsed repeatedly with water to de-activate the pollen and make any loose grains non-viable.


Thanks to MzJill for these amazing pictures

 

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It takes a full forty-five to fifty days from this point (after pollination) for the seeds in this particular hybrid, to mature, every cross is different and some may take much longer to fully mature. We generally wait until we can actually see mature seeds protruding from the calyx. We pulled a test bud at sixty-five days flower and ran a germ test on one-hundred seeds and got a ninety-five percent germ rate after the seeds dried for two full weeks. The resulting cross was grown-out in test gardens. The cross took on the nickname Space Jill because MzJill was the one who knew which female was the best long before it had buds. The hybrid has quickly become a favorite because the first one-thousand seeds were given away as freebies. Usually free seeds are not primo, but in this case I had a few people tell me they liked the Space Jill more than the more expensive crosses.

 

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[FONT=&quot]We liked the attributes and stability of the Space Queen male, now known as Space Dude. He has been used in out-crosses with Apollo-13, creating the Vortex; Jacks Cleaner, creating Jack The Ripper and Sweet Tooth #3, creating Space Tooth. We continue to work with this line to improve upon other crosses or to bring a ‘clone-only’ strain to seed form so that others may enjoy the dankness.

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Glossary

Calyx… The whorl of sepals of a flower collectively forms the outer floral envelope or layer of the perianth enclosing and supporting the developing bud; usually green.
Clone… An organism descended asexually from a single ancestor, such as a plant produced by layering or a polyp produced by budding.
Dominant… Of, relating to, or being an allele that produces the same phenotypic effect whether inherited with a homozygous or heterozygous allele.

F1… When you cross two different IBL strains for the FIRST time, it is called the F1 generation.

F2… When you cross two of the same F1 hybrid (inbreed), it is called the F2 generation.
Hemp… A coarse bushy annual with palmate leaves and clusters of small green flowers; yields tough fibers.
Hybrid… A strain made up of two genetically unlike parents, IBL or hybrid.

IBL… (Inbred line) is a genetically homogeneous strain that grows uniformly from seed. An IBL is homozygous, or true breeding for particular traits.

Off-spring… The progeny or descendants of a plant considered as a group.

Out-cross… A female crossed with a male with the soul intention of inbreeding the sibling line to the mother plant.

P1… original parental generation used to develop F1 hybrids or stabilized, true breeding strains.

Phenotype… The observable, qualifiable and quantifiable representation of a trait.

Pistil… The female, ovule-bearing organ of a flower, including the stigma, style, and ovary.

Pollen… The fine powder like material consisting of pollen grains that is produced by the anthers of seed plants.

Potency… The quality or state of being potent. strength/efficacy/effectiveness
Recessive… Tending to go backward or recede. Of or relating to a trait that is expressed only when the determining allele is present in the homozygous condition.
Resin… Trichomes come in three different types, Bulbous, Capitate-Sessile and Capitate-Stalked.

Stamens… The pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower, usually consisting of a filament and an anther.

TGA... Team Green Avengers, The Green Avengers and The Green Avenger.

THC… Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol & delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol - THC mimics the action of anandamide, a neurotransmitter produced naturally in the body, which binds with the cannabinoid receptors in the brain to produce the ‘high’ associated with marijuana. THC possesses high UV-B (280-315 nm) absorption properties.

Trait… A genetically determined characteristic or condition: a recessive trait.

Trichomes… Cannabis resin glands.

Vegetation… The process of growth in plants, prior to producing flowers/blooms/fruits

 

[gimley]

Although I am sure you get many complements I wanted to say thanks for this write up. I really enjoy the scientific style of your writing and the way you present this information, learned a lot and gave me a good deal to think about for my long term goals in this eternal quest for the dankness.

 

[bonz]

great info. haven`t read it all, but so far, nice work.

 

[sir smokesalot]

great post, more please

 

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Although I am sure you get many complements I wanted to say thanks for this write up. I really enjoy the scientific style of your writing and the way you present this information, learned a lot and gave me a good deal to think about for my long term goals in this eternal quest for the dankness.

Just for the record no ones get to the point they dont like people saying thanks.
Its my one flaw with this site. I feel people dont see me as reg people and dont respond as often.
I wake and bake just like you guys and what you think of be means a lot!!

Compliments always welcome.

Sub

 

[bonz]

well ican say for myself i realy apreciate all the effort you put in doing this. i know it`s alot of work, been there.
+ rep

 

[Seamaiden]

Just for the record no ones get to the point they dont like people saying thanks.
Its my one flaw with this site. I feel people dont see me as reg people and dont respond as often.
I wake and bake just like you guys and what you think of be means a lot!!

Compliments always welcome.

Sub

Alright, my compliments! ESPECIALLY for the glossary (I've built a glossary, too, so I know what goes into it), because without it I was a little lost. Actually, more a thanks for the glossary (and all the fish?). I'm just wishing like hell I had this about... three or four weeks ago, I would have chosen my males much differently.

I especially enjoy reading about MzJill's plants, I really love how she names them.

 

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Alright, my compliments! ESPECIALLY for the glossary (I've built a glossary, too, so I know what goes into it), because without it I was a little lost. Actually, more a thanks for the glossary (and all the fish?). I'm just wishing like hell I had this about... three or four weeks ago, I would have chosen my males much differently.

I especially enjoy reading about MzJill's plants, I really love how she names them.

Seamaiden my advise is to scrap that male better to do things right that wrong.
being a breeder means making really hard choices at times.

 

[Seamaiden]

You'll only have to tell me once. Thank you.