Breeder’s Corner – Time Saving Breeding Moves

Welcome today, Earthlings. Time saving breeding moves is exactly what it sounds like it is. Saving time during the cannabis breeding processes. When you think about it, that’s what it is really all about. You can always do things the long way. Nothing wrong with that, plus, the long way is almost always 100%. Using shortcuts is fantastic, however, you operate more around the 80% success rate. Still, 80% in breeding terms are crazy good odds, yeah? 😎

I have told you all before about how I study the Cotyledons (the first rounded leaves on sprouts) on brand new sprouts. I use a powerful magnifying glass (30x) and study the leaf hair patterns. Specifically, the leaf hair density. Cotyledons with the greatest leaf hair density are indicative of plants that can produce more resin in my experience. This is extra handy if these turn out to be male plants. These males will normally breed with very high resin production potential. Yup. About 80% winners.

I wanted o mention the above for any of you that had missed that advice in a previous article by me. Now, for some more time saving breeding moves, let’s roll…

Time Saving Breeding Moves #1 – Sprouting Photoperiod

I sprout my plants on a (normally flowering) photoperiod of 12/12. That’s 12 hrs. of light and 12 hrs. of darkness every 24 hours. Once my plants are above ground, I keep them under this photoperiod for about 10 to 15 days. More sativa dominant genetics I go 14 or 15 days. Basic hybrids get 10 to 13 days. Got all that? Hope so. After the selected time period, I move them into a 16/8 (or 18/6) vegetative photoperiod. This is a pro move all the way and has several benefits. First of all, it mimics early spring time photoperiods outdoors. All good. Happy plants.

The first advantage this will get you is easy sexing of your plants once they are above ground for 30 days. Right around the 30 days old time, you just sex your plants. It will be easy to see the sex between 28 to 35 days of age. It is important to mention this assumes you have your sprouts under intense lighting in warm temperatures. By intense I don’t mean shop lights. Minimum 200-watt lights, T5 intensity, at least.

But Wait, There’s More…

Obviously, the easier sexing of plants is one of my time saving breeding moves here. But this move also gives you an early window look at resin production, trichome phenotype, and terpene profiles. Also, at the 30 days of age mark, you want to have a magnified look right at the very top of the plant. You will see more or less resin production—fairly obviously. Also, by gently rubbing the plants main stems you can get some insights regarding the terpene profile. Try it, you’ll like it.

Time Saving Breeding Moves #2 – Test Seeded Plants Using Hash

Okay then, I remember how jazzed I was when I first came up with this methodology to test seeded plants for resin production, flavors/terpenes, and potency/high-type. The word is hashish. I simply make separate (dry sifted) hashish “balls” from each of my seeded up and harvested (and labeled) female plants. You can of course tell a lot just seeing and smelling them flower, even with seeds. But this hash move is friggin’ awesome. Let me tell you how I do…

I use a small hash press (you can get these on Amazon if you want) here. It’s a little challenging to compress smaller amounts of hash by hand. When you harvest the seeds from the females, you’ll want to keep these seeds separated by plant as well—everything labeled. Now I normally select about 6 to 8 female plants during a breeding run. Of these females I’m certain to get at least a couple of extra special girls. Often, all the females will be similar to each other and all very killer. But you can grab the very best to keep just the seeds from those females to continue your breeding.

First of all, you can tell by the weight of each hash ball which plants produced more or less resin overall. Yup, super insightful! Plus, you can get a grip on the terpenes of the resin, clearly. And with regard to high-type, this is perhaps my favorite scrutinizing aspect of this method. I select my plants using a heavy hand when it comes to high-type. I like to keep it all diverse, and there are so many differences. Super fun time testing them all for a couple of weeks too—LoL.

Time Saving Breeding Moves #3 – A Smelly Male is a Good Male

Smelly (the smelliest) males rock 80%+ of the time as breeders, as far as resin production, and pungent terpenes passed on to the offspring. Sometimes these outstanding smelly males also have some less desirable qualities as well. Males or females, you need to have healthy, strong, vigorous plants, along with high marks for resin properties. Having a female plant dripping with resin will never happen if she frequently can’t make it to harvest without big issues. But… I digress. This method for judging males early on in their lives is pretty solid and super simple. Lemme ‘splain…

You can get a grip on just how smelly your male plants are by just (very gently) rubbing the mainstem and then smelling it and your fingertips that rubbed it. I do this at around the 30 days old mark. Between rubbing different males, you need to rinse off your fingertips with alcohol and water and dry them off. This is super handy when you have several males, and you need to reduce some numbers. This, fairly obviously, also works for female plants. I rub males down low on the plants. For females I rub them higher up between nodes.

Like I said at the start, this shortcut is not a 100% ace. However, your odds are high, very high for breeding odds, in my experience. One of many good solid male hunting shortcuts man, for reals.

Afterword

Venture over to Kingdom Organic Seeds and have a look around for some killer breeding stock. Plenty of open blows, multiple blows, f2’s, f3’s, f4’s, etc., along with plenty of f1 hybrids. Serious fertile grounds for breeder hunting and clone hunting in early f-generations. Want more Rev? Heh heh, check this out: Rev’s Rave – Cherry Thunderfuck. OOooOOOOoooohh… You can preorder my newest TLO (True Living Organics) book, the Druid’s Edition here: TLO Druid’s Edition Preorder. Pretty awesome chit, just sayin’ 😉

A Little Hard-Earned Tip Here

If you rely on your TDS meter a lot like I do, make sure and set a reminder in your calendar to replace the batteries BEFORE they get anywhere near too old. I have noticed (ouch) that as the batteries wear down low, your readings become wonky/wrong. Mine all read 62 PPM while in reality it was closer to 75 PPM. Needless to say, I sizzled some plants badly, ugh. Avoid experiencing this to learn it. Now ya know. I (wrongly) thought that my chlorine removing carbon filters had gone bad on me, so it had time to get really bad. Whoopsy. Just remember, growing problems are almost always you. In this case me. Shit happens, so learn from it.

L8r G8rs… Be kind, see the humor baybee, and strap in—LoL. That’s my advice here and now, unsolicited as it may be. I’m bouncing for now, but “I’ll be bock!” Zooooooommm…

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