POLLENETIX® & PHENO HUNTING: What to Look for

What’s up readers! Stoked to be back! Sorry for the gap over summer it has been a busy one! Hopefully by now you all have had one successful sex reversal completed!

For all the readers tuning back in I’d like to thank you all for your continued interest and support. For those of you new to the campaign of articles. Hello and thank you for stopping by. We are working on creating feminized pollen to breed with. Some people are creating hybrids and some people are self-pollinating.

POLLENETIX® is a silver thiosulfate solution. The purpose of this fertilizer is to induce the formation of pollen sacks on female cannabis plants. These pollen sacks contain feminized pollen. We spread this pollen to an untreated part of that very same plant, or to another female cannabis plant. The result is feminized seeds. We create 99% feminized seeds when this procedure is done correctly.

Today we will be discussing pheno hunting and what to look for.

I’d like to start off by stating one’s relationships with cannabis is subjective to they own experiences with the plant. Meaning the terps that do it for me, may not do it for you. And that’s fine! Sharing our experiences with each other about this plant is what helps create community.

Typically, when breeding we focus on a few main factors. And depending on whom you speak with depends on what characteristics and traits they look for first.

I am very scrutinizing of the strains I make and selecting them. I look for the holy grail of strains from the bunch that I am testing. If there isn’t one. I won’t select a keeper or even a winner. The strain needs to check all the boxes. What draws me in is terps, nose and appearance. However, it needs to smoke. If the strain isn’t powerful and knocks my socks off, I don’t want it. I also look for vigor in growth. I look for strains that “veg hard” and bulk up in the early stages of growth. I like for the selected pheno to be a fast rooter. I run aero cloners, so a trait I look for is early signs of root development. For me as a smoker, it needs to have bag appeal. As a grower/broker it also needs bag appeal, but the terps need to match. When someone opens a bag, they will look at it, then immediately stick their nose to smell the buds. If the nose doesn’t match the look, you lose the sale.

When selecting keepers we look fro how hard they stack. This effects yield, and how quickly you are able to fill in your canopy. Bud density is taken into consideration. Pest and drought resistance is common looked for as well. I know of a handful of breeders who do not spray gardens while pheno hunting to show the keepers and winners.

Now with newer technology and running higher PPM/EC we are finding some strains are more susceptible to bud rot aka botrytis specifically from the high intensity LED lights. Where that same reaction, wouldn’t happen under HPS lamps. With competition at an all-time high right now, we are seeing advancements and innovations month after month on how to combat these issues, and education on how to integrate preventative maintenance to avoid these issues all together.

All and all pheno hunting is once again subjective and what tickles the fancy of the selector. I personally love sending out to seeds to kick ass growers and seeing what they select from the bunch. This helps me create variety, by collaborating with other front runners in the grow game. The more you hunt, the more prolific expressions and variations you’ll see from the same plant. It a glorious rabbit hole to dive into! And I am happy to speak more on it next time! Thank you all for tuning in and reading another article by me! Hopefully this has helps you and has sparked your imagination and has helped you dial in what you might be looking for as well!

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Photos credit: Sophie Cannoli