Af Breeding & Rootsystem

[Jones]

I'm a little sad because I just had to trash 25 LR#2xBushman's F3s.
They underperformed in the root department, resulting in small, slow vegging plants. But as far as I can tell a fast growing root system is one of the most important traits a good AF strain should have. No roots, no growth, no yield. With 12/12 plants this is often just an issue of 1 or 2 weeks more vegging. This is not an option for AFs.
Obviously I focused too much on the 'above ground' traits when I selected the parents of the F3 generation or maybe this was a recessive trait showing up.
Anyways, take this as a heads up when you guys select parents. Having to trash plants really sucks.

[*mr.mike*]

Breeding takes many, many plants to select from. If you're only selecting a few individuals, over what is really the "average" of the offspring, sure, problems happen.

How is it that you didn't notice the weak roots a generation or two back? You'd figure there would have been signs along the way to where you got now.

Any chance at all that it was the soil? Maybe some other possibility?

I only write this way because I find that each different auto strain seems to need to be "dialed in" from changing pots to nutrient schedule.

I'd recommend trying them again. new nutrient free substrate, check temps, not too much water, etc. Keep notes, you'd be surprised how it can help you in the future.

I'm so anal about the whole thing that for the first three weeks I actually water my plants on a scale, and put things in larger pots only when I'm sure to need to, and never later.

[Tropic]

Keep notes, you'd be surprised how it can help you in the future.

This can't be repeated enough, no matter if it is a grow diary or just a small .txt log, or a notebook in your drawer... taking notes is very important, that way if anything (good or bad) happens during the grow (def, nuteburn, explosive growth) you can trace it back and (try to) understand why your plants reacted that way. Plus, you might be able to remember stuff for a few days, weeks, or even months, but time will only make those memories less precise as it passes. Keep track of soil mixes, transplant times, feeding, etc... so that you can use that info later.

Peace :joint:

[Jones]

Valuable advice, thanks.
In this case, I grew a couple of the original parent plants alongside the F3s.
Even the LR#2s were already 2x bigger than the F3s in the same environment.
The Bushman's leaning F2 pheno that I chose as one parent of the F3s is most probably responsible for the weak root system. This was not obvious to spot, because it finishes in around 90 days. It vegs long enough to compensate for the slow root growth.
The F3s on the other hand started to flower sooner and didn't veg for so long, so the slow root growth was more of a limiting factor.
Anyways, I go back to F2s and choose new parents or maybe start from scratch.

[shroomyshroom]

look into maybe crossing kc brains mango in there somewhere.... i have never seen a more agressive root devlopment than that of the kc brains mango.. it was a project i was planing on doing but ran out of pollen as i crossed the mango pollen with a jilly bean feamle :D

[Bob_J]

i read in a book once that your dried weight is equal to the dried root mass of the plant. ive weighed small plants to larger ones. and yeah its true.
for fresh weight (manicured buds) i take however many grams it is and multiply by 0.2. that should be pretty much your dry weight. they say fresh weight is 75% but ive always found its more like 80%.
to get 1 oz dry would be 140g fresh weight

5 pounds fresh = 1 pound dry


book was called "secrets of high yield plant growth" by graham reinders. he also wrote the book that seems to be available in alot of hydro stores around here called "how to supercharge your garden"

[DIRT DIGGLER]

interesting.