Like most people said you can find the plant that you need in any seed but I generally start at least twice as many seeds as I need plants. A small percentage will not germinate at all or die, 50% will theoretically be males and only 25-50% of the females will be keepers.
Going by that formula; if you start say 12 seeds, 2 will not germinate or perish, 5 will be males and 5 will be females. Only 2 or 3 of the females will carry good traits and one of them will be superior to the rest, that's your keeper. The more plants that you start out with, the better the chance of finding good ones. If you need 12 plants to work with you could start say 25 or 30 seeds. Remember that you will also need clones of these plants unless you intend to flower them straight from seed and clones tend to use up a lot of space.
Selecting plants at the seedling stage does not really make any sense as you will have no idea of what the plants will look like in flowering. You need to flower the plants first so that you will get some idea of the scent, potency, resin production etc.. etc..
Sometimes it's the wierd mutant or the plant that was a slow starter that is the keeper. You never know until you have flowered them.
Same goes for the males. You need to look for strong individuals and basically smoke all the males before picking the father. How else will you know what you are breeding? In a way it makes no difference what strain the father is as it is mostly there to strengthen the characteristics of the female. I tend to pick males that resemble females as much as possible in terms of scent and potency and usually pass on the big "macho" males that invest a lot of energy into vegetative growth. Go for the stickiest individuals that you can find. Males mainly contribute to the scent and bud structure of the females offspring, so what you should look for is dense clusters of male flowers and a nice scent. Males also contribute to the physical appearance and potency of the offspring to a lesser degree.
You also need to take other things into consideration; like resistance to stress, node frequency, stretch and more..
For my last grow I started out with 6 males, all different strains but landed on a very sticky and strongly scented Lemon Skunk #1 male that I will use to make hybrids until I find something better.
You really need to have a strict screening process, which also includes stress-testing the parents and weeding out hermafrodites. If none of the individuals that you get are any good, then there really is no point in breeding them. Better to start more seeds and begin the selection process all over again. Make a list of the traits that you are looking for and select the parents based on that list.
The priority of the list can be totally different depending on the purpose of the plant. When you are breeding outdoor plants you might look for different traits than if you are breeding indoor strains.
By chosing strong genetics from proven masters of breeding, you increase your chance of finding good individuals. Certainly there are good plants to be found in any pack but since only the best plants will do for breeding purposes, you might as well start out with something good, even if the seeds cost a bit more.
The initial P1 parents set the standard for the entire seed line so you need to make sure that they are exceptional.
Unless you have a green house at your disposal, you have to settle for smaller initial populations and hope for something good.
Going by that formula; if you start say 12 seeds, 2 will not germinate or perish, 5 will be males and 5 will be females. Only 2 or 3 of the females will carry good traits and one of them will be superior to the rest, that's your keeper. The more plants that you start out with, the better the chance of finding good ones. If you need 12 plants to work with you could start say 25 or 30 seeds. Remember that you will also need clones of these plants unless you intend to flower them straight from seed and clones tend to use up a lot of space.
Selecting plants at the seedling stage does not really make any sense as you will have no idea of what the plants will look like in flowering. You need to flower the plants first so that you will get some idea of the scent, potency, resin production etc.. etc..
Sometimes it's the wierd mutant or the plant that was a slow starter that is the keeper. You never know until you have flowered them.
Same goes for the males. You need to look for strong individuals and basically smoke all the males before picking the father. How else will you know what you are breeding? In a way it makes no difference what strain the father is as it is mostly there to strengthen the characteristics of the female. I tend to pick males that resemble females as much as possible in terms of scent and potency and usually pass on the big "macho" males that invest a lot of energy into vegetative growth. Go for the stickiest individuals that you can find. Males mainly contribute to the scent and bud structure of the females offspring, so what you should look for is dense clusters of male flowers and a nice scent. Males also contribute to the physical appearance and potency of the offspring to a lesser degree.
You also need to take other things into consideration; like resistance to stress, node frequency, stretch and more..
For my last grow I started out with 6 males, all different strains but landed on a very sticky and strongly scented Lemon Skunk #1 male that I will use to make hybrids until I find something better.
You really need to have a strict screening process, which also includes stress-testing the parents and weeding out hermafrodites. If none of the individuals that you get are any good, then there really is no point in breeding them. Better to start more seeds and begin the selection process all over again. Make a list of the traits that you are looking for and select the parents based on that list.
The priority of the list can be totally different depending on the purpose of the plant. When you are breeding outdoor plants you might look for different traits than if you are breeding indoor strains.
By chosing strong genetics from proven masters of breeding, you increase your chance of finding good individuals. Certainly there are good plants to be found in any pack but since only the best plants will do for breeding purposes, you might as well start out with something good, even if the seeds cost a bit more.
The initial P1 parents set the standard for the entire seed line so you need to make sure that they are exceptional.
Unless you have a green house at your disposal, you have to settle for smaller initial populations and hope for something good.
, make you wonder why many strains the lineage is a "mystery or secret"....
I wouldn't plant beans. For a good crop of marijuana its best to plant marijuana seeds.
