Some lovely yielding plants there fingaz, given how long you have been working on those, i take it you began with genes from imported weed? If so, i take it they would be Thai, African and Jamaican, as that what I mostly saw back in the day?
I'm not sure what can be done to maintain lines better in the Uk outdoor environment, could just be that the environment isn't conducive to high THC and you're fighting a losing battle trying to maintain the THC levels in a line when working outdoors?
I have a theory that the reason why most of the traditional 'sweet spots' of drug cannabis cultivation - the highlands of Colombia, Thailand, Sierra Madre range in Mexico, Hawaii, Himalayas, Jamaica, are all areas with high UV, so over generations, the plants adapt to this Uv by producing lots of trichomes and high levels of THC.
In Switzerland they have strains like Walliser Queen which is inbred from seeds picked out of imported weed bought in the Dam in 1971 and was measured at just under 21% THC a few years ago. Switzerland has much more UV than the Uk due to lower latitude and the alpine altitudes.
Strains developed outdoors in Holland aren't that potent in many cases (Purple Power, Passion #1, Holland's Hope etc.) Also there are the old Danish lines that have been maintained there for decades like leb27 and Thyphoon, which have mostly moderate potency plants but the odd pretty potent one.
Another thing that points to environment playing a big role in cannabinoid/terpenoid levels over generations is the decline in quality of the Dutch lines in the last 15 years, this is due to them being bred and maintained under HPS lighting which promotes high yield and low calyx to leaf ratio but lacks blue light so doesn't stimulate high levels of terpenoid production and lacks UV too, which I think over generations will reduce cannabinoid levels too.
Of course, will skillful breeding, you can fight nature and select for traits, but environment is so important, you cannot break the key equation:
phenotype = environment + genotype
You can only select from the phenotypes you are seeing and environment is a large factor. I think Shantibaba is a good example of how the outdoor environment is needed for top quality breeding, he does all his work outdoors, always has.
Sadly I think in the Uk, maintenance of a quality line is going to require either a highly tweaked indoor environment with a variety of different types of lighting to provide the full spectrum that cannabis needs or an outdoor environment under glass with supplemental lighting to compensate for the low levels of sunlight and UV.
I think there is still a lot of work to be done in determining the precise action spectrum of cannabis, you can just google the action spectra of many plants such as tobacco, tomato, peas, rice etc, it's research that has been done a long time back, but no-one has done it for cannabis yet. W already have a great understanding of the spectrum needed for large yield and strong vegetative growth, but we have a very poor understanding of the spectrum needed to stimulate terpenoid and cannabinoid production.
There is well established info on how UV plays a role in the filling of the glandular trichomes of Basil with essential oils, but very little on what role it plays in the filling of the glandular trichomes of cannabis with THC, people just haven't done the research with the cannabis plant because it's illegal, sadly.
I'm not sure what can be done to maintain lines better in the Uk outdoor environment, could just be that the environment isn't conducive to high THC and you're fighting a losing battle trying to maintain the THC levels in a line when working outdoors?
I have a theory that the reason why most of the traditional 'sweet spots' of drug cannabis cultivation - the highlands of Colombia, Thailand, Sierra Madre range in Mexico, Hawaii, Himalayas, Jamaica, are all areas with high UV, so over generations, the plants adapt to this Uv by producing lots of trichomes and high levels of THC.
In Switzerland they have strains like Walliser Queen which is inbred from seeds picked out of imported weed bought in the Dam in 1971 and was measured at just under 21% THC a few years ago. Switzerland has much more UV than the Uk due to lower latitude and the alpine altitudes.
Strains developed outdoors in Holland aren't that potent in many cases (Purple Power, Passion #1, Holland's Hope etc.) Also there are the old Danish lines that have been maintained there for decades like leb27 and Thyphoon, which have mostly moderate potency plants but the odd pretty potent one.
Another thing that points to environment playing a big role in cannabinoid/terpenoid levels over generations is the decline in quality of the Dutch lines in the last 15 years, this is due to them being bred and maintained under HPS lighting which promotes high yield and low calyx to leaf ratio but lacks blue light so doesn't stimulate high levels of terpenoid production and lacks UV too, which I think over generations will reduce cannabinoid levels too.
Of course, will skillful breeding, you can fight nature and select for traits, but environment is so important, you cannot break the key equation:
phenotype = environment + genotype
You can only select from the phenotypes you are seeing and environment is a large factor. I think Shantibaba is a good example of how the outdoor environment is needed for top quality breeding, he does all his work outdoors, always has.
Sadly I think in the Uk, maintenance of a quality line is going to require either a highly tweaked indoor environment with a variety of different types of lighting to provide the full spectrum that cannabis needs or an outdoor environment under glass with supplemental lighting to compensate for the low levels of sunlight and UV.
I think there is still a lot of work to be done in determining the precise action spectrum of cannabis, you can just google the action spectra of many plants such as tobacco, tomato, peas, rice etc, it's research that has been done a long time back, but no-one has done it for cannabis yet. W already have a great understanding of the spectrum needed for large yield and strong vegetative growth, but we have a very poor understanding of the spectrum needed to stimulate terpenoid and cannabinoid production.
There is well established info on how UV plays a role in the filling of the glandular trichomes of Basil with essential oils, but very little on what role it plays in the filling of the glandular trichomes of cannabis with THC, people just haven't done the research with the cannabis plant because it's illegal, sadly.
