Tips for Choosing Keepers in Veg?

[IGROWMYOWN]

For many of us who grow medically we are severely limited in the number of plants we may flower and thus end up having to pick a couple of girls out of maybe a dozen seedlings to keep while the others all get the axe.

I know the title of this thread is something of an oxymoron in that the only true way to determine a plants value is to flower it out and test the final product, but I've started to notice some traits in veg. that often seem to be promising indicators. I would love to hear from others who have identified desirable traits in their vegging plants BEFORE flowering begins. Anything that can help to narrow down the keepers during the culling would be helpful.

The one thing I have noticed that seems to often indicate a plant will be frosty in flower is how aromatic, sticky and frosty the stems on the fan leaves are in veg. The more resin the better.

The other traits I look at include the vigor of the plant and elements of its structure such as internode distance and overall branching propensity and shape.

For those that get forced to choose keepers while still in veg what traits do you look for?

Some are obvious like my "yielder "pheno or as true and ojd call her the "branch pheno " of csg grand doggy purp super tight nodes shoots coming out of everywhere branches growing out of branches it was clear early on that it was different than anything else in the pack pretty early on in veg I haven't flowered it yet but I'm pretty sure it's staying around that you need 2+ packs to find an outstanding mother depends on strain and breeder IMO lets use csg Gdoggyp for an example there are reports of guys (some on this forum) popping 3 or less beans finding "purse candy" phenos most guys seem to have a problem deciding which one(s) not to keep.

 

[Dropped Cat]

I've culled plants in veg, what's the problem?

If I grew out everything I popped, well, I'd have more.

But more of what?

 

[The Hatter]

There's only one tip to choosing keepers in veg.... FLOWER THEM, THEN SELECT!!!
-Chimera

Sadly this is very true but in my case I have to kill the extra vegging plants or I invalidate the entire point of being a licensed grower which is to not have to worry about being arrested for gardening. My final multi grow keepers are of course those plants that performed best in flower but before I reach that point they have to survive that first painful culling all my seedlings go through at the end of veg.

I generally will pop 4 seeds for each open slot I have in the flower room to help ensure I will get at least one plant which is not a male, runt or misfire. Usually what happens is I end up with around 2 or 3 nice looking females for every open slot which means I have to cull more plants than I flower. This is the reason I have been trying to find some traits to look for in veg that may be good indicators for which to keep and which to axe. I have no doubt given the ratio that I cull that I have probably chopped down and thrown out my best plant which is why I am always looking for some pattern of positive traits to look for to help keep that from happening.

 

[The Hatter]

I agree with snype. I will say if u look at atleast 75% of these growers here.. pop a pack.. and find a few keepers.. they aren't finding the keeper that's the BEST pheno in that STRAIN they pick the best one they grew n keep it going.. most of the time.. its ok. but deff not a KEEPER.

i love when people are breeding with bagseed and then go around telling people about how they made this amazing shit called SOSO.. but really they popped a bagseed.. and called it SOSO. and because it came out ok.. its a KEEPER NOW. haha.. half the so called BREEDERS out there.. don't pop enough seeds to find the REAL KEEPERS..

i been seeing dudes here.. who pop like 5 seeds. find a few females .. and next thing u know there making crosses with them.. and saying how they are an UNDERGROUND BREEDER... hahah . look at half the people here looking for TESTERS for there shit.. half those genetics ARE SHIT that they are hoping to god it comes out halfway decent so they can try to cash in on the SEED GAME.

i can bet that most of the seeds i give to family and friends.. are better then most the shit ur paying 100 bucks for a 6 pack of fems. or 10-12 pack of regs.. haha. . shit look at the GSC CRAZE.. some BAGSEED HERMI CRAP that went VIRAL

That's the difference between a breeder and a pollen chucker. These days there are a lot more pollen chuckers than true breeders. A true breeder stabilizes their lines for generations running good sized groups to select from each time. A pollen chucker takes two elite clones, hermies one of them and the crosses the two and then sells the resulting seeds untested or if they have some scruples they at least test a pack to look for blatant problems such as rampant hermie tendencies etc. Even if the pollen chucking cross doesn't have problems like hermies the fact that it is likely an unstabalized hyrbrid of two unstabalized poly hybrids will mean that it will throw a crazy array of phenos with maybe one in ten matching the strain description. It's fine to do this when its just for your own personal hobby and use but selling unstabalized and untested lines without warning people is a bit different.

The mark of a great line and a great breeder is consistency in the progeny. For those who are limited in the number of plants they may grow this is far more important than any other factor.

 

[BredForMeds]

I agree. but anyon who makes seeds calls them self a breeder not a chucker.. lol..

I been chucking for 7 years.. just started working on stabilizing specific strains and traits.. the last 2 years.. and I will not CALL MYSELF A BREEDER.. I call myself a seed maker. or a pollen chucker..

but still some chuckers have a better eye then the breeders for sure.. . ive gotten beans from a kid that I know.. and this shit is STRAIGHT FIRE.

 

[PermaBuzz]

2 packs of seeds?

Finding a true keeper out of just 2 packs? How nice would that be.

I'm past 8 packs, working on 9 - and I have found nothing better than "just OK"

Some nice smells, tastes and bag appeal but nothing that I would call extreme potency.

I would reckon - but have yet to prove - that finding a true keeper of the type Snype described is a 1/100 proposition. Thats one girl out of a hundred or roughly 200 seeds needed to pop.

A side of me would like to beleive that plants that smell more in veg have a higher chance of being a keeper but now I'm even having doubts about that too.

I've had enough of seed popping, gimme some o dat GG#4

 

[CanniDo Cowboy]

Geeez, another thread with a fairly simple question/answer and yet we busy ourselves building another complex rocket ship. LOL We can grow 1 plant or 50 but in the end, the primary focus is yield and or quality of smoke and until dried, we dont know the true yield and yes, the quality of smoke may not be realized until several months after that - these 2 STANDARDS have already been mentioned). You may find a winner in the 1 plant, it may take 50 but the process will be limited and paced by the amount of space, $ resources and degree of knowledge/expertise. Having to apply hit n miss processes or assumed theories or even the most favorable shortcut due to constraints of any kind means a possible pheno/winner can and will be missed.

To the true pheno hunter wannbe strain maker, there is no sadness in the culling of over-planting but with long term patience, over-planting really isnt necessary. Nevertheless, culling will still be necessary to a certain degree because it is an obvious part of the pheno hunting process and must be under-taken. Avoiding 'rocket ship syndrome", if you are truly dedicated to the search and find there within, whether from a commercial standpoint or just personal joy, you start any number of seeds (again, within personal resources/time/space limits) and after a certain period, you take cuts of all. Period. As the originals progress within veg, you will need to cull out obvious duds/non-performers. Flower time for those having made it into the second phase are the: You got what you gots...Post-harvest, it doesnt take long to assess yield(s). Weeks or even months later, during the "smoke test", if you taste something you like, you go back to that cutting which by now should be a plant, and now you have an identified "player" (If you can live with the yield). That's one and if thats all you feel meets your particular requirements out of that particular run, then that is the beginning of your stable, whether for breeding purposes or otherwise. Open another pack or 2 and begin the entire process again....It would also be obvious, if youre also looking for top male performers, $$ resources/time/space requirements and methodologies increase proportionately.

Breeders or chuckers etc dont come into being until after the fact...CC

 

[RoadRash]

I would reckon - but have yet to prove - that finding a true keeper of the type Snype described is a 1/100 proposition. Thats one girl out of a hundred or roughly 200 seeds needed to pop.

Many years ago, Vic High @ BCGA entertained the growing community with 100 seed grow-outs of his Cinderella crosses and also Orange Crush (Cali-O x Blueberry) ... etc.

I was envious of his freedom to grow what he wanted.

At the same time, I have met an experienced grower in Mendocino who said he used just 4 plants for his grow-outs. Because of his experience and focus on satisfying customers, I have to believe that his method had merit also.


#1 thing ... stay safe.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Hatter, how many days can you veg for to make your selection?

Some desirable traits don't show until sexual maturity.

I like to use sensitivity to nutes, one of a handful of indicators available
to those who must cull veg plants.

Rub the stem? Smells like hash, every time.

 

[The Hatter]

Hatter, how many days can you veg for to make your selection?

Some desirable traits don't show until sexual maturity.

I like to use sensitivity to nutes, one of a handful of indicators available
to those who must cull veg plants.

Rub the stem? Smells like hash, every time.

I veg my seedlings right up to the moment I have to make the cull and flip the lights to 12/12. In other words I wait until all of the seedlings have shown sexual maturity then I try to choose the best of them to keep based on what little information I have to work with at the time.

The reason I have to cull some is due to the restrictions of my liscence when it comes to the number of plants I can flower. Of course I would like to flower them all but I simply cannot without voiding the entire reason for having a license to begin with which is to stay within the law. I've gotten a lot of replies explaining how its much better to flower all the plants but this something I am already very well aware of. I'm just trying to find tips and tricks to make the best of the situation I find myself in which is having to make cuts from the line up before flowering starts.