[OakyJoe]

Hello Community,

I want to start a new Project. I've grown the 8 Ball many rounds and i'm a big Fan of this Strain. Like every Strain this Strain has some negative points which i want improve.

I found to Phenotypes:

1. A Taller Indica one with resine covered Buds.
2. A Smaller Idica one with a very nice Watermelon Taste but a very low yielder.

My Plan is to improve the smaller one. As this Seeds a only Females i must find a nice Guy for here. Maybe a bit longer Flowerdays and a bigger one.

[marijuanamat]

You could reverse 1 of your fems with collidal silver instead of using a unrelated male.

[JetLife175]

8 ball x reversed Bubba would be a good place to start.

[Only Ornamental]

I don't think you should use a reversed partner because that way you end up with females only and with each seed generation you have to reverse a few of your plants (principally you finish with a 'clone only' strain and not an 8 Ball line).

Remember that the 8 Ball is a supposedly pure strain or at least an IBL from Hindu Kush ancestors. That means it might have gotten weak due to too much inbreeding. Crossing with no matter what will make the offspring more vigurous even if the two strains aren't working that well together.

It's up to you to decide what might be best:
- Take an other Hindu Kush IBL should give consistant offspring in the F1. Also, you don't introduce too many new genes (if its truly IBL), the offspring gets somewhat predictable, and because they are closely related outbreeding again what you inbred could be easier (overlap in genetics) or you struggle with two Kushes because they are too similar if you don't backcross for outbreeding.
- Take an indica hybride of excellent whatever and cross that (like JetLife175's Bubba). If it is a non-stabilised multihybrid (especially an F1) you'll get a lot of different phenos already in the F1 and selecting 8 Ball leaning plants may be problematic if you can't grow hundreds of plants.
- Be brave (or stupid?) and take a sativa. The offspring will be easier to visually sieve through and with a selection in the F2 and F3 you can start to recreate the 8 Ball indica parent (or you risk to lose everything).

Or you use backcrossing to get a 'vigour-injected' 8 Ball (like Cannabiogen did with their Taskenti):
Take one or more 8 Ball females and whatever male/-s. Properly select a few plants (not just one!) in the F1 which all together show as much original 8 Ball characteristics (you likely won't find a plant with all the phenotypical markers together) plus the desired vigour and the few changes you want to introduce. Make an F2 by open pollination amongst these and select again (selection in this generation is way more important than selection in the F1!!). If you can grow only a few plants, make also an F3 and select. Than backcross to an 8 Ball and repeat... after 2-4 such cycles you should have an improved 8 Ball (nearly pure!) even if you'd be a crappy breeder and used a bitch of a parent (cause of the hybride vigour and repeated backcrossing to the 8 Ball). Simply take an 8 Ball female in your last crossing because the females inherit more than males (like plastids) if you want a variety as close to the 8 Ball as possible.

BTW that is not my personal experience but a compilation of ICMag knowledge .

[zamzia]

Did you get anywhere with this OJ?