[Question] Is there a way to find out the genetics of a strain by examining the bud?

Hey there, hope I'm in the right sub forum to ask this question.
As the title says: Is there a way to find out the genetics of a strain by just examining the bud? Or to phrase it better: Is there any way to find out the genetics of a strain if your only reference point is the end product?

Thanks and greetings from Europe

I think there is a way but not sure if you test the buds or cuttings.

I think in the brightside cheese thread there were mentions about getting strains tested, youll have to have a good read because the thread is over a hundred pages long. And i think its not cheap.

Think it never happened because they would need to have all 8 cheese cuttings from various sources.

Peace.

I'm not familiar with it but just from a quick google search I saw phylos science offered a genetic test, steephill labs offers a genetic test and a sex test, and sc labs offers a genetic test too. Prolly doesn't help if you're in Europe, but the technology to do it is out there.

It is impossible to tell what stain a bud is by looking at it.

Buds from the same strain grown in two different environments will look different, so determining lineage from the end product is not going to happen.

Lester Beans said:

It is impossible to tell what stain a bud is by looking at it.

Buds from the same strain grown in two different environments will look different, so determining lineage from the end product is not going to happen.

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Yeah, you can't tell it just from looking at it, but wouldn't a dna test work?

If a bud is examined at the DNA level it might be able to be figured out...

BUT...

There has to be some form of reference or there will be nothing to compare the results to.

This is where Phylos Labs may be able to help.
They now have thousands of references.

MJPassion said:

If a bud is examined at the DNA level it might be able to be figured out...

BUT...

There has to be some form of reference or there will be nothing to compare the results to.

This is where Phylos Labs may be able to help.
They now have thousands of references.

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Great point about phylos!

no, unless you mixed up just 2-3 strains with clear characteristics that differ. but there are just way too many strains to guess if you don't have any other info as the bud.

although I can distinguish amnesia by it's smell/taste, but only because it is so recognisable among the weed commercially available. in theory it could just as well be a cross containing amnesia that inherited the smell.

DNA testing? Bullshit.
I can smell train wreck anywhere even in crosses because it breeds so dominant.

There's a lot of variables though so it just depends. The answer is possibly but not necessarily.

...{picks up burning joint off the ground and smells it.}
"Pinneaple express!"

That's exactly right - and hundreds of those DNA results are publicly available in their entirety. So as DNA sequencing costs continue to fall, someday soon comparison to the Phylos results will be as accessible as chemovar results are today.

MJPassion said:

This is where Phylos Labs may be able to help.
They now have thousands of references.

Click to expand...

DNA testing has the distinct advantage that no one has to trust that you, or any other authority, is bullshiting them!

Californee said:

DNA testing? Bullshit.
I can smell train wreck anywhere even in crosses because it breeds so dominant.

There's a lot of variables though so it just depends. The answer is possibly but not necessarily.

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If all weed was grown naturally in an environment recommended by the breeder, you could tell strains easily. Even grown in hydro, you can always tell an OG bud from Hash plant.. Unless the grower is an adulterator. Bud density doesn't change the looks that much.

Bud that isn't distinct isn't worth naming, therefore it wouldn't be a strain. Not everything has to be called a specific strain. You shouldn't call seed grows a specific strain if they aren't that strain. Its just weed if it came from seeds. Its not a strain until that first clone is taken. Its just genetics. There would be no shitty strains if everyone was a good grower and stopped homogenizing their crops with bottled products. And if you could grow accurate strains from seed, that would be nice. You cant grow strains from seed.. Just weed. Start a new strain. Not THE strain. Yippee more bagseed "strains"..no its just weed til its worth cloning.

I used to have a grower who would send me bags of strains mixed together. Not once did I have trouble separating and IDing the buds. Why? Because his bud matched the photos and descriptions of the cut, to a t. Time after time that Canadian reproduced the consistency I knew from NorCal.

When I go to a dispensary, its the opposite. Some popular strains you can recognize. We all know what GSC is suppossed to look like. And that modified reggie smell. With varying levels of kush behind it. They try to grow them trendy strains more natural since they assume more people will know they aren't legit if they aren't what people know.

But unpopular strains? I guarantee I will never find Ak-47 that tastes like Sandalwood from a dispensary. It will never be the same. Has nothing to do with the strain. Has to do with lying. Seed grows and additives used to fake strains. Selling buds that smell like fake cheese or lemon rinds, as AK47. They dont care. Doesnt mean Ak isn't a strain. It was the same for years.. in multiple states/countries. Before I moved to AZ, the fraudster mmj state.

Bottom line: strains are a thing that exists. There's just too many crosses to label them in your mind. And too many shady seed producers, where a 12 pack won't contain a single pheno your looking for.

Strains grown wrong don't count as strains, if it changes them to something different.. Im sure every legit breeder pack in the world comes with a tip sheet or customer support. They want you growing what's in the description or your won't come back. If you pop a 13 pack and none of them are the same, it doesn't mean you have an unstable strain. It means you dont have a strain. Only a chance at a new one. Thats just the way i look at things. Strains are a work of art passed on through clone. Not a bag of seeds. If it's different, its not the varietal your speaking of.. The technical fact of the seeds origin and marketing mean SQUAT.

Drewsif said:

If all weed was grown naturally in an environment recommended by the breeder, you could tell strains easily. Even grown in hydro, you can always tell an OG bud from Hash plant.. Unless the grower is an adulterator. Bud density doesn't change the looks that much.

Bud that isn't distinct isn't worth naming, therefore it wouldn't be a strain. Not everything has to be called a specific strain. You shouldn't call seed grows a specific strain if they aren't that strain. Its just weed if it came from seeds. Its not a strain until that first clone is taken. Its just genetics. There would be no shitty strains if everyone was a good grower and stopped homogenizing their crops with bottled products. And if you could grow accurate strains from seed, that would be nice. You cant grow strains from seed.. Just weed. Start a new strain. Not THE strain. Yippee more bagseed "strains"..no its just weed til its worth cloning.

I used to have a grower who would send me bags of strains mixed together. Not once did I have trouble separating and IDing the buds. Why? Because his bud matched the photos and descriptions of the cut, to a t. Time after time that Canadian reproduced the consistency I knew from NorCal.

When I go to a dispensary, its the opposite. Some popular strains you can recognize. We all know what GSC is suppossed to look like. And that modified reggie smell. With varying levels of kush behind it. They try to grow them trendy strains more natural since they assume more people will know they aren't legit if they aren't what people know.

But unpopular strains? I guarantee I will never find Ak-47 that tastes like Sandalwood from a dispensary. It will never be the same. Has nothing to do with the strain. Has to do with lying. Seed grows and additives used to fake strains. Selling buds that smell like fake cheese or lemon rinds, as AK47. They dont care. Doesnt mean Ak isn't a strain. It was the same for years.. in multiple states/countries. Before I moved to AZ, the fraudster mmj state.

Bottom line: strains are a thing that exists. There's just too many crosses to label them in your mind. And too many shady seed producers, where a 12 pack won't contain a single pheno your looking for.

Strains grown wrong don't count as strains, if it changes them to something different.. Im sure every legit breeder pack in the world comes with a tip sheet or customer support. They want you growing what's in the description or your won't come back. If you pop a 13 pack and none of them are the same, it doesn't mean you have an unstable strain. It means you dont have a strain. Only a chance at a new one. Thats just the way i look at things. Strains are a work of art passed on through clone. Not a bag of seeds. If it's different, its not the varietal your speaking of.. The technical fact of the seeds origin and marketing mean SQUAT.

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Brief interrupt for a technical moment:
I wish people would get out a dictionary once in a while so they knew what the terms they were using actually meant.

A strain is technically a seed variety that will breed true for a given set of characteristics. (STRAINED to show a particular set of characteristics)

A plant of any given strain that is passed around as a clone is called a cultivar.

MJPassion said:

Brief interrupt for a technical moment:
I wish people would get out a dictionary once in a while so they knew what the terms they were using actually meant.

A strain is technically a seed variety that will breed true for a given set of characteristics. (STRAINED to show a particular set of characteristics)

A plant of any given strain that is passed around as a clone is called a cultivar.

Click to expand...

Mjpassion thanks for putting forth the cultivar jargon. Most people really refer to cultivar but dispensaries call them strains. The mj jargon is on the whole within the culture not up to snuff.

That being said it seems like not many people produce strains but rather crosses of specific cultivars and name the cross.

I'll stick with the train wreck example. I have tried train wreck bred into a growers personal line like 5 seasons back once and even still it was just like a watered down train wreck.

I remember picking up the bud and saying "trainwreck," then they were oh yeah that's my train wreck line. Then I said but it seems like something else too then they told me they bred it into their line.

That is because train wreck breeds so dominant for passing on it's signature terpenes. If a cultivar or strains doesn't do that in one way or form then it is anyone guess.

I think that is about the extent of accuracy outside of DNA testing.

jahjahcopter said:

Hey there, hope I'm in the right sub forum to ask this question.
As the title says: Is there a way to find out the genetics of a strain by just examining the bud? Or to phrase it better: Is there any way to find out the genetics of a strain if your only reference point is the end product?

Thanks and greetings from Europe

Click to expand...

Yes... By years and years of study of cannabis morphology, ie. what it looks like, in veg and flower.

You can tell in flower, sure, absolutely. Good old strains, even new ones, all have their look, you can see it. You can tell in veg too, I can tell my strains, and others, its easy in leaf morphology, you just have to know what is what...

There is no taxonomic key... I've been trying. I've been trying. It depends on what you want this key to do - tell you where it originally perhaps came from (ie. Afghanistan, Africa, Colombia, Mexico, India, etc, etc,), tell you drug strains of cannabis from other drug strains of cannabis (ie, Northern lights from AK, from Bubblegum, etc).... You just have to see it and know what it is from experience, and if someone is telling you, either know better or hope they aren't lying. Like, Heh, I'd KNOW if someone was trying to pull off something as well, like, anything else for the most part lol. There are a lotta old time heads like that, problem is many of our brains are getting older, and we're heads you know? HEADS.

Some of this is near impossible at this point, in terms of learning - people'll never smoke things that I did, that you did, that that guy did, that the old timer did....

Ever smoke mex brick? How bout grow it out lol?

How much have you smoked? Are you just throwing it down or checking it out? I'm a scientist.. When I look at that thing I'm looking at it, checking it out, smelling it, looking for bugs.
But I'm an asshole too my whole life I've learned this process of science bullshit and the bullshit facts we as humans have accumulated. A lot of people don't get the chance nor can do that kind of thing, and I've dedicated a huge portion of my life now to applying all that to cannabis. You know, if you don't upload this brain to some sort of matrix, you kids are screwed. Screwed.

I mean, not really. Jesus fuck where was I. Man Im baked..

Scour countless High Times magazines of old and new, the vintage thread, other threads, other sites, the old books, the new books, cannabibles, etc., etc., looking at the buds, the plants. How good is your memory? I'd say mine's pretty good...
Thats a lying understatement I have like, a crazy ridiculous good memory for things lol.

Did you create files of those pictures, and of the buds, and get an idea of morphology, of ancestral heritage? Can you, from this, infer other, newer strains? I don't think of things in term of "indica" or "sativa", but i DO see ancestral population traits in groups, Thai, Afghani, etc.

Smell will help you absolutely, learn that smell as well as the look, but much of today is crosses of crosses, and blends. The major strains you find around I could name on 2 hands, maybe 1 foot.

The best way to learn is to waste all your time doing what I said, researching pot and looking at pictures, amass a scientific library of all the scientific articles on cannabis that you can, and read them all, going back to the 1800s, um. yeah. Read all the books, read all the shit, read everything. Oh! OH yeah, watch all the videos, all those old videos, look at those plants, look at those hippie tits! Look at those buds, damn they suck. Who the fuck trimmed that shit!

No one. No one.

No one trimmed! You'll figure out when those m'fers started trimming. Oh holy shit look at that bud though! Sometimes you find it in high times. Really hairy, like the girls back then. Jesus. Hot though. Damn hot, like fuck it, whatever yeah I guess thats how she leaves it but just go for it anyway hot. Its not like today when they discovered razors and steroids. Look at the new vids, all of em. What the crap! Look at that shit! Look at the travels of that guy, you know that guy, he's on youtube, he went around and you can see all these fields. Its sad all the the things that happen. Sigh. But you can see all the things! Do all the things!

And I packed another one. Jesus. Ok. Well. Annd you should too! the crux of it all, smoke more pot! Look at it, smoke it up, smell it, memorize that shit. Always ask, hey, what is this? what do they call this. Oh ok. Nice. Ok.

The more pot you smoke, the more you learn! And you know, all that reading and math and memorizing and studying shit :/