What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Feminizing seeds.

Stress_test

I'm always here when I'm not someplace else
Veteran
Hi,

And thanks for this compact information.

But there isn't any information on how to feminize autoflowering varieties? I know a plant to choose for forcing male flowers should be a strong female, but how do I know it with autoflowers, that can't be cloned?

Okay first of all AF's "can" be cloned, I have been doing it for years. Hell people clone plants in full flower all the time even. The only reason people believe that AF's can't be cloned is the myth that AF's don't have a veg cycle, which is completely false. In fact I generally do cut clones for my seed plants, they clone like any other "standard strain".

As for deciding which plant to seed? I usually pick a couple of the healthiest fullest females in the room, in the last week of veg...
Each are tagged; "F>M" and "Target".
F>M is STS'd, isolated and flipped 12/12 about 2 weeks before the target. A week later F>M is given another dose of STS, and again 1 week later.

When the target is ready she is put into isolation with the F>M for the duration.

This gives me feminized seeds from 2 of my most beautiful females. Sure I might lose some medicine but in return I get hundreds of feminized AF seeds.
 

Baba Ku

Active member
Veteran
But isolating the rooted AF clone is all you can do with it really, yes? I mean, what other good could rooting one do?
 

Stress_test

I'm always here when I'm not someplace else
Veteran
But isolating the rooted AF clone is all you can do with it really, yes? I mean, what other good could rooting one do?

I have 6 generations of AF clones. Each generation is a clone of the previous cross after stabilizing. I always try to save at least 1 clone of each cycle for seed production if I change anything from the previous cycle.

The first pic is the original cross from seed, next is the same w/ a 2 wk clone, next is both plants with 2 clones cut later and the original.
This plant is the 2nd from the right.


2nd & 3rd from right


4 generations of clones + Rudy fem. far right.



The far right pic is of a pure Ruderalis female, (or as close as I could find), which is the hardest to clone. My success rate is only about 1 out of 10 on her cuts.

The latest clone I cut last week
(Generation 6 from first clone)

You can see the pre-clone gel and root-nubs on the stem just before it was cut. As you can see, I take rather large cuttings for cloning AF's, and I apply pre-clone gel about 10 days before cutting (a trick I learned here from *Lola*).

One thing that I can absolutely guarantee you is that 99% of all the combined information you have ever read about Ruderalis crosses and AF strains is either speculation, myth, rumor, hypothetical, or just complete BS.
Very few growers/breeders have ever researched the Ruderalis or crosses of it to the same degree they do the other 2 stains of cannabis because of the stigma that has been put on it over the years.
For instance: Ask ANY grower/breeder what the ideal temperature range is for growing ID cannabis and they will tell you; "80-86 is optimal"... BUT that doesn't hold true with Ruderalis crosses because the strain kicks ass in cooler, harsher climates.

I am currently doing a side by side grow of cold vs warm growth for a Rudy cross. The cold climate plants are kicking ass and have been since they were flipped. Now I won't say that the warmer plants might not catch up and/or pass the cold plant down the road, and I do kinda expect they will as far as yield, but the cold plants are nearly ready to cut and the warm plants still have 3-5 weeks to go.
 

Fin

New member
Stress_Test,

Thanks a lot for sharing all that! Very relieving to know that ruderalis crosses like it cool, as this it is going to be my situation - now inside my house and later outside here in Finland.

I'm planning to make some feminized seeds of Sour 60 F2 seeds to grow outside. It's going to be my first grow and will be in a PC -box under led lights on coco coir. I'm thinking of growing 2-4 females and force one of them male. But I don't have possibilities for cloning, so can you give any advice on how to choose which female to force? Or is it sheer luck? How big is the possibility to end up femmed seeds with strong tendency to hermies?

I'm sorry to ask such a newbie questions here, but it is quite difficult to find info on this topic.

Thank you,

Fin
 

Stress_test

I'm always here when I'm not someplace else
Veteran
Stress_Test,

Thanks a lot for sharing all that! Very relieving to know that ruderalis crosses like it cool, as this it is going to be my situation - now inside my house and later outside here in Finland.

I'm planning to make some feminized seeds of Sour 60 F2 seeds to grow outside. It's going to be my first grow and will be in a PC -box under led lights on coco coir. I'm thinking of growing 2-4 females and force one of them male. But I don't have possibilities for cloning, so can you give any advice on how to choose which female to force? Or is it sheer luck? How big is the possibility to end up femmed seeds with strong tendency to hermies?

I'm sorry to ask such a newbie questions here, but it is quite difficult to find info on this topic.

Thank you,

Fin

No worries buddy, I posted the thread because I knew a lot of people had tons of questions.

Cool, sounds like you have a plan...
I start every grow with it in mind that the very best, most beautifully perfect lady is going to be my bride. She will be the chosen one which will "carry thy seed" into the future. I keep that in mind through their entire grow.
Next I look for her twin. She will be chosen to produce pollen.

Now all my ladies are treated like royalty and given the very best of care, with no favorites in the beginning because; wtf women change right...
But in the end there are only two that I select.

What I am looking for is a plant that has all the normal traits one would look for, "given their growing conditions" (and that is a lot of the deciding factors we all consider when deciding which strain to grow) height, stem, how temperamental, grow period (both climate and plant), etc. etc...

But my climate, life style, available room, finances, and conditions in general dictate that I need a plant that is heartier than the average pot plant. Because I only have about 4 months to grow if I grow OD. So it's easier for me to grow indoor but because of state laws where I live I can only have 15 plants and 24oz. Since I can only have 15 plants I need a plant that I can rotate quickly enough to harvest every 2 weeks. It takes that long before you can even determine sex of "normal strains", unless using clones and here a clone is considered a "plant", so I started looking for a plant that could start and finish in 90 days or less; AF and feminized are pretty much a requirement also since cloning does take longer and I can't waste time growing and nurturing 2 or 3 or more male plants from seed every cycle.

Now the field is narrowing as far as choices...
I tried LR and LR2 in the beginning, they suck...
Later after growing a couple dozen different strains I knew the traits I was looking for and had acquired seeds for them.
Once I had narrowed it down to the size and shape and grow period of the plant I started tweaking it and testing different crosses with my hybrid to give bigger yields and more potent smoke.

Now as for hermies: In over 2 years of growing exclusively AF crosses I have not had 1 AF plant hermie... EVER.

I do however, use STS to create feminized seeds which I don't consider a hermaphrodite since it is a chemical reaction which I induce.

Now I might be a unique exception. But I have never heard of anybody ever having a hermaphrodite AF either. That might be a good Topic question for a thread?
I believe that the Ruderalis strain may be less susceptible to it.
 

rafe

Member
Hey I want Gatewood Galbraith to be our next governor too! How do we get this man nominated??? Rafe (north central KY)
 

SeedyPast

Member
I've used the STS method outlined here, and can vouch for its effectiveness. Once weekly spraying with STS was much preferred to daily CS spraying.

The one uncertainty I'd had was whether the STS would translocate through the entire plant. My results on several plants show that reversal of a single branch is easily accomplished, without affecting the entire plant.

Only thing I can think to add is about using a small lower branch as the target for sex reversal. The spray seems to produce a bit of growth stunting, and on a small lower branch that is not vigorous, there can be problems. In the future, I'll likely choose a vigorous branch to insure good male flower production.
 

coldcanna

Active member
Veteran
When you force a plant to pollinate herself do the offspring all resemble the mother or do you end up with a mixture of genotypes? If the offspring stayed mostly the same I wonder why more people aren't doing this to the "clone only" strains to make them more available
 

Betterhaff

Active member
Veteran
There will still be some variability unless all loci are fixed which is highly unlikely. Also remember the principle of independent assortment in the reproductive process.
 

coldcanna

Active member
Veteran
I see. So basically your going to have X amount of mutations because the traits are passed down independently. Id assume that a reasonable amount would come out very similar to the mother because you not introducing a whole new set of traits from a father plant
 

Betterhaff

Active member
Veteran
Not necessarily mutations but you may end up with different combinations of alleles at loci if they are not the same to begin with. You are correct, you are not adding any additional genetic material but it can get shuffled so to speak. Any trait that’s governed by recessives will breed true as the alleles have to be the same for the trait to show. If traits are governed by dominance, a locus that has a dominant allele and a recessive one can get shuffled to show the dominant trait but can also present a recessive if both recessive alleles pair up.

Here’s a quote from Chimera that sheds a little more light on it.
The 'S' designation should really be reserved for populations derived through self-fertilization. It denotes that only two alleles from the initial selection were ever admitted into the breeding population. This makes following traits and genes much easier because you rule out the effect of more than two alleles at any given locus, right off the bat. This is the vast benefit (and detriment!) of selfing.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=332250&page=2
 

coldcanna

Active member
Veteran
Thank you. I certainly need to do some brushing up its been almost 10 years since I took biology and it shows lol
 

NEWEYGOOEY

New member
Feminizing seeds

Feminizing seeds

Hey gro errs,Their is a technique that involves reg seed stock .take a jar ,cut up a banana and apple and a bit of pair put it in the bottom of jar .wrap your reg seeds in a papertowel,do this for 14 days open jar for a minute each day ,replace the rotting fruit peels from the banana and fresh apple n pair no moisture .i use a layer of paper towel in between the fruit and wrapped seeds after 14 days. Put them back in the seed container till ready and you will have 93-96% fems.try it for yourself no hermi the drug bug.lolsounds crazy but do some research and you will find it also. Peace good luck.
 

siftedunity

cant re Member
Veteran
Hey gro errs,Their is a technique that involves reg seed stock .take a jar ,cut up a banana and apple and a bit of pair put it in the bottom of jar .wrap your reg seeds in a papertowel,do this for 14 days open jar for a minute each day ,replace the rotting fruit peels from the banana and fresh apple n pair no moisture .i use a layer of paper towel in between the fruit and wrapped seeds after 14 days. Put them back in the seed container till ready and you will have 93-96% fems.try it for yourself no hermi the drug bug.lolsounds crazy but do some research and you will find it also. Peace good luck.
ive never heard of that before. sounds like an old wives tale.. I did just do a bit of reading about tests with ethylene and seeds but apparently seeds are not captive to it since they are already genetically male or female.
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Sounds like complete BS to me as well.
Ethylene cannot change an already determined code within the crystal matrix called DNA.
Ethylene can, however, cause sexual expression to change outside the DNA crystal matrix.
Failure to maintain elevated ethylene levels will result in the plant reverting to it's DNA coded state.
 
Top