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How to Create a Semi-Auto Flowering Strain?

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=186403

This link may give you some insights on auto/regular crosses performence.

There 's only so and so many options, and you would have to decide for yourself wich genetical make up will suit your own peticular situation the best.

These crosses performance will all be decided by at what lattitude one lives.

Seedbanks do not tell you of what combinations their genetics are made up from.

Only private breeders may occasionally account for this kind of integracy.


So they will usually tell you how a strain performs, but leaving you with no clue of what to expect from their offspring when pollinating them yourselves. ^^ ( that's usually the first time when you find out about the (dirty) little secrets of their gene soup. ^^)



What is interesting to note here is that there also exist long flowering true auto's that start early flowering.

& that there also exist short flowering true auto's that start flowering much later then would regular auto's do.

These however, are the result of long term inbred lines, selected for their peticular feno expression that is derived from either aa, aA, or Aa types. ( This stuff is out there but I haven't run into too many seedvendors selling this stuff, cuzz it's actually called 'work & sacrifice' that one needs to be committed to in order to maintain these lines ^^)



A commercial strain I can reccomend would be TYPHOON. It is one of the earlyest early inbreds I know of, and only takes one or two weeks later to start flowering then true regular auto's would.

NB: It has a very racey sativa high to it.
 

Femora

Member
..

A commercial strain I can reccomend would be TYPHOON. It is one of the earlyest early inbreds I know of, and only takes one or two weeks later to start flowering then true regular auto's would.

NB: It has a very racey sativa high to it.

Are you saying that a typhoon would finish at your location (lat 65, finland??) :D
How do you breed them? Veg them indoors from late April??
That would for sure be interesting. I thought they would barely make it down south in sweden.

Mind to explain a bit more about possible "dirty little secrets" in the genes?


About my seeds:
Here we go with my plans! (Yes, they are ALL supposed to be true AFs according to the homepages)
Edit: xcept RCMC-seeds and Maroc and iranian.

Dinafem
Colourpack #9
2 Critical +
2 Fruit
2 Haze

Colourpack #12
2 Moby Dick
2 Haze 2.0
2 Original Amnezia


Sweet seeds
3 Big devil/#2/XL (dno wich to pick)
3 auto black jack
3 speed devil

Paradise seeds
3 Auto Wappa
2 Vertigo

Grass-o-matic
3 Maxi Gom

BBS
5 crit mass auto
------------------

DP

Colour #6
2 Automazar
2 Polar light
2 Auto Blueberry

Colour #7
2 Think different
2 Starryder
2 Auto xtreme

3 Snowstorm
3 Taiga (probably earlyflowering, not auto. Possible breeder)

RCMC
12 Fast Bionic Guerilla
12 Auto Affie x Mighty Might
12 Wolf Island Sativa (probably to long floweringtime)
12 Brickland

----------

Norden Seeds
50 Auto Viking AK47
5 Auto Viking Blue


Iranian auto
Purple Maroc (seems to be to late for my lat.. but the strain is really interesting. Maybe can find a earlyflowering in there if I get a pack. The high and the lavendel-taste is so interesting! :D


this is about 160 seeds.. I beleve ill aim at 100 seeds, top! -.-


Well... Thats some crazy shit comming up!
I figure I have it all quite figured out. The only serious problem that can occure (beside me breaking a leg, for real) is lack of water.
Im a depending on watertraps (e.g a 3x3 meter woodenframe with plastic in it) since there is no water nearby. And carry about 200 liter water everytime, about 500 meters is NOT a possibility.
Ive arranged with soil, perlite, claypebbles and so on, scrog-nets, frames for the water, nutrition, somewhere to germinate/veg most of them...

Wish me luck! ;p
Any comments or thoughts?
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
Femora;Are you saying that a typhoon would finish at your location (lat 65, finland??)

OTH > Well, they get surprisingly close.

Closest from all early's I know of and of wich I've been trying a plenty.
That's why it came to my mind to recommend this Typhoon to you.

Only true auto's have got a full & fair chance to finnish in here, but even long flowering, true auto's are getting a rough time by the end of season.

With the typhoon, the time they start flowering (after 5 to 6 weeks) is early enough to hypotheticly make it in here , but then the time to bud out completely takes way too long.
So I will now put my efforts in trying to get this flowering time shorter while still focusing on the 'early' trait.
The survival of the fittest methode will no doubt take care of it.
& besides that, I also made some outcrosses with true auto's to see what that will do.
But with them, I would merely want to select for the 'early trait' in combination with their 'shorter finnishing times'

All kinda stuff still in progress ma man, :) But for you however, this strain might just be perfect as it it.


Femora; How do you breed them? Veg them indoors from late April??
That would for sure be interesting. I thought they would barely make it down south in sweden.

OTH > For breeding, I sow pregerminated seeds straight into the cold outdoor soil during the beginning to half of may, but that's because I'm mostly a survival of the fittest type of breeder.
I don't do sensi at all to myself, only to friends.
So if you would go about it like you suggest above, yes, then that would very likely result in a decent sensi crop.
But you have me a bit confused there when you ask; how do you breed them. ( I suppose you mean 'grow'?)
When breeding, I like to use large numbers of seeds, like several thousends if not tens of thousends per plot.
You'll understand that vegging indoors would then be out of the question.
Vegging indoors is merely interesting for if you want to do sensi imo. hence my reply.

Femora; Mind to explain a bit more about possible "dirty little secrets" in the genes?

OTH > Maybe, but it's rather dry genetics and I wonder if it's going to work out well on a message board.
I need a pencil and a paper for that, and see from there mostly.

Thing is, when you get seeds from somewhere, you usually don't know what the genetical make up is going to be, unless you cross it out to something of wich you do know the genetical make up.

The result of such a cross will then tell you what the genetical make up was from the ones you did not know.

So if you buy a 'true autoflowering strain', you are going to find out that most of them bastards are just f1 hybrids (easy way to create 'one time only' but well performing selleble strains)
Offspring from these plants will need a hell of a time & selection before they start performing again iow.

Also you will find out how little selecting there has been done and from how small numbers of plants usually has been selected.

Then you'll find how recently a new strain has been created by crossing them back to something with more stable genetics.

Especially with auto's and early's, it is real easy to see of what a strain has been made up from, their succesive traits when grown in large numbers will give it all away, lol

Ah well, there must be more but these are just some dirty 'secrets' that pop me in at the top of my head.
Vendors apparently assume all are stupid or something, even though it only takes some 9th grade science and a bit of fieldwork to be able to look through all the BS.
To me it's a bit like a puzzle that needs putting together.^^

Hence I do survival of the fittest only, Makes the most sense to me on the long run.


I see you've got a nice list of trials to test.

If you could find 1 or 2 keepers from that list you should be more then happy.

From typhoon I know it's a landrace derrived strain, please add it to your list and maybe skip some others.
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
3 Big devil/#2/XL (dno wich to pick)> Rubbish

3 speed devil > Rubbish

2 Automazar >Nice high but I donno performence.

12 Fast Bionic Guerilla > Good if you are south enough. like 62 or lower.

12 Auto Affie x Mighty Might > Exellent.

Iranian auto > only good under 62 lat.

I went trough your list, and my opinion is either based on own, real life experience, friends experience, or there is some stuff I have been keeping an eye on while beeing on the boards.
All others I donno.
 

Femora

Member
Aye, "grow" is a better word then breed. I was thinking about that you have some sort of breedingprogram going on.. Sorry for the confusion.

Ill add the typhoon to the list. And ill probably veg them imdoors in 5-6liter pots for about 6 weeks before transplant outdoor in beginning of june. There is risk of frost first week of june...
Well, if this work out i just add them to another 20-25 liter soil each, train them to a tree so the winds wont take her down, and then hope for the best!

That lat 62 thingy with the strains.. Its so close that its worth trying.. :)

And ill remove those devil-strains you stated was just rubbish. Baaam! Cuttin the costs! :D
Thanks! :)
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
I hope your not above 62 though, 62 could be the absoluut minimum. It was just my guess as many of my friends live between 61 & 62.

If you 'd maybe check out ICmag's Finnish outdoors section. There you could get an idea of what still might work at your latitude.
I know about several whereabouts from guys that are participating there and I can tell you, it's sometimes damn critical with certain strains at certain latitudes.
My friend just told me how good Bionic guerilla had worked out for him at 62, while here ofcourse they did totally nothting , duh , lol (not that that is proof of anything, but besides that they are clearly not true auto, I merely wanted to state that it turned out real nice for him down under)
Danish strains are the most popular in our Finnish outdoor section, but I find them too sensitive to mold.
Many are indoor / outdoor strain combinations so they prolly hoped to combine potency with vigor, then again haven't had the time or patience to select for mold resistence.
All still works in progress.

Those Devils I grew myself, no interesting high at all, even made me grumpy, and they were plain f1 hybrids. Verry sensitive to mold too, so by my standards not 'worked' at all.
Still wondering what kind of asshole is marketing such a lousy strain.

Iranian auto I grew myself too, did not finnish ofcourse and seeds were very overpriced. Hyped strain by my standards but if you are willing to pay the price, yeh, good enough, lots of vigor. decent high.

You need to have good luck finding strains that have been worked long enough to stand out.

Like what LBH wrote on the previous page, that methode sure works but the outcome of such a combination is prolly not going to give you super big buds.
The auto flowering gene will be very much interfering with the allover size of the buds.
Like you are likely to get big plants with relative small buds on them at first.
From there on it will be your job to select for biggest and most mold resistend ones on a year to year basis (while taking baby steps every year...)

If you can lay your hands on auto affie x mighty mite then that could be a hell of a good deal, been keeping an eye on those along the boards since the early beginning.
 

Femora

Member
My hopes for that auto affie x mighty might just increased with about 38%.. :D

Im curious if you know when certiain strains was done at certain latitudes.
Do i understand it correct that bionic guerilla worked at lat 62 for friends, and didnt work at all for you at lat 65?
Im sorry if I missed something out here.. To surf the forums from a mobile is a pain in the a$$...
Anyway; i need to harvest first week of sept.. Or possibly second week, but then its risk for frost.. I would prefere to harvest before last aug anyway.. Thats my goal kinda.

Im well aware of that my 2013-outdoor will be alot of testing and failure.. But hopefully I get some autos to work with during the winter, and HOPEFULLY ill find a 23/1 or 22/2-strain that allow trees outdoor 2014! :)
Well... So much goin on. I cant really see where Ill land just yet. :)
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
Femora: Im curious if you know when certiain strains was done at certain latitudes.

OTH > Not off the top of my head, best look at the works in our outdoors section.
All guys work with a large variety of genetics at several different lattitudes. I can't keep track on em all.
There are some hardcore local breeders but I donno do they have seeds to spare.
There's always lots of trial and error going on, many use home made genetics that are hard to come by when digging the commercial markets.
Commercially availeble strains usually need to be worked a lot before they can compete with home made strains.
Many locals just cross one with the other and hope for the best.


Femora > Do i understand it correct that bionic guerilla worked at lat 62 for friends, and didnt work at all for you at lat 65?

OTH > Yes that is correct, in here they hardly even started to flower before the end of season so definatly not a true auto as was marketed for.
Same for Iranian auto btw.


Femora > Im sorry if I missed something out here.. To surf the forums from a mobile is a pain in the a$$...

OTH > I bet, lol


Femora > Anyway; i need to harvest first week of sept.. Or possibly second week, but then its risk for frost.. I would prefere to harvest before last aug anyway.. Thats my goal kinda.

OTH > Inbetween those perimeters I don't see anything working out well for ya besides Typhoon and true auto's.
Most early's go much longer.

I got the same here, we can get frost by the end of august. Once even the 17th of august.^^

Femora > Im well aware of that my 2013-outdoor will be alot of testing and failure.. But hopefully I get some autos to work with during the winter, and HOPEFULLY ill find a 23/1 or 22/2-strain that allow trees outdoor 2014! :)
Well... So much goin on. I cant really see where Ill land just yet. :)[/quote]

OTH > Right, I can imagine real well where you are standing atm.

Hard to see the trees trough the forest wha?
And to make matters worse, it's a fucking mess with those auto's and earlys these days.

I enjoyed following the updates in the outdoor section a lot, and been doing so since several years. Verry educational.

Watching outdoor section; sometimes something gets my eye, sometimes a nasty smoke experience of said 'something' blows it again.

I'm rather finicky if it comes to the right smokes, but if you don't care what you are smoking and main thing is it's going to produce much, then things can get a whole lot easyer.

Royal dane is a good yielder down south, but rather stoney.

Royal dane x Danish passion had a real nice high, yields good but needs to be worked for best feno's

Those however will go much longer than the first week of september.

They are both early's but nothing in compare to Typhoon.

Pure typhoon is a bit too racey high to my taste.

Danish gold may be working too, It's got a good high to it too.

I had it here crossed with Dieselryder and those worked out real fine. They nicely finnished before the end of august.

My main breeding stock is Dieselryder btw, they should work at your place the best while finishing perfectly inside your time frame.
But my stock is not homogenous yet, still got to work on it for some more years.
 

Hydro-Soil

Active member
Veteran
I really need to get higher levels of CBD in my autistic buttocks here... :)

Just picked up some GG#2 and Early Dane from a generous donor... had completely forgotten about them, 'twixt the time they were mentioned and the time they landed in my hands. LOL

:thank you:

Appreciate all the info from everyone. Really good stuff. :tiphat:

Stay Safe! :blowbubbles:
 

niceeven

Member
My little finger tells me the Early Dane you have acquired is questionable at best. Ten seeds only five germinated, only one male, a shitty one that is. The female was the best out of the four remaining plants, open pollination. No hermie branches were some of the others hermie I am told.

Something else I was told is that the germination test showed an awfully low rate, 3/10. One was grown indoors late last fall and it hermied out as if it was programmed to do so. Indoors that is.

However, for a seeded plant, the female was quite nice, surprisingly potent, early as hell and interesting flavour wise. Very stiva dominant. It may just be screwed up due to the bad male and lack of diversity, don't know...

One thing I know though is it's crazy how much info one gets when you listen to a little finger.
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
You're prolly dead on Niceeven.

There's plenty who want to grow auto's & early's but where are all the dedicated breeders?

I don't seem to see & hear nothing about their breeding practices.

Only beautifull adds with lot's of promises always.

I tell ya, If there was one, then I would have ran into him already.

Point is, breeding needs lots of time and dedication, Lots of numbers are needed to select for promising feno's.
Especially
with auto's & early's!

Occasionally I only get to see breeders with an arrogant attitude, like: Trust us, we know what we are doing. When in fact, they are just as far as anybody else.

Can't speed up evolution.^^

I only would like to see their enormous plots with thousends of plants to select from backing up their claims. Year after year...

:Shakes head:, not happening.

I think the catch is that it is real hard to produce top quality seeds while at the same time having plenty of stock to sell out from.

If I were to have top quality seeds, I would not want to sell em to anyone, better pop em myself to go search for best feno's again.

I also think that there is a marketing issue about it.

PPL think auto's are auto's and will go to anyone and their mother who's into selling them.

But 'quality auto breeders' are not beeing recognised still, so they will get a real hard time selling their stuff.

It is not profitable beeing a hardcore auto breeder atm.^^
 

Femora

Member
I just re-read this thread. Im getting so excited when I think about the upcomming summer, all the stress to get it arranged, the feeling of paying my garden a visit and stay in it a whole day, pausing for a cup of coffee and a sandwitch.. in the sun.. doing what I really like..!
On the other hand.. 8 hour work on your knees, in the mud, 9C, rain, shitloads of mosquitos... could occure from time to time. :)

I havent really had time to re-arrange the strain-list.
I feel like I really want to try out alot of strains to find whatever suits me.. And try out the different smokes!
Ive tried upward 30 different strains, feeling like a real newbie compared to some of you, but I think I have a clue what strain im looking for..
Quite hard to find what you want where I live. Most people just go " na na na, white widow! wooow!" and get high as the statue of liberty just cus they can.
Thats not my song, so im on a hunt! And now I can get any pray I wish!

Its alot comming up...
I wanna start a breeding-program in search for the 23/1-strain that will allow trees up here outdoor. Fix seeds on some early/auto Auto affie or other durable plant working in my climate.

AND grow something simple that is Auto and will guarantee a cashcrop!
I like to experiment, and I like to take it from the "green" bankaccount.. So the outdoor 2013 is my big step to get going. On top of this have to hide the growth from my family and friends that im supposed to hang out with.. Gah.
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
I feel ya Femora, I think the most importend is you find what you like smoking best and see from there.
 

Hydro-Soil

Active member
Veteran
My little finger tells me the Early Dane you have acquired is questionable at best. Ten seeds only five germinated
Hrmmmm... 3 healthy sprouts out of 5 so far... beating the GG#2 at this point which is at 2 of 5. It's only been 3 days...

Time will tell. :)
(edit: 6 for 6 on both early dane and GG#2... not super healthy or anything that stands out, but no problems either. Just hard shelled, taking longer to crack is all.)

Stay Safe! :blowbubbles:
 
Last edited:

Femora

Member
Aye. I have some big hopes for dp;s snowstorm #2 since its based on the skunkprograms Orange Bud.. And that orange bud was a real pleasure to smoke!
Crossing fingers!!

@HS; GL with the GG2 and the Early Dane!

Thanks for these inspiring threads..! :)
 

offthehook

Well-known member
Veteran
@ Femora, Once you find what you realy like... Then stick to that strain and breed it into near perfection.

I have been wasting way to much time on working strains that I did not realy like myself.

:regret: Hence the advice.^^
 

idiit

Active member
Veteran
good question and lots of good answers.

i've learned to approach a problem from different perspectives; different perspectives yield different answers.

here's an example; some definitions of an od early strain would include a strain that starts to flower early and then does not re-vegetate and continues to finish during long photo-period of the early-mid summer. last year i put out two strains from 17/7 indoor photo-period od may 15th that both started prematurely flowering in june and actually went on to finish in very early august ( indica pheno of chocolate rain and an early golden tiger malawi dom. pheno).

i actually don't want strains that come in early as the oct. 15th - nov. finishing window in my hot humid od environment produces the best bud.

another perspective is to not try to create a strain that could take you many years and carefully study grow reports from other od growers on their favorite early od performers and obtain those strains ( don't need to take the time to reinvent the wheel approach).

another approach is to list you attributes that you desire;

!). type of high (narcotic, energy, stone, etc.)

2). potency including tolerance buildup and duration of high.

3). bag appeal including taste.

4). yield including hardiness ( "no hardy no yield" in some environments).

^just listing some of many considerations.

^you can actually include different perspectives and combine them for a well rounded analysis before picking a few different strains to attempt od in your specific grow environment. some late summer/early falls will be cloudy, rainy, cold while other od summer/early fall harvest windows in other years will be dry, sunny and hot. different strains for different potential weather patterns is a good idea imo.
 

Femora

Member
Im surfin on the phone, while working..
I guess the answer is out there somewhere, but ill pop the question:
Is there any strain that will stay in flower once there, even if put under 24h light?
This could allow me to veg and flower plants in 5-liter/1,5g buckets and then transplant them outdoors mid june (24 hour light) to another 10-15 liter soil..
I doubt it will be more efficient/better then go true autos, but i like the thought and i REALLY to try out things! :)
Btw, it would allow an early crop!
Thoughs on strains, and time for them to flower indoors before transplant to 24/0 outdoors?
 
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