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Need advice before i jump in

Henry_420

Member
Hey there,

Been growing for over 10 years and want to do my first breeding project in 2018.
I landed on a site called Strainly and found not only seeds, but pollen and some rare clones. I believe this can be a really good starting point (clones or pollen options are attractive).

It looks almost too good to be true and I wanted to ask around before sending a request to someone on there...

Has anyone used it and would you recommend ?

Any other recommendation welcomed.

Thanks
 
Clones will have parasites.

Pollen may or may not be viable.

Both are a waste of time and effort unless you have/built a relationship with the sender.

Seeds are all you need.
 

Henry_420

Member
Clones will have parasites.

Pollen may or may not be viable.

Both are a waste of time and effort unless you have/built a relationship with the sender.

Seeds are all you need.

Makes sense but this is true for any forum or site I guess...

i'm more curious about the site. I know what to look for (pest and pathogen) when I receive the clones... I'll do inspection regardless of the source...
 

dezman

Member
The best and funniest part of breeding imho is selecting your own parent plants! Grow them from seed, observing, taking notes...now you are going to start breeding like the new school of "breeders". There are many seedbanks that offer landraces and rare varieties, you dont even have to strain hunt now, why are you interested in that? I dont understand(not trying to be an asshole)
Its up to you of course. Too many risk of pests, diseases, dead polen...and as i said start from your own seeds( the best part), if you just want to do an elite×elite just do it
 

Koondense

Well-known member
Veteran
If I was starting a breeding project I would start with some seed packs of two or three different inbred varieties.
Clones? Would find my own keeper plants to get some clones, never from an untrusted shop.

Cheers
 

Henry_420

Member
thanks for the answers guys. Appreciated.
It all makes sense.
Was only thinking, since I'm not really experienced with breeding (only studied theory, never applied), i could take a shortcut to practice and fail a bit, rather than starting from top notch seeds and waste them

thanks
 

thejact55

Active member
Sound advice given. Shortcuts lean on people who are probably also taking short cuts to make money. Pop hella seeds. Pollinate, select, continue. Read alot, learn from error. Fuck, thats all the fun. You get a few packs of seeds, open pollinate, you have like 1000 seeds, easy. Your mother can/will be better than a blind buy...if you take the time. If you are that worried about quality.
 

Henry_420

Member
just wanted to update on this.

I signed up on strain ly.io , found some nice healthy beans (manala charas landrace and a pack of topdawg's) and will start from there. Was hesitant to order clones due to the cold weather... may try in spring...

will probably create a post about my project in case it works as planned.
 

mobi50

Active member
10 years growing and you can't make your own selection from seed? How would you konow if the clone you buy is a good one than?
 

master kusher

Active member
you said strain hunt but maybe you should consider pheno hunting the 1st generation to pick out what characteristics you'd be interested in passing on the the 2nd generation. This could take a lot of time and money to do so ofcourse. (you wouldn't be growing any flowers that are an easy sell, so the profits aren't there instantly) but it could be a cheap way of obtaining good quality seed in numbers if you're looking to run numbers.
 

bigbadbiddy

Active member
You consider it as a shortcut to kickstart your breeding project and many so-called "breeders" follow the same strain of logic.

But I would challenge you to consider this:
With the perceived "shortcut", aside from the mentioned possibility for parasites etc., you also shortcut the strain/genetics themselves.
You basically lean on and trust in the selection and breeding abilities of whoever you buy the clones and/or pollen from.

Now are you really willing to do that?

I would say that would highly depend on the person you get the clones and pollen from.

If Nevil would offer me clones and pollen, I would jump on that.

If joe blow from IC or elsewhere offered them to me I would hard pass.

My point:
There are very few individuals I personally would regard highly/skilled enough to trust in their selection process and breeding efforts to the point where I would be confident in building on what they did.


In most cases you will get poorly selected/bred genetics and the perceived shortcut is actually more of a sped up bottlenecking which potentially goes in a completely different direction than what you would have bottlenecked towards.

Catch my drift?

Although the same reasoning holds true for seeds of course ....
But the clone/pollen thing is probably a huge step further towards bottlenecked characteristics that may or may not suit you. Much more variety and ability to find and select yourself in seeds obviously.
 

Henry_420

Member
Thanks everyone for taking the time. Some super useful guidance here.
@bigbadbiddy 100% agreed. When I mentioned starting from clones or even pollen, that was assuming knowing the grower or breeder and the quality of his work (kinda like for seeds). Thing is, it's usually less risky to go with beans from a breeder that built a reputation over the years than clones from a grower you don't really know (as you pointed).

Thanks again! Much appreciated.

oh, and if that helps, here's the link of the source i referred too when initially posting. Actually got a pack from BOG Seeds on there and about to pop them during the weekend

Check out stainly.io. It's a seed/cutting trading platform.


https://goo.gl/J3h4i7
 
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