Preserving landrace strains indoors?

aliceklar

Active member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #1

Wondering if there is a guide or a sticky anywhere for people wanting to preserve landrace seeds - specially those of us who are not lucky enough to be able to grow outdoors, and are using LED lights? Sunshineinabag interested in this one, too. (thread link below)

I've been exploring some Johaar seeds from The Real Seed Company, and have a bunch of others I'd like to grow out (inc Nanda Devi, Syrian, Kumoani, Rasoli). Mindful of how these traditional landraces are in danger of extinction from the introduction of modern hybrids, I'd like to make sure I do my bit to back them up.

Main thing I'm aiming to do, before any crossing or selecting, is to make sure Ive pollinated every female with every male in each new batch of landrace seeds, and saved the seeds labelled by mother. That way I have preserved all the genetics in that batch, and have plenty of seeds to play with down the line.

Any advice from those with experience of doing this would be appreciated - especially any tips for dealing with large plants in small spaces!

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=357140

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=364057
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=377039

 

Rembetis

Active member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #2

Hi, I left you an answer in the other thread. How did your Johaar and Thai turn out? Maybe we can build off of that experience.

First of all you have to realize that not all of those strains are doable indoors. The biggest issue I have run into is strains with long node length. Much as I wanted them to work it is pretty much impossible. By the time you top and trim to make them fit there wont be any yield.

Also you cant feed heavy and will need to restrict pot size. Light schedules need to be right. You might try reading thru more of the Landrace threads. I have the Jamaican Landrace thread (Jamaican Dub Stylee) going right now. You can ask questions as the thread progresses if there is something you want to know

 

Sunshineinabag

Active member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #3

Trial and error

 

gorilla ganja

Well-known member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #4

Take clones to keep plants small. I have rooted clones on 12/12 to induce flower very early.
This will keep the unruly wild plants quite small. You can top or train them as well.
It does not take a very big plant to yeild quite a few seeds.
All this can be done in solo cups or small pots up to a gallon or so.
So you can fit a sizeable number in a small space to be able to get as many phenos as possible for genetic preservation.

Best of luck

Peace GG

 

Sunshineinabag

Active member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #5

Do you find any spectrum specific requirements? Lighting wise

 

gorilla ganja

Well-known member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #6

I just use fluoresent or led. Nothing fancy here. Low wattage and keep them close.
Blue spectrum I find keeps tighter node spacing.

 

aliceklar

Active member

• Oct 3, 2020

• #7

Rembetis said:

Hi, I left you an answer in the other thread. How did your Johaar and Thai turn out? Maybe we can build off of that experience.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Will check out that thread, and am reading more on this subforum. am totally learning from my own experiments each time but wanted to learn from others experience too.



The Johaar and Thai were both great - I only popped a few seed of each the first grow as i didnt know what i was doing and didnt want to waste vaulable seeds, but I got 3 of each - for the Johaar it was 2 female, 1 male, and the other way round for the HT. I made plenty of seeds with both, and am now growing out some of the Johaar seeds I made initially to get a feel for it before popping the remaining seeds from the RSC. i made them fit my space ( effective vertical height for plants of c. 1m) by topping, supercropping, pruning, and training them to horizontal strings on the walls. Plus keeping them root bound in small pots. It was a mission (14-18 weeks for the Johaar, 18 weeks for the Thai, but worth it).

 

B

Benny106

• Oct 12, 2020

• #8

Colina said:

Just a quick note of clarification regarding the recommended round of open pollination. In my opinion, when using this method on a smaller scale (regardless of the line), the traditional method should be modified somewhat. If we were to let all of the males and females flower together, then we may be running the risk of the earliest males being most heavily represented in the mating. This should be avoided. Instead, seperate males from females during pollen drop and attempt to collect relatively equal amounts of pollen from each of the males. Make a pollen mix from this to use on the females. This will help to capture as much diversity as is possible under the circumstance.

Click to expand...

this

 

therevverend

Well-known member

Veteran

• Oct 12, 2020

• #9

The quote above from Colina nails it, most times an open pollination with multiple males and females isn't a good way to preserve rare genetics. The time when a plant is receptive to fertilization or actively releasing pollen is short. Unless the timing is perfect and the males and females are perfectly synchronized you'll end up with a small number of plants supplying almost all the genetics. Exactly the result you don't want. You're better off either collecting the pollen from each male and applying it individually to each female, with labels, or moving the males and females individually to a love hotel to get it on.

A lot of these long flowering equatorial types are better off going 12/12 from the start. Closer to the equatorial day length then a 16-8 or 24 hours lighting scheme.

 

aliceklar

Active member

• Oct 13, 2020

• #10

Thanks All! Some great advice here. Hadn't thought about the different timings for pollen release - will pollinate individually as the males start to shed when I'm doing a preservation run in future. (incidentally, by complete accident, this is what I did last time with the Johaar and Highland Thai I grew - pollinated every female with every male, individually - but that was complete coincidence!)


On a different note, regarding the physical practicalities of huge plants in a small space, there is some great info in this thread about how to reduce the height of plants without pruning:


https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=9012644&postcount=11

 

xerb

Member

• Jan 9, 2021

• #11

You can do this indoors, but you're going to need room.

A higher than normal ceiling would be a big help.

Have you thought about using a shipping container?

A high cube insulated one would be perfect.

I have been using ceramic metal halides - relatively cheap and are perfect for a small grow. You probably want to augment them with a 600w HPS for flowering... Making seeds takes light energy.

The small pot idea really cut down on my yield. I find pot size is crucial if you want to maximize yield.

Instead, I would suggest a screen of green - tipping your pots over slightly and running stems horizontally until they are done stretching. training the growing tips without topping is a skill you will need to develop.

Many of the sativas I grow stretch at least half way through the flowering period.

These were extremely lanky, but the end product turned out great.




Learn how to preserve pollen and seeds for the long haul.

Just a few ideas for you to kick around. Xerb

 

Sunshineinabag

Active member

• Jan 9, 2021

• #12

I got the high ceilings
I got the room clean
The room is like 50-60 with no heater and outside is usually 15-30 degrees f
Wanna get my fat mango x c5 going

 

VerdantGreen

Genetics Facilitator

Boutique Breeder

Mentor

ICMag Donor

Veteran

• Jan 9, 2021

• #13

agreed about the controlled 'open pollination'.


vegging on 12/12 and flowering on 10/14 for tropicals works well.


ime, scrogging is one of the best ways to grow a big plant in a big pot - in a small space... and over the years i pride myself on proving that pretty much anything is possible.



Small pots also works to constrict size but has a negative impact on plant health.


This Black Forrest, for instance, is a viet black line, i planted it horizontally to lose height and then trained the stretch across the screen.

VG

 

xerb

Member

• Jan 9, 2021

• #14

Totally Green, Mr Green! those look awesome!


looks like you have it down!


Who says and old dog can't learn new tricks? Woof! Xerb

 

xerb

Member

• Jan 9, 2021

• #15

It hasn't come up, but if you are an organic gardener, you have to have a really well balanced soil that will continue to provide nutrients though a very long growing cycle.



One possibility is using the No-till method, feeding the soil, keeping all the critters and micro-organisms happy, so that it will continue to feed the plants.


I have been no-till gardening for years, never been happier plants.
Thank you Coot, Thank you Bluejay, Thank you DJ !