[Bud Green Sr.]

I've grown outdoors, on and off, for a long time...I'm a good gardener and know how to grow a plant to it's full potential..

However, I do have a question on selecting the male which I will use for pollinating this year:

Last year I took seeds from my favorite female, which I had pollinated with a male of a different strain which I like...

This year, of 12 seeds which germinated well, I got 9 beautiful, vigorous girls, who are all doing very well since being transplanted to their large outdoor holes.. The other 3 plants are their brothers.
All of these plants are 2 months old since they first poked up in their starter cups.

The 3 brothers all look very different and I am trying to decide which one I want to keep, to use his pollen in late August.

All three brothers sprouted at the same time and have been up-potted and treated identically.. I bent over, and tied the tops of all 3 on the same day..

Edit: oops, actually I cut the tops off of all three... It's my girls who were bent over and tied up...

As you can see in the picture, number 1 is turning into a nice bush, number 2 immediately sent it's branches which were below the bending, straight up in the air and have developed very many pollen sacs already.
number 3 looks like a smaller version of number 1, with slower growth..

If you have lots of experience in this, please let me know which one you think I should use, and why..

[GoatCheese]

hey.


- You can get an idea of their resin production by looking at the small resin glands on their stems. You need atleast a 10 x maybe even a 30 x loop, for this


- You can rub the stems and underside of leaves (both new growth) and get an idea how they smell like and how strong their smell is.


Then there are the intersex trait (hermie) and flower production to be looked at, but you can see these only when they are flowering..

[stoned-trout]

do any of em have resin showing????yeehaw

[GoatCheese]

With out knowing the resin production or smell


#3 is lacking vigour so much, that i wouldn't use it. So it would be between #1 or #2 for me.

[rykus]

I like to choose males on structure unless I am trying to get the one that grows most like one parent.... For outdoor I would usually choose the fastest growers that finished first because I'm up north and I like huge trees....

For sturdy growth or smaller discreet plants use the short stocky, to get traits from either parent line look at leaf structure and growth and choose closest. For potency test all 3 on same clone and see what turns out, lol.

You got options, now all you need is a plan and because we didn't know what your growing for, only you can determine that!

[Bud Green Sr.]

Originally Posted by stoned-trout

do any of em have resin showing????yeehaw

Trout, the boys are just 2 months old since sprouting.
They have no resin showing on their leaves yet...
However, #1 & #2 have a basic "green" smell when rubbing their stems, whereas #3 is already developing a pleasant "sweet" smell.




edit: rycus, I'm mainly growing for potency.... Where I live, 90% of my girls are ready for harvest between Oct 2 thru Oct 20 and first frost seldom hits before Nov. !st

[corky1968]

I would choose plant #1 or plant #3.
Plant #2 is stretching too much in my opinion.

[Fuel]

Nice odor, slow flowering, good shape, so #3 imho.

[rykus]

There ya go!

Like I said, because it is very hard or impossible to tell how plants genes will align in a cross, and because it would be ultimately the best and not much work with only three males, I would recommend testing all 3!

Just take a small amount of pollen from each and swab it on a few buds of you favorite female, then grow a few seeds of each... Sometimes the shittiest male is best because it has no dominant traits so female shines through.... Sometimes opposite ...

I hate stripping and tying... So the stocky smelly one might be my pic also if it doesn't get to bushy, looks nice though...

[aridbud]

Sometimes knowing what your looking for is key. If your trying to preserve a certain female and looking for a male to use, you should look for a male that will pass on recessive traits so the female’s traits can dominate. It’s always a guess what’s recessive, but in this case I look for vigor and strength and less smell from a stem rub in the male.

Structure is very important. You’re looking to improve your cannabis in the hybrid, in-cross, or back-cross your making, not water down its quality or strength.

Leaf structure is also important. Depending on what you’re looking for, you may or may not want fat-bladed leaves that can block light from the canopy. In most cases, I prefer thinner leaves and a high flower-to-leaf ratio in males. I’m shooting for something easy to trim that lets a lot of light and airflow penetrate to lower in the canopy. That's especially important in hot/humid areas. ;o)

Personally, I like Plant #1.