Breeding with females.

[Red October]

Any input on how the relationship works when using females to breed, with males and females I tend to agree with breeder Steve and DJ shorts that the female sets more of the structure, smell and flowering time and the male gives more of the effect/potency.

When using reversed female plants does the pollen donor or reciever set more of the structure smell and taste? Dubi seems to use the more sativa dominant as the pollen receiver in his crosses from what I can tell and he's one of the few breeders that's using more true sativa plants in his work so it's kind of hard to follow looking at other breeders as they are using heavy poly hybrids in their own work for crossing.

With most seeds on the market being feminised it's not always possible to get regular seeds anymore and figure I need to back up some of the plants I have as they took me a long time to find them but I'm unsure how to approach this when only using female plants and can't find any good articles on it.

 

[troutman]

Regular seeds are still available and always will be.

Also, at least 85% of what I grow are pure Sativas.

 

[midwestkid]

What I've been doing is taking one of my favorite females and reversing her onto my whole room.

So I know most of my keeper plants pretty well At this point. You get familiar with their different characteristics.

So I reverse one of my clones on the room. Then I run the resulting female crosses. you then get to see what traits are passed on and how things recombine.

Next go round I pick a different female out of the room and reverse her onto all of the keepers.

So basically if I have ten keepers in my room each one will eventually be the primary pollen donor at some point.

im a seed nerd. So this brings me great pleasure. Also I consider it an insurance policy if I lose a cut or clone or something gets sick or bugs get crazy I have things kinda backed up in seed form.

So the short answer is I dont know the answer to your question, but I'm going down the rabbit hole currently.

My guess is that it will differ with each cross who dominates who and which traits express.
I don't think it's gonna be as cut and dry as saying the pollen donor gives x,y,and z.

Time will tell. Im enjoying the learning process.

Keep us posted on your findings and I will do the same

 

[Red October]

Thanks midwestkid and it's like your saying, you have to know your plants being used pretty well to understand the results, I'll definitely post up my results and would appreciate you doing the same. I plan on approaching it just like you have, but it is time intensive.
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It's kind of wierd that there aren't more extensive articles that have been written on the subject.

 

[midwestkid]

Red October let's hear about what you are going to breed. S1 or feminized cross?

The last reversal I did was a pretty large one. The last shed I was growing in wasn't properly heated or cooled, so when I saw poor conditions approaching I would reverse a chosen female and dedicate the room to seed production and the flower would then go to RSO production.

I have about 10 of those crosses growing right now. I just flipped them to 12/12 this week. ( i feel like this is the part where I will actually learn something)

I think the tricky part is timing. You need to start your reversal a few weeks before your pollen receivers because it takes her a while to turn into a him.

Also I've found that I yielded more seed from females that are pollinated in early flower compared to females that are dusted later in flower.

You'll know you are really nerding out when you start sacrificing flower production for seed production.

 

[Red October]

Lol I hear you man, I've done a few lots of seed runs but without testing the parental plants first and then realising I've just wasted my time and have a lot of seeds I have no interest in growing

I'll do S1 and crosses just to make sure I have a back up of the mother incase something goes wrong, I've been following nspecta's work a bit and he likes to do large S1 grows and he seems to be finding plants superior to the original mothers in his opinion. So with enough space eventually I'd like to do the same, it's all about the numbers I suppose.

If you wouldn't mind please post up some pics and details of the females you're using, I like to see how the offspring compare. I've only got a few select plants so far but doing a reasonable amount of new seeds each run trying to build up a library for myself, there's so much bunk stuff on the market so it takes a while to find something worthwhile.

 

[midwestkid]

Lol I hear you man, I've done a few lots of seed runs but without testing the parental plants first and then realising I've just wasted my time and have a lot of seeds I have no interest in growing

I'll do S1 and crosses just to make sure I have a back up of the mother incase something goes wrong, I've been following nspecta's work a bit and he likes to do large S1 grows and he seems to be finding plants superior to the original mothers in his opinion. So with enough space eventually I'd like to do the same, it's all about the numbers I suppose.

If you wouldn't mind please post up some pics and details of the females you're using, I like to see how the offspring compare. I've only got a few select plants so far but doing a reasonable amount of new seeds each run trying to build up a library for myself, there's so much bunk stuff on the market so it takes a while to find something worthwhile.

You can take a look at my experiments by searching "He said she Shed" (haven't learned how to hyperlink yet)

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I flower my males and reversals outside my flowering area.
Why?
Because properly frozen pollen is always available at 'the perfect time to pollinate.'

Collect and dry daily, then use a dessicant to reach 3% moisture before freezing. I have 10+ year old pollen now which is still viable.

 

[Red October]

I flower my males and reversals outside my flowering area.
Why?
Because properly frozen pollen is always available at 'the perfect time to pollinate.'

Collect and dry daily, then use a dessicant to reach 3% moisture before freezing. I have 10+ year old pollen now which is still viable.

I have been considering this, never tried but glad to hear it remains viable for so long.

 

[midwestkid]

We belong to an elite group of people who are solely responsible for their own allergies

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

We belong to an elite group of people who are solely responsible for their own allergies

When you pluck off the almost ripe pods each day... eat them. Allergies to pollen in general have greatly reduced symptoms.

 

[midwestkid]

When you pluck off the almost ripe pods each day... eat them. Allergies to pollen in general have greatly reduced symptoms.

No kidding? This sounds like a dirty trick. Lol.
It really bothers my eyes. Not enough to use goggles just yet, but I can definitely tell when it's got me

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I never had issues with pollen till I moved to the 4 corners area. Did you know rabbit brush will bloom in the middle of winter? Apparently I have allergies to it.

My symptoms are almost eliminated when I am regularly eating cannabis pollen. Never ate much either, usually less than 50 pods a day. Often wondered if upping the dose would remove the issue. Bee pollen is recommended for the same reasons.

 

[El Timbo]

My pollen allergy completely disappears when I stop eating dairy foods.

 

[Legalcdn]

Probably a good idea to have an epi pen nearby. Pretty cheap insurance just in case.
i have allergies for 35 years. I have taken shots but now there is sublingual treatment.

For eyes, get steroid eye drops. Magic stuff.

Definitely wear a N95 mask and shower after so its not on your pillow when you sleep.

I just did a plant dusting also and that shit can get everywhere if you are not careful.

 

[midwestkid]

Does anyone have suggestion when a reversal works but the floral clusters are to tight to drop pollen?

They are almost like tight buds. I'm wondering if I should just pull everything off of this plant and let it dry. Then hit it with a blender or coffee grinder?

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

If there's enough time, the flowers will begin forming with a higher chance of opening as the STS becomes ineffective. Drying and grinding the current 'balls,' as they drop off would likely expose some pollen.

 

[PolyChucker]

The male and female are 99% the same in the DNA just like people - we tend to highlight the differences. Obviously nice to know the bud qualities of both parents when breeding but I am still using males hoping there is some magic in the old fashioned way.
I’ve only been doing this 4 years but the structure is pretty unpredictable and not sex linked IME. The only thing I’ve noticed is wide leaf dominates narrow leaf. Wide leaf also linked to small indica buds. Node spacing seems independent of leaf shape which creates some bad combos mainly wide leaf short node - too crowded.

 

[Red October]

Thanks everybody, I've realised through further reading and a reply from dubi that the outcomes are very unpredictable when using hybrids and polyhybrids. The only times I have done done crosses have been with using inbred stock which I think has a much higher predicted outcome and I've always based my thoughts on that.

Non the less I will still continue to collect the females and males I like based on their effects and see how they perform in crosses, for me what I'm really looking for is bud that doesn't have a plateau with minimal tolerance build up and a pleasant experience, so far they have been few and far between but they do exist and I will keep finding them even if it bankrupts me which it is