Making fast versions

Crow River

Well-Known Member
Hey folks. As the outdoor growing season draws to a close, I'm seeing first hand that only the toughest full season strains make it this far. Alas at my latitude (56ºN) the night temperatures and hours of daylight are both getting low. Plants are almost in stasis, healthy but not growing. Whereas fast and early versions mostly managed to finish, if they weren't taken by rot.

I'm thinking to make fast versions of the two toughest strains, retaining the hardiness but hopefully bringing flowering onset forward a month or so. Then they might finish before dormant torpor sets in.

I also have auto flowering versions of each strain from the same breeders. So, of course I thought it might be easiest to cross these with the full season photoperiod from the same strain. But I wonder if that may create issues, as it's kind of a partial back cross too? So the resulting cross may lack "hybrid vigour".

Alternatively I could cross to a hardy autoflower that I've grown and tested at this latitude. I can think of several candidates.

So I wanted to ask for views on this. Is one approach preferable to another? Or should I try both? And then maybe cross those two hybrids to each other?
 

Crow River

Well-Known Member
The two hardy strains (and their auto versions) are feminised. I have some auto strains grown outdoors which are regs, some fems.
 

MtRainDog

Well-Known Member
The easiest/fastest way to accomplish your goal of shortening flowering time of one of the hardy strains would be to hit them with an auto male and find the perfect child to keep a clone of.

Back-crossing isn't really aligned with your stated goal. Back-crossing is usually done to create a line that most resembles a special female.

If you want a seed line that accomplishes your goal, you'll want to inbreed.
 

conor c

Well-Known Member
Hey folks. As the outdoor growing season draws to a close, I'm seeing first hand that only the toughest full season strains make it this far. Alas at my latitude (56ºN) the night temperatures and hours of daylight are both getting low. Plants are almost in stasis, healthy but not growing. Whereas fast and early versions mostly managed to finish, if they weren't taken by rot.

I'm thinking to make fast versions of the two toughest strains, retaining the hardiness but hopefully bringing flowering onset forward a month or so. Then they might finish before dormant torpor sets in.

I also have auto flowering versions of each strain from the same breeders. So, of course I thought it might be easiest to cross these with the full season photoperiod from the same strain. But I wonder if that may create issues, as it's kind of a partial back cross too? So the resulting cross may lack "hybrid vigour".

Alternatively I could cross to a hardy autoflower that I've grown and tested at this latitude. I can think of several candidates.

So I wanted to ask for views on this. Is one approach preferable to another? Or should I try both? And then maybe cross those two hybrids to each other?
Id go with what works where your at and it will bring flowering time down by two weeks max a week with most it will however mean that the f1 will be a fast version and will flower slightly faster/faster flowering onset also so handy for outdoors im at the same lat as you i think you be better off with nordic genetics and semi autos and such vs fast verions for the long term tho things like mightey mite or the outdoor stuff realgorillaseeds does there hardier than fast versions
 

Modern Selections

Well-Known Member
Reverse fem auto to photoperiod strain. From those resulting progeny a percentage will be auto and the rest photo. Select the photo plants and cull the autos.

Once you flower out the seeds you will see which ones are "fast" and hold the other traits you like. Keep those plants to continue to the next gen. Keep selecting the photo plants that possess the traits you seek.
 

conor c

Well-Known Member
@Modern Selections
Thats how u make a semi auto but its probably better for you at lat 56 vs a f1 fast version anyway however its confusing as several breeders cant grasp the difference some call them one and the same i wouldnt anything that is photo dom and flowers early at a drop in light hours past the f1 gen is a semi auto alot of landrace is like this with the fast versions its only in the f1 photo x auto thats why there always fems
 

Crow River

Well-Known Member
Yeah sorry I should have clarified, I'm looking to make a semi-auto fast version. There's some confusion in the terminology. For me, a fast version is a semi-auto (whether it has Ruderalis or not) so is light sensitive and begins flowering earlier. Whereas an early version may or may not also start flowering earlier, but it flowers for a shorter time than a full season strain, finishing early.

I grew a few different varieties this year, including full autos, semi-autos/fast versions, early versions and full season photos. Because we had a very wet summer, some of the autos and fast versions suffered rot during flower, but in a more "normal" summer would be okay. But some full season strains just don't seem to finish at my latitude, so I would like to speed up a couple of the tougher full season ones.

I do have some Danish and Finnish strains, plus Dutch outdoor and UK outdoor strains too. I tried a Finnish auto and it was bombproof, will be testing some Danish and UK bred strains next year.
 

Manky

Active Member
Yeah sorry I should have clarified, I'm looking to make a semi-auto fast version. There's some confusion in the terminology. For me, a fast version is a semi-auto (whether it has Ruderalis or not) so is light sensitive and begins flowering earlier. Whereas an early version may or may not also start flowering earlier, but it flowers for a shorter time than a full season strain, finishing early.

I grew a few different varieties this year, including full autos, semi-autos/fast versions, early versions and full season photos. Because we had a very wet summer, some of the autos and fast versions suffered rot during flower, but in a more "normal" summer would be okay. But some full season strains just don't seem to finish at my latitude, so I would like to speed up a couple of the tougher full season ones.

I do have some Danish and Finnish strains, plus Dutch outdoor and UK outdoor strains too. I tried a Finnish auto and it was bombproof, will be testing some Danish and UK bred strains next year.
I have similar issues when growing outdoors.
2023 was kinda shitty because September was cool & wet.

I was a bit disappointed with a couple of strains that were supposed to finish around the end of August.
They didn't.
And this isn't the first time it has happened.

Ever try Rain Bird?
I was gifted some seeds to try next year.

'Early Bird' by Vashon Seed & Mercantile also looks interesting.
I may buy a couple of packs of those.
 

Crow River

Well-Known Member
I think it definitely depends on weather conditions, but also latitude. Up north, the days are very long in the summer, and then shorten really quickly. So the plants have to flower quite quickly before the bad weather comes in...

I will be trying some Danish strains next year, but if I can make my own FVs that would be great too.
 
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