A couple more pix, showing my fine technique!
When the seeds ripen, in four or five weeks, I'll take pix of the seeded buds.
Many growers find doing their own breeding an unhappy experience. Usually, they are easily disappointed, because they expect perfection with every try.
I currently have several hundred crosses in my collection, but most will never have seeds planted. Sometimes mother plants prove to be mediocre.
Sometimes hermies show up in a strain(compost).
Breeding is an adventure.
I started doing it out of necessity to keep fresh seed, quite a while back, before Amsterdam seed houses started.
I have about 40 IBL strains, and try to get fresh seed from each at least once every five years.
I also have two hybrid strains that are VERY promising.
A caveat:
There are several things going on that are going to make the lives of growers miserable, IF they don't make their own seeds.
Feminizing seeds removes your ability to breed seeds, if something happens to your sources for seeds(Holland bans seed sales?)
More and more seed producers aren't completely honest about the strains they sell. Anybody can call their seeds "White Russian".
Even if the seeds are the result of male and female White Russian plants, the offspring aren't from THE
original parent stock.
I know that backcrosses don't necessarily breed true. I select those offspring that resemble their parents most closely.
Yes, there is some drift in the genetics, but it still beats reordering a strain, only to find out THIS batch ain't the same.
There are a lot of folks doing breeding willy nilly, keeping poor records, and with no real goal. Just hoping to get lucky.
Too often, this leads to potent, but muddy, unfocused highs. This is another reason most of my crosses won't reach soil. They aren't what we like.
I hope you find this useful, and as always, I'll try to answer any questions.
Now for a little
Starburst. If I ever sell seeds, this one is gonna be expensive.