New strain creation

Hi I'm a novice grower. But I have read extensively on the botany of cannabis! I feel it is probably the most exciting plant to cultivate!

That being said I am going to try cross pollinating two different strains. They're feminized plants so I don't have a male. I am going to use colloidal silver to make one of the females produce pollen. Well the genetics and the feminized pollen crossover to the next generation of seeds on the other strain?

what you propose is a waste of time.
Get regular seeds and skip the colloidal silver. Breeders use this to preserve exclusive genetics and unique phenotype genetics.
Also if your a novice, keep it simple. Get regular seeds, pollenate a female and see if you can get viable seeds.

If you reverse a plant and pollinate another one with that feminized pollen those seeds will be female. If you pollinate any of those females with pollen from another reversed female those seeds will be feminized as well. If you pollinate with pollen from a real male those seeds will be regular seeds with both male and female plants.

Dabbie McDoob said:

what you propose is a waste of time.
Get regular seeds and skip the colloidal silver. Breeders use this to preserve exclusive genetics and unique phenotype genetics.
Also if your a novice, keep it simple. Get regular seeds, pollenate a female and see if you can get viable seeds.

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What is it that makes it a waste of time? I can get regular seeds that isn't a problem. I like to particular strains of autoflowers and before I did it I was just curious if the genetics would carry over.

Saltyduck said:

But I have read extensively on the botany of cannabis!

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Then you would know the answer to your question. The pollen is from a female so it isn't going to make any male seeds and of course it will bring traits from the plant that you forced to produce the pollen.

Why autoflowers? Are you growing inside under lights? If so just go with photoperiod plants and adjust the light hours when you want them to flower. You'll get better yield and quality than you will from autoflowers.

I was just curious if anybody else had tried the same thing. And what kind of results they had. My last crop I crossed a male plant that was Seattle sour kush x primavera and a candy cane auto. Most of her seeds were long flowering autos and I only got a dozen or so male plants.

xtsho said:

Why autoflowers? Are you growing inside under lights? If so just go with photoperiod plants and adjust the light hours when you want them to flower. You'll get better yield and quality than you will from autoflowers.

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I'm just very excited to grow. It is a very rewarding plant to cultivate. Right now since I am only on me 3rd grow I want instant gratification. Next summer I will have both a an indoor and an outdoor grow. I will have both regular and autoflowers inside and outside. I will have them growing side by side. Just doing some comparisons and finding what technics work for me.

Saltyduck said:

I'm just very excited to grow. It is a very rewarding plant to cultivate. Right now since I am only on me 3rd grow I want instant gratification. Next summer I will have both a an indoor and an outdoor grow. I will have both regular and autoflowers inside and outside. I will have them growing side by side. Just doing some comparisons and finding what technics work for me.

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The thing is that you can harvest photoperiod plants as fast as you can auto's. Don't get me wrong. Auto's have their place and I grew 1 outside this year and plan on growing a couple more outside next year as well. I planted in May and harvested in August. So they're great for an early outside harvest that's not dependent on light hours. But inside under lights it's easy to flip photoperiods at 4 weeks or even 12/12 from seed and harvest as fast if not faster than auto's that do their own thing and sometimes take much longer than expected.

Anyway, good luck with everything and have fun growing. Be careful making seeds though. It can be addicting. And then you might find yourself storing pollen as well.

xtsho said:

The thing is that you can harvest photoperiod plants as fast as you can auto's. Don't get me wrong. Auto's have their place and I grew 1 outside this year and plan on growing a couple more outside next year as well. I planted in May and harvested in August. So they're great for an early outside harvest that's not dependent on light hours. But inside under lights it's easy to flip photoperiods at 4 weeks or even 12/12 from seed and harvest as fast if not faster than auto's that do their own thing and sometimes take much longer than expected.

Anyway, good luck with everything and have fun growing. Be careful making seeds though. It can be addicting. And then you might find yourself storing pollen as well.

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With perpetual harvests in a small space, it is possible to make autos yield more than photos, because you can keep the tent more packed for more time, but also you can give them more light. With particular size grow space, you could harvest 1 autoflower per month instead 1 photoperiod every 4 months and the tent would be nearly packed all the time, while with photo it would be mostly empty until the plant has finished its flowering stretch.

Also autos are great to have throw in some corner of vegging or flowering tent or out them which ever has space in it. Or if you had one big room where you are planning to do long vegging for photos, well why not put osme autos besides the photos and harvest them by the time you put the photos on flower? You should leave some room for the stretch anyways, so there would be extra room in veg space for some autos.

There are other reasons also to grow autos.

Most of the time photos will yield more, but its not always the case. Also some autos are just as good quality than decent photos. They might not beat the top photos in bud quality and also there is very high variation between autos and much of them are crappy, but best autos are a bit above average photos i would claim. So its not automatically "photos are better and yield more", but it depends on the situation, like most of things in life.

You also might want to rethink using CS for reversal and go with STS if you can. It's much more reliable and you don't have to spray everyday like you do with CS. I've used both but will likely never use CS again. But getting the chemicals for STS can be tricky in some places. Easy to get if you're in the States but apparently not so easy elsewhere. So CS might be your only option.

CannaOnerStar said:

With perpetual harvests in a small space, it is possible to make autos yield more than photos, because you can keep the tent more packed for more time, but also you can give them more light. With particular size grow space, you could harvest 1 autoflower per month instead 1 photoperiod every 4 months and the tent would be nearly packed all the time, while with photo it would be mostly empty until the plant has finished its flowering stretch.

Also autos are great to have throw in some corner of vegging or flowering tent or out them which ever has space in it. Or if you had one big room where you are planning to do long vegging for photos, well why not put osme autos besides the photos and harvest them by the time you put the photos on flower? You should leave some room for the stretch anyways, so there would be extra room in veg space for some autos.

There are other reasons also to grow autos.

Most of the time photos will yield more, but its not always the case. Also some autos are just as good quality than decent photos. They might not beat the top photos in bud quality and also there is very high variation between autos and much of them are crappy, but best autos are a bit above average photos i would claim. So its not automatically "photos are better and yield more", but it depends on the situation, like most of things in life.

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You make decent points. As a rebuttal I would state that you could do a perpetual 12/12 from seed with staggered plants harvesting frequently. But some strains are more suited for that style of grow so strain selection would be important.

I myself am going to stay with photo's except for a couple outdoor auto's planted in May. One of the reasons I mentioned photo's over autos is because the OP said they were a new grower and there is a misconception that auto's are easier to grow than photo's which isn't necessarily the case. And I've just seen too many new growers growing auto's having issues early on but no time to correct them because the plant has already started flowering and they end up with a very poor harvest.

But yes you are correct. There are other reasons for growing auto's than the reason I'll grow them. The only use for me is an early outdoor harvest. But all that really matters is a bag of weed in the end and a happy grower. So auto's or photo's just grow.

Without a doubt mistakes as an inexperienced grower are common and not always irreversible. Photo. Definitely gives you the time and resistance to mistakes that autoflowers don't give you. As long as I'm getting a little bud I'm okay for the time being. As I said the botany of their plant is exciting. Over the next couple months I will probably post a grow diary or two.

Over the winter I will definitely post the cross pollination of the autos. I will include all the details of the grow and throw pictures at you.

Saltyduck said:

As I said the botany of their plant is exciting.

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Personally i think the mere fact that a cannabis autoflowers is cool enough to be a good reason to grow autos

The whole low ryder thing blew my mind back in the days and while many take autoflowering trait as a granted nowadays, i still see it as something especially cool. Coolness factor alone would be enough, but then when you start breeding with them and all that, you take the hobby to next level. With such extra factor making it more enjoyable, the whole thing of maybe not getting maximum amount of yield become secondary things, and autos can make enough even if you also make some seeds on the side.

Also for a novice, it might be a good thing that autos are not that forgiving and that you need to play by the plants rules more. While it is harder to get most out of auto, growing them will teach you more faster about growing, because you get to grow more plants in shorter time compared to photos, especially if you want to grow photos that actually yield good = vegging them for long.

Thank you all for your help and info. I would appreciate any any advice or tips as it will be an indoor grow under an LED in a grow tent. And maybe a couple techniques that I could try. I feel we always learn best from our mistakes than our accomplishments.

CannaOnerStar said:

Personally i think the mere fact that a cannabis autoflowers is cool enough to be a good reason to grow autos

The whole low ryder thing blew my mind back in the days and while many take autoflowering trait as a granted nowadays, i still see it as something especially cool. Coolness factor alone would be enough, but then when you start breeding with them and all that, you take the hobby to next level. With such extra factor making it more enjoyable, the whole thing of maybe not getting maximum amount of yield become secondary things, and autos can make enough even if you also make some seeds on the side.

Also for a novice, it might be a good thing that autos are not that forgiving and that you need to play by the plants rules more. While it is harder to get most out of auto, growing them will teach you more faster about growing, because you get to grow more plants in shorter time compared to photos, especially if you want to grow photos that actually yield good = vegging them for long.

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Yeah as a new cultivator of this wonderful plant that is exciting to cultivate I'm not going to have the patience that a more experienced grower will have. I think with all new people to this amazing plant are very impatient with the process. I figure growing the autos will help me get through that impatience and learn as much as I can in a much shorter period of time. That way when I do get into photo periods I'll have a lot more knowledge about technique, nutrients and signs when the plant is in distress. Also learning how she will talk to me about what her needs are.

xtsho said:

You also might want to rethink using CS for reversal and go with STS if you can. It's much more reliable and you don't have to spray everyday like you do with CS. I've used both but will likely never use CS again. But getting the chemicals for STS can be tricky in some places. Easy to get if you're in the States but apparently not so easy elsewhere. So CS might be your only option.

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What is STS? I live in the states and if there's a better option out there I would like to know about it. Anything that anybody says here I will not have a problem with constructive criticism. I think learning from other people's mistakes and achievements is the best way for a new grower to learn.

CannaOnerStar said:

Personally i think the mere fact that a cannabis autoflowers is cool enough to be a good reason to grow autos

The whole low ryder thing blew my mind back in the days and while many take autoflowering trait as a granted nowadays, i still see it as something especially cool. Coolness factor alone would be enough, but then when you start breeding with them and all that, you take the hobby to next level. With such extra factor making it more enjoyable, the whole thing of maybe not getting maximum amount of yield become secondary things, and autos can make enough even if you also make some seeds on the side.

Also for a novice, it might be a good thing that autos are not that forgiving and that you need to play by the plants rules more. While it is harder to get most out of auto, growing them will teach you more faster about growing, because you get to grow more plants in shorter time compared to photos, especially if you want to grow photos that actually yield good = vegging them for long.

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I agree. Dealing with autos you have a very small window to fix any issue you are having with one of your babies. While I'm not as concerned about yield right now I'm looking more at quality of bud, flavor, and potency. I figure after I make my mistakes and learn how to make a quality bud instead of the quantity of bud I will have a better smoke that I can possibly increase yield on.

Saltyduck said:

Yeah as a new cultivator of this wonderful plant that is exciting to cultivate I'm not going to have the patience that a more experienced grower will have. I think with all new people to this amazing plant are very impatient with the process. I figure growing the autos will help me get through that impatience and learn as much as I can in a much shorter period of time. That way when I do get into photo periods I'll have a lot more knowledge about technique, nutrients and signs when the plant is in distress. Also learning how she will talk to me about what her needs are.

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Yes i think you have a great approach to this.

What i used to do a bit yers ago when i had more room, was that i did all sorts of tests on plants. You mentioned that you are going to grow outside next year. Do you have some place of your own you can grow freely, or were you planning more like some sub urban guerrilla style outdoor grow etc? If you have you own place where you can grow freely and plenty of seeds. I recommend trying tons of different stuff and having plants just for testing purposes. Doing things like topping autos at different points and seeing how they bounce back, maybe keeping some in a shadow or semi shadow all the time and looking how it effects them, or maybe just do it in during vegging only to some and during flowering only to some and all the time for some. Do stuff like really heavy defoliation constant topping of autos even if they try to flower etc etc

This way you learn this sort of intuitive understanding of the plant, which seems the type of thing you are trying to learn. Ofc its also good to read theory, but some people are more theory/information based and some are more intuitive approach, both are valid, but its best to have both, wich again seems to be your route.

Good luck and have fun

CannaOnerStar said:

Yes i think you have a great approach to this.

What i used to do a bit yers ago when i had more room, was that i did all sorts of tests on plants. You mentioned that you are going to grow outside next year. Do you have some place of your own you can grow freely, or were you planning more like some sub urban guerrilla style outdoor grow etc? If you have you own place where you can grow freely and plenty of seeds. I recommend trying tons of different stuff and having plants just for testing purposes. Doing things like topping autos at different points and seeing how they bounce back, maybe keeping some in a shadow or semi shadow all the time and looking how it effects them, or maybe just do it in during vegging only to some and during flowering only to some and all the time for some. Do stuff like really heavy defoliation constant topping of autos even if they try to flower etc etc

This way you learn this sort of intuitive understanding of the plant, which seems the type of thing you are trying to learn. Ofc its also good to read theory, but some people are more theory/information based and some are more intuitive approach, both are valid, but its best to have both, wich again seems to be your route.

Good luck and have fun

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Thank you! I will definitely be having fun. Thanks for the ideas. I hadn't thought about some of them.