Seeds vs. Clones: Which is better?

touchstone

Member
I've recently got back into growing because of a severe spine injury, which resulted in me searching for something to relieve the pain without narcotic painkillers. I re-discovered MMJ, and it has been a huge help. I have grown before, but it was back in 2004. Oddly enough, when I was 18 I picked up an MMJ script and that was how I started growing way back when. I had an Alaskan Thunder Fuck clone from a local club, and a couple seeds. I popped the seeds and took care of the clone, and two of the seeds were male. One was female and I kept it, but it ended up being a really big disappointment. It really turned me off of seedbanks and seeds.

On top of that, back then it was common practice among certain growers to name their strains whatever they pleased, and you ended up with GDP that wasn't purple, or Jack Herer that was purple, or whatever. It was BS. This also contributed to my constant reliance on Clones.

So I'm wondering what other people think of seed banks, and mother plants, clones, crossing strains... what is your opinion? Do you prefer to use clones, and do you always correctly label your strains? Do you cross strains yourself and name new ones?

I ask because I would like to start crossing/breeding/hybridizing new strains. My idea is to use the Clone mothers I have in the back to make a couple clones, and then pop a strain I like from a reputable seedbank and try to cross it. The first crosses I want to try are Crystal Coma x Jack Herer, and GSC x Tahoe OG.

Here are my clones, minus Vader OG because it's already planted and I don't feel like dragging it around:

J1 (Jack Herer x Skunk #1)

Santa Cruz GSC:

Gorilla Glue #4

SFV OG (which I almost killed with nitrogen shock, but rescued. Oops.)


Will add vader OG and Tahoe OG pics later today. What do you guys think? Are clones the way to go, or are seeds the best way to find new strains and find strains to cross?
 

bluntmassa1

Well-Known Member
Seeds are better for finding an amazing mother clones are better for preserving that insane quality. A bit like Red Delicious apples they are all clones with the same fruits.
 

alwayslearning777

Well-Known Member
Both ... seeds are more resistant to mites and grow with muuch more vigor 707 is correct clones are great for a uniform canopy and to garentee that ur getting a female.

Personaly the dispencery near me has dissapointed me with mis labling clones, ive gotten some jedi kush and it is amazing but the atributes are unlike any one elses jedi regardless of their pheno.. seeds have been great for me and is worth the extra time they may take to germinate and sex, once you have all the famles from seed i take a bunch of clippings, flower the seeds and grow out the clones for next harvest and start from seed again and when i find one i dont want to part with ill keep the clone for more clippings
 

alwayslearning777

Well-Known Member
You can do alot with the different phenos aswell when u have a clone it is what it is, from seed ull have more variation in phenos so you can choose the traits you like out of it and when crossing you have more options, example
Im currently taking a sonic screwdriver , the shorter more orange cream dominant femail and crossing it with a jack skellington male, i know jack skelington streaches alot so that is why i chose the shorter sonic screw driver. I know the traits i want so i can search threw the phenos to find what would work best. If i was using a clone as the soon to be moma id just have to hope that its the one i wanted and hope that it isnt sativa dom because crossi,g it with the jack skelington male would make offspring super strech because that would now be dominant, with me choosing the more indica dom mother the seeds i get will have more of a chance of being a good inbetween, i will still have to do a pheno search threw all the seeds i just made and when i find the one that i want thats the one i take clones from ... idk if i make any sence but,thats the process i am in right now,
 

kountdown

Well-Known Member
I popped many packs of seeds in the past but I felt my space constraints didn't allow me to do a large enough sample size of seeds to pick a great pheno out the amount of beans I could grow at one time. I picked the best out of what I had, though, and dialed it in and grew it for a long time with decent results. When I got access to my first "clone only" (GG4), I was impressed to say the least. Now I feel that as a single, home grower with limited resources, its much easier for me to let someone else do the pheno hunt, and just grow clones. I still have to test-grow new strains but I don't worry as much about hermaphrodites or just plain garbage genetics when I have a well known "elite" as compared to the many beans I've popped. The biggest downfall I feel, is that I'll never win the genetic lottery and have the next "elite" but I think I'll get by.
 

kmog33

Well-Known Member
Depends, if you want uniform growth/product go clones. I like seeds better for growth rate and that top cola that actually has a taproot to support it's growth. Because clones are technically branches, they never grow a taproot, only secondary ones.


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