Crossing high grade seeds

[smithy500]

To be honest my understandings are limited and knowledge is all over the shop from bursts of study over many years (of which now is a period of rekindling ), generally forgetting it all and having to try and relearn it and getting very confused with the heavy genetic sections.

 

It's quite a field dedicated to itself, there are some good heavy threads at icmag and c.culture that go in depth.

 

The strains dj worked with definitely were high grade strains and the land race is what is used and sought after by the majority of major breeders. Reading through his notes, the yields and times may not be particularly good, but the flavours, appearences and psychoactivity were excellent.

 

yeah as said land race are plants that have been around for a long time and are specific to a point on the earth and they hold specific traits that make them specifically unique. They are said to 'breed true' and their best option to create good hybrids is to cross it with another true breeder that is as genetically different as possible.

 

From what i gather, if a hybrid (or high grade seed which i think is what you are refering to?) becomes stable over time and breeds true, then this hybrid can be a good candidate for breeding with just like a land race would be.

 

There are other classes of hybrids out there which are not classified as true breeders and using them in breeding projects generally won't bring about the quality and overall stability that true breeders would. (see brief table at the bottom)

 

As said i'm limited in my understanding, though I'd say it would be worth a try doing what you mentioned, and see how it all works out for you. it would be well worth reading up on the breeding areas and genetics as you can encounter issues in breeding such as sterility, mutations, lack of vigour, loss of flavour/quality etc.

 

I think your question is a good one and to be honest am baffled for a definite answer as I don't fully comprehend it all myself, and when i think i do, it's only for a moment

 

If the seeds you talk of breed true, then they could potentially make very good seed that represents it's parents. If they are more of a mongrel your results may show very little likeness to the parents as far as i know. But out of lots of seed you are probably likely to get something you desire.

 

I'd guess with hybrids of stable parents you could grow a small amount of seed to get large amounts of plants with traits that both resemble the parental traits that you liked, once you go further from stability you will need to grow more seeds and will produce less indivduals that express the desired parental traits you are looking for.

 

Am happy to be corrected if what i said was off the mark to all more knowledgeable people here

 

Here's a snippet from an icmag thread (I haven't read the original and i couldn't find it at the moment)

 

by vichigh i think

1) PUREBREEDING - Uniform growth AND True breeding. These can include:

- IBLs

- Landraces

 

2) UNIFORM HYBRIDS - Uniform Growth But Unstable breeding. These can include:

- F1 hybrids

- Cubed seedlines - Bx3 or greater

 

3) VARIABLE HYBRIDS - Variable Growth AND Unstable breeding. This catagory basically catches everything that doesn't fit into the two top catagories and can include:

- F2, F3, etc

- Backcrosses like Bx1, Bx2

- casual 3 way and 4 way crosses

- hybrids of hybrids

[BaronS]

Despite more reading than doing I'll also suggest that Xing some 'strains' does not benefit from the increase in vigour such hybrids can normally expect.

 

IMHO, this is because many current 'strains' are really better referred to as 'stable hybrids'.

 

So says the man currently growing pretty average bagseed.

:-)