Crossing auto strains.

[louise]

I disagree in part..Lou.

 

Feel free

 

Yes it's what a newbie would ask for in an AUTO.......but then what!

In photo plants that's a different story.

 

I would have thought it's the same story... fems remove the burden or sorting males and females and that appeals to a lot of new growers. After a grow or 3 the ones that start with fems usually venture into regular seed to try varieties unavailable in fem form.

 

Anyone who thinks otherwise is not really looking at the big picture.....Ask yourself Lou....if you were making a living out of selling seeds would you sell seeds that were Non fem.......Really.........and have me or anyone else using your hard earned work to breed your own stock.

 

I am looking at the big picture... fems aren't replacing regular seed lines... I'm yet to see any of the big companies take a regular strain off the market in favour of a fem version.

 

Yes, some companies are bringing out fem only auto versions of old favourites and auto/fem versions with new names, but it doesn't have much to with keeping males out of the market place, more a byproduct or consequence of passing on the auto flowering trait.

 

Think about it... if you have a female ruderalis clone, that is known to pass on the auto flowering trait, and access to the stable retail product of of the older companies, it doesn't take long to setup as an auto/fem cannabis seed house.

 

If the answer is yes then you don't run your own business.....Cause that's what it is at the end of the day.

 

To stay in business the key is diversify... sell the regular, sell the fem and sell the auto/fem too... if an auto/reg existed of the particular strain, you would be stupid not to have it in your catalogue. Appealing to the tastes of as many customers as possible is how you maximise sales and stay in business.

 

Ocham's Razor Buzzo.

 

To protect genetic stock, professional breeders sell HYBRIDS... fems are the result of consumer demand.

 

In light of my above comment, I should really adjust quote it to read...

 

Fems are mainly the result of consumer demand but also, sometimes, a consequence of acquiring other traits.

 

If its the result of consumer demand then why don't they sell regular seeds cheaper?

 

As far as I know, regular seeds generally are cheaper than fems and fems are generally cheaper than auto/fem.

 

eg.

 

White Label's Super Skunk reg €30.00, fem, €50.00, auto/fem €55.00 per ten pack.

 

It's unfortunate that there aren't many varieties available in all forms (and I don't have the energy to search down those that exist) to be able to do a wider comparison of prices.

 

Regs are easier to produce

 

Only where the fem version is the result of working a regular version. If the auto/fem is produced using a forced female for the auto flowering trait there will simply be no males... no regular auto existed before the feminising stage.

 

And, as mentioned above, where there has been a and there is a market for them. I want them. I'm a market. Not everyone wants to be forced to make risky mail orders every single grow.

 

Sorry to tell you that market economics (flawed as it is) doesn't work that way. You alone do not constitute a market, but I completely agree, I don't want to be tied to continually buying in new seed stock. That's why I don't grow autos, or fems exclusively.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited November 1, 2012 by louise

[shroomyshroom]

To protect genetic stock, professional breeders sell HYBRIDS... fems are the result of consumer demand.

 

This is not always the case.... and what is a professional breeder... someone that gets payed for selling seeds... ? If you look into breeders you eventualy see i cycle... everyoner is using everyone elses work to create "new" strains... anyone with a little know how can slap 2 plants together and sell seeds to a site... hell im indiscussion with a few places atm inregards to light sensative strains ... at the end of the day none of the work is mine.... just like none of the work done on the seeds b4 i got them was that breeders work as the seeds came from someone else...

[Outlaw]

I'm sorry man can you explain to me how you are altering the plant's DNA to turn it into a male plant? Or are you just talking about sex reversing plants?

 

Just sex reversal. Like when men get hormone replacement therapy to become girls. Its just more effective with plants. Every flower is a sex organ so new ones appear with male flowers. Gibberellic acid is just a natural plant hormone. It turns females into hermaphrodites. There are some webpages that explain it better than I can.

 

As far as I know, regular seeds generally are cheaper than fems and fems are generally cheaper than auto/fem.

 

I know that regular seeds are cheaper. Sorry. Should have made myself clearer. I was referring to the fem only varieties with no regular seeds offered.

 

 

 

If the auto/fem is produced using a forced female for the auto flowering trait there will simply be no males... no regular auto existed before the feminising stage.

 

Thanks. I suspected as much after some reading today. from trying to figure out how to make regular seeds from feminised plants. If it can't be done then that makes sense. Seems a bit shortsighted of the breeder.

 

Sorry to tell you that market economics (flawed as it is) doesn't work that way. You alone do not constitute a market, but I completely agree, I don't want to be tied to continually buying in new seed stock. That's why I don't grow autos, or fems exclusively.

 

. I know I'm not a market. But there are a lot of people like me who want the regs as well as the fems for these top strains.

[louise]

Shroomy, thanks to changing laws in Holland and Sweden, there has been precious little new in terms of truly distinct cannabis hybrids in the last decade. Breeding for new, stable and distinctive hybrids requires test growing thousands of plants and that is no longer a legal possibility, pretty much anywhere in the world.

 

and what is a professional breeder

 

I expect I would class the seedhouses that existed pre 2000, and are still operating, as 'professional'. I don't think 'companies' that have emerged during the last 5 to 10 years are likely to have anything truly different from the retail offerings of the earlier companies... though they may be crossed, reworked and tweaked in different ways.

 

Seed houses in Holland have strict ceilings on the total number of plants that can be maintained by any one company, as well as ceilings on how many plants can be grown to produce commercial seed crops, and strict limitation on how many plants can be moved from one place to another. IMO, it's a combination of consumer demand and legislative change has had the greatest impact on the development of fem and auto/fem versions of the old cannabis favourites.

 

 

I can give you a couple of examples of the impact of legislative change on the SensiSeeds catalogue...

 

One - ERSB

 

ERSB was the last truly distinct cultivar to be released by Sensi. Legislative changes that occurred during it's development added several years to the release date.

 

Two - Silver Pearl.

 

Silver Pearl was discontinued despite being a regular seller. Sadly, the number of plants that would need to be bred to rediscover the lost Pearl parent is not a financially viable project.

 

Breeding to feminise an existing line, or develop an auto flowering version, requires fewer plants than are necessary to develop a new and distinctive cannabis hybrid and so, fems and autos provide established seed houses with a way of adding variety to the catalogue while complying with the current legislative reality.

 

It also provides newer, entrepreneurs with a niche market to exploit without having to own, or have access to, a great deal of original genetic stock.

Edited October 31, 2012 by louise

[Frank Reynolds]

 

 

Just sex reversal. Like when men get hormone replacement therapy to become girls. Its just more effective with plants. Every flower is a sex organ so new ones appear with male flowers. Gibberellic acid is just a natural plant hormone. It turns females into hermaphrodites. There are some webpages that explain it better than I can.

 

Hmm I'm interested I looked at that page, didn't come up with pics maybe cos I'm on my phone. What I am wondering is if the plants produce male flowers or bananas?

[Outlaw]

Hopefully not banana's. I noticed both those links I posted have vanished. Bizarre. Tried to buy Gibberellic Acid at all the nurseries in town but nobody had even heard of the stuff. They all tried to sell me clonex and other rooting compounds containing buterryllic acid or whatever the hell it was. Not the acid I was after anyway. Looks like I'll have to order it online instead. Should be safe by mail. Its used by all sorts of gardeners for hybridising plants like tomatoes. I'd better do it soon as my feminised super haze auto will start going to head in a couple of weeks. Definitely want seed from my feminised jack herer plants too. Hell, I might just try it on all 6 of my strains and decide which seed to use next year after I've taste tested all of this years crop. Its gotten to the stage where they are on their second set of true leaves and I find myself going outside a few times a day just to look at them and see if they've grown any.

[Stix87]

hey they have gibberellic acid on ebay for $10