help with seed sex and how plant breeding works

[fuzzimuzzi]

I'm completely lost here about seed sex.

 

So every seed has different DNA even if they came from the same plant?

so if the plant is hermie, female or male will the seeds be the same as the plant they came from or its just pot luck?

 

Is there away to identify seed sex by looking at it or another way?

 

How can seed banks make sure that there femizised seeds are female?

 

 

How do you breed plants?

 

I'm guessing you have two plants one male and one female.

 

So you introduce the male to the female when its flowering and the pollin will send the female to seed there babies?

 

Which will be more dominate the female or male if that's how its done.

 

Thanks in advance for you're great help

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DoctorWho]

Think of plants as humans.  Two people from different families come together and have kids.  While its true that the kids will each recieve 50% of their genetics from each of the parents it will mix up in all sorts of combinations.  This means that while there will be similariaties between the children such as having Dad's big boofhead and Mum's ugly toes, that might be all that they really have in common.  Sadly sometimes the genetics are arranged in such a way that crazy mutations happen such as having a child born with both genders, having extra limbs, missing limbs, etc.  The amount of possible combinations is truly staggering and the results will differ every time even with the slightest of changes.  The same is true with cannabis.  Eseentially its pot luck until stabilization occurs which is when you remove genetic variation over successive generations.  To do that you find yourself a lovely female plant, seed her up and then use a male from that generation to seed her again.  You then use those seeds to find another male and seed her up again.  This process can repeat indefinitely and never really reach 100% indical plants due to the nature of breeding.  Remember how parents each give 50% of their genes? Well it goes 50/50,  75/25,  87.5/12.5, etc. essentially you cut down the possibilities by half each time you back cross to that original plant.

 

As for telling the sex of a plant the only true way of knowing is growing a complete cycle out as some plants hermie late in flowering.  Most don't so once they show their sex in  early flowering you should be all good to call it, but you can never tell before hand at all.

 

Seedbanks use a few different ways of making feminized seeds.  Essentially though they stress a female plant to the point of showing male flowers and then let shim seed up other plants.  The pollen contains two x chromozomes instead of a random mix of xx and xy which results in feminized seeds being produced.  Does it work? Sure does, but is it a good breeding practice? In my opinion hell no.

 

Breeding can be done by anyone.  All you need is a male to blow its load all over a female and she'll do the rest,  She'll produce a mix of seeds that resemble both parents and give you regular seeds that are 50% male and 50% female compared to the feminized ones mentioned above. There is a huge difference between being a pollen chucker and an actual breeder though.  A pollen chucker will just hope for the best whereas a breeder will actually take the time to look for specific traits in plants and breed with the intention of passing them on which can require hundreds of plants, sometimes more which can take many hard years of dedication, high plant numbers and wasted crops.

 

I hope that answers your questions, if not I'm sure someone else can pick up the slack

Edited April 17, 2013 by DoctorWho

[fuzzimuzzi]

Mate, you're a library.

 

Thanks for that help, great answers.