I have a member fire me this question in a pm so this is best suited in the public to give a strong wind and clear the smoke of confusion..
I always thought that F1's were the best because of its hybrid vigor. and F2 was worse, but after that F3 and F4 were better than the F2... but from what I'm reading it seems like the higher the number the worse it is... I'm all confused
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Ok First I feel that beginners and novice growers treat breeding like electricity,they're afraid to delve into it or touch it as they feel there's
alot more going on than there really is...But once you're educated on it,in it
and around it "It" really becomes second nature.
Of course electricity hurts a bit more than breeding when you error..
Are F1 seed's better than say F2's?
This is dependant on what the grower wants,usually we'll assume
the majority of seed purchasers buy seeds to get a strain that is
as close to what a breeder describes in the big colored fancy worded
ad, (which btw, is usually 3 layers of bullshit with a red ribbon on it).
These will be grown out once and some gals selected for cloning if that
grower is set up to sustain a crop beyond the life cycle,these people
are growing the herb for themsleves and friends or they are selling it
commercially which is a risky move in today's society of prohibition.
In both of these situations an F1 is best as it can offer the best blend
of two strains , this offers a stable body of phenos in this first cross
they (if done correctly) will have attributes from both P1 parents
expressed evenly,vigor and rapid growth are almost guaranteed.
An F1 really shines when you cross 2 stable strains that are on the opposite
ends of the spectrum,,example would be a Deep Chunk and a Thai .
But these specimens are usually sought after by the more advanced growers
as they are too extreme to be considered a reasonable for the average grower,,,,
,"what the hell are you tallking about?"
A true blooded Afghani like deep chunk is worthless imo for a straight grow,offering
nothing but leafs the size of an elephant's ear,low yield.
A thai is again too extreme needing up to 16 weeks in some cases,and 10'
of ceiling with low yields also.
Both would be lacking in any sort of vigor.
Every grower wants a strain that will yield massive colas,low stretch,low leaf to flower ratio,rapid maturation ,crazy potency,and flavor to top it off.
so when a breeder has finally selected the P1 parents of 2 lines the next thing to do is cross them,,,then test the offspring,if the cross is acceptable
to them and has all these qualities that have been documented over 3-7 generations to isolate them,then and only then should they offer that Cross with a description of what the consumer should expect.
It's at this point that the P1 parents will have been cloned, tagged and multiplied so they can keep recreating that same exact cross for an indefinite amount of time.
OK so what is this about an F2 gen being not so good?
This is where I love to start,an F2 is created from breeding siblings
from within the F1 gen,this is where the grower may be scratching their
heads going what the fug just happend? why doesn't the gals look anything
and taste anything like the momma I hand selected to pollenate?
This is because most strains (F1) are multi and poly hybrids and while the
original was all uniform the F2's have the phenos representing all of the prior
lineage come out in the wash..this is great if you want a variety but you may get alot of plants you don't care for...depends on what the breeder
had put in to get you there,,,,remember shit in =shit out! you can't make
a diamond out of a turd.
I'm working with NL X C99 in the F2 gen now to make an F3 I liked what I seen as the 2 lines were very stable to make the cross,so the F2 were all nice examples of either NL or C99 phenos,I've also seen a few unique phenos within each group displayed so it was easier to me,than let's say a Herijuana
I did years ago,,that was all over the map at the F2 gen.
Are F3's better and F4's ?
Yes they are in regards to the sequence or steps to get you to that point required you to select the nicest males and females and shit can all the garbage that had brought out recessive traits...so you've technically started to narrow it down again and the next generation will narrow down the wide array of phenos and start to look like what you have in mind...this is also where a bottleneck takes place as you only keep the 1 or 2 males that are twins and discard all the others,while only breeding them to the 1 particular type of gal that keeps resurfacing.
This is both good and bad,some want all the gals to look the same in every way ,,to me I say fug that! variety is the
spice of life,if I wanted all my plants the same I'd clone a momma to death,,,but that's what commercial growers do.
It's not a bad thing,they have a goal and they want maximum yield and consistent results,with lil concern to the quality of the end product
after all it get's sold to strangers whom they care not about,,,,the $ is the driving force with those cats.
I grow for myself and a few friends,so I want a decent array of phenos to chose from but maintaining quality at the same time.
I'll stop now and let some of you fire away and I'll pick up again but I need a beer..
Then I'll come back and talk about F3 F4 F5's