Marijuana Super Strains Revealed!

I haven't heard this subject discussed much so I thought I'd introduce some food for thought.

We all want to grow superior MJ which starts with superior genetics. Now that you ordered a 10 pack of seeds you might consider this:

Every seed from the same breed is inherently different. 1 in 1,000,000 seeds has the potential to be extremely different from the rest and may be a super-plant. It is this super-plant that is an expert grower's and breeder's holy grail. When this happens the genetics of that plant can only be replicated by cloning. No amount of crossing, hybridizing or stabilizing can replicate the seed the super-plant came from. This is why many of the super-strains out there are only available by clone. We have all seen G13 and Mantasuka seeds for sale by breeders but do not be misled. These are not necessarily super-strains. Their potency was made famous by the propagation of 1 super-plant of that strain. So maybe BC Seeds does have a 50% THC strain but you will not get those results because they don't sell you the plant that those results were achieved with.You are sold a genetic relative that can be as different as you are from your cousins. Compare this to the difference of the audio quality of a Master Tape to that of an MP3. It's the same song just a much lower quality replica.

Given the info above, you should be aware of the difference between a plant that produces Cannabis Cup winning bud and the 2nd cousin of that plant the breeder is selling you seeds of. In fact, the less stabilized the strain, the better chance you have of scoring a super-plant. Since most of us are not able to cull 999,999 plants, methods need to be integrated on a smaller scale than can give us any amount of improvement. My suggestion is to germ all 10 of those Purple Cat Piss Kush seeds you bought and decide on the best phenotype that will serve as the host for your next round. Don't be the guy that failed to propagate a super-plant!

DISCLAIMER:
I made-up most of this post and have no scientific basis for my statements.

If you have a Master's in Genetics with a Bachelor's in Horticulture I will give you my password so you can edit this post yourself.

If you want to bash my post, please include the link to the article you wrote on this subject because I could not find it.

If you are still wondering why your bud doesn't look like the pics on your seed bank's website you're already smoking the good shit.

Lol, you are kind of right in a way. But, it isn't quite as dramatic as you think. Often, you might get a few phenotypes and a few different combinations of traits. Breeders sometimes are able to stabilize a strain so that the genetics you want are in most if not all of the seeds. But generally, THC production is common to the Cannabis strains so it isn't hard to pass along.

One of the hardest things about breeding is that you have no way to select your males. I would just go with the biggest, strongest male crossed with the best female - and when you get a great female, clone her all you can.

Now when they get around to maping cannibis DNA or just finding the THC gene we will be in business. Another cool thing would be to find the gene responsible for regulation of THC production and remove it so the plant would just produce TCH non-stop (if that pathway exists). Now that would be cool.

Excellent points Rick. I think I was a little too harsh on the seed companies. I tend to point out extremes because it helps me take this shit seriously. I'm currently growing Barney's LSD and it has been established that there are 2 major phenotypes with this strain which is what got me on this subject in the first place. I only germinated 2 out of 10 seeds and I'm unsure if the 1 remaining plant I have is the better of the 2 pheno's. Now I feel obligated to crack a few more of the seeds to find the difference in phenotype for myself. Time for another 12 week experiment. You'll let me know if you if you acquire a Mantasuka clone, won't you Rick? LOL Cheers man, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

"One of the hardest things about breeding is that you have no way to select your males"

Speaking of Ideas for thought, (love this thread BTW)
Males can be selected according to their ability to carry traits. You can make a controlled test to determine the "passable" traits of the males by crossing the male with well known/stable clones. The outcross will help determine what your male is passing thus giving you the ability to choose males for their qualities... Its a longer process which requires numbers of plants that most folks don't/wont have the ability to test however, not impossible...

ADD: Seed breeders don't often include the notion that you may never see the "super strain" even after successful germination of every seed available (no one wants to hear that); Or that you may end up with something far better than that of which is advertised however, those super genes are just as likely to be concealed in a male as female. You may increase your chances at desired traits by labeling and saving male pollen from the breeders seeds. Once you have gone through your pack and your unsatisfied with your results, cross the male by the best female you have, and your new seeds will hold the ability to produce that which you were looking for, or maybe better?

woodsmantoker said:

ADD: Seed breeders don't often include the notion that you may never see the "super strain" even after successful germination of every seed available (no one wants to hear that); Or that you may end up with something far better than that of which is advertised however, those super genes are just as likely to be concealed in a male as female. You may increase your chances at desired traits by labeling and saving male pollen from the breeders seeds. Once you have gone through your pack and your unsatisfied with your results, cross the male by the best female you have, and your new seeds will hold the ability to produce that which you were looking for, or maybe better?

Click to expand...

That is an awesome point, woodsmantoker! Thanks for joining the discussion and sharing your thoughts. So what you're saying is that if you have 1 male and 1 female from a breeder's seed pack, the super-male-plant's genetics can be hidden within the female. So tell me this, is there a difference to breeding based on traits and breeding based on super-strain potential? Like if you bred the most unstable genetics you could find, you would result in more diversity in the offspring. So I guess you could say that diversity is the desired trait you breeding is based on. Do you think this would be a better approach to generate a super-plant? Indeed it's more of a crap-shoot then if you had a lab to analyze tissue samples but a lab would not likely take the 'breeding for diversity' approach which could be a treasure chest waiting to be opened. I have seen the future and it is growers with super-plants that survive the upcoming "Weed War".