Questions About Genetics

This post is basically about getting help about deciding if a plants appearance is due to poor genetics or grower error.

Suppose you have some plants (all 1 strain) that all look different. These plants differ in how much they stretch, their growth rate and the way secondary growth looks. One plant is really tall and stands out but has virtually no branching going on. A few more look somewhat similar with same height but with wilting, weak looking secondary growth. Amongst them all, there's this One plant that looks healthiest as a plant could possibly look.

My question about a scenario like this is how does a new grower know when it's the genes to blame and when the grower is to blame? Considering there's all these sick, weak looking plants amongst 1 perfect looking plant - is it genes owing to this? Or is it that the perfect plant is able to deal better with the grower's mistakes but the others just aren't?

Any replies would help! Thank You!

That would depend on the seed. I grow F1's and have some stable F5's
Plant F1's and you never Know.....Clone then you can be sure

Kind of hard to rule out grower error when you give zero info about your setup.

Cr8z13 said:

Kind of hard to rule out grower error when you give zero info about your setup.

Click to expand...

ya, should've know; here it goes:
400HPS, soiless grow, hyrdo nutes, ph balanced water, temp 20 celsius and humidity 30-40ish. 3 gallon pots watered with 2-3 cups every 5 or so days or until soil seems dry enough.

hope this give a bit more info. This post is not supposed to be about the specifics, more about how genes react from seed to seed.

I only posted this because i've grown strains before that have weak looking plants with a couple REAL nice looking plants (all with the same treatment) and wondered if this was genetics or anything else i asked about in my OP.

Thank You.

it all depends on how solid the parent genetics are. Most strains when cross pollinated aren't perfected by repollinating for stability, therefore the offspring arent very uniform to the parents.

Resident Kush said:

it all depends on how solid the parent genetics are. Most strains when cross pollinated aren't perfected by repollinating for stability, therefore the offspring arent very uniform to the parents.

Click to expand...

yeah depends how much inbreeding and breeding back is done. usually if you cross an f1 back to its parents you'll have a stable breed with little variation seed to seed.

jack herer is an unstabilized breed and produces 4 distinct phenotypes which are very different from each other. this is arguably one of the greatest strains with excellent genetics, however the genetics aren't stable.

jesus420 said:

yeah depends how much inbreeding and breeding back is done. usually if you cross an f1 back to its parents you'll have a stable breed with little variation seed to seed.

jack herer is an unstabilized breed and produces 4 distinct phenotypes which are very different from each other. this is arguably one of the greatest strains with excellent genetics, however the genetics aren't stable.

Click to expand...

thanks guys, good info here.

I've usually just skipped past the breeding sections but have some general knowledge of genetics. Would the unstability a breed has also change how a particular strain uses and responds to grow room factors like water, air and nutrients too?

Cashish said:

thanks guys, good info here.

I've usually just skipped past the breeding sections but have some general knowledge of genetics. Would the unstability a breed has also change how a particular strain uses and responds to grow room factors like water, air and nutrients too?

Click to expand...

Yes, silly question! different plants of different strains have different requirements.

diemdepyro said:

Yes, silly question! different plants of different strains have different requirements.

Click to expand...

I know different strains respond differently but i can imgine then that seeds from the same strain may respond differently as well. I should post a pic of the perfect plant and the rest that look sad, it's crazy. The other plants have had the same treament, same strain, same environment but look bad compared the perfect plant.

Got some pics. Granted the perfect plant isn't perfect but it's a lot better considering the 2nd pic. The 2nd pic is typical. Check out all the good looking branching of the first then look at the wilting look of the 2nd pic. All plants get the same but don't look the same. How could i adapt to suit the other plants?

Orange light needs to be off.. And the seeds came from where? You do not need to answer just ...Think it...

Some seed sellers are kind enough to explain that your sack of seeds will likely produce different phenotypes. Some may be tall and lanky, others short and bushy, some stinky and some not so. Their all true to their breed, it's just that the breed has not yet been stabilized through selection.
Because of limited space, I avoid these and seek out stabilized lines but by doing so I forgo the chance of finding the jewel in the lot. One fine day, if I have means, I'll grow everything available and make my own selections.

This is why i clone