How do you breed auto strains, stress one to hermie and use nanner pollen? I thought all autos were fem.
No my friend all reputable autos were created regular not fem!
If you created autos with just female plants they would be genetically unstable and mutations would take hold in a few generations. You need the male genes in there to keep the strain natural and stable.
I guess the answer to your question is you breed autos like any other plant letting the pollen do its work and harvesting seed.
There are however a few tricks to breeding with autos that I have picked up along the way.
I will give you a quick run down of the method I currently use.
Basics
1. Put down at least 30 seeds (you can do this in small pots for now if space is an issue)
2. From these seeds you select the male you want to use first, and kill the rest of the males (you select the male first as they show first)
3. Select 3-5 female plants to be mothers
4. Pollinate all mothers
5. Grow mothers as long as possible to give yourself the maximum number of viable seed
6. Harvest seed
FAQ
1. Why do I have to germinate so many seeds?
A. Because you don't want to breed with an unwanted pheno type, so you need a lot of options from which you can select the best and discard the rest, thus evolving the genetics in the way you want.
2. Why only one male?
A. Because as in any experiment you only want one variable. in this case the variable is the mother.
3. Why do I pollinate 3-5 Mothers?
A. Because you cant clone autos you are never completely sure of the smoke quality until you try it, so if you number or name the mother plants and do the same for the seeds that come off them, it gives you the opportunity to choose the mother that was what you were looking for. You then use these seeds for the next generation and discard the seeds from other mother plants.
4. How can I back cross an auto when the mother and father plant die?
A. There are 2 methods to be used here. The first is pollen collection. if you collect pollen from the male in the first cross it will keep for 3 months no problem, so you can use it on the third cross to back cross if necessary. the second method I use is to store seeds from every generation so I can always go back and cross with these earlier genotypes.
5. Can I use hermie pollen?
A. NO! NO! NO! NO! and NO! again! If you stress a plant and it goes hermie then it has weak genes and you shouldn't use it as it will produce hermie seed! If you want feminised seed then use colloidal silver or STS
6. How do I select mothers and fathers?
A. You use the knowledge you already have. most people instinctively know how to select the best of anything its explaining it that is hard! First off you will be look at things that can be easily seen and judged like speed of growth, structure etc.. This is where you make your first selection taking numbers down and giving you more space to work with. Next you will be selecting for the later developing traits like smell, bud production etc.. Lastly you will be selecting on the quality of the bud when finished. With males you use all the criteria above except for the bud quality
7. How can I learn more about breeding?
A. Learn a little bit about genetic transmission and things get a lot easier. I am sure I will go through some genetic transmission basics on this thread soon.
