Ive been a bit paranoid about the ruderalis genes being bred outdoor since autos became popular. Havent had plants like that yet, but ive seen a lot of em, and getting more common quickly. I became about 10x more careful about where i source my seeds once auto became popular.
IIRC the autoflowering ruderalis gene appears to be a dominant gene. Both parents do not always have to have it to pass the character on. And i overthink just about everything so. Grow all the female autos outside that you want.
To me personally, a plant thats easy to trigger flowering when young, and will not reveg. That is an autoflowering plant lol.
I dont have anything against autos either at all. Ive done some auto runs myself. Im just paranoid about the pollen getting into the photo period gene pools. Have been for years, and its definitely happening now.
Now that hemp is legal in more states, and large scale cultivation is happening. Hermaphrodite, and male industrial hemp pollen is being scattered far and wide all of a sudden too. And the feds no longer exterminate the wild ditch weed thats escaped either.
THC production is recessive iirc. Most cannabis plants pollenated by industrial hemp, just make randomized phenotypes of more industrial hemp, or very low CBD levels (also appears to be a dominant gene) requiring back crossing to elevate. Autoflowering is a dominant gene. It only takes one parent to pass it on to the offspring. Both parents need the THC production genes if you dont plan on doing multiple generations oh selective breeding and pheno selection after the hemp cross.
Put these two things together, in a culture that isnt super careful about these sorts of things pretty much ever, and add a few decades of time. eeeeesh. I think most outdoor photoperiod growers should start thinking about making their own seeds in the next handful of years tbh. Ans storing them properly for the long term.
Montana state university, i believe, has been heading research into the dominant/recessive gene relationships in the subspecies of cannabis/hemp.
Im not trying to shame any growers at all. This is something a lot of us dont ever even think about, we just grow the plants we love to grow, and a weirdo plant is a weirdo plant. Certain weirdos can be bearers of bad news though.
Checked the 12 and found lower leaves wilted.
I realized the rain we've been getting is hit or miss and no appreciable amount. The grass clippings probably soaked up most of the rain and I haven't watered them in 2 weeks. So, went and soaked them this morning. Will check later this afternoon.
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They'll be stronger for it come fall even if yield less. When the plants get wilty repeatedly in veg they respond by greatly expanding the mass of their root systems. Sometimes i pull the dome off some clones to wilt em once. It greatly speeds up root time.