Clones, fem seeds, or regular seeds? Best strategy for a self sufficient grow

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translatorserve

translatorserve

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I don't want to keep buying seeds or clones and want to do it myself, what's a good strategy for a small scale hobby grower?

From my understanding so far these are my options:
  • Keep mother plants and take clones
  • Make feminized seeds from females using colloidal silver
  • Make seeds the regular way with males and females
Would all those be viable long term strategies? My number one priority is that the genetics are preserved and that I keep getting good quality bud from the strains I love.

I understand that clones will preserve genetics the best. My secondary priorities are crop yields and grow speed - I've understood that clones do not grow tap roots, does that mean the plant might not yield as much bud? There's a limit to how many mature plants I can keep in my state so that's why I care about yield.

Is making feminized seeds over and over again bad for genetics? Would making seeds the regular way be better in terms of keeping the genetics? This makes me wonder how seed banks create their seeds.

I'm grateful for any tips or pointers! Also if there's a book anyone would recommend that touches on cannabis genetics please let me know.
 
JBloomers123

JBloomers123

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Depending on your space, keeping a mother plant may not be ideal. You could clone from the plant(s) prior to the move from veg to flowering - that’s what I do - and take an extra cut in the unlikely event you lose one.
 
growsince79

growsince79

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I don't want to keep buying seeds or clones and want to do it myself, what's a good strategy for a small scale hobby grower?

From my understanding so far these are my options:
  • Keep mother plants and take clones
  • Make feminized seeds from females using colloidal silver
  • Make seeds the regular way with males and females
Would all those be viable long term strategies? My number one priority is that the genetics are preserved and that I keep getting good quality bud from the strains I love.

I understand that clones will preserve genetics the best. My secondary priorities are crop yields and grow speed - I've understood that clones do not grow tap roots, does that mean the plant might not yield as much bud? There's a limit to how many mature plants I can keep in my state so that's why I care about yield.

Is making feminized seeds over and over again bad for genetics? Would making seeds the regular way be better in terms of keeping the genetics? This makes me wonder how seed banks create their seeds.

I'm grateful for any tips or pointers! Also if there's a book anyone would recommend that touches on cannabis genetics please let me know.
Get your two favorite plants and cross them to make a thousand seeds. Try growing 6 females. If they are all good, chances are the other thousand are too. easy peasy.
 
P

Pike

97
33
Clarks MJ botany is a good read on breeding.

run a perpetual grow here, 1 to 2 plants comming out per week, different cultivars. i Don’t have the space to maintain a bunch of mothers so as I’m training a plant in veg, I will take cuts of it, get um rooted before flowering the plant.

as for seed, there’s always seed being produced on somethin. If possible a separate space is nice. But you can pull females, just Polly the lowers, let sit a hr, then spray it down good to kill any pollen on plant, put back to flower, you get seed down low and smokable bud up top. ime, some seed on a plant does not effect it as far as smoke.

clones do not have the vigor of a seed plant, it’s not that they don’t yield as well as the seed plant, there just slower in there growth, meaning how big they will get in the same amount of time compared to a seed plant generally. they Still finish in the same amount of time, and such.

you can make A lot happen in a small grow, I consider my OP small and getto, 3x6 tray in veg, 4x8 and a 3x6 trays in flower. I also have a 3x3x6 tent for seed, which is constantly filled.

if ya was to look at my OP today, in veg I have numerous clones that are making the rounds, two lines I did I’m proofing and another line I have years on that I’m making another gen, and outcrossing to a bunch of clones.

in flower, have clones, two more seedlines I’m looking at, and making another gen of my gear and a new cross in the tent. It’s a tap dance but very much doable.

the tent is in my bedroom, lol
 
Greenjourneyman

Greenjourneyman

977
143
Hey dude,
I have also been self sufficient for more than a year now. and I helped a friend get there over this summer. the Real trick is having multiple chambers so you can do all life cycles of the plant at once. Clone space, veg tent, and bloom area. you don’t need a huge space, you cans get there with the 4x5 three chambers in one tent.

as for breeding it not quite as esoteric as the guys are making it out to be. But its goes take a little research and specific timing with the pollen application. I would suggest you buy or make a smaller 3x3 hut tent whatever as a fuck tent to place a male and female plants together. This will allow you to breed and keep your perpetual garden going at the same time.

Good luck and keep growing.
 
Edinburgh

Edinburgh

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I have some extremely rare reg autoflower seeds called sour 60 by breeder Mdanzig, have 30 beans, be willing to trade a few for fem auto beans.
 
KingOfUranus

KingOfUranus

185
63
Short answer, to meet your goals given your parameters is:
a). clones

If you are wanting to produce quality bud for smoking then I'm guessing you wont want seeds in it, so making seeds will either need to be done in a seperate area or take up the space you intend to grow your smoke in.

Buy some decent seeds and hunt for plants to keep as mothers, then take clones from those. Or, source clones of something you like directly from a reputeable clone lab/nursery that is free of hlvd and has test results to prove the clones are clean.
 
Edinburgh

Edinburgh

2,692
263
My cuz in Maine buys clones, he has been growing outdoors for years same as me, anyway he spent allot of cash for a clone that died, me never messed with them, our outdoors grow this year consists of 3 grandaddy purp, 3 master kush, 3 pine warp & 3 Panamanian Red apiece, while we grow all these strains yearly this is first time trying to grow Panamanian, not shure how it will come out as they like it hot and it can get cold in northern Maine even in summer, will acclimate there now small plants transplanted into 2gal pots, will put out June 14th 2 weeks later than in CT, if temp falls below 40f and sometimes it does we cover for night, here is a Pic of last year's master kush witch we had on portch
 
IMG 20170903 130016769
MacroLogos

MacroLogos

213
43
I don't want to keep buying seeds or clones and want to do it myself, what's a good strategy for a small scale hobby grower?

From my understanding so far these are my options:
  • Keep mother plants and take clones
  • Make feminized seeds from females using colloidal silver
  • Make seeds the regular way with males and females
Would all those be viable long term strategies? My number one priority is that the genetics are preserved and that I keep getting good quality bud from the strains I love.

I understand that clones will preserve genetics the best. My secondary priorities are crop yields and grow speed - I've understood that clones do not grow tap roots, does that mean the plant might not yield as much bud? There's a limit to how many mature plants I can keep in my state so that's why I care about yield.

Is making feminized seeds over and over again bad for genetics? Would making seeds the regular way be better in terms of keeping the genetics? This makes me wonder how seed banks create their seeds.

I'm grateful for any tips or pointers! Also if there's a book anyone would recommend that touches on cannabis genetics please let me know.
Clones. Here's why:

### 2 WEEKS AFTER CUTTING ###
20220717 204810


### 30 DAYS AFTER CUTTING ###
20220727 110922


### FLIPPED TO 12/12 ~37 days after cutting ###

20220731 213143


It takes seeds over 30 days longer to get to the same phase of growth & root development that is possible with clones.
 
ImpulsiveGrower

ImpulsiveGrower

Supporter
2,081
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I’ve personally become super fond of mother plants and clones. Knowing what I’m getting is going to be some phenohunted 🔥! I guess my expectations have raised a lot.

On the other hand I love some single barrel whisky so the mystery of growing out new genetics from seed and letting them do their thang naturally has become something new I’ve been trying instead of topping and LST.

Here’s my prized cultivar the Grape Gas (CLTVTD cut) 🧬 which I’ll never let go of its so dam good!
93E32496 33B0 44C7 8E75 1C6F5D8BD3C4


I’m also stoked about these seeds I popped. Zero training besides supercropping the main here and there. I’ll always be dabbling with both especially now that I’m making crosses. It’s going to come down to preference…
17ABB27F 794D 419D AB30 908176ADB2BB
 
RootsRuler

RootsRuler

2,389
263
As has been mentioned. You're going to need a chamber to keep your mothers in so that they don't get pollinated and you can take cuts from but, more importantly, you're going to need to seed one of the females you get so that you have plenty of seeds to birth new mothers as mothers that get cloned a lot tend to weaken after a few sessions. I usually flower mothers after 3 or 4 rounds of clone cuttings.

You'll also need to implement a rotation schedule. For example, one tent will house all the mothers you want to grow. You can propagate in the same tent if you have room. In another tent you'll be vegging while another will be for only flowering. Keep in mind the grow schedules between veg and flower since veg from clone typically takes around 4 - 6 weeks before they're ready to be flipped while flower can take up to 18 weeks depending on cultivar so you'll probably need more than one tent for flowering to keep up with the vegging.

I set up a warehouse for a client using 40 ft shipping containers as grow chambers. He wanted continuous production coming out as he had several dispensaries he was supplying. One container had a kitchen for mixing up nutrient for the nutrient tanks, Base nutrient storage, RO water reservoir and pump and gear room. It also had a propagation room and a mother room. Mother room was 20 x 8 and kitchen and prop room were 10 x 8 each. I built 1 veg room and 4 bloom rooms. Every 30 days, more or less, he would have plant material ready to flower. Once we filled all the bloom rooms he had a steady stream of flower that he could vary depending on cultivar that he wanted to produce for his clients. It had to be stealth and quickly portable since he wasn't licensed. I set it up so that all he had to do was connect, or disconnect, a 240v line to a fused knife switch in an all weather box on the outside of the container that was connected to a breaker box and step down transformer for all the 120v stuff. I did it this way so that if any "agencies" decided to pay him a visit he could get the incriminating evidence off the property quickly. He wanted Gavita DE1000's for lighting so we had to install Mitsubishi Mini Splits on each one to keep it cool along with industrial dehu's to control humidity. I also installed a CO2 injection system in each of the flower rooms and the veg room along with installing the auto irrigation system and flood tables. The last container I built was for curing and trimming. It got divided into a 20 x 8 temp/humidity controlled room for curing and a 20 x 8 room for the trim team.

This is an example of a fully running, continuous supply set up. Obviously, yours will be scaled down massively but you get the picture.
 
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