knoturstyle said:

Does anyone have any advice on how to become a seed breeder? I live in a medical state and this year looks
very promising for legalization. I am wondering if anyone has advice on the process and what it takes to
become a breeder? Any advice would be appreciated. thanks

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It takes years to truly work a strain when working with all allele frequencies. Open pollination is best.
Step 1.. find a good male you like and start making sexy time with all your girls.

Costumer service is key to any good company especially seeds when wore of mouth is how you will gain a rep

Honestly not many of the people calling themselves breeders these days are willing to put in the kind of work it takes to produce quality strains/crosses but then again no one seems to care about that anymore just hype it and let the fanboys take over lol
A couple of years of successful grows under your belt is paramount for anybody that wants to start selling beans to the public for profit, then you'll need that special, unique plant(s)/genetics in your harem that's worthy of a breeding project(s)..... a good eye and selection skills are definitely needed too!

Imho if someone hasn't been growing atleast 5 - 10 years they shouldn't even be thinking about becoming one.

knoturstyle said:

Does anyone have any advice on how to become a seed breeder?

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Learn everything you can about seeds, how they are created, what they are made of, all the difference traits a seed can have, then learn about genetics, and start breeding seeds.

Creating seeds is something else than breeding new varieties. You probably meant plant breeder instead of seed breeder, and obviously specifically cannabis, in which case you need mainly three things: motivation, time and space. The more you learn about cannabis, botany, genetics and plant breeding methods (when to do what) the more effectively you can use that time and space.

You need land to grow out a lot of plants and people to sort through them in search of trait grouping. You also need space indoors to keep all the strains, and probably more people to help with all that organizing, categorizing and etc.

You could also just beg for elite cuts find a random male and pollen chuck the hell outta them make a few handles online and hype everything super hard test nothing then fall off the planet when the hermagedon happens oh you need a snazzy name and a ridiculous price tag too .

GT21 said:

It takes years to truly work a strain when working with all allele frequencies. Open pollination is best.
Step 1.. find a good male you like and start making sexy time with all your girls.

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Not necessarily times have changed for breeding what once took years and a breeder making his signature strain something either looks, smell , yield now is long gone ..
Today's era of breeder is all about cashing in taking last years elte winning cup strain and crossing it with this years elite cup strain or more or less taking someone else's years of work and passing it off as there with crossing two elite strains most thought after :) these breeders are not true breeders , in my books there just lucky to be able to have the resources to get most sought after cup winning strains and crossing them before the next Hill billy does and putting it to market
true breeding is a lost art and why so many hermie prone genetics are out in the public to day

gravekat303 said:

You could also just beg for elite cuts find a random male and pollen chuck the hell outta them make a few handles online and hype everything super hard test nothing then fall off the planet when the hermagedon happens oh you need a snazzy name and a ridiculous price tag too .

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Hahaha called it.

Purpletrain said:

Not necessarily times have changed for breeding what once took years and a breeder making his signature strain something either looks, smell , yield now is long gone ..
Today's era of breeder is all about cashing in taking last years elte winning cup strain and crossing it with this years elite cup strain or more or less taking someone else's years of work and passing it off as there with crossing two elite strains most thought after :) these breeders are not true breeders , in my books there just lucky to be able to have the resources to get most sought after cup winning strains and crossing them before the next Hill billy does and putting it to market
true breeding is a lost art and why so many hermie prone genetics are out in the public to day

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Hi. Thanks for your reply and input. For me I am not new to the selection of breeding or hoping I get lucky to get the next winning strain for cashing in purpose. A business is a business and the passion must be there for success. Yes we must start with our foundation and build from there. For me creating that elite is what I will stride for. The cash in is the last thought. Of course we all need to make our living's . I understand it will take time to get there years of frustration can lead to success. I agree not many true breeders today. Do we call them breeders or renamers! Anyways thanks for your input.

Bro.....

symbiote420 said:

Honestly not many of the people calling themselves breeders these days are willing to put in the kind of work it takes to produce quality strains/crosses but then again no one seems to care about that anymore just hype it and let the fanboys take over lol
A couple of years of successful grows under your belt is paramount for anybody that wants to start selling beans to the public for profit, then you'll need that special, unique plant(s)/genetics in your harem that's worthy of a breeding project(s)..... a good eye and selection skills are definitely needed too!

Imho if someone hasn't been growing atleast 5 - 10 years they shouldn't even be thinking about becoming one.

Click to expand...

Sativied said:

Learn everything you can about seeds, how they are created, what they are made of, all the difference traits a seed can have, then learn about genetics, and start breeding seeds.

Creating seeds is something else than breeding new varieties. You probably meant plant breeder instead of seed breeder, and obviously specifically cannabis, in which case you need mainly three things: motivation, time and space. The more you learn about cannabis, botany, genetics and plant breeding methods (when to do what) the more effectively you can use that time and space.

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once you can do all that,then worry about the successful business end of it.that's the blueprint anyway.I have got a lot of respect for these two guys.

Purpletrain said:

Not necessarily times have changed for breeding what once took years and a breeder making his signature strain something either looks, smell , yield now is long gone ..
Today's era of breeder is all about cashing in taking last years elte winning cup strain and crossing it with this years elite cup strain or more or less taking someone else's years of work and passing it off as there with crossing two elite strains most thought after :) these breeders are not true breeders , in my books there just lucky to be able to have the resources to get most sought after cup winning strains and crossing them before the next Hill billy does and putting it to market
true breeding is a lost art and why so many hermie prone genetics are out in the public to day

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U just described every last brreder on this site!!!!
Nobody's puttin in the werk anymore and hence the reason i gave up runnin seeds.

G gnome said:

U just described every last brreder on this site!!!!
Nobody's puttin in the werk anymore and hence the reason i gave up runnin seeds.

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Exactly
Straight pollen chuckers..
What do you want to be ? A chucker or a breeder?
Breeder takes many generations of select phenos to make seeds.
Chuckers make F1s and call it a new name without stabilizing the strain.
Big differences!
STR8

Purpletrain said:

Not necessarily times have changed for breeding what once took years and a breeder making his signature strain something either looks, smell , yield now is long gone ..
Today's era of breeder is all about cashing in taking last years elte winning cup strain and crossing it with this years elite cup strain or more or less taking someone else's years of work and passing it off as there with crossing two elite strains most thought after :) these breeders are not true breeders , in my books there just lucky to be able to have the resources to get most sought after cup winning strains and crossing them before the next Hill billy does and putting it to market
true breeding is a lost art and why so many hermie prone genetics are out in the public to day

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I can 100% agree that "true breeding" is why we have so many hermie prone genetics today.

This is a heterozygous plant...every breeder that's created a "stable" line has actually made such a weak inbred plant that their work has wound up collapsing on themselves, hence why theyre not around anymore. We saw herms everywhere starting what, 8-9 years ago? After that period people stopped working lines and started working clone onlys and established/winning cuts, and quality shot through the roof as things were rehybridized and introduced to new genetic material. Now we're back where we were when "stable" beans were on the market- in a time period where hybrids have been inbred enough to start herming again.

Cannabis breeders ruined the cannabis plant, through single plant selection in small quantity we choked out any hope of stabilizing lines. The Dutch created great seed because they had the opportunity to pick through thousands of seeds, not for just one plant, but to pick every plant showing the desirable phenotype. An open pollination between dozens and dozens of plants showing identical phenotypic expression is how you stabilize a line, not by inbreeding and back crossing your best plants. Real breeders haven't existed since the 80s outside of medical research farms in Europe and Israel...whatever the fuck we call breeding today is just amateur pollen chucking even if you have an internationally branded seed company...its complete greed and narrow-sightedness, with a lack of actual horticultural knowledge, that compels the seed market today. If you don't believe me just ask any breeder how many times he's found his stud pheno. Because chances are they stopped looking soon as they found it the first time.




But yeah...to answer the op- if you want to breed you need a team of exceptional badasses to test your lines for you, and you also need the patience/capital to grow cannabis for 8-12 months without seeing a profit.

this is a copy n paste Real plant breeders create brand new varieties that are:

1 .homogeneus
2. distinctive
3. recognizable by its characteristics
4. recognizably different from any other existing variety
5. remain unchanged through the process of propagation (offspring has the same quality of parent plants).

Under the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, if a plant variety grouping does not meet these criteria, it should not considered to be a variety. After understanding that, the Convention also defines a breeder as:

"the person who bred, or discovered and developed, a variety".

As for legit cannabis strain breeders I will only include those that created brand new strains with original landrace/heirloom material or meeting the criteria above for new varieties like Sam Skunkman, DJ Short, Charlie Garcia (CBG), Tom Hill, Mario (Delicatessen) and probably a bunch of others I don't really remember or even know in the underground scene. But that's the point, they grow landraces or heirloom strains, they study them, they think which one could match with each other and be 1+1=3, they use their big experience to follow a path, fix the long term goals, cull in consequence and that's it, results can be seen after years of work.

Then we have people like Nevil, Breeder Steve, Grimm Bros, Eddie Redeeker (TFD), Simon Serious or all the new school guys for example like Bodhi, Subcool, Moonshine, Karma and all those talented guys outcrossing other existing hybrids, heirlooms or elite plants bred by other people before and giving them a twist, improving or combining them in order to create slightly different hybrids based off those, sometimes with character, sometimes not.

Finally we can't forget about all the oportunists and bussiness men bunch like Shantibaba, Arjan, Ben Dronkers, Dinafem,DNA, Barney's or all the US and Europe guys chucking on Chem, GG#4, GSC and all the trendy elites and cup winners nowadays. Let's get real, they are just looking for the quick buck and easy props but within a few years, no one will remember anything about them and their strains. They aren't doing anything even close to breeding but taking advantage on other's peoples works and hiring third parties to produce their seeds. You can see how each year they need to release new strains and invest a lot in marketing to prevail, guess why? Because it's the only way they have to keep attracting customers.

For me there another thing I consider certainly important in cannabis breeding: the breeder's taste and signature. Most strains from a breeder should have a certain distinctive character, be it the structure, the flowering times, the smell, the effect and so on. It's the breeder's signature that makes every single strain to be part of a bigger group of recognizable strains bred under the same criteria and style. Grow strains from DJ Short and all of them have certain similarities that are totally DJ's indeed, be the type of high, the colors... that's what made him famous actually and how he developed a timeless signature in cannabis breeding!

But crossing Chem with GSC or any other trendy elite from the past season... damn, how the fuck can you even call that your own breeding work if it's 100% based off other people's work and criteria? What's actually your real contribution to the work? Absolutely none, just some pollen tossing that even a kid could do. Problem is that most growers don't even take the time to educate themselves on history or botany basics and because of this, everyone wants to make money off them!

gravekat303 said:

oh you need a snazzy name and a ridiculous price tag too .

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Don't forget a good origin story, preferably involving shamans, indians and hill people in exotic unreachable locations.

Purpletrain said:

Problem is that most growers don't even take the time to educate themselves on history or botany basics and because of this, everyone wants to make money off them!

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Exactly, that is the problem.

Purpletrain said:

Tom Hill

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I pointed out plant breeder rights a few times and am entirely for it, and agree with much of what you posted but lost me at "Tom Hill".

Also, Ben Dronkers has been arrested over 80 times defying cops and laws and without his efforts most of the varieties today would not have become so widely available, including for many "breeders". Cannabis is illegal in NL opposed to what many believe. It was Ben Dronkers who figured out seeds were excluded from the ban and didn't capitulate. I don't think sensi has great breeders but you call him an opportunist, I call him a goddamn hero with a good business instinct. Yes, I agree growers should learn more about the history.

You mentioned some releasing strains every year to continue to make money and then go on to mention Bodhi... with their "special genetics file". Very big fan base so I will keep this short.... Snow Lotus, Super Snow Lotus, Green Lotus, Super Silver Yo Mama, Apollo 11, Temple (used to chuck a dozen crosses), and many of their varieties would not exist without Sensi making the old classics so widely available.

Breeding true is a means, never a goal by itself. Homozygosity is a road to homogeneity. Higher filial generations do not equate to more "real" breeding. Creating an F5 is not more "real" breeding than trying and testing different F1 hybrids. Problem there is the lack of effort gone into trying and testing.

Imo every grower should chuck some pollen once in a while. If you're going to sell the seeds, or give it a name implying it's a new variety, then I would like to see some more effort and locked in traits as well.

Start with pure true base indica sativa from various areas and breed them together in different condictions and ratios and you will see some pretty unique stuff just will take awhile and will have to keep a few good males around with the traits u find thats desired

Sativied said:

Don't forget a good origin story, preferably involving shamans, indians and hill people in exotic unreachable locations.

Exactly, that is the problem.

I pointed out plant breeder rights a few times and am entirely for it, and agree with much of what you posted but lost me at "Tom Hill".

Also, Ben Dronkers has been arrested over 80 times defying cops and laws and without his efforts most of the varieties today would not have become so widely available, including for many "breeders". Cannabis is illegal in NL opposed to what many believe. It was Ben Dronkers who figured out seeds were excluded from the ban and didn't capitulate. I don't think sensi has great breeders but you call him an opportunist, I call him a goddamn hero with a good business instinct. Yes, I agree growers should learn more about the history.

You mentioned some releasing strains every year to continue to make money and then go on to mention Bodhi... with their "special genetics file". Very big fan base so I will keep this short.... Snow Lotus, Super Snow Lotus, Green Lotus, Super Silver Yo Mama, Apollo 11, Temple (used to chuck a dozen crosses), and many of their varieties would not exist without Sensi making the old classics so widely available.

Breeding true is a means, never a goal by itself. Homozygosity is a road to homogeneity. Higher filial generations do not equate to more "real" breeding. Creating an F5 is not more "real" breeding than trying and testing different F1 hybrids. Problem there is the lack of effort gone into trying and testing.

Imo every grower should chuck some pollen once in a while. If you're going to sell the seeds, or give it a name implying it's a new variety, then I would like to see some more effort and locked in traits as well.

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It was neville that realised seeds were allowed to be made/ sold legaly in holland,(why hes known as the father of dutch seedbanks)and most of sensis strains were bred by him too, sensis not what it used to be.76

Problem for me is i can only buy seeds,i have no access to clones so i have to rely on these breeders to try and get hold of some good gen.
The biggest problem i face is trying to buy seeds that are what they are described as,i have asked what breeders should i be buying off and everyone has different advice ill give an example.

Alot of people have adviced me to buy seeds off shanti and i was like whats his best strain,most people will say run ssh im like great that sounds good then when you read up on the strain you have people saying you have to run many seeds to get the true ssh pheno that is worth growning.

Why is this strain given so many thumbs up when it is soooo unstable.you would think people would be unhappy that its so hard to get a good pheno of this strain.

Thats my biggest issue with buying seeds,the lack of strains that people can agree on.

You would think that would be the easy part of growing getting strains that hold there traits.
Whinge over.

Some nice strains here on the bay,depends what your looking for,u should be able to buy a pack and find a keeper amongst decent plants,not 1 or 2 ok plants amongst crap like alot of the fly by night guys around,frustrating!76