Pheno Hunting - What are the best traits?

[LBBandit]

Hi All, So I’m taking on a new challenge and decided to find the holly grail of mother plants. I understand this can be a life long mission but I’m determined (with luck on my side) to find the holy grail. So, I would like to get the opinions of the expert growers as to the traits that are sot after when looking for the best plant.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your knowledge and experience!

 

[dire wolf]

Hi All, So I’m taking on a new challenge and decided to find the holly grail of mother plants. I understand this can be a life long mission but I’m determined (with luck on my side) to find the holy grail. So, I would like to get the opinions of the expert growers as to the traits that are sot after when looking for the best plant.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your knowledge and experience!

Bag appeal
Mold resistance
Root mass
Vigorous growth
Aroma
Preferred high for you
Yield
Sex appeal

Depends on a lot of other things , but I would not search out a holy grail to please others , find a girl you fall in love with and keep her ....
Too many variables and choices .... Get the plant you best interact with ....that's the goal
But you have to have some idea what you want

 

[LBBandit]

Hi Dire Wolf, thanks for the tips. The reason for the pheno hunt is due to “giving it away”. I’m trying to see what others look for when they have that oh yeah moment when they have discovered that one of the plants they’ve grown have those amazing traits that just make that plant one of a kind. For now it sounds like I will just focus on those points you laid out. Thank you!

 

[linde]

flavor and buzz are a must for me when I pheno hunt. I personally will keep a tastier plant that may produce less than an average tasting one with higher yields. just my preference. gotta have strong flavor to the roach or it goes.

 

[LBBandit]

Thanks, Linde. I’m currently pheno hunting grand daddy purple after having a let down with my green crack hunt. My process was to sprout 5 seeds then grow them out enough to take a clone, then after they grew out a bit I flowered them. The fastest growing plant had skinny long buds while the second shortest plant had dense wide buds with frosty leaves. So I’m at a quandary with which one is the keeper.

 

[bellumromanum]

Thanks, Linde. I’m currently pheno hunting grand daddy purple after having a let down with my green crack hunt. My process was to sprout 5 seeds then grow them out enough to take a clone, then after they grew out a bit I flowered them. The fastest growing plant had skinny long buds while the second shortest plant had dense wide buds with frosty leaves. So I’m at a quandary with which one is the keeper.

All things being equal TBH it sounds like none of them were keepers - pop more beans! many many many more

 

[One drop]

Bag appeal
Mold resistance
Root mass
Vigorous growth
Aroma
Preferred high for you
Yield
Sex appeal

Depends on a lot of other things , but I would not search out a holy grail to please others , find a girl you fall in love with and keep her ....
Too many variables and choices .... Get the plant you best interact with ....that's the goal
But you have to have some idea what you want

+1 for this solid advice by DW .

 

[Edinburgh]

Resistance to mold and pests, thc content, ease of growth and yield..

 

[linde]

Thanks, Linde. I’m currently pheno hunting grand daddy purple after having a let down with my green crack hunt. My process was to sprout 5 seeds then grow them out enough to take a clone, then after they grew out a bit I flowered them. The fastest growing plant had skinny long buds while the second shortest plant had dense wide buds with frosty leaves. So I’m at a quandary with which one is the keeper.

The whole catch is that you won't know until it is dried and smoked which one is the best so either you will need to make clones of the phenos or simply reveg them after harvest. i reveg them under 24 hr florescent light. pick the best one and scrap the rest. After all the hard work you still may not find one that you're happy with and will have to repeat the process again with a different batch of seeds. unfortunately with all of the crazy crossbreeding today there is a lot of bad genetics floating around. I consider myself lucky to get one good keeper out of a 10 pack. good luck!

 

[linde]

Here is some food for thought....usually the best looking plant isn't the best one. Or the one with the biggest buds or earliest flowering as funny as that may sound. The plants will play games with you. You simply will not know until it is in a zig zag being smoked, so don't get your heart set on one particular plant early on. you may find that the average looking plant will have better flavor and burning qualities than that one with the big party buds on it. I take quality over quantity any day.

 

[growsince79]

The whole catch is that you won't know until it is dried and smoked which one is the best so either you will need to make clones of the phenos or simply reveg them after harvest. i reveg them under 24 hr florescent light. pick the best one and scrap the rest. After all the hard work you still may not find one that you're happy with and will have to repeat the process again with a different batch of seeds. unfortunately with all of the crazy crossbreeding today there is a lot of bad genetics floating around. I consider myself lucky to get one good keeper out of a 10 pack. good luck!

If I have only one keeper out of ten I consider that seed company garbage.

 

[linde]

If I have only one keeper out of ten I consider that seed company garbage.

I agree.

 

[linde]

If I have only one keeper out of ten I consider that seed company garbage.

But then again I'm pretty picky. I'll probably pass on a plant that most people would be happy with.

 

[growsince79]

But then again I'm pretty picky. I'll probably pass on a plant that most people would be happy with.

Why is it your favorite keeper is always the hardest to clone?

 

[BudGoodman]

Why is it your favorite keeper is always the hardest to clone?

 

[mysticepipedon]

Choosing moms is easy enough. For me, it's:

1. The quality of the buzz — How does it make me feel?
2. The potency.

Everything else is icing on the cake.

Much is tied together — scent and buzz quality are strongly linked and anything of high potency is going to interest me.

What I do after a seed run is smoke the plants over a couple of weeks time. By then, there are jars are keep going back to and jars that I rarely touch. The choice is then obvious.

Once you have a few, you start searching for unusual buzzes.

 

[growsince79]

Potency
High
Taste
Trichs type and size
Disease and mold resistant
Flowering time

Herms and foxtail are disqualified.

 

[linde]

Potency
High
Taste
Trichs type and size
Disease and mold resistant
Flowering time

Herms and foxtail are disqualified.

Thats a good order there. but I'll take the hermies for outdoor gardens...the kind of hermie that only produces a couple seeds per plant.

 

[BudGoodman]

My "perfect" pheno:

Flavor, smell, and high of East Coast Sour Diesel.
Ease of groom and bag appeal of Girl Scout Cookies.
Plant structure and yield of Skunk #5.
Finish time and resistance to mold and pests of Mighty Mite.

 

[dire wolf]

My "perfect" pheno:

Flavor, smell, and high of East Coast Sour Diesel.
Ease of groom and bag appeal of Girl Scout Cookies.
Plant structure and yield of Skunk #5.
Finish time and resistance to mold and pests of Mighty Mite.

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