Inbreeding vs crossing strains

[squatty]

Hello, just recently got through my first grow in many, many (30+) years. Things went well and I'm interested in moving on to more challenges.

I have two strains of seeds I was planning to cross to get more seeds. These are regular (male/female) autoflower seeds. I was thinking of doing this for the long term goal of having a supply of seeds coming from plants that I'd picked out and bred for whatever phenos I enjoyed the most (mold resistance, size, structure, etc.)

I was also considering inbreeding each strain on it's own.

My question is this, would there be much difference in possible challenges by crossing the strains vs just inbreeding each strain separate? Would the first cross or crosses show much wilder phenotype variety vs just inbreeding (could be good or bad)? Would hybrid vigor be something to consider in the plus category for crossing the strains? Any other challenges to consider in this scenario?

Thank you for any help or advice.

 

[Magic]

If you inbreed then your going to get a more stabilized strain say the seeds you have are F4 then when you inbreed them you are going to have F5(I'm not 100% sure about that if I'm wrong my mistake but I'm pretty sure) but if you cross them you will start over at F1 that's where your going to get a unknown amount of phenos. I say if you like the strains how they are then inbreed them until you got them exactly how you want them but if you want something new and don't mind a little work selecting phenos then by all means go for the cross.

 

[squatty]

Thank you for that Magic.

I found this from Ed Rosenthal...

How can I prevent loss of vigor when breeding?
By Ed Rosenthal - Monday, January 17 2005

• I am planning to start breeding a strain that is short with a mild aroma, a high yield, and most importantly, is highly disease resistant.
  To develop this strain I'll need to inbreed. However, this lowers the immune system and vigor. I don't want that to happen. To counter this tendency do I have to develop two separate lines that will be crossed eventually?

Timothy,
Hastings, Nebraska


As plants are inbred ? that is, crossed to themselves or close relatives ? the genes of the progeny become more homogeneous. This means that each pair of genes is more likely to be uniform or have the same alleles. Homogeneous plants have less vigor than plants that are heterogeneous and have different alleles. The result is the phenomenon known as hybrid vigor. When two different varieties are crossed, the progeny has more vigor than either parent.
To restore vigor to inbred lines, breeders develop two lines with similar characteristics. Since each line has been inbred, the two lines' genes will have different alleles. Then the two lines are crossed to produce seed for production. The progeny will have the vigor that has been lost due to the inbreeding.