Pest resistence and Royal Queen Seeds

[fauxnacho]

Just want some info and experiences following some grow trouble and a discussion I had with Royal Queen seeds, the breeder whose seeds I was using.

I had two plants in my tent (different strains) and one of them was badly attacked by thrips. They barely touched the plant beside her. I ended up removing the bad plant, and they then attacked the good plant but in much smaller numbers.
I asked RQS if that particular strain had issues with pest resistence , and they replied that all strains are equally susceptible to pests. That just simply isn't true is it??

Researching and verifying their entire catalogue for pest resistence would be difficult so RQS may just decide not to do that, but to say all are equally susceptible, I swear that's not right... that plant was a thrip magnet..!

 

[DCLXVI]

I think insect pest vs something like powdery mildew is a bit different. They may be using "pest resistence" in terms of fungal, bacterial, mold, or viral plant "pests" and not insects. I could be wrong, just a thought.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

There are some things you can do with nutrition that will help a plant be resistant to insect attacks and make them less attractive to insects to start. Silicon will make the plant cells physically tougher and harder for pests and molds to invade. B-Vitamin, Kelp and Humic Acid will help the plant be more reactive to invasion. It strengthens the immune system. Not using Ammonium Nitrogen sources or to much Nitrogen all together. This is a long watch but is very in formative.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...roper-nutrient-managament.78938/#post-2323340

 

[fryge]

genetic pest resistance to stuff that's not microbial is definitely a thing.
weed breeding isn't very professional though, so especially with such an answer from a breeder, I'd assume they completely ignore resistance in their breeding. either they just don't care because people will pay them anyway, or they're just not knowledgable enough about beeding and really believe what they said.
but I think in general you shouldn't have too high expectations about the breeding process behind weed strains. not just a 1 breeder thing, it's everyone.

broadly you can divide the resistance against insects etc into 2 categories:
-the pest likes the plant less, and will rather go to a neighbour when it is around. this is what you got: with a more susceptible plant next to it they rather went there, but with only the more resistant plant present they can still feed from that one too
-the pest can't live on the plant at all, even if it's the only plant around they won't be able to survive from it.

you could also have options somewhere in between, you might for example have a plant that the pest can live on, but the plant is somehow less nutritious to the pest (or the pest has to spend more energy beating the defenses) so the pest can reproduce less fast, and/or has a longer cycle on that plant.

 

[fauxnacho]

Cheers Fryge, agree with you on everything there. And from it, my guess would be that the trouble it would take to determine pest resistance means it isn't economically viable for breeders. And when you do see pest resistance listed with a strain, it's usually on a third party site like leafly, determined by grower ratings alone.
Then I can only contribute to say Tatanka CBD from Royal Queen is ZERO STARS for pest resistance :smoking:

 

[fryge]

I think it would easily be economically viable, I think a lot of breeders are just messing around.

all it would take is culturing the pest. with fungi that can be a bit more tricky since you need a few tools to work sterile etc, but with insects all you'd need is some food plants for them and a box.

then for the test, either put a bunch of plants together and add the pest, or put a cage around each plant and add the same number of pest insects to each.

another trick plant breeders from other crops use are spreader rows. works also for fungi etc. you grow your plants in the field outdoor, but between every row of your variety to test you plant 1 row of a variety you know is super susceptible.
the susceptible variety will get infected naturally and will spread the infection around it.

as long as those super susceptible plants are evenly spread between the plants you test for resistance (so you don't get false results for example one being closer to the spreader plant than another), you can get a good picture of the resistance.