Small population photo-to-auto breeding?

[LabRat]

That's not really what I'm asking, though. I feel pretty clear on the process at the Punnett square level, and I've made auto seeds with both male autos and reversed (STS) females before. My question is about breeding, and particularly the population size -- whether going through that process with such a small population (around a dozen) is a waste of time, because I won't be able to do much selection compared to people who have dozens, hundreds, even thousands of plants to pick breeding candidates from. I'm pretty sure I could go through the steps and end up with something autoflowering, but if I'm going to spend all the time to turn a photoperiod strain I love into an auto, I'd also want the result to be a good representation of that strain.

So: Is it a waste of time to attempt a photo-to-auto breeding project if I stick to a max plant count around a dozen? Have any of you tried, and if so, how did it turn out? Is doing some of the generations multiple times to draw from a larger pool going to make a difference, or is 2*12, 3*12 still way too small?

I don't think it's a waste of time to use a small population if you can find the traits you're after in them. I've been pollen chucking for 20 years but just getting into the details of breeding and haven't really delved into auto breeding much. With photos you can select the best few girls, get clones for backup, pollinate and grow out to sample the bud, check for hermies then just keep seeds from the plant or plants that check all the boxes. Then do it again with your clones to work toward stabilizing a good strain.

Half the seeds getting sold these days are F1s or F2s and for the same prices as beans that took some breeder generations of selection and a shit-ton of work to make

With autos it seems that it's trickier to weed out bad traits like hermaphrodism when you can't get cuttings to restart a good plant but I'll be trying.

 

[parsing_trees]

With autos it seems that it's trickier to weed out bad traits like hermaphrodism when you can't get cuttings to restart a good plant but I'll be trying.

I will have seeds from the previous generations to restart from, at least.

 

[Capn Bligh]

I'll follow along. Not sure how far & fast I'll get either but we have something in common. I have some Bodhi Waking Dream going which has a SSDD daddy and WiFi as the mama. Started some Sky Lotus before these as well. Just looking for a great mom right now and will store pollen from really hearty males but mostly just backing up seeds for future use. I'd like to work up to autoflower if I end up with something I really love. I have many seeds to go through though.

I snagged that Skylotus as well!

 

[ThaPollinator!]

I snagged that Skylotus as well!

Did you pop any yet? Mine are looking really good so far. Hoping for something exceptional but willing to to dig deeper if I get something really good but not great. Going to F2 with favorite female anyway. Just confirmed 1 male and 3 females out of 5 and waiting on one more to sex but this one isn't stacking up so to speak, so may not move forward with that one anyway. Took cuttings for clones and waiting.....haha

 

[Capn Bligh]

Did you pop any yet? Mine are looking really good so far. Hoping for something exceptional but willing to to dig deeper if I get something really good but not great. Going to F2 with favorite female anyway. Just confirmed 1 male and 3 females out of 5 and waiting on one more to sex but this one isn't stacking up so to speak, so may not move forward with that one anyway. Took cuttings for clones and waiting.....haha

Not yet, they are up next after this round. It was between Skylotus and Headband lol. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about Bodhi genetics. Pretty affordable during the BOGO sales. I am sure you will find something worth keeping.

I don't have much room to go down the rabbit hole of breeding. I was kicking around cloning the robust ones and kicking up some S1's for some fem seeds.

 

[ThaPollinator!]

Not yet, they are up next after this round. It was between Skylotus and Headband lol. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about Bodhi genetics. Pretty affordable during the BOGO sales. I am sure you will find something worth keeping.

I don't have much room to go down the rabbit hole of breeding. I was kicking around cloning the robust ones and kicking up some S1's for some fem seeds.

Grabbed up some of that BOGO too. I have some night owl wizards apprentice that I grew out and thought if I was lucky to get a really good mother from the sky lotus, the skywalker genetics have a better chance of coming through. Like LabRat said, I know they're all F1 so I know it's a crap shoot but I don't have any major expectations and it's a win no matter what for me. If I have more seeds and good weed, I'm happy and I learn in the process. I have more auto and photo seeds from great breeders who've worked the lines more to go through but I liked the idea of taking an F1 cross from a known cut to see what the offspring have waiting to be found. I also just want to get a better understanding of the life cycle and am fascinated by breeding and auto breeding in particular. I could buy seeds from famous breeders forever and probably will for something that seems really special but I like the idea of making my own more. It sounds like parsing trees has a good grip on the whole breeding process and will probably have some success and Fitsy has had some successes. That's inspiring and really glad to see more folks doing this for themselves.

 

[Capn Bligh]

Grabbed up some of that BOGO too. I have some night owl wizards apprentice that I grew out and thought if I was lucky to get a really good mother from the sky lotus, the skywalker genetics have a better chance of coming through. Like LabRat said, I know they're all F1 so I know it's a crap shoot but I don't have any major expectations and it's a win no matter what for me. If I have more seeds and good weed, I'm happy and I learn in the process. I have more auto and photo seeds from great breeders who've worked the lines more to go through but I liked the idea of taking an F1 cross from a known cut to see what the offspring have waiting to be found. I also just want to get a better understanding of the life cycle and am fascinated by breeding and auto breeding in particular. I could buy seeds from famous breeders forever and probably will for something that seems really special but I like the idea of making my own more. It sounds like parsing trees has a good grip on the whole breeding process and will probably have some success and Fitsy has had some successes. That's inspiring and really glad to see more folks doing this for themselves.

Grabbed up some of that BOGO too. I have some night owl wizards apprentice that I grew out and thought if I was lucky to get a really good mother from the sky lotus, the skywalker genetics have a better chance of coming through. Like LabRat said, I know they're all F1 so I know it's a crap shoot but I don't have any major expectations and it's a win no matter what for me. If I have more seeds and good weed, I'm happy and I learn in the process. I have more auto and photo seeds from great breeders who've worked the lines more to go through but I liked the idea of taking an F1 cross from a known cut to see what the offspring have waiting to be found. I also just want to get a better understanding of the life cycle and am fascinated by breeding and auto breeding in particular. I could buy seeds from famous breeders forever and probably will for something that seems really special but I like the idea of making my own more. It sounds like parsing trees has a good grip on the whole breeding process and will probably have some success and Fitsy has had some successes. That's inspiring and really glad to see more folks doing this for themselves.

Night owl eh? Did that turn out any good? I was kicking the can around about some of those when I was looking at beans. I couldn't find much info on them.

Alright, I'll stop hijacking the thread lol. Sorry OP.

 

[parsing_trees]

Night owl eh? Did that turn out any good? I was kicking the can around about some of those when I was looking at beans. I couldn't find much info on them.

I've grown Zamaldelica Express (fems) and Blue Microverse (fems and regs) from Night Owl, I love both strains. I made a bunch of BM regs, those are what I'm likely to use as a pollen and auto trait donor when I grow the Sunshine Daydream, but first I want to grow my ZE regs and make a big long-term stash of those seeds. I haven't tried Wizard's Apprentice yet, but have heard lots of good stuff about it.

 

[hairyman]

That's not really what I'm asking, though. I feel pretty clear on the process at the Punnett square level, and I've made auto seeds with both male autos and reversed (STS) females before. My question is about breeding, and particularly the population size -- whether going through that process with such a small population (around a dozen) is a waste of time, because I won't be able to do much selection compared to people who have dozens, hundreds, even thousands of plants to pick breeding candidates from. I'm pretty sure I could go through the steps and end up with something autoflowering, but if I'm going to spend all the time to turn a photoperiod strain I love into an auto, I'd also want the result to be a good representation of that strain.

So: Is it a waste of time to attempt a photo-to-auto breeding project if I stick to a max plant count around a dozen? Have any of you tried, and if so, how did it turn out? Is doing some of the generations multiple times to draw from a larger pool going to make a difference, or is 2*12, 3*12 still way too small?

Have you considered increasing plant numbers but decreasing pot size in the early stage to full auto ? or is number of plants the issue

 

[Old Sage Seeds]

Night owl eh? Did that turn out any good? I was kicking the can around about some of those when I was looking at beans. I couldn't find much info on them.

Alright, I'll stop hijacking the thread lol. Sorry OP.

Here ya go boss: