Howdy AFN,
I just signed up today because I thought a blog would be a fun way to track the progress I'm making towards breeding my own auto strain while meeting some cool people along the way. In general I'm somewhat new to growing (very new depending on your perspective) but I've got 4 successful grows under my belt and have always had a bit of a green thumb so they've all gone smoothly and felt very natural. Those first few grows were with a buddy and we began like most do I'd imagine...bottled nutes and soil. However I've recently moved into my own spot and after some conversations with another friend of mine and seeing what one dose of bottle nutes did to my spider plant - explosive growth for a few weeks followed by severe leaf burn due to excess salts - I've decided to go full organic. This way I'll be able to recycle my soil which will keep costs down and by most accounts produce some tastier bud as well. I've always been a quality over quantity type of guy so I'm not too concerned about being out yielded by bottle nutes. The first 3 cycles that I ran were with photoperiod strains but I thought about it and couldn't ignore the potential that autoflowers hold. My most recent run included a few autos and I'm inclined to try to breed an auto strain that has the characteristics I'm picturing...
Breeding Goals
The trait I am most interested in selecting for is apical dominance. A plant that grows straight up without a lot of side branching is very amenable to a sea of green style grow and yielding well in the small spaces many of us are growing in. Think about corn. It's wild relative is teosinte, a veryyy branchy grass. A natural mutation occurred that reduced its tendency to branch and now farmers can plant seeds inches apart from each other and produce yields per acre that would not be possible if its architecture were that of its branchier wild relative. Of course many other innovations have led to yields that current maize varieties are able to produce including artificial selection over millennium and the relatively more recent advent of hybrid breeding, but I would argue that apical dominance is at the root (or shoot?) of these advances. The strain I'm hoping to develop will be very easy to maintain. I just completed my first auto run and did what most people recommend, lots of LST, and I wasn't a fan. It requires a decent amount of hands on effort it you want to do it well and I found myself adjusting the wire stakes I was using almost daily (albiet mostly because I enjoyed checking up on the ladies). Furthermore, it results in the bottom of the buds being very close to the soil surface which creates a very humid microclimate after watering...fans obviously help but I'd prefer to avoid this issue.
I'd also like to breed a strain that is quick yielding. My first run of autos included two different strains. One was real quick to flower and could have been harvested after 9 weeks while the other took longer to develop and wouldn't have been ready until week 14. I'm saying could have and would have because I didn't actually harvest the flowers but pollinated them...more on that later. The difference in flowering time have been due to growing conditions, the 14 weeker had a somewhat stressful week 2 when I left town for the weekend and came back to an unhappy wilted plant, it bounced back beautifully however. I'm curious, have people noticed alot of phenotypic plasticity when it comes to flower time or is it a pretty stable trait ie if you pop two seeds from the same pack do they typically develop at the same rate or is it common for one to finish way sooner than the other?
In addition to these traits the obvious stuff is going to be of importance...that double dogg dankness...disease resistance...good yields...
Alright, next post I'll let you know where I'm at with this madness.
Geneiac
I just signed up today because I thought a blog would be a fun way to track the progress I'm making towards breeding my own auto strain while meeting some cool people along the way. In general I'm somewhat new to growing (very new depending on your perspective) but I've got 4 successful grows under my belt and have always had a bit of a green thumb so they've all gone smoothly and felt very natural. Those first few grows were with a buddy and we began like most do I'd imagine...bottled nutes and soil. However I've recently moved into my own spot and after some conversations with another friend of mine and seeing what one dose of bottle nutes did to my spider plant - explosive growth for a few weeks followed by severe leaf burn due to excess salts - I've decided to go full organic. This way I'll be able to recycle my soil which will keep costs down and by most accounts produce some tastier bud as well. I've always been a quality over quantity type of guy so I'm not too concerned about being out yielded by bottle nutes. The first 3 cycles that I ran were with photoperiod strains but I thought about it and couldn't ignore the potential that autoflowers hold. My most recent run included a few autos and I'm inclined to try to breed an auto strain that has the characteristics I'm picturing...
Breeding Goals
The trait I am most interested in selecting for is apical dominance. A plant that grows straight up without a lot of side branching is very amenable to a sea of green style grow and yielding well in the small spaces many of us are growing in. Think about corn. It's wild relative is teosinte, a veryyy branchy grass. A natural mutation occurred that reduced its tendency to branch and now farmers can plant seeds inches apart from each other and produce yields per acre that would not be possible if its architecture were that of its branchier wild relative. Of course many other innovations have led to yields that current maize varieties are able to produce including artificial selection over millennium and the relatively more recent advent of hybrid breeding, but I would argue that apical dominance is at the root (or shoot?) of these advances. The strain I'm hoping to develop will be very easy to maintain. I just completed my first auto run and did what most people recommend, lots of LST, and I wasn't a fan. It requires a decent amount of hands on effort it you want to do it well and I found myself adjusting the wire stakes I was using almost daily (albiet mostly because I enjoyed checking up on the ladies). Furthermore, it results in the bottom of the buds being very close to the soil surface which creates a very humid microclimate after watering...fans obviously help but I'd prefer to avoid this issue.
I'd also like to breed a strain that is quick yielding. My first run of autos included two different strains. One was real quick to flower and could have been harvested after 9 weeks while the other took longer to develop and wouldn't have been ready until week 14. I'm saying could have and would have because I didn't actually harvest the flowers but pollinated them...more on that later. The difference in flowering time have been due to growing conditions, the 14 weeker had a somewhat stressful week 2 when I left town for the weekend and came back to an unhappy wilted plant, it bounced back beautifully however. I'm curious, have people noticed alot of phenotypic plasticity when it comes to flower time or is it a pretty stable trait ie if you pop two seeds from the same pack do they typically develop at the same rate or is it common for one to finish way sooner than the other?
In addition to these traits the obvious stuff is going to be of importance...that double dogg dankness...disease resistance...good yields...
Alright, next post I'll let you know where I'm at with this madness.
Geneiac
