Seeding Plants

[disABLEme]

So say I come across the perfect pheno... If I force stress a clone into a hermie for seeds will the seeds keep the same traits or does it not work that way? I've also read a little bit of info on self pollinating females and it seems there are some disadvantages to it. Only one that really stuck out to me was the fact that it limits the gene pool or something like that. If I get stuck with the original's pheno that's perfectly fine. Maybe someone could enlighten me on this along with some other disadvantages to self pollination.

In the bean process I just treat it like I normally would with more nitrogen during flowering and let it mature for about 40 days right? Don't know much about it to tell you the truth. Also, how persistent is pollen? I want to build a small box driven by cfls just for seeding plants and I'm just kinda worried with an exhaust or too much air movement I'll end up knocking up the other ladies either a floor below or a floor above depending on where I place it. Anyways, peace.

[stinkyattic]

It doesn't necessarily work like that, but it's a way to start stabilizing a strain you like very much.
The offspring of the S1 (first selfed) generation are not necessarily going to be uniform in their traits, but you can grow out that population and choose the female that most closely resembles the mother, and back-cross her (also using pollen from the initial hermaphrodite flower on the desirable mom).
The other way you can do this is find a strain that closely resembles what you like, and use a male from that strain to give you the Y chromosome that will make repeated backcrosses to the original female a lot easier.

[disABLEme]

Thanks for that info Stinky. Do you know if using gibberellic acid to induce male flowers on a clone and then using it's pollen to knock up another clone would be any different or better than selfing? I'd get rid of the one I use G.A on after I collect pollen... I probably really need to read up on this breeding stuff huh? Basically, I just don't want to buy the same pack of beans twice. I'm sure you know what I mean.

[stinkyattic]

That IS selfing. But you don't need GA; you can do it with photoperiod stress or allowing a ripe, finished plant to sit in flower for an extra couple weeks. I recommend the no-chem versions, since you can't smoke any part of a plnat that has been treated with giberellins.

[disABLEme]

I see. Well I guess that does make sense that it would still be selfing. I was just thinking that if you used it on a different clone that the seeds wouldn't be more prone to hermie out. I don't think I'll be doing too much selfing but if come across a mother I NEED to have a back up for would you say selfing would be the best solution to possibly get her traits?

You're a hobby breeder right? The more I think about it, the more I'd like to take it up as well but on a pretty small scale. Maybe you could answer some more questions for me considering everyone else ignores my posts. Lol.

If I breed a F1 male and a F1 Female of the same strain that'd make them F2's correct? And my chances of finding the pheno I bred them for would be out of 4? This is where I start to get confused... Would I then grow out my F2's and take a male from those f2's and cross it back with the originals female to stabilize? I think I came across something that said you need to make it to F4's before you can consider the strain stable or something like that. I've been doing some skim reading on all this recently and there's so much info it's kinda hard to find good info. If you could kinda sum this up in a nutshell for dummies you'd seriously rock.

Sorry, but I have one more question and then I swear I'm done... If I built a male isolation chamber out of a rubbermaid bin that sits the way it's supposed to with a muffin fan at the side instead of the lid would I have to worry about different male pollens getting on each other's branches? I don't want mutt pollen but I don't want to keep males in my garden longer than what I have to. I guess I could just keep cloning to prevent preflowers until I've collected all their pollen.