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.
stinkyattic Reviewed by stinkyattic on . Seeding Plants 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 Rating: 5