Selecting a Mother

[oldmac]

Thought I'd share something here about the need to grow out a fair number of plants from seed, in order to select the best plant(s) for future use as a mother. I constantly see folks here with plant problems that are simply the result of growing one or two seeds, and getting what you got and then looking for help because; 1) too short, doesn't seem to grow "like my friends" plant or 2) my plant has lots of stretch and is lanky or 3) I grew this plant and it was nice and bushy but this strain is so weak it's shitty, etc, etc.

Last month my partner and I got some seeds and decided to grow out the some Shiva Skunk. The seeds are from Sensi and are femmenized 10 pack.
(At the same time we started some auto-flower 3- LR2xAK47 and 4-LR2xsanta maria) All 10 seeds where germinated then planted in containers. Each plant is marked A thru J so when process is done we know who stays and who is "fired".

Here's a couple of pics of them in containers, day or two after the germinated seeds where planted.

oldmac Reviewed by oldmac on 06-11-2009. Selecting a Mother Thought I'd share something here about the need to grow out a fair number of plants from seed, in order to select the best plant(s) for future use as a mother. I constantly see folks here with plant problems that are simply the result of growing one or two seeds, and getting what you got and then looking for help because; 1) too short, doesn't seem to grow "like my friends" plant or 2) my plant has lots of stretch and is lanky or 3) I grew this plant and it was nice and bushy but this strain is Rating: 5

[oldmac]

About 25 days later, the 10 Shiva Skunks are ready to give clones.
Took at least 2 from every plant, some where willing to give more. But the most I took were 4, just because I'm lazy and did not want to keep soooo many records. BTW, from germination to completion, everything that is important is noted. ie: growth rate and vigor, it's stature, ease to clone and ultimatly how good it finally is.

Couple of pics of the potential moms. I'm sorry I did not line them up for a photo so you could see the differences in height between them in just 25 days. (back rows are the autos) And 3 pics of the cuttings in the EZ-clonner with thier name tags. Now I know the tags look big, but they will grow into them. Plus these will stay with the plants for the complete life cycle including harvest, drying, and tasteing. Like I said before, notes about each at every stage. We will be looking for a plant that is first potent, then short and tight nodes, easiest to clone etc. (plants on right of clonner are Apricot that came out of clonner and are doing a little veg time till going to bloom room)

[headshake]

good thread oldmac! subscribed.


-shake

[oldmac]

Thought I should add this.

Since these where fem seeds, 10 seemed like a good amount. If I was using regular seeds I would normally start 20 seeds figuring I would lose some to males. If I was looking for a breeding mother I might start even more.

It is the only way to find a good representation of the strain, there is just too much variation in seeds and the less stable the strain the greater the variation.

Hope this might help someone.

[McDanger]

I'm on board, looking forward to the learning

[oldmac]

Thanks Headshake.

The meat and potatoes are already here. Updates will occur but slowly.
This is a very slow process, just watching the grass grow now. But it is the only way I have found to try and keep the level of genetics where it should be, and to get a strain ready for real production.

[oldmac]

Hello McDanger,

Not sure how much is to be learned here, but I will encouage questions and kibbitzing while we wait.

In fact I guess I'll need to build a porch here, for my all my rowdy friends.

[oldmac]

A few days after giving up some cuttings, the 10 plants that where started from seed, where put into bloom @ 12/12. Tallest plant was abt 2' and shortest abt 1', with the average about 20-22". This is taller then I would normally bloom plants for production, but wanted to see what a fair representation of the plant was like.

One week later and some of the cuttings are ready to plant, others will come along later. In the selection process how quick a plant roots is very important. Notes were taken on when first roots appeared on which plants.
An example of how to get taken out of the gene pool, is our plant "D", out of four cuttings none are ready to plant, and just 2 show the start of a root (a snaggle tooth). So unless plant D turns out to be a ton better when finished then the others, it's a gonner.

Pic of roots @ 7 days.

[dejayou30]

Great thread! I have been reading a lot of your posts lately oldmac and I am impressed with your knowledge in several areas. I am looking forward to your process here, as it is much more intense than my garden.

I think that as a hobby/beginning grower, growing out a bunch of of plants, cloning them, growing those out, etc. can be a bit overwhelming, as the plant grows like a weed and 10 plants can get out of control fast. Perhaps its just my n00bness, but I had to cut down from trying to do 10 at a time to just doing one or two because it was too much to maintain and outgrew my 5x4 area very quickly.

The way I selected my first mother when I first started was to simply grow out 10 seeds and keep the one that performed the best. I based performance on tightness of the nodes, root size, and overall vigor. The plant I chose performed head and shoulders above the rest. I think if you are new to growing, this is probably the easiest way to begin dealing with a mother plant. Also keep in mind that I got my seeds (Master Kush) from Dutch Passion, so I was assuming the seeds were stable and relatively true breeding.

After getting a year of growing under my belt, I picked up some Purple Kush genes that were essentially bag seeds. I got them from a friend that got them directly from the grower in CA. He said the grower was trying to stabilize his own strain of Purple Kush, and suggested I grow out some seeds and see what I get. He let me sample the buds the seeds came from and I was very impressed with the taste and the heavy body stone. I started 8 seeds, and this time, I took a clone of all of them. In retrospect, I should have taken a few more because only 2 of the 8 survived in the long run (5 clones rooted but I killed 3 of them because of a bunk DWC system I had set up). Long story short, one was green and one was Purple, but they both had the same taste I remembered (or at least what I think I remembered :stoned from the bud the seeds came from. Obviously I got rid of the green one and kept the purple one. I am still growing that clone from the Purple plant today, and I can't wait to take some more clones and flower it in the fall.

I didn't go to the extent of actually harvesting and sampling several plants as a you are doing, so this is kind of a simpler and dumbed down version of your methods. Perhaps some n00bz like myself might be able to get their feet wet with this before jumping into your program, so I thought I would add to the thread! Can't wait to see what you find with your seedlot! :thumbsup::jointsmile:

[oldmac]

Hello dejayou30,

Thanks for the compliment, I probably read more then I post but I have been encouraged to share some ideas and thinking on subjects other then LEDs.
I actually consider what I do as being a hobbyist, tho a certain production level is necessary to be able to help people in need.

You have a good grasp of the selection process, and if you only base your selection on how a plant grows out of many, you have it at least 95% covered. Like you say, with good seeds that are stabelized there is not too much difference in plants overall, and picking a plant(s) based on best node spacing and growth you probably can't go wrong. What I'm doing here could be short cutted to some extent, but I'm doing it the "oldfashion" way.

BTW: I have a question for you about an answer on another thread dealing with 24/0 vs. 18/6 (which is best?). I'll pose it to you there and hope you can help me out.