Quote Originally Posted by SOG420
My question is if these seeds can provide a stable strain in a controlled environment?
I've been playing with a strain for around 6 years. Reeferman gifted a few of us some seeds that he called R&D strain #1. He never told us the strain name so I started calling it PokerFace. (everybody needs a name) Was listed on the seedtube as a "medical strain" 80/20 indica dom. Anyway, I have been breeding the plant with great success, including various femming techniques. (gibrellic acid, aspirin, light poisoning) This bullshit that a genetically stable line becoming degraded as a result of intentional femming is a crock of shit, if the breeder is on their game.

Granted, bagseed and varieties from backyard "breeders" are not likely to be all that stable to begin with. As Headshake said, some use some fairly harsh methods of stressing the plants, and in my experienced opinion, some of those methods could very-well add to strain degredation itself. (hormones, steroids, heavy metals...)

If femming is a vehicle to strain degredation, why can all cannabis plants that still reproduce from seeds, be successfully (and quite easily IMHO) femmed? Are all strains degraded? Sounds to me like some folks are stuck in the 70's, haven't actually tried any of this themselves and are depending on hearsay to form an opinion.

If all this negative bullshit is regarding the ongoing inbreeding of genetics, (femming femmed fems from femmed seeds) then yes...I stand behind that concern. Locking-out genetic diversity is a good way to become disease-prone, stunted, chemical sensitive... But occational femming to acheive a shortcut in the garden has never proven deleterious in my growrooms. Having said that...I do mark my femmed seedjars so as not to inbreed.

Have also femmed my Swazi, my Northern Lights, C-99, Potent Purple, Diesel...
The only strain I've ever worked with that didn't fem nicely is my Shishkaberry. Came to me with a genetic anomaly of one-in-6 females going hermie, and femming didn't correct the trait, so I don't fem it any more. But it sure is tasty, and I still grow it on occation.

Oh...BTW...After years of unsuccessful hounding of Reeferman for the strain name of this his R&D strain, (what I've been calling PokerFace) I have determined it's the precursor to his original Cherry Bomb. Same timeframe, same growth habits, same smell and appearance. So in order to give credit where credit is due, I've renamed the strain Poker Cherry. :thumbsup: