Cannabis breeding may seem to be a complicated and lengthy process to consider in mind as it requires one to become a master at it. However, it is not entirely impossible for novices to grow, and might want to take the challenge by starting to breed even on a smaller scale.
Breeding at home is a thing that must be considered as it allows you to gain access to newer hybrids. It also helps in conserving the genetics of the cannabis that is to be used in the future. For sure this should be a fulfilling thing to experience.
While not all novice growers have access to new strain seeds, breeding a specific strain and preserving it is more than enough and does all the more good. This also opens you up to the possibility of creating a hybrid. This makes you realize that breeding is the best way to go.
Pros
Two to Three Weeks Time of Blooming
When you begin your breeding journey, you will have to choose the female and male variants to cross. The impressive thing about breeding is that it only takes two to three weeks for them to bloom completely. You will just have to choose the plants you want to grow, follow the necessary steps and the tools needed for the process.
Maximum Results Yielded
The female cannabis strain is pollinated upon following a selective propagation. The male pollen is placed onto the specific branches producing the seeds. The process produces about twenty to thirty seeds along the way. It is advised to just do the process correctly to bring out maximum results.
Great Experience
When you successfully bred the cannabis strains, you can enjoy the great experience of collecting the seeds. Know that the seeds mature in just four to six weeks, which is quite an easy feat. See and test if the seeds mature. Pick each one of them. You will know it is ready if it is deep tan or dark brown. There usually is a hard shell and a visible stripe.
All of the seeds can be stored in a properly sealed and labeled jar. Although, it is important to store it in a cold and dark space. Once you’re ready to use the seeds, you could just remove them. Allow them to acclimatize in the jar for twenty-four hours before you plant them.
Breeding your own cannabis strains can only give a great experience. But in order to succeed, it requires a certain level of mastery to acquire your desired hybrids.
Customize the Strains for Optimum Benefit
As you propagate and breed your cannabis strains, you may customize the strains to achieve maximum benefits. Breeding gives you a way to produce a variant that may offer you muscle relaxation, aroma, and psychoactivity. All of it befitting your desired cannabis. This is true regarding effects and palatability.
Cannabis is indeed a complex plant. Different strains would offer different benefits to people who use them. So when you created a strain that is up to your standard of both recreational and therapeutic benefits, its genetics may be preserved for more production. This is made possible by asexual propagation or cloning.
Save the Cost of Buying Clones or Seeds
Breeding your personal cannabis strain saves you further costs from buying clones or seeds. Although it may require some more effort, it will always boil down to the economic means and expenses in maintaining the crop.
Produces Both Female and Male Plants
Cannabis breeding always produces both female and male plants. There is also an occasional hermaphrodite that surfaces. The breeder should have both parents go under observation to determine the desirable traits that will be passed onto an offspring. The characteristics needed to be taken into account include the size and yield, the vigor, the disease resistance, the hardiness, the aroma, and the taste.
Faces You Only A Few Concerns
The only thing required for you as a cannabis breeder is to provide the plants with water, light, and food. This is necessarily true for keeping the growth of your vegetation healthy and having strong roots. The seedlings could just stay together or they could also be moved quickly provided that they have undergone “sexual declaration” or “sexual determination”.
Cons
Has Got A Lot of Requirements
People also face a lot of requirements when breeding their cannabis strains such as various growing environments, where it has to be specific with the various phases of the life cycle. At times, the strain will demand an environment that has a long day so that the plant develops. And at the same time, it may also require an environment with a shorter day in order to flower and develop Cannabinoids.
Moreover, growing marijuana demands following a routine of constantly moving the plants from a particular environment to another. This is somehow an additional task to carry out by a home grower.
Indeed, there is a need to put a large investment in the maintenance of the plants and environmental conditions.
Controlling the Sex of the Cannabis Strains
One more issue faced by the growers is the sex of the cannabis strains. Growing a cannabis plant containing both the female and male sexes, or either of the two is often the case for home growers. However, only the female variety can produce cannabinoids. It carries all of the active ingredients, recreational and medicinal value, and gives the cannabis strain its distinctive smell. What’s more, the female plant can untimely change its sex and develop pollen. It can also fertilize the flowers in the same area and leave the surrounding plants useless. The mere fact that it is difficult to manipulate cannabis’ sex, it’s when difficulties arise in this regard. Growers would often separate the female and male plants, and remove them in the growing space to avoid such mishaps.
Breeding may require more resources on the part of home growers. But, the pros far more outweigh the cons. It is still worthy of your time and effort investing in cannabis strains. Provided that breeding is carried out in parallel and also widely, better cannabis strains will then be obtained. There is the possibility that better cannabis strains can be developed with fewer resources and less effort. That is when breeders could recover more of their investment!
