Thining About a Micro Breeding Program

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

I have always wanted to try my hand at breeding but I just don't have the room to do it on any real usable scale so I was contemplating setting up a micro breeding program in the not too distant future once I've got myself settled back into a growing routine and I've made some space to accomodate said program.

As stated, I'm not going to be able to produce vast numbers of top quality cup winning seeds nor am I going to be able to play the numbers game, i.e. growing lots and selecting the best.
I'm going to be very limited as to what I can do hence this is only for my own pleasure / benefit. All I'm looking to do is to experiment, have some fun and grow out some of my "creations".

I want this project to accompany my usual growing routine but not hinder or take it over lol so for this reason I'm thinking micro.
I currently have a DR90 tent for vegging my usual girls and a 2m x 1m flowering space but they are pretty much off limits for anything big other than growing out my creations since those rooms are my main source of smoke

I wont have a lot of space so I'm thinking maybe a smallish tent. One of the short but wide-ish ones. Propagator tents I think they are. I was thinking of splitting the breeding tent in two halves. One for veg, one for flower OR one side for males, one side for females. I don't need monster plants so I can limit the size by heavy pruning and serious bonsai training. I'm not after super buds just a few sites that give a handful of beans from each attempt.

Obviously when the time comes for growing out my creations I will use the main vegging and flowering room but for the actual breeding and bean making, I want to keep that as far away from my regular girls and smoke as possible.
Owing to the fact I've never done this before, what are people's opinions? Any advice people can offer would be good. Please remember I'm not trying to create the next cannabis cup winner, I'm just tinkering for my own fun
I've seen a tent that might fit the bill. It measures 70cm x 120cm x 70cm but I'm still looking.

And now for a few QQQs:-

1. What size CFL would people recommend to keep this fairly micro? I'm thinking of keeping no more than 2 males and 2 females at any one time in the breeding tent.
2. Will the CFL be good enough to produce viable seeds IF I'm being really heavy on pruning away everything not needed i.e. just leaving a few flowering sites on the top plant and concentrating on those for beans? I know you can flower under CFL but I don't know anything about quality.
3. I will also be collecting male pollen along my journey but how long can I store it for and what's are the best conditons for lengthy storage? Freeze it?
4. I've read quite a bit about using Colloidal Silver for self polinating. Can anyone think of a reason why it would not be safe to use it just for breeding not consumption? I'm just keeping my options open I might not use it. Some people say it's okay others say throw the plant away when you've applied silver and it's done its thing.


That's all I can think of for the minute. As mentioned, this is just an idea rattling around at the minute. Just wanted to thrash it out before I put too much effort in.

Cheers

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

1. What size CFL would people recommend to keep this fairly micro? I'm thinking of keeping no more than 2 males and 2 females at any one time in the breeding tent.
2. Will the CFL be good enough to produce viable seeds IF I'm being really heavy on pruning away everything not needed i.e. just leaving a few flowering sites on the top plant and concentrating on those for beans? I know you can flower under CFL but I don't know anything about quality.
3. I will also be collecting male pollen along my journey but how long can I store it for and what's are the best conditons for lengthy storage? Freeze it?
4. I've read quite a bit about using Colloidal Silver for self polinating. Can anyone think of a reason why it would not be safe to use it just for breeding not consumption? I'm just keeping my options open I might not use it. Some people say it's okay others say throw the plant away when you've applied silver and it's done its thing.

After speaking with some of the guys here and doing a bit more research online I am able to answer my questions now.

1. Min 200W for decent seed production.
2. Yes to All.
3. Current reading suggest male pollen is viable if stored correctly for several months - possibly longer if frozen?
4. NO plant exposed to Colloidal Silver is to be consumed.

So here's the plan now.

I've got a small shed where I plan to set up my micro breeding program. At the minute it is not lined or insulated but I've got the kingspan already then I just need some boarding to line it with.
After that I've just got to hook up the electrics which wont take long and it's good to go. So the plan for this year as far as this project is concerned will go something like this.

Firstly I'll finish the shed and get that ready to go. That's number 1 priority.
After that I'm looking to buy a pair of 90cm x 60cm x 90cm tents. One tent will be used for propagation / vegging etc and the other for flowering out and making seeds. Perhaps given the size of these tents, micro was the wrong word but in terms of breeding, what I'm doing really is small scale.

I've spent a couple of hours researching some strains looking for a potential starting block for the male side of my program and so far, the Hindu Kush from Sensi Seeds seems like a good solid starter for a beginner (but I'm still looking).
Easy to work with, supposedly 100% Indica and some desirable qualities to be played with and explored

Owing to wanting to keep numbers down, I wont have the luxury of growing out 100 beans at a time and narrowing down a male candidate like most breeders would so I'm going to play the long game instead.
What do I mean by the long game? Well given I have 2 - 3 plants in my main room, I'll only have the luxury of working with 6 plants in my breeding program. What I plan to do is grow out 6 Kush beans, keep the males and select the ones I want to keep from those. If I select 2 males, I'll then go and plant 4 new beans and do the same until I have 6 males to choose from. Then I'll do the same thing and select maybe 2 of those and keep doing this until I find one that meets aproval. Always keeping my total number of plants including my regular girls to 9 or less.

The point being I'm in no rush. I could spend months cycling through male grows until I find that keeper. So instead of planting out 100 at a time, I'm working through 100 but over the course of many cycles.
The downside to this is I don't get to compare between the 100 candidates in one go as a regular breeder would but instead I'd be keeping the best couple from each cycle and discarding those that don't meet the grade as new potental males spring up.

The females on the other hand I have a choice. I can either do the same sort of thing with various fem seed strains I like the look of OR I could pick potential female candidates from known strains I'm growing in my main room when something I grow jumps out at me and I want to breed it / reproduce it. The latter is more likely since I'll have grown what I'm breeding with rather than attempting it with unknown strains I've not grown.

So that's where I'm at right now. That's my rough starting idea. Between now and then I shall of course be burried in the topic of breeding, genetics etc. looking for further information and ideas.
Still lots more information to gather but I've got my general starting direction now and a rough plan


I'm getting all excited

[Yekke]

I have always wanted to try my hand at breeding but I just don't have the room to do it on any real usable scale so I was contemplating setting up a micro breeding program in the not too distant future once I've got myself settled back into a growing routine and I've made some space to accomodate said program.

As stated, I'm not going to be able to produce vast numbers of top quality cup winning seeds nor am I going to be able to play the numbers game, i.e. growing lots and selecting the best.
I'm going to be very limited as to what I can do hence this is only for my own pleasure / benefit. All I'm looking to do is to experiment, have some fun and grow out some of my "creations".

I want this project to accompany my usual growing routine but not hinder or take it over lol so for this reason I'm thinking micro.
I currently have a DR90 tent for vegging my usual girls and a 2m x 1m flowering space but they are pretty much off limits for anything big other than growing out my creations since those rooms are my main source of smoke

I wont have a lot of space so I'm thinking maybe a smallish tent. One of the short but wide-ish ones. Propagator tents I think they are. I was thinking of splitting the breeding tent in two halves. One for veg, one for flower OR one side for males, one side for females. I don't need monster plants so I can limit the size by heavy pruning and serious bonsai training. I'm not after super buds just a few sites that give a handful of beans from each attempt.

Obviously when the time comes for growing out my creations I will use the main vegging and flowering room but for the actual breeding and bean making, I want to keep that as far away from my regular girls and smoke as possible.
Owing to the fact I've never done this before, what are people's opinions? Any advice people can offer would be good. Please remember I'm not trying to create the next cannabis cup winner, I'm just tinkering for my own fun
I've seen a tent that might fit the bill. It measures 70cm x 120cm x 70cm but I'm still looking.

And now for a few QQQs:-

1. What size CFL would people recommend to keep this fairly micro? I'm thinking of keeping no more than 2 males and 2 females at any one time in the breeding tent.
2. Will the CFL be good enough to produce viable seeds IF I'm being really heavy on pruning away everything not needed i.e. just leaving a few flowering sites on the top plant and concentrating on those for beans? I know you can flower under CFL but I don't know anything about quality.
3. I will also be collecting male pollen along my journey but how long can I store it for and what's are the best conditons for lengthy storage? Freeze it?
4. I've read quite a bit about using Colloidal Silver for self polinating. Can anyone think of a reason why it would not be safe to use it just for breeding not consumption? I'm just keeping my options open I might not use it. Some people say it's okay others say throw the plant away when you've applied silver and it's done its thing.


That's all I can think of for the minute. As mentioned, this is just an idea rattling around at the minute. Just wanted to thrash it out before I put too much effort in.

Cheers

3. Cut with 99% talc / flour in the fridge

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

3. Cut with 99% talc / flour in the fridge

Thank you Yekke.

Roughly how long can I expect it to keep under those conditions?


Cheers

[Yekke]

Thank you Yekke.

Roughly how long can I expect it to keep under those conditions?


Cheers

I haven't checked myself but from what I researched 2-24 months.
In my breeding I use the whole male plants flowering near the females and giving fresh pollen.