Increasingly, I’m seeing people offering their custom bred seeds. I don’t mind the basic premise and, in fact, I would encourage everyone to try their hand at breeding! I agree with a friend of mind who recently said, “I’d like to see cannabis in the hands of anyone who wants to have it.” However, the problem I have are those who chuck pollen at pistils and instantly charge $10/seed for it. This is just another way to pry the patient cultivators hard earned money away from them. Read on to understand what the big deal is.
Most new Missouri medical marijuana cultivators have no idea what goes into breeding, they just know they need seeds to grow their medicine. Unfortunately, if you deal with a breeder who is doing nothing more than making seeds, you don’t know what you are getting, and neither does the breeder. So how do you know you’ll even grow medicine that works for you?
Here is a grossly simplified summary of how it works. When you take two stable varieties of cannabis and combine them, there is a really high chance that the [F1] progeny will be a new vigorous combination of the parents. Take White Widow and AK47 for example. These two varietals are quite stable and, when bred, there is a 90% chance that the result will be a variety that has become known as White Russian. Similarly, Blue Dream is a great hybrid produced by combining a stable Blueberry parent with Haze.
However, should someone decide to breed White Russian to Blue Dream – you have no idea what you might get. You might get something that resembles a White Widow, AK47, Haze, Blueberry, or any combination of these genotypes. A geneticist will confirm this; it’s called a ‘dihybrid punnett square’ and there are at least 16 different genetic outputs of such combinations.
So, what were you looking for? If you don’t care, that’s fine, have fun. But if you were looking for the combined attributes of White Russian and Blue Dream, there is only a small chance that is what you’ll get. It makes me cringe when I hear of people spending all their money on dihybrids and not having enough left for an exhaust fan.
A quality breeder will grow out 100’s of their seeds and be able to tell you the probability of getting the genotype that you are looking for. They’ll also test for THCTHC is the most famous cannabinoid and is psychoactive. TH..., CBDCBD is a cannabinoid with high medical value. It lessens t... More, and other cannabinoids/terpenes among that lot to determine if they can put an average on the seed. These trials are also important because it will result in knowing how long the average flowering time is, growth habits like ‘stretching,’ and more. Some will go through the many generations needed to stabilize their hybrid such that it becomes true breeding (in-bred line (IBL)). As you can imagine, all of this takes time and resources. That means money.
My advice is to seek out breeders who complete this kind of research and development (R&D) into their seeds before ‘dropping’ them to the public. I don’t mind paying a premium ($6+/seed). You should be able to tell that they do this by their website and other information they produce. Most who do this level of R&D are quite proud to tell you about it. This is very important for patients like myself who have specific needs for their medical cannabis varieties.
If a breeder doesn’t have the time/capacity to conduct R&D to that level, that’s no problem – they should just be up front about it! For goodness sake, charge what the seeds are worth at least. I won’t pay more than $2/seed for these sorts of seeds. You can find some great varietals in these seeds, it’ll just take a long time because you can only flower 6 at a time. So ask that alleged breeder what his vetting process looks like, or what R&D they do. If they can’t or won’t answer, walk away.
Eventually, I’ll start a breeding program of my own. When I do you’ll be able to get Lit Farmer Seeds at prices you can afford! This time next year I’ll be giving away seeds. So keep your money in your pocket or buy a better light instead of dropping $100’s on unverified seed stock. You’re better off growing bag-seed than some of the garbage I’ve seen floating around the internet lately.
Happy Harvests!
— The Lit Farmer —