Growing Cannabis at home is one of the most satisfying experiences a cannabis consumer could ever do. This is because you are in complete control over the production, quality and quantity of your crop. Today we’ll be introducing how to cross breed your plants, but before we jump into that we’ll go over the basics of growing.
Indoor vs Outdoor
Depending on the legality of cannabis in your area, you’ll have to choose whether you’re going to grow your plants indoor or outdoor. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages. Within an indoor environment, you have more control over the elements such as lights, heat, wind and earth.
Within the outdoor environment, your plants would grow far bigger and bushier than they would within an indoor environment. However, seeing that cannabis is still not legal in many parts of the world, most people opt in for an indoor solution.
Genetics
Finding good cannabis seeds should always be a priority. It’s true that you can take a “less than” powerful plant and make it more potent with correct growing techniques, however starting off with good genetics is always ideal.
You can search online for a variety of reputable seed banks to deliver seeds right to your doorstep. Be sure to investigate the legitimacy of the seed bank prior to purchasing as some of them are not selling you the seeds they market. When you purchase, buy different types of seeds in order to allow you to cross breed them. There is no point “cross breeding” if they are all the same plants, in that case you’ll only be harvesting seeds.
Growing
Now that you have the seeds on hand and the method you’re going to use to grow, it’s time to start growing. You’ll want to sprout a bunch of seeds since you’ll want to mesh the genetics from one plant to another.
In this phase you’ll keep all the plants in the vegetative state.
Finding the Males and Females
Next, you’ll want to create cuttings from the plants. You do this by cutting off a stem at a 45° angle and dipping the stem in Root hormones. Transplant it into a separate growing medium and wait for it to grow at least 10 centimeters.
Once you have your cuttings to a decent height you’ll take them into the “Flowering Chamber” and force flower them. You do this by switching the light cycles from 18 hours light/ 6 hours dark to 12 hours light/12 hours dark.
Once the plants start flowering, you’ll start seeing whether one plant is male or female depending on whether they have pollen sacks or pistils.
Now that you know
Knowing which ones are males and females, you’ll separate them entirely. You’ll want to flower the male separately from the females because you’ll want to harvest pollen in order to cross breed it with the other females.
Collect the pollen from the pollen sacks by gently tipping your male plant over a plant and simply tapping on it. You’ll notice yellowish powder fall from it. That is the pollen. Once you have collected enough, transport it to another jar and seal it.
Before walking over to the Females
You’ll want to take a shower, change your clothes and get some gloves. Why? Male Pollen sticks to everything. It will definitely be in your hair, clothes and all over the room where the male plant sits. Thus, to not over contaminate the female plants, get cleaned up first.
Cross Breeding
Now that you have your pollen collected (and cleaned up), go to the female room with your sealed jar and start pollenating the females you want to pollenate. I use a cotton swab or something similar and simply dab it with the pollen, then rub it over the female plant gently on the base of the stems and on the leaf.
Then once this is done, you can start flowering your females. They will be impregnated with the new genetics and their offspring will contain the genetics of the male plant as well.
Happy growing!
Author Bio:Anthony Jack works as a marketing manager atDutch seeds shop. With several years of experience in the marijuana industry, he never misses a chance to share his input on the matter with the world.
