I’m curious about how long it takes to successfully breed a new strain of cannabis. Can you give me a general timeline for the breeding process and what to expect at each stage?
One answer “How long does it take to breed a new strain?”
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Breeding a new strain of cannabis is an exciting journey — one that many ardent growers embark on every year. To successfully achieve the best results, it’s important to start with a plan, as working through the breeding process is complex and takes time. From gene selection and breeding crosses to testing seed lines and phenotype selection, there are several phases along the way.
The first step to creating a new cannabis strain is to determine what characteristics you would like to achieve. This might include the type of aroma and flavor, cannabinoid profile, color and texture of buds, potency, and more. Once your list is complete, you’ll want to survey available strains of cannabis to find parent plants that share as many desired traits as possible. This is an important step as the genetics of your parent strains will shape the outcome of your final strain.
Once you’ve selected your parent plants and have a breeding plan in place, the next step is to create the breeding cross. This requires pollinating the female plants with male plants and introducing their genetics to create offspring or “progeny”. The next step is to track the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of the progeny and create a breeding program where you can test for various traits you are looking for in your strain.
Once the progeny’s genetics and traits are identified and documented, the next phase is strain selection. This is where you will choose which progeny will best represent your desired traits and become the official strain you are seeking. This can be a difficult process and often requires trial and error until you find the strain that bests fits your criteria.
Once you have identified your official strain, you must then create the final selection of seeds and collect pollen to begin breeding a stabilized seed. This is where you will look for the uniformity of the desired traits and purge any undesired traits. This phase should take 2 to 3 growing/breeding cycles and can require over a year of work in some cases.
The final stage of breeding is to backcross the seed until you have achieved a consistent and stable seed that produces predictable plants true to their original parent genetics and traits. This process can require anywhere from 3 to 8+ generations of crosses, depending on the desired trait, and in many cases can take over two years to complete.
In conclusion, breeding a new strain of cannabis can be a long and complex process. Knowing the traits you would like to achieve and keeping detailed records throughout the process are key ingredients for success. For a novice grower, this process may take up to two years or more, though an experienced breeder can usually complete the task much more quickly. Happy breeding!