Breeding Cannabis 101
What You Need to Keep in Mind When Breeding Cannabis
It’s very hard to get an approximate number of how many strains of cannabis there are currently in the US. An article from Los Angeles Times claimed that there are 779 known cannabis strains and while there’s no reason to doubt that figure, that article was in 2014. Since then, we can probably safely assume that the number of unique strains might have grown exponentially.
New strains are being developed every day from professional and amateur breeders, alike. A good number of them don’t go to commercialization phase because they are only for personal consumption.
Factors that Go Into Breeding Cannabis
Unless you are an amateur enthusiast, the main purpose of the breeder to create a new strain is to earn profits. This is why they need to offer something new to the market, not just reinvent the wheel so to speak.
There are several elements that go into a successful strain, these include:
- Vigor
- Flexibility
- Resilience
- Amount of Bract
Then you go to the trait of the flower, which includes the shape, the size of the bract, color, the profile and amount of the cannabinoid, aroma, resin quality and persistence, flavor, and the drying, as well as the curing times. Of course, you take into account the potency, which is what buyers are most interested in.
Breeders Always Aim for Consistency
You may buy a particular strain from your favorite dispensary but you will never replicate the aroma, flavor, and potency. That’s due to the manner in which marijuana is grown, controlled environment, water levels, lighting conditions, and techniques will all play a part in the final product.
In order to guarantee consistency, breeders now employ modern technology to compile accurate data and to work towards automating their growth or production methods and systems. In this way, human error is taken out of the equation.
Without this, breeders will have to contend with growing hybrids, which only attempts to get most of the traits of the parent plant. The most they can do is get as close as possible to the desired traits. If they are able to create thousands of seeds with hardly a drop-off in the targeted list of traits, then they can consider themselves successful.
Genotype and Phenotype
Breeders will always have to surmount the challenges posed by the genotype and phenotype in order to ensure consistency. The genotype, of course, refers to the DNA of the cannabis. This is the foundation of the plant that can be modified according to the environment by which it grows. The phenotype, meanwhile, will refer to the alterations brought about by how the pot is being grown. You may have the same genotype but it will yield a different color, texture, potency, flavor, and aroma depending on the techniques used for cultivation and manufacturing.
Among the more popular cannabis strains are Girl Scout Cookies, Green Crack, Blue Dream, Jack Herer, Gorilla Glue #4, Skywalker OG, Strawberry Cough, Sour Diesel, OG Kush, Bubba Kush, Fire OG, SFV OG, Granddaddy Purple, and White Widow.
Meanwhile, the most potent cannabis strains include:
- Girl Scout Cookies
- Kosher Kosh
- Bruce Banner
- Ghost OG
- Ghost Train Haze
- Chemdawg
- Death Star
If you are a cultivator and you have created your own strains of flowers, please leave a comment below and let us know what you learned from it, what help you perfect the strain you wanted to produce and was that your initial intention? To create a specified strain or did it fall in your lap through serendipity? We look forward to your replies and your visit to our shop.