by Capstone Sands
I was lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time, completely at random, to start breeding ḈḁṇṇḁḇḭṦḼ™ plants from the earliest limited editions of Version 1. In the years since I've gone through a lot of trial and error breeding, picked up a few tips and learnt much information about the successes, traumas and failures of my phellow pharmers; especially as we all rushed to breed the non-updatable Version 1 Limited Edition foliages into updatable Version 2 standard strains.
In most cases the aim of planned cross-breeding is either to breed through foliages back to pure stats or to "bump" one or more stats up or down by mixing strains.
For the longest time after we bred foliages over to Version 2 I was reluctant to breed anything but pure strains unless there was a pollination accident but once plants were released with effects (FX) where earlier foliages could be "back bred" into them, those days were over!
I call it "back-breeding" because the FX are matrilineal, meaning passed from the female to her seeds, so there are a few simple rules to remember when you're breeding new foliage and FX combinations.
- Male plants can ONLY pass foliage, NOT FX
- Male plants can pass foliage to either FX or no-FX female plants
- Bred through Male plants with no-FX can still pass the inherited foliage
- Female plants with FX pass them to every following generation even if they inherit foliage from the stud male.
The chance of passing the foliage and all other mutations remain statistically the same as any regular harvest cycle.
What that essentially means is: once all the females of a strain are gone - the X are lost forever; that's why cross-bred plants with FX are rare and pure female plants with FX are an increasingly precious commodity.
If you're like me and you want to breed your plants back to all original stats with only the addition of the FX it will take approximately 12-13 generations so you will need to prepare for your breeding cycle by setting aside at least two males.
Here are some starter ideas for cross-breeds with FX that look great:
- Nebula, Cosmo or Quasar 420 males + Andromeda 420 females = Nebula, Cosmo or Quasar 420 seeds with Blue Starfield FX
- Ruby Slippers males + Andromeda 420 females = Ruby Slippers seeds with Blue Starfield FX
- Isis males + Andromeda 420 females = Isis seeds with Blue Starfield FX
- Lizzie Borden or RFL Great Oz males with Rastaman females = Lizzie Borden or RFL Great Oz seeds with the Rasta Leaf FX
- Groucho males + Up in Smoke Females = Groucho seeds with Smoke FX
- Lollipop or Peace Maker males + Flower Power females = Lollipop or Peace maker seeds with the Peace Symbol FX
- Snowballz Series males + Yellow Snow females = Snowballz Series seeds with the Snow FX
- Summer Fruit Series males + Honey Slide = Summer Fruit seeds with the Buzzy Bees FX
- American Beauty, Firecracker or Liberty Haze males + Stone Free females = American Beauty, Firecracker or Liberty Haze seeds with the White Sparkler FX
The most important things to remember when cross breeding your FX plants - don't be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake - even the most experienced breeders still do it now and again, shout out to the group or consult the blog if you need help and have phun. We're all waiting for you to show us the next combination of foliage and FX no-one else has yet dreamt up!
