Good breeding insight allows for the maintenance of desired traits, such as heavy-volume, fast maturation, and a will to survive in a particular climate.
There are also fancy and advanced quality traits, such as veggie color, leaf pattern and flower density, but to make breeding simple, these specific traits have been left out of this discussion in favor of taking a common sense approach.
Plant Volume
Monitoring stalk diameter at the base of a plant and observing root mass will help in determining a larger volume plant. In general, larger-stalked plants are harder to pull out of the ground, which indicates a more elaborate root system. The root environment must be consistent for correctly determining root mass, because a highly oxygenated, well-fertilized root medium will allow a plant to make a more substantial root system in less space.
If small plants are preferred so that a garden needs less care, then a grower should look for small diameter stalks and less root mass. Plants with smaller stalks and less root mass will use a smaller amount of water and are not so prone to being blown over by heavy winds.
In order for a grower to accurately assess stalk and root mass, plants should be exposed to identical growing mediums and all other variables such as growing settings from germination throughout harvest.
A final test in determining volume is to calculate the yield at the harvest.
Fast / Late Maturation
Choosing plants that mature quickly will allow those timing traits to be passed on to the next generation. Any inconsistencies will show up in the next generation if late and early-maturing plants are crossed. The crossed hybrids will have varying maturing times. However, some outdoor plants often have a sense as to when it is best to mature. A crop can always be a little late or a little early depending on the environmental conditions of the season.
Late plants may be desired, in order to capitalize on a long growing season.
Odor
Some plants will smell when they are young seedlings, some will not smell from seedlings throughout full maturity. Breeding plants that don’t smell allows this trait to be passed on.
Importance of Grow Medium
Not only is the climate important in determining the ideal strain, but so is the medium below. A strain grown in a soil mixture may do well in various hydroponic systems, or it may not. Some strains need more air down there than others, some more water, some more food and / or a slightly different diet. If hard work is performed on one cultivation technique, it is possible to eventually find plants that make perfect matches to various environmental conditions.
Many commercial seed companies have descriptions and pictures about various strains so that a grower can find a suitable strain for his particular growing climate.
Elevation
Plants respond and adapt to the air at different elevations. It is more often easier to take a high-elevation plant and introduce it to a lower elevation than vice versa.
Light Levels
Plants can adapt to and utilize adverse weather to put on significant mass. Rainforest breeders have strains that grow in the cold and wet, while plants from another territory will turn pale and grow more slowly in the same adverse climate.
Continuous breeding—inbreeding and outbreeding (unrelated cross)—can give rise to strongly acclimatized plants.
It is easier to take a plant from adverse conditions and introduce it to a warmer, less adverse climate, than to take a plant from a warm, safe environment and throw it into a rainforest jungle.
Taking plants that grow well in low-light conditions can allow an outdoor grower to get a good yields in areas of good and poor sunlight.
Also, breeding low-light plants with other plants can pass on these characteristics to the next generation. Looking at the spaces between the nodes helps in determining how well some plants use light. Less space between the nodes is preferred.
Disease Resistance
Root diseases, such as leaf-spot fungus, exist in various soil conditions. Some plants can fight and live with the disease more easily than others.
Frost Resistance
Different plants can handle varying levels of frost. In the early spring, some plants can handle strong frosts, while others die or become mutated. In the fall, some plants can live through frosts of varying degree, while some plants will shut down, deteriorate, and mold in a light frost.
Drought Resistance
Some plants use more water than others and their leaves, stalks, and flower mass can be inferior to a plant grown alongside in identical conditions.
Mold Resistance
Some plants can put on significant rot-free mass in cold, rainy weather, while other plants will rot under identical growing conditions. Rainforest breeders know that without mold resistance in the plants, one is playing with fire in a climate zone that gets about 3.5 meters (more than 11 feet) of annual rainfall.
Breeding Tips
Seedlings can run in all sorts of types. They can be hybrids with scattered genetics, or purer strains with known characteristics. Good breeders generally have good seeds. An advantage of seedlings is that it is possible to grow different flowering strains in the garden from a batch of seeds, although some seeds may be completely unproductive.
Easy Breed
The easiest way to produce outdoor seed in its natural setting is to leave a few plants in a clump. If all seedlings are from mother(s) that worked out well the year before, most new seeds should do fine the following year. Odds are that with four or more plants, males and females will show up to allow for reproduction. This method seems to work well for those who grow only outdoors from spring through harvest and then shut down. However, plants in all shapes and sizes may result if specific plants are not picked out for the breeding stock. Through continual inbreeding, the seed will eventually seem relatively uniform with regard to size, volume, maturation date, and flavor.
However, breeding the choice plants from seed that is continually inbred is recommended.
Making a Purebreed
A grower may want a pure strain so that he can produce a productive garden on demand using unknown seeds.
For starters, a grower should get two seedlots that are from different origins and grow the desired plants.
Then, the different seedlots should be crossed to make an F1 generation.
Now, inbreeding two plants from the F1 generation seedlot will produce an F2 generation.
Inbreeding two plants from an F2 generation will produce an F3 generation.
Now the seedline is stabilizing, and further inbreeding creates F4, F5, and F6 generations.
Knowledge and instinct are vital in breeding for the ideal strain and determining plants that are best suited for the growing conditions and produce the wanted results.
Stabilizing Unknown Seeds
If a grower continues to inbreed seeds over successive generations, the plants will become uniform. For example, If two unknown seeds produce a male and a female and reproduce to make seeds; a male and female from those parent plants can be used to make new seeds. Then, a male and female of the latest generation is used to make seeds. In time, consistency will show up.
