How many seeds does it take to find a keeper?

**infrared** · 05-24-2012, 03:15 PM

How many seeds from one strain would you need to pop to find an 'elite' keeper?

I've read commercial growers say they top-grade as many as 100 at a time to find the best of the bunch. This isn't practical for me given the MSRP of these 6 and 10 packs, so I'm curious to learn how other people have made their decisions.

I feel popping a single bonus seed is just 'not enough', and while I'm hoping for the best come next month's promo (and waiting to pull the trigger on this order until then to take advantage of the freebies), for the seeds I'll be purchasing, I'll probably get in the 10-12 range per strain in an attempt to find a middle ground between extreme commercial top-grading and being just another idiot with a single femmed NL bean.

**Total Head** · 05-24-2012, 03:28 PM

ideally, just 1, but that's more of a lottery. it is my opinion that if you have to legit go through 100 seeds to find 1 keeper, that is not a very impressive strain. at ALL.

a 10 pack should be more than enough to find a keeper if the strain is legit. mr. nice comes in packs of 18, and in my experience, most of them are keepers.

i lucked out on a pineapple chunk freebie 2 years ago. i got the magic pheno but there's a bunch of people shitting on the strain because they grew several and never found this pheno. i'd hesitate to buy a pack based on this but when you do find a "keeper" it's usually worth it. not 100 seeds, though. that's nuts.

**Guitar guy** · 05-24-2012, 04:27 PM

Really it all depends on the strain. Northern lights is extremely stable, so you will likely find a keeper rather quickly.

However, strains that are not bred very well will take more seeds to find a nice plant

**M B P** · 05-24-2012, 04:35 PM

i might be talking out of my ass here, but look into the lable F1. I think that means its generally stable as having great genetics. In my past, if I grow plants not labeled as f1 I get a wide variety in quality from plant to plant. Maybe 1/2 would be good. If I grow plants labled as f1s, most to all will be pretty great.

**Wetdog** · 05-24-2012, 04:55 PM

For a 'keeper', a 10 pack should do.

For the *elite*, 100 seeds is probably on the low side.

Luther Burbank would plant up to 10,000 seeds and perhaps keep 3.

The lottery analogy is a good one and very true.

Wet

**infrared** · 05-24-2012, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Wetdog

For a 'keeper', a 10 pack should do.

For the *elite*, 100 seeds is probably on the low side.

Luther Burbank would plant up to 10,000 seeds and perhaps keep 3.

The lottery analogy is a good one and very true.

Wet

This is more or less exactly the kind of feedback I hoped for, and from a trusted name...grazie