F4 Valley Ice _ 72 beans

After much contemplation, ive decided that this year's greenhouse crop will be simply one tray of F4 Valley Ice (MTF X SFV OG) seed.

My general plan is quite simple. I will keep the plants in small pots, and transplant them into the raised bed that is in the greenhouse, around late July. This way the plants wont exceed 5 ft in height. It will make the whole grow much easier.

This is a pheno hunt, with two objectives
1. Make F5 seeds
2. Backcross a vigorous purple male to the f3 Valley Ice mother.


** Important information to document, for my own records**
The Purple F3 male that was selected to create the F4 seeds has proven to possess strong genetics. From my small tests indoors, ive gathered that the purple flower pheno rate in the progeny of the F1 Valley Ice x Brandywine is 75%.
I am expecting 90% of the F4 Valley Ice progeny to display purple flowers.
Selection of the F4 VI male should be rather easy. I am confident that I will find a male plant that is displaying all the same characteristics of the F3 Mother.

Only 4 beans didn't pop...

Ive plucked the runts and weak looking seedlings. Its down to 52 plants. One plant in particular clearly has strong sativa genetics. Its lanky and tall, with thin long blades.

the only problem with that is, acording to the cannabis breaders bibal, is you will get loads of males one end and some females the other. they did an experiment as i remember

go go kid said:

the only problem with that is, acording to the cannabis breaders bibal, is you will get loads of males one end and some females the other. they did an experiment as i remember

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What exactly are you referring to? Are you implying that the runts and weak plants often turn out to be females? If so, I still wouldn't select them for breeding.

Its an interesting thought. I wonder if the male count will be higher than normal? Only time will tell.

With a large pheno hunt, what traits are you specifically looking for to make your crosses and culls? I’m curious how the physical selection and culling process compares to the old fashioned way of “smoke-testing” everything and then going back to breed with some “favorite” plants. Have you been able to predict how the plant may smoke by looking at a handful of characteristics, after breeding the line for a few generations? Have you been able to make any correlations ? This is obviously a much faster method to an end result.

MissinThe90’sStrains said:

With a large pheno hunt, what traits are you specifically looking for to make your crosses and culls? I’m curious how the physical selection and culling process compares to the old fashioned way of “smoke-testing” everything and then going back to breed with some “favorite” plants. Have you been able to predict how the plant may smoke by looking at a handful of characteristics, after breeding the line for a few generations? Have you been able to make any correlations ? This is obviously a much faster method to an end result.

Click to expand...

At the top of my list, for my selection process
1. Vigor
2. Overall plant and bud structure
3. Fruity terp profile

Im breeding this strain with one specific goal. It must do well outdoors in this pnw climate.

There is still a lot of genetic diversity in the Valley Ice. The MTF genes has a lot of variety. Ive seen ruderalis, sativa, and indica plants within that gene pool. Its freaking amazing.

In all honesty, I haven't found a plant with the effects that im after. Most of them are hard hitting indicas. The Mother plant that produced the F4 seeds, has a stony high that makes me drowsy. Its actually put me to sleep a few times.
The deep purple Valley Ice plant that is sativa leaning has a pleasant effect, its uplifting with a mild body sensation. Ive decided to take that plant in a different direction though. Im going to enhance the Sativa genetics, by crossing it with SSH and Oaxacan.
Its turned into a separate project.
Thread 'F1 Purp Valley Ice x SSH' https://www.rollitup.org/t/f1-purp-valley-ice-x-ssh.1105659/

Almost time to transplant into quart containers.

Nice, is that a lacewing?

MissinThe90’sStrains said:

Nice, is that a lacewing?

Click to expand...

Maybe? I dont know... Lol

I found an old picture of the F2 Valley Ice that I bred into the F3. It was black... outdoors. Hoping to find another one of these in the future.

No one cares...
Transplanted into quart containers.

Here is an update on this project. They were all topped and transplanted a week ago. Some of them are displaying a lot of vigor.
One of the things I’m doing, is watering them in the middle of the day, when its hottest. I want to put all of them through the ringer so that the robust plants really stand out.
The tallest plant was grown indoors for a few weeks, but I decided to toss her outside because I didn’t like the way she is looking. Im not interested in any of the phenos of that plant.
I have my eyes on 4 plants that are looking like winners. None of these have been sexed yet, so there is a good chance 50% will get chopped down. Started with 72 beans… and will end up with how many plants?

Updated lineage chart.
This years project is
F5
BX1
F1 VI x SSH (An outcross that will be crossed back into the original line. Im also splitting it into four F2 lines that will be developed into a new strain.)

Today I spent some time really inspecting the F4 plants. This generation ended up with many of the SFV OG genes. There is a strong pool of potential parents to cross for the F5 generation.
What I find intriguing is that 90% of the plants are exhibiting strong floral terpenes on the stems. One them has a potent lavender scent. A few of the plants have an underlying Pineapple smell. Its a strange terp profile… Strong floral with a hint of pineapple.
The plants that have a strong fruity pineapple scent are lacking vigor. Only one of them stands out, and she is definitely a sativa leaning plant. Unfortunately the bugs are really going after that plant. All the other floral plants have great pest resistance.
There are three things that are really important to me.

1. Vigor
2. Pest resistance
3. Mold resistance

The rest of the stuff that I select for, potency, plant structure, terps, etc. are not as important. If I choose to pollinate a plant that has low pest resistance, it must at least have vigor and mold resistance. Improving resistance to pests will happen naturally so long as one of the parent plants posseses all 3 V.P.M. (Vigor, Pest and Mold Resistance _ abbreviation).
My general plan is to select 2 males with very different phenos, and 4-6 females. Only two of the female’s progeny will be worked to F6. The other seed lines will be stored. I will pop a few seeds of the backup lines, just out of curiosity.
Thats all for now. I know its a lot to read.

Below is an Ai summary
Observations

• 90% of F4 plants exhibit strong floral terpenes on stems
• Some plants have unique terpene profiles, such as lavender or pineapple scents
• Plants with strong pineapple scent tend to lack vigor

Selection Criteria

• Priorities:
  1. Vigor
  2. Pest resistance
  3. Mold resistance
• Secondary considerations: potency, plant structure, terpenes

Breeding Plan

• Select 2 males with distinct phenotypes and 4-6 females
• Focus on 2 female lines for F6 development, store others as backups
• Test a few seeds from backup lines out of curiosity

Here’s a brief update on the project. Most plants are looking healthy and vigorous, with a uniform appearance. One plant stands out with a large, fat leaf phenotype inherited from the SFV OG lineage. Overall, the majority of the F4 generation is displaying the desired leaf phenotype I’ve been working to stabilize. About 50% of the plants have a sturdy build, while the other 50% have long internodes and a flimsy branch structure.

I’ve selected two male plants that exhibit the desired traits and will take clones of them to use as father plants. The remaining male plants will be culled in about a week. I’ve changed my plans and will now allow open pollination to occur, which will provide a diverse seed stock for future use.

Moving forward, I’ll select and clone four female plants with desirable traits. These clones will undergo stress testing indoors, and if they prove stable, I’ll proceed with controlled pollination.

Ive selected three males and took cuttings.

Male #1 - Indica leaning but displaying all the desired traits.

Male #2 - A more balanced hybrid that is displaying all desired traits.

Male #3 - An attractive anomaly. Appears to be a smaller plant in structure, but its proven to be quite hardy and it has many desired traits. Super curious about this little dude. I took the top to clone.

Ive also taken cuttings from the most vigorous female that is displaying all the desired traits. For now, the females that will be selected is still undetermined. I have to wait for those flowers.

All of the males are displaying flowers. Only 3 males have true purple flowers. Thats really low numbers. I was expecting at least a 50/50.

Im going to clone 2 of them. The other males I previously selected have been scrapped. Only male #2 is being kept because it is a beautiful sativa leaning male.

For the new purple males that will be cloned.
Male #1 is basically a copy of the F3 purple father. A sativa leaning male that flowers a little late. Aphids have been bothering this plant, but other than that I would say its a vigorous hardy male.


Male #3 is displaying all the desired traits. It has a fruity stem rub, the desired leaf pattern, and a good structure. Also seems to flower early.

Today I did a full count and inspection of everything. There are a total of 17 males and only 6 of them are true purples. Which is 35.29%
Im cutting down all the males and leaving only 5 standing. Those five will open pollinate all the ladies, and I will cut them down once the girls are about week 3 into flower.

Male #1 _ A copy of the F3 Purple Father. The only major difference ive noticed is that the leaves on this F4 male have nicer and more pronounced serrations. Its an improvement in the right direction. This male has a really peculiar haze like structure. It doesn’t like to branch out, so it needs topping and serious training in order to make it more bushy.




Male #2 _ A medium sized vigorous plant. Pest resistance has proven exceptional. Flower formation and overall plant structure suggests that it is a balanced hybrid that isn’t leaning heavy towards either type (indica/sativa/ruderalis). Leaves are very attractive.




Male #3 _ A smaller ruderalis looking plant. Dense flower formation. Sturdy well balanced plant structure, with nice serrated leaves.

Male #4 _ This plant started off really strong. Displaying all the desired traits. I was unsure wether to leave it standing or not because of the freaky leaf mutation. It reminds me of the strain Freakshow. I decided to let it cross pollinate because only 2 leaves had quirky mutations. I wont allow any more of these mutations to continue in the future generations.




Male #5 _ A serious anomaly. Incredibly attractive in every sense. Vigorous sturdy beast of a plant. Citric floral stem rub. It posseses one of the most beautiful leaf patterns ive spotted in this breeding project. I suspect it is incredibly recessive skunk genes from the MTF lineage.



So far I can identify 3 true purple females. It looks like they are in week 1 of flower. Now that flowers will begin forming, I will be spraying neem oil on everything. 2-3 times for the next to weeks. Mostly to get rid of the aphids. Ive allowed them to stick around because I wanted to see what plants showed strong pest resistance. Only 4 of the plants were being really attacked by the aphids. All the other plants seemed to hold up quite well. No spider mites and no caterpillars. I will start feeding everything so that they dont struggle to produce flowers. Ive been pretty much starving them to see just how robust they are. All in all the genetics are looking strong.



Last note: Only male #1 #2 #5 are being propagated and taken indoors for testing and controlled pollinations. Female selection is to be determined.