Hey
@SaveTheBrains, thanks, and I tend to agree that the early male is probably not the cause of most of the slow going in
@PtreeCi garden or mine, and yea, my seeds were dry, but not yet vernalized (I think that's the term for the freezing or "over-wintering" you describe). In the future I'll give seeds more of a chance to get cold, which could very well have upped the numbers of successful plants. I touch on this below, but I also need to pollinate earlier to give the beans a better chance to mature fully - almost all of the seeds germinate, but a lot of them just stall out after poking out a tail, which I attribute mostly to a paucity of internally stored resources.
First, the current (ever-changing) situation; second, some more background context; third (and doubtless) ramblings, musings, open-ended tangential questions, etc.
Seedlings, a small number good, a large majority not so much.
This F3/BC1 generation is proving very problematic, and characterized by slow growing, poor rooting, and a lot of mutants. There is likely a variety of causes for this: 1) It seems generally understood that F3's are going to be fraught with issues as alleles will here be recombining in wonky (technical term) ways that bring out the best, worst, and most mediocre potential of a gene pool. Point being, to some extent these problems are typical for the stage of breeding, but methinks the problems are exacerbated by other factors. 2) For instance, Goldi's fast finishing time presents a challenge in making fully mature seeds, and the general slowness to germ and failure of many to thrive after a promising germination may stem from inadequately made seeds on my part. Nothing about them appeared problematic, but I would have preferred to give them another week or two to better fortify them with carb/nutrient resources.
3) Furthermore, backcrossing to Goldi has proven to NOT be a reliable way of locking her down in seed form. Backcrossing (similar to selfing) is a very straightforward sounding way of collecting/concentrating a given plant's genetic material, and indeed that is what happens, but this is an advantage only if the plant in question is homozygous dominant for her or his most desirable traits. If, as seems apparent with Goldi, a plant is recessive or heterozygous (with a lot of recessive alleles hiding behind the expression of desirable traits), backcrossing and selfing continually remix the allele soup in unproductive ways. This can make for fun pheno hunting for one-off moms, but will not lead to stable inbred varieties. There are notable instances where the BC or selfing approach worked to great effect, one well-known example is Mr. Soul's Cindy 99, which he derived through a series of backcrosses to "Princess", which was (is?) homozygous dominant for what made her special, the somewhat more obscure Santa Maria was arrived at similarly. Chimera (whose given name is Ryan Lee, if memory serves, and his PotCast interview is worth hearing), makes note of this from a much more learned place than I occupy, and it would be worth looking up his explanation for a deeper take. Selfing in particular is no guarantee of replicating a mom, but has significant diagnostic potential in hypothesizing about her homozygosity vs heterozygosity, and thus helping to identify her potential as a breeder.
Here is a really informative link on the subject of backcrossing. It refers to corn, but other than the Genetically Modified aspect the breeding strategies are transferrable to weed (or plants generally).
passel2.unl.edu
4) Of course, these F3 problems may also be influenced by the early-flowering Kashmir male, but the conditions I'm facing here are somewhat exaggerated forms of problems one expects at this stage. The real test will be in the performance of the F4's, providing I can push through the moment's mutant morass.
As can be seen on the left side of the tray, there appear to be four seedlings advancing pretty well, and there are another half dozen or so in another space that just broke ground, and I'll know in a day or two whether any of them appear viable (I held back about ten beans before, but decided to just use them - I don't plan on remaking this gen with this male if things flop, regardless of the reason).
I mentioned a previous attempt with this Goldi X Ennio II, and out of a few dozen beans this is the only plant I kept around, and for all the issues I'm facing this one provides some reason for optimism.
This is a stable plant with good vigor, and of equal importance is its resemblance to the mature Goldi. This includes the overall shape of leaves and growth pattern, but also an aggressive attitude/"stance" that says
"give me more f-n light...now...! You see these wicked serrations? You know what these can do to a man? Word to the wise buddy...more...f-n...light, last warning!". So yea, I try to comply so as to avoid a "Little Shop of Horrors" kind of scenario (
"...feed me, Jagged-G, feeeeed me...").
I'll add the following background, for sake of interest.
The small plants elevated on the left are the original GMO X Kashmir f1's.
Don't ask me which, but one of them is Goldi and another is Ennio. Noteworthy is their general consistency but more so is the resemblance of the single F3 above to its recent ancestors; of course they are all young cannabis plants that have yet to differentiate into maturity, but other than being a little more "upward" in its bearing, the consistency of the F3 is encouraging.
So from here, the plan is to line breed these F3/BC1 survivors to F4, at which point the viability of all of this will become a lot clearer. Just how this will look remains to be seen, and relies heavily on how many plants will actually show up. At minimum I need two good plants, and a male/female pairing is my preference, but I would consider reversing a female if two really good gals show up. My feeling, however, is that there will be around a half dozen viable plants in total, which will open other possibilities such an open pollination of all males to all females (this might be the the ideal way to gather a lot of seed stock to hunt through), or if F/M numbers allow, perhaps this will be the beginning of two more or less identical lines that could be brought together after a couple gens (this is a more forward thinking approach that would lay groundwork for solving vigor problems typical of advanced filial generations).
Anyway, thanks, all, for working through yet another long update/stream of consciousness ramble, and any input is appreciated, as always!