Mr. Brown
Well-known member
Hi All
Thought to answer a few things directly since reading this thread.
I think most of you may not remember but a company called Dinafem set up initially by feminizing Mr Nice regular strains. They became the largest seller of seeds in the world before being raided a few years back due to exporting without correct phytosanitary certificates and other such breaches, to the point they were closed and a huge amount of money and properties were sequestered by the Spanish authorities. They approached me to tell me this when the started and offered me royalties of which I denied and asked them only to write correct information in their catelogue so their growers would understand what they are really growing. To their credit they did do this in their intial catalogue and we remained friendly to the point when I created CBD crew project they joined and we initially made all their CBD seeds with us...so this is a true account of things from my side and one that many in the industry are well aware of.
So what are some reasons for not doing the Mrs Nice range of seed?
Firstly what I work on is really up to me from the start with a multitude of requests the last XX years it is important that I am happy with what I am doing so I do it well. While I understand many or most seed companies went forward on this strategy of no longer keeping males and just feminizing selected mothers, I still believe this occurrence in nature is the exception and not the norm, and I take my cues from Mother Nature not Man in these matters.
Secondly I keep open an ever growing option to hobby breeders or regular seed growers to select something special since 15% is towards the mother, 70% similar and 15% towards the father in a stable regular seed strain sold at MNS.
Thirdly if people wish to use female seeds from a select mother then why not make them yourself? It brings costs down and allows the normal person to produce a large amount of seed that they made and controlled, with a possibility for them to redo this. Breeding with males and females is a completely different set of rules and not everyone is versed in selecting a good male and testing progeny seed....so in reality making female seed is now not so difficult for the grower and therefore it is not out of the good growers realm of work any longer. Possibly the job is done better in house rather than by commercial seed producers who sell to seed companies who put names to things but no real origins are truly known in reality.
Fourthly using intersexed plants is really only useful if a male does not exist, and it can have a tendency to manifest intersexed plants depending upon the strain...and for years I spent most my breeding life reducing this possibility so it really does go against mainstream selective breeding principles which I still abide by as a general rule.
Lastly the concept of a good average is wonderful for many people, especially commercial producers, but it is not why I breed or grow. I am still always looking for that special plant to keep as a mother for consistency over time and to add new strains to an already well selected list of plants that exist. I have seen great female seed plants do not get me wrong, but in general they make good average flowers and it is not so enticing for me in the end. I also do not say everything in regular seeds will always be great, but finding something special and that is worthy to go on with, well I find this with regular seeds...not by manipulating chromosomes with chemicals.
I expect it may be construed I am a strong believer in plants being male or female, not anything else, and this is correct, I do. So while I do understand their is an application for all types of seeds , I chose to remain old school and a little old fashion in breeding after trying the most cutting edge technics possible. It is simply my own choice after decades of doing this business.
So please just see this as my response without getting into criticism of what others do. Hope that gives some insight into the why, where, who how questions that inevitably follow. All the best Sb
Thanks a lot for what you are doing
And thanks for the opportunity you give us through your work