Breeding Autoflower for seeds (First time)

niighaag · Dec 14, 2022

Hello everyone,

I'm not the most experienced grower out there, but I've managed to grow a couple successful grows in my days.
This summer I want to try and get self-sufficient on growing auto-flower seeds, since I usually do a big grow each year on around 100 plants per season it gets very pricey for me.
I live in the north of Scandinavia so as you might know the weather here is pretty rough and summers go by quickly, therefore I have to go with the auto-flower genetics.

Since I have lost my house this year unfortunately I do not have any space to grow in. So my question is if it would be possible if i would to plant both male and female auto-flower seeds outdoors to then make a natural pollen cycle and create my auto-flower seeds.
I recently managed to get a hold of 2 different strains of regular auto-flower seeds(10pcs), so if I'm lucky and some of these seeds contains a male / female would this work in theory?

(Understandably this method would pollinate the whole crop, but this year my only goal is just to produce my auto-flower seed)

Best Regards
Niighaag

hawkman · Dec 14, 2022

Good luck --- once did and auto to a photo fem - got a lot of crazy stuff -- Keep us informed just treat like you are "regularly" going to breed (nothing special is required- except time)

GreenGalaxyFarm · Dec 14, 2022

you will create regular seeds, why not create fem seeds brother? nothing wrong with regular im just wondering why you want to produce 100's of regular seeds. and welcome to the farm!

niighaag · Dec 14, 2022

Thanks for the replies,

I'm new in general too breeding plants, so I don't know exactly how the process works.
I thought the seeds would turn out to be auto-flower, since both the male and female would be (non photo)?
Regarding the feminized seeds, my first thought was to spray the pollinated female plants with Silver Thiosulfate Spray.

If this is not the process, I must have understood the concept completely wrong.

Please feel free to share your technique to get fem auto seeds.

Best regards
Niighaag.

GreenGalaxyFarm · Dec 14, 2022

you need to spray the female with either STS or colloidal silver for 14-20 days after you see pistils, then she will begin making pollen sacks no males needed she will pollinate herself, this is the easiest method but can cause mutations down the line. if you insist on using pollination between different plants this is also possible just some extra steps

mysticepipedon · Dec 14, 2022

I've been told by people who were messing around with breeding autos that autoflowering is a recessive trait, so crossing two autos should give you more autos.

niighaag · Dec 14, 2022

Yeah, that's what I read aswell.

"The simplest method to create autoflowering seeds is to crossbreed two autoflowering strains. The reason this is easier is that autoflowering genes are recessive, meaning it takes a lot of backcrossing to stabilise them. Therefore, a stable autoflowering strain is the result of lots of hard work—you can’t make one in a single generation!"

So lets say, if I grow 10 of these regular auto seeds side by side.
5 of them are males 5 of them are females, male pollinate the females.
I then Spray the female plants with STS Spray, would this make my seeds feminized autoflower?

Im just trying to wrap my head around how it works..

GreenGalaxyFarm · Dec 14, 2022

if you don't mind regular seeds just plant males and females together as per normal and you will get seeds from the cross. i was suggesting fem as normally people are limited to the number of plants they can grow so males are usually not wanted but you can always take breeding more indepth after you do your first regular cross

niighaag · Dec 14, 2022

GreenGalaxyFarm said:
if you don't mind regular seeds just plant males and females together as per normal and you will get seeds from the cross. i was suggesting fem as normally people are limited to the number of plants they can grow so males are usually not wanted but you can always take breeding more indepth after you do your first regular cross

Can't I just use STS spray direct to an autoflower female plant, and reverse it to a get seeds instead?
Wouldn't that make all the seeds (Fem Auto) without actually having to cross breed the strain with some other in order to get seeds.

GreenGalaxyFarm · Dec 14, 2022

niighaag said:
Can't I just use STS spray direct to an autoflower female plant, and reverse it to a get seeds instead?
Wouldn't that make all the seeds (Fem Auto) without actually having to cross breed the strain with some other in order to get seeds.

exactly, this was what i was suggesting its super easy

niighaag · Dec 14, 2022

GreenGalaxyFarm said:
exactly, this was what i was suggesting its super easy

Oh I had no idea that worked, if that's the case then I will for sure do that instead.
By other words, then I don't have to buy (regular auto seeds). I can just buy (fem auto seeds) directly and spray them with STS to get more auto fem seeds.

Regarding what you said previously about the mutation lines, would it have any affects on the offsprings by doing this a single time?

Thanks for the tips!

GreenGalaxyFarm · Dec 14, 2022

mutations are rare tho i wouldnt be worried, just start out with good genetics

extractoilminussixty · Mar 23, 2023

My STS Autoflower experience
Used Tangie feminized Autoflower seed from the breeder Fast Buds ( seeds bgt on seedsman.com, when they had them !!!)
Started spraying STS on the plant at day 18 flowering was just starting to show …The plant continued to produce female flowers until about day 50 !
On day 50 male flowers finally started showing up, I was shocked and ready to quit the experiment.
I sprayed every four days (The first nine days I sprayed every three days, I have read that sativa‘s are harder to transform than Indica’s)… I sprayed the plant a total of eight times and I mean drenched…!
On day 70 the male flowers not your typical looking male flowers had taken over the plant and pollen was showing up. Extremely small amount of pollen in each male sack. I then placed parchment paper underneath the plant to catch anything that dropped not much did the male flowers were so small I had to use a small toothpick and a very small piece of parchment paper right underneath the flower to catch what I could.
The plant also produced some of its own seeds which even shocked me more, about 8 seeds. (of course the seeds will be female and a clone of the original)…
This plant had problems from day one unfortunately, my Soil had something in it I still have no idea what?
I continued to collect pollen for another 40 days & Cut the small 12” plant down at 115 days.
It’s still drying so I don’t know how many more seeds I will get off of it, but I did scrape a lot of the male flowers off of it that looked like they had dried a little bit and ran them through a metal kitchen strainer, the picture below shows the pollen collected. Not much , but worth it’s weight in gold because I will order some new Tangie auto seeds And pollinate them, I am also going to pollinate a very good strain of Girl Scout cookies Garden of Green auto that I have.
Tangie Sts pollen below:

Below is the Tangie STS sprayed plant, day 56…

I’ve heard it can be difficult to get Auto‘s to change over and apparently I had the lucky number because like I said that was a long process and I almost gave up but then bam male flowers started showing up around day 50…

Notes:
STS
(Silver Thiosulfate Solution is a mix of Silver Nitrate & Sodium Thiosulfate)

Tangie auto with male sacs above pic.

YouTube Videos I watched below I’m making STS, The guy really knew what he was doing work for me. The one with the clip board.