How to Choose a Male Marijuana Plant for Breeding

How do you select the best male marijuana plant for breeding your own marijuana seeds? Here’s how:

• Start by germinating non-feminized marijuana seeds.

• Keep detailed records of how fast the seeds germinate, and how fast they create leaf sets, roots, and vertical growth.

• Inspect your seedlings daily to see which ones develop odor fastest. Strong odor, especially if it matches what the breeder says the buds are supposed to smell like, is a good sign of male marijuana plant potency.

• Look for plants that have the most vigor and sturdiness– but not the most height and/or long internodes (tall male plants with long internodes have low-THC hemp genetics).

• The shortest plants with the densest development, and the most smell and vigor, are what you want as a male marijuana plant. Short internodes are crucial.

• Look for plants that handle watering and nutrients with the least amount of leaf problems or other nutrients-related issues compared to other plants in the same batch.

• If you’re growing in deep water culture, aeroponics, NFT or some other hydroponics system that allows easy root examination, look for the plants with the fastest and healthiest root development. You can also look at root development when you transplant to larger pots.

• When you flip your plants into flowering, pay attention to which ones show sex first. The male marijuana plant that goes into early flowering the fastest has an advantage over others that take longer.

• In late grow phase and after you trigger flowering, examine your plants to see which ones are showing the most phenotype expression that matches their genotype.

• For example, if you’re growing TGA Subcool seeds, you can go on his website and see multiple photos of each strain, along with a detailed description of what the strain is supposed to grow out, smell, and look like.

• To find your best male marijuana plant, look for the plant or plants that most closely resemble the strain you germinated.

• Other factors for selecting a male marijuana plant come from temporary situations such as a powdery mildew attack. Look for male plants that seem the most naturally resistant to powdery mildew or whatever pest or disease was attacking your garden.

Your perfect male marijuana plant is a vigorous, short stature, sturdy, disease and pest resistant plant that takes in nutrients easily, grows fast, sets flower early, has potent smell, and looks like the genetics you sprouted.

One other thing—the book Marijuana Botany by Robert Connell Clarke is a must-have when you select and use the pollen from a male marijuana plant.

It’s the bible for cannabis seeds breeders!