The Power (and Limits)
of Genetics by Tyler C. Davidson
Another month has gone by already and I notice I have been getting a lot of questions about genetics. Questions like ‘which strain is the best?’, ‘is genetics or environment more important?’, and my favorite, ‘why is the guy I got my clones from getting better results than I am with the same strain?’ To help make sense of how genetics fit into the big picture of cultivating prime medicine, I thought I’d go back to basics and straighten out a few common misconceptions. Cannabis as a general rule reproduces ‘true to type’, meaning that unlike say, apples, you can plant some seeds and get a reasonably close reproduction of the characteristics of the parents. That said, you still get a mix of the traits of each parent. On the other hand, when you take a cutting you are cloning the original plant and thereby all but guaranteed to get the original’s traits, good or bad. Think of it as the raw material of your end product. How well you grow the strain, including the mix and quality of techniques used to bring that strain to maturity and harvest, is the other critical component that determines how good your results will be and what characteristics they will have. Modern strains have been carefully selected and bred many, many times over until not only can you be reasonably sure of the potential of the strain, but also what growing environment will be most productive. As an example, many people tell me that many of the top strains grow best in an indoor, artificial environment. That’s right, give them REAL soil and sunshine and they don’t do as well! Why? Because part of what the breeders were selecting for is how well the strain does in its intended environment - indoor grow rooms! It’s no mystery why such strains do so well inside - they’ve literally been bred to! Therefore, the way to maximize output is to provide the strain with the mix of conditions that are best for that particular strain - and the differences can be pretty big. Some want more light, some are less tolerant of high concentrations of nutrients, still others are very sensitive to the exact length of the light/dark cycle, and so on. Pick a few different strains with characteristics you like,
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and then stick to them for several growing cycles, long enough to tune your growing style and conditions to the strains you’ve chosen. Then if you want to go for even more productivity, pick the one strain that responds the best to your individual circumstances and keep it. By now it’s clear that genes and environment mix in some interesting ways, so which is more important? In short, both. It’s a weakest-link-in-the-chain thing, where the quality and quantity of your harvest are limited only by the weakest part of your growing situation, and how well the strains you pick respond to it. I tell my clients two more things, too; one, use the tips I just mentioned above, and two, keep doing it. Even after dozens of iterations, you will still learn new details about the strains you’re growing, the conditions you’re growing them under, and the impact of your growing style on the quantity and quality of your results. A good starting place is the recommendations of the original breeder, and then it’s trial and error time; try different approaches with part of your crop and see for yourself which approach is best. Some of your ideas might end up leading you down blind alleys, others may direct you to a goldmine. That’s how I discovered how to trim and train plants for big productivity gains when limited by the number of plants in a given grow. Who knows what you might find? Just remember to back up your results by repeating them, and to share your finds with others, so we all can enjoy the benefits of everyone’s discoveries! There’s no better way to give back! Well, that’s it for this month. I love hearing from everyone out there, so keep those emails coming! -Feel free to send any comments or questions to me at indoorcultivationconsulting@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to answer them!