ted varieties. This can result in the famous 'hybrid vigor', or the heterosis effect, that has revolutionized plant breeding and agriculture in the past 50 years. This hybrid vigor can produce plants with faster growth and greater yield than eitherof the parents. In F-1 hybrids there isfrequentlya 'doubling up' of the dominant characteristics from both parents. However, since domi- nant characteristics are not necessarilyfavorable, inbreeding may be required firstto discover possibly useful recessive characteristics. The greatest hetero- sis effects are created combining extremes. the more unrelated the two halves of the hybrid. the greater the resulting vigor.This is one reason why lndica/ Sativa hybridsoften haveexcellentvigor.Atthe Seed Bank,we haveselected the best F-1 hybrids out of hundreds of possibilities for use in ourcatalogue. Duetotheirgreatervigorandyield,forcommercial growerstheyare probably the best choice.
A popular misunderstanding is that F-1 hybrids are unable to fertilize them- selves. This is completely false. With few exceptions all F-1 hybrids are self- fertile. The problem is that this generation, the F-2 generation, has tremen- dous variation among the progeny, and the heterosis also disappears. Thus, for breeding use, inbred varieties are recommended.
Seedlings and Clones
Technically, a clone is a group of genetically identical individuals. A clone is produced by taking cuttings from a mother plant. The commercial benefit of cuttings is that the clone of a particular mother plant will generally stay the same, producing crop after crop of uniform, standardized plants, neither im- proving nor fading in quality. The problem is that this soon becomes boring, particularly for the connoisseur. Thus, we must turn to the source of all variety, the seedling. Even indoor growers that can get the best commercial cuttings from fellow growers are growing our seedlings, looking for a new clone candidate, or a super, connoisseur plant.
Seedlings have other advantages over cuttings. A seedling will generally be much more cold-resistantthan a cutting, and is less susceptibleto premature flowering if planted early outside. A seedling will be less leafy than a cutting, and will tend to grow much larger main buds, while the yield of a cutting will be spread out over the whole plant. requiring more manicuring. A seedling also has a certain vigor that is often lacking in cuttings. Many growers, both outdoors and indoors, rely on seedlings to produce a better yield than they can get from cuttings.
For indoor growers, we recommend that you grow a seedling for at least 6 weeks before inducing flowering. If a seedling is forced to flower before this age, it will tend to have a smalleryield and produce lower quality buds than a mature seedling. An exception to this rule is a longer flowering variety, such as Northern Lights #5/Haze or Silver Pearl/Haze. Because the flowering period is more than 8 weeks, the seedling can be induced to flower as soon as they are well-established, and they will still perform well.

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