Reasons to plant cannabis plants

There are plenty of reasons why breeders should not get involved in a five-year breeding program, to begin with, however, there are some core reasons why we should breed cannabis plants.

1. To improve a strain’s qualities and lock down a trait we like.
2. To create something new.
3. To reproduce something that is lost.
4. To help create strains suitable for specific growing environments.

Let’s take a better look at the reasons for the propagation of cannabis

Let’s examine these reasons more closely.

1. To improve a strain’s qualities and lock down a trait we like: We may have obtained a strain that we like, but in its offspring, we may notice that certain traits are variable, such as potency, flavor, or color. We may find in the offspring a trait better than what the parent plants had to offer. We may find that some of our plants are more potent than the rest. Since it seems that what we are seeing is a trait that the original breeder did not breed for but is something that we think improves the strain, we can breed this trait true in future populations of this strain. This is why we have many variations of certain strains like NL#5 and NL#9. When we have identified the trait that we like in the plant we will use breeding techniques to lock down this trait so that any future offspring will only show this specific trait without any variations. This is especially true for strains that are almost stable but contain some variations. When a trait is continued in the offspring without variations the trait is known as true breeding.
2. To create something new: The market demands change and growers tire of seeing the same strains over and over again. By breeding strains we can create new hybrids for the market. If the strain is good the market will respond well. A new addition to the market recently is Blueberry which has done very well. Since then we have even seen numerous hybrid Blueberry plants appear on the market, such as Flo and Shishkeberry.
3. To reproduce something that is lost: It does happen that for some reason or another, a breeder pulls out of breeding or loses the original parents of a particular strain. If such a situation should arise the breeding community may try to restore the song again by using genetic material that is related to the lost strain. If both the original parents are completely gone then this can be a very hard task.
4. To help create strains suitable for specific growing environments: By breeding a strain under certain conditions we can actually create a strain that grows best under those conditions. Since what we observe in a plant’s character is partially genetic and partly due to the growing environment, we tend to breed for traits that are influenced by that environment.