How to Create Your Own Marijuana Strains

How to Create Your Own Marijuana Strain? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Growing cannabis is one of the greatest experiences you can do with marijuana. Sure, smoking it gets you high…but there’s a sense of completion when you grow a plant and harvest it.

While I have written many times about how to grow weed in the past…today we’re going to be talking about the art of cross pollination and how you can make your own cannabis strains at home.

But first, what do you need?

What do you need to make your own cannabis strains?

There’s a couple of things you’ll need to get your hands on. The first one is access to a variety of seeds. You need different genetics to cross breed plants. Taking plants from the exact same family will only replicate the genetics within that particular strain.

Secondly, you’ll need a place to grow. In fact, you’ll need a dual chamber grow set up. This means you have one chamber dedicated solely to flowering while the other is only meant for vegging. It’s important because this way you have more control over the cross pollination of your plants.

First thing is first

You’ll need both a male cannabis plant and a female cannabis plant. While you plants are in veg mode, they won’t show you their sexes. This is why the second flowering chamber is so important. You’ll need to first take a cutting from your cannabis plant and dip it in root hormone. You’ll want to wait a few days for the roots to develop.

Then, you’ll move your clone to your flowering chamber and reveal its sex. You’ll know it’s a female when there are white pistils developing at the inner nodes of the branches. You’ll know it’s a male when there are pollen sacks developing in the same area.

Make sure to properly label your plants when you’re flowering them so you know which one of the “vegging plants” is actually the male.

Now that you’ve identified your male, it’s time to make the magic happen.

Cross Pollinating

Now that you have both your male and female plants identified, it’s time to let them make sweet-sweet love. You will move both of the plants into the flowering chamber and start the process. Wait until the male develops the pollen sacks and then remove it from the flowering chamber.

Let the female plant develop nicely over the period of a month or so. Then, take some of the pollen from the male plant and rub it over the buds of the cannabis plant.

Depending on how many seeds you want, you’ll dose it with the appropriate amount of pollen.

Waiting to Harvest Seed

What you’re interested in this time is not the buds, but the seeds of your cross-pollinated plant. Wait for the plant to fully mature and harvest it like you would any other.

This time however, if all went successfully, you’ll have a bunch of seeds stuck in the buds. The THC count of the plant would be lower, but those new seeds are your new cross-pollinated strain.

Then, all you’ll have to do is germinate your seed and let it go through the entire grow cycle to reap the benefits of your labor.

Putting it into perspective

If it takes between 4-6 months for you to grow a cannabis plant, it will take you about 10-12 months to get your first cross-pollinated seeds. You can reduce the time by adding in more grow chambers, however that could become really expensive really quickly.

Why you should cross-breed

For those of us who like to grow our own weed, cross breeding and making your own strains is a must. Not only could you potentially make a new strain that rocks the world, you’re actually influencing the genetic profile of your cannabis plants.

Over time, you’ll refine your methods and will learn how to increase particular effects of your cannabis plants by mixing it with the genetic profile of another plant.

It’s all quite fascinating and trust me…once you start it’s nearly impossible to stop.

I mean think about it, the next time you go over to a social gathering and everyone is whipping out their stashes only to find you reveal a strain that nobody has ever smoked in the world…ever….well it’s a special feeling.

I for one am currently playing around with Mexican Landraces and mixing it with Powerhouse Strains from Europe and the US/Canada. Why? Because while the Mexican Landrace strain might lack in THC content, it makes up for in resilience. You can drop a seed of Shwag on the ground virtually anywhere in the world…and it will grow a marijuana plant.

My goal currently is to get the potency of the premium strains with the ability to survive harsh conditions of brick weed. It’s a challenge of course, but I got time…