parents that are only MM or mm respectively. So
we may have to do several test crosses to find
a male and female that have either MM or mm for
that trait. Once we have done this we have
isolated the genotype and it will breed true
within the same population.
So if we ran a seed-bank company called
“PALE GREEN LEAF ONLY BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS
NOT UNIFORM LTD” then the seeds that we create
will ALL breed PALE GREEN LEAVES and the
customer will be happy. In reality though they
want the exact same plant that won the cannabis
cup last year.....or at least something close
to it. So we will have to isolate all the
traits that helped that strain of cannabis to
win the cup before people are happy with what
they are buying. I think you get the point.
How many tests it takes to know the
genotype is not certain. You may have to use a
wide selection of plants to achieve the goal,
but never the less it is still achievable and
much more so than non-selective breeding in the
wild. Each trait must be locked down in a
population, so that the population for that
trait is homozygous. The next step is to lock
down other traits in that same population.
Now here is the hard part. When you are
working on a trait you must keep the other
traits that you are looking for in mind.
