Is it worthwhile to start a new grow with seeds of questionable lineage?

I'm about to start my second grow, and need advice.
Four months ago I ordered and received seeds from Amsterdam Seed Co. I bought 10 Shiva Shanti, and included were 20 "free" seeds, strain unknown.

I germinated them, grew them, and harvested them. I would have to say my first grow was a success, but a limited one. It has provided the wife and I with a decent amount of weed, but as anyone who read my last few posts knows, a stray hermaphrodite managed to pollinate all my females. In the end, I harvested two Shiva Shanti females and one from the unknown strain, and all three are loaded with seeds.

When I ordered the seeds, I had them mailed to my house under my name (At the time my home was 100% clean). The package arrived unopened and untampered with. I believe it is safe to assume this package made it through uninspected.

My dilemma: I have thousands of seeds I can use to start my next grow, BUT I am unsure of their LINEAGE! Why? Because, while I am sure that the seeds from the two females have Shiva Shanti mothers (obviously!) there is no way to know if the fathers were potent Shiva Shanti plants, or were plants of questionable potency.

I am reluctant to start a new grow with seeds that are of unknown qualities. Am I making too much of this? Even if it ends up that some or all of my second wave are a hybrid of the known and unknown strains, it should still be a damn decent strain, don't you think?

I would happily spend $100 for more seeds from Amsterdam again, but now that I am living in an active grow house, I am not willing to take any chances with the post office again. And incidentally, I am not comfortable asking a friend to accept a package for me.
So, the question is for the real botanists out there: is it likely my 2nd generation seeds are of sufficient quality to make it worthwhile to go ahead with these for my next grow?

What were the notable differences between the known strain, and the mystery strain?

I'd be excited to see what comes of it.

I mean, it will still be weed lol, unless you are only interested in investing your time on plants you are sure will be of a certain THC content.

Maybe you can name your own strain

you got seeds fuck it, use 'em

Hassan said:

you got seeds fuck it, use 'em

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damn strait, go for it.

I'd give it a shot if that's your only option. Just be sure you don't have light leaks for flowering, that is the easiest way to make hermies.

do a 12/12 from seed with several plants. You will know if the plants are female within a few weeks and it will be a good fast way to check quality. After that u can do a normal grow if u want

Thanks Satch. I do think that was the cause of the hermies, too much light. I was kind of careless when it came to shutting off off all light. And Hassan, that seems a right smart idea. I will try it out!

keep us posted on how it turns out

Vanayakananda said:

I'm about to start my second grow, and need advice.
Four months ago I ordered and received seeds from Amsterdam Seed Co. I bought 10 Shiva Shanti, and included were 20 "free" seeds, strain unknown.

I germinated them, grew them, and harvested them. I would have to say my first grow was a success, but a limited one. It has provided the wife and I with a decent amount of weed, but as anyone who read my last few posts knows, a stray hermaphrodite managed to pollinate all my females. In the end, I harvested two Shiva Shanti females and one from the unknown strain, and all three are loaded with seeds.

When I ordered the seeds, I had them mailed to my house under my name (At the time my home was 100% clean). The package arrived unopened and untampered with. I believe it is safe to assume this package made it through uninspected.

My dilemma: I have thousands of seeds I can use to start my next grow, BUT I am unsure of their LINEAGE! Why? Because, while I am sure that the seeds from the two females have Shiva Shanti mothers (obviously!) there is no way to know if the fathers were potent Shiva Shanti plants, or were plants of questionable potency.

I am reluctant to start a new grow with seeds that are of unknown qualities. Am I making too much of this? Even if it ends up that some or all of my second wave are a hybrid of the known and unknown strains, it should still be a damn decent strain, don't you think?

I would happily spend $100 for more seeds from Amsterdam again, but now that I am living in an active grow house, I am not willing to take any chances with the post office again. And incidentally, I am not comfortable asking a friend to accept a package for me.
So, the question is for the real botanists out there: is it likely my 2nd generation seeds are of sufficient quality to make it worthwhile to go ahead with these for my next grow?

Click to expand...

Damn good question you ask!

Now onto my answer. Grow the hell outta those seeds and have fun. Always had great success with unknowns myself. Plus yours are not totally unknown so you already kinda know what you'll be getting. I like growing out bagseed myself it's element of surprise.

brasmith said:

I like growing out bagseed myself it's element of surprise.

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Same here plus you get a free bag of weed with every seed purchase

It would be funny if they turned out to be tomato plants.

Hassan said:

Same here plus you get a free bag of weed with every seed purchase

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Yep sure do get a free bag of smokable with 1 growable. Looking at it this way is very satisfying, lol.

brasmith said:

Yep sure do get a free bag of smokable with 1 growable. Looking at it this way is very satisfying, lol.

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not for me i only buy weed with out seeds.....

the plants should be good grow them shiva shanti is a nice strain and that x anything would still be nice..... get rid of the light leaks and take good care of these girls..... i have also heard tht seeds made bye a hermie are more likley to be females so if this is true then u will also produce alot more buds and alot less balls haha do it up yo

I kinda like mystery seeds, its like Christmas when it turns out to be a dank fem.

I germinate bagseed a lot just for a couple weeks to see what it looks like.

good point BT, I had a hermie pollenate my garden before, and the seeds didn't mature before the buds were ready, now I have a buttload of non viable seeds.

Dirt

wow that would really suck

i have read that, if you pollinate females with a true hermie it will pass the Hermie genetics to the seeds.

But if your plant did Turn Hermie Due to light leaks, you should have yourself some Feminized seeds.

its worth a try, But you could always end up with an ass load of hermies.

Grow a bunch of plants .....from the seeds u have ..... seeds are the recombined DNA of the Donor /ancestor plants ..... nature puts out lot's of seeds to insure that there will be a future generation ..... some will be Duds .... some will be showing weak or stunted growth .. some will spurt .. then burn out later .... the breeding adults u have, have combined genetics of many generations of predecessors. some or all of which will be expressed thru the seeds u have ... out of 100 plants from VIABLE seeds ... I'd guess ... you'll get 12 weak plants .... 12 burnouts ... maybe 10 weird mutants ..haha ... and that would leave about 63 plants in the mid range ... some showing tendencies more towards an indica .. some more towards a Sativa ...... some that are definitely hermaproditic ,, (from an early stage )

and if self fertilized .... feminized seeds with a percentage of hermies

if not self fertilized ... roughly half male plants

best of luck ... I think ...out of 100 plants grown from those seeds ... u will be able to find fifteen or 20 really nice females that have what u r looking for

plants below ... from eight seeds from one bud

I REALLY want to keep the genetics going in three of these plants ....... all are thick with trich's