Has Selective Breeding Significantly Altered The Plant?...

[ston3pony]

I was wondering... Obviously the standard rules of evolution, survival of the fittest don't apply to the marijuana plant anymore. Plants in the wild would succeed or fail based on their ability to survive in the wild. Whereas cultivated plants are selected for yield and potency. Some of the plants I see people growing are mutants compared to what they would be in the wild if people had never taken any interest in them.

In 100 years, is the plant going to be just one giant bud sticking out of the ground? Dripping THC all over itself and totally unable to survive without the presence of a powerful light source and food?

 

[slowmo77]

i have no idea but i sure would like to grow some of that giant bud dripping THC some time..

 

[ston3pony]

i have no idea but i sure would like to grow some of that giant bud dripping THC some time..

Well take a look at that Bud Of The Month photo for instance. Eventually they are all going to look like that. Just from the sheer genetics, the selective breeding.

I want some too yes. :hubba:

 

[canibanol cannonball]

I've asked myself that very question.

 

[Hick]

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28130

massproducer
I actually have 1 last thing to mention which is becoming more and more of a problem everyday. While yes some of the strains nowadays are super potent, we are starting to majorily limit the genetic potential of most popular strains and the enitre cannabis genopool, because of our infactuation with a few strains, namely; White widow in amsterdam and og kush/sour diesel in america. Most strains produced now carry these genes somewhere along the line. I am not talking about some of the wonderful Ibl's, i am talking about something like breeding OG kush and sour diesel and claiming this is a new strain, when in fact they are both really just phenotypes of the same strain and by combining the two you are not adding anything new into the gene pool. This stagnates the stain and causes genetic weaknesses, that will eventually lead to not only a reduced vigor but also will lead to hermies. So yes it is true we do have some killer strains, but we are looking diversity, and are headed to a world were there is no diversity and only 1 weak genetic strain, that is just a combination of everything due to the continued infactuations on creating super strains. Do not get me wrong i am all for creating new and exciting strains but we have to get back to doing it the way it is suppose to be done, starting with totally unique and unrelated LANDRACES and starting from the bottom up. All of the short cuts are taking use to a place that I am not prepared to be.

Mass' touched on this subject it another thread. .. But to answer your question, with "my" opinion,,, "YES".. we have literally bottle necked the gene pool.. or are getting pretty close, IMO.

 

[Puffin Afatty]

I was wondering... Obviously the standard rules of evolution, survival of the fittest don't apply to the marijuana plant anymore. Plants in the wild would succeed or fail based on their ability to survive in the wild. Whereas cultivated plants are selected for yield and potency. Some of the plants I see people growing are mutants compared to what they would be in the wild if people had never taken any interest in them.

In 100 years, is the plant going to be just one giant bud sticking out of the ground? Dripping THC all over itself and totally unable to survive without the presence of a powerful light source and food?

I think our weed is getting better, and insofaras you suggesting a genetic weakening, I think that is far tooo arrogant

:farm: Weed has been around for a long time and I think, will continue to be around long after Humans cease to be. If you take almost any indoor strain and put it outside, it will revert to a totally wild plant rapidly, conversely few of You city folks would survive under similar conditions :hubba:

As a contemporary poet says it in His music A Country Boy will Survive :fid:

BTW, I would be willing to bet that those strains I saw in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are still the same as always and all the other Base strains are still there to be used for new and better hybrids all the time

Ultimately, commercial strains may tend toward homogenization, but I really doubt that mere Humans can effect the wild genetics, selected by nature for millenia :rofl:

 

[godspeedsuckah]

Hank it up !!

 

[Puffin Afatty]

Bocephus Rocks :aok:

 

[Hick]

BTW, I would be willing to bet that those strains I saw in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are still the same as always and all the other Base strains are still there to be used for new and better hybrids all the time

Ultimately, commercial strains may tend toward homogenization, but I really doubt that mere Humans can effect the wild genetics, selected by nature for millenia

We can "hope" so...err not
"IF" we can prevent those land race pools from becoming poluted with the hybrid genetics. I wonder what percentage of those in other parts of the world have been effected?? south america, afghanistan, N. africa,....
As our world becomes smaller, our chances of keeping them isolated, are being reduced, IMO.
I don't mean to imply that the selective breeding over the last several decades, has not brought a .."better" product to the table. It certainly has.

 

[Puffin Afatty]

:farm: my point is only that the forces that lead to todays wild population are probably greatly resistant to the type of engineering Humans do, wild plants have their characteristic because they worked for thousands of years, perhaps millions of years and anything WE do to create our favorite smoke will only be a brief spec on their time-line Our choices are not necessarily the best for the survival of the species, but ultimately, it will all work itself out, eh

 

[ston3pony]

I think our weed is getting better, and insofaras you suggesting a genetic weakening, I think that is far tooo arrogant

:farm: Weed has been around for a long time and I think, will continue to be around long after Humans cease to be. If you take almost any indoor strain and put it outside, it will revert to a totally wild plant rapidly, conversely few of You city folks would survive under similar conditions :hubba:

As a contemporary poet says it in His music A Country Boy will Survive :fid:

BTW, I would be willing to bet that those strains I saw in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are still the same as always and all the other Base strains are still there to be used for new and better hybrids all the time

Ultimately, commercial strains may tend toward homogenization, but I really doubt that mere Humans can effect the wild genetics, selected by nature for millenia :rofl:

Oh I agree, I wasn't suggesting people had an effect on natural wild growing unmolested marijuana populations. I'm suggesting that cultivated plants, segregated from those wild populations, are basically veering off on an altogether different evolutionary track. The point really is that natural selection, survival of the fittest rules don't apply to the domesticated plants.

Where can we find Chihuahuas surviving in the wild? Is there an Island somewhere where packs of Chihuahuas roam free and band together to gang up and kill squirells to survive? Or miniature toy poodles? These are similar examples. The only difference is that they were selected and bred and encouraged to thrive based on cuteness, not THC content. If you let a pack of Chihuahuas go in the woods they aren't going to revert back to normal wild dogs capable of surviving in the wild. They are going to huddle together under a bush, shiver helplessly, and die.

 

[smokingjoe]

If you let a pack of Chihuahuas go in the woods they aren't going to revert back to normal wild dogs capable of surviving in the wild. They are going to huddle together under a bush, shiver helplessly, and die.

I got $100 on a chihuahua outliving the average human; especially in a pack.