Feb
You may have seen the term ‘pheno hunting’ thrown around in the cannabis cultivation community, and if you’re still not sure exactly what it means or why it’s important, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been pheno hunting for nearly a decade and in my opinion, it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of growing cannabis.
What Is a Phenotype?
In agriculture, a phenotypes refer to the physical expressions of a plant in a particular environment. In other words, if you grew 10 seeds in the same room, chances are there’s going to be visual variation between them. Some may look very similar, while others may be outliers.
The way you can group them together into similar batches, is a distinction being made from the different phenotypes that you see. For example, here’s what you might find in your grow:
- 3x Short green plants
- 3x Tall green plants
- 3x Short purple plants
- 1x Tall purple plant
The way these plants stand out from each other varies, depending on the genetics that are being grown, and each pack of cannabis seeds is different. But what you can notice is that there’s visible variation between them.
This is how growers often separate their phenotypes, in this case in 4 distinct groups – with one distinct outlier to the rest.
These expressions are also influenced by the environment, and changes in temperature, lighting or even humidity can all influence the way a phenotype is expressed. This means the plant could look and even smoke differently depending on the environment it’s grown in.
It’s important to note that while the term phenotype only describes visual characteristics, most growers will include cannabinoid or terpene variation in the classification. Technical, variations in the compounds are classified as the chemotype profile, but for simplicity’s sake – this is usually incorporated into what we refer to as a phenotype.
The Pheno Hunting Process And Why It Takes Time To Find A True Keeper
Pheno hunters will germinate larger batches of seeds than casual growers, oftentimes popping multiple packs of the same strain to find a single plant to hold onto. The idea here is to look through the gene pool and find the best in the bunch. Think of it like scouting the best sports players in school to identify who has what it takes to join provincial level. This is the litmus test for whether a clone is worth keeping around.
If you’ve ever bought trading cards like Pokemon before, you’ll know that opening one pack may leave you disappointed, but with enough packs you’re likely to find that rare holographic card.
Cannabis is similar. Sure, you can always get lucky and find the perfect plant from a small batch of seeds, but generally the more you look the better your odds of finding something truly special.
A well-educated pheno hunter will make notes of his plant’s growth through all stages, looking to understand its strengths and weaknesses. For example, how well do clones root that are taken from it? Does it have resistance to pests? Is it susceptible to mold?
These are just a few of the questions that should be answered before settling on a selection. If you’re thinking of getting started – here are what I recommend focusing on during each stage of growth:
Seedling
- Vigor
Vegetative Growth
- Pest resistance
- Vigor
- Lateral branching
- How they respond to being topped
Flowering Phase
- How much they stretch
- How long they stretch for
- Mold resistance
- Pest resistance
- Trichome coverage
- Aroma (terps)
- Yield / Flower density
- Flowering times
Smoke
- Potency
- Overall taste
- Mouth coating
- Type of high
One may need to run a clone several times before it becomes clear how it expresses, and this can take time. It’s especially important to see how the plant expresses in summer and winter conditions, as many clones will excel in the winter months, but do terribly when the heat increases.
Why Pheno Hunting Should Be Done By Clone
Did you know that running a plant from seed can give you quite different expressions to running it from clone? It’s mostly got to do with the way hormones are distributed through the plant, and it’s not uncommon for a plant to perform really well from seed but lack vigor from clone.
That’s why pheno hunters will either take cuts off the vegging plants and flower out the clones, or do an initial seed selection of a few outliers and then re-run those from clone to see how they perform.
Making a selection solely from seed may not give you the insight required to know whether or not that cut is worth keeping around.
The Importance of Pheno Hunting
Pheno hunting is important to growers who want to hold onto quality genetics in their mother library. For some growers, each seed is a new venture and they don’t keep mothers. But holding onto mothers of particularly special plants ensures you can run them whenever you want and get a reliable outcome that you can bank on (assuming the environment and growing methods are the same).
Pheno hunting isn’t too important for casual growers, but it plays a pivotal role in both breeding and the trading of cuts.
That’s cause the exclusivity of a cut holds value, and although there isn’t quite the same demand for elite clones in South Africa as there is in America, the potential certainly exists. Here in South Africa we typically see hunted cuts selling for R200 to R500 a clone, while in America some clones fetch thousands of dollars quite regularly.
The reason for the high price point is that these clones will often be used in popular breeding projects or sold through well-known outlets, driving a customer demand. When other breeders or cultivators notice they can earn money on the exclusivity, they are often willing to pay a high price to get the strain in stores.
Unfortunately, some less ethical individuals also use this to drive the sales of their clones by renaming their genetics to something with hype behind it, essentially lying to the customer about what it is they’re buying. The “Hitler” cut is a great example of such a case locally.
Should You Be Looking For Unicorns?
Now that you have an understanding of pheno hunting, should you be hunting through seeds to find your own unique keeper, or perhaps even a unicorn? (A unicorn is just a term for a keeper cut that is an extreme outlier, something really special that you aren’t likely to find by looking through a few more seeds of the same strain.)
That depends on your goals. If you’re considering breeding plants in the future, even for your own use – pheno hunting is an ideal way to establish a reliable collection of plants you know perform well.
For example, you may end up loving the way a particular plant grows or smokes, and then try to find the same thing by popping more seeds. More times than not you’re not going to find that exact combination again – so having a mother kept of your favourite plants lets you refill your jars with what you love.
Although the pheno hunting process can be time consuming, costly and take up a lot of space – it can be extremely rewarding, especially when you find that one special cut that you want to keep going back to for years to come.
