Choosing the Right Phenos For Your Cannabis Garden

Choosing a marijuana strain for your weed gardens is one thing, but picking the right phenotype is another! In a time when we are around countless options of weed seeds for our cannabis gardens, it isn’t all that surprising to know that there are different versions of each strain! These are what we call phenos (phenotypes). While they are basically the same with their original versions, they bring a little something extra to the gardens for a more spicy twist!

Alright, we may be overselling it a bit but you get what I mean. Phenos are a great way of getting some diversity in your garden. Many times, we will have certain favorites that are generally hard to deviate from! Well, with the use of phenos, we can pretty much have different kinds of the same thing all at once! If you are still confused as to what we mean by this, then continue reading along!

What are Phenos?

Have you started cultivating a certain type of marijuana strain multiple times? Then you may have noticed that they will more than likely display different traits and qualities. It is despite of it all, being the same strain! This is generally caused by the genotype and phenotype influences that alter their growing patterns.

While the genotype of a cannabis seed deals more with the internal structure of the strain (such as the DNA structure), phenotypes are caused mainly by the varying environmental conditions that the seeds are allowed to grow in. For example, a strain of Kali Mist will most likely display darker hues of green when grown in cooler climates as opposed to a more tropical, sunny environment. With this concept in mind, it isn’t surprising to know that while they are technically the same strain, they will still look different from one another!

Phenotype refers to the physical conditions that affect the way your plants grow. However, with time playing its part on the culture, the word phenotype or phenos is also widely used to refer to different versions of certain strains! As such, it is quite important to know the different versions of what you plan on growing in the future. This will set your expectations to a level where you wouldn’t be so shocked as to the outcome of your seed’s growth and development!

Why is it Important to Classify Phenos of Marijuana Strains?

Choosing the right phenos for your garden is a choice that will depend entirely on what you want to have in your gardens. As such every factor of what you grow is in your hands! You are in for all sorts of versions of one strain so make sure to focus only on the ones that really matter!

Here are some of the factors that you should consider when you start coming up with your own phenotypes:

• Smell and Aroma – People’s preferences with regards to the smell of their cannabis buds will always vary. Here’s the thing: most (if not all) cannabis strains will have a certain herbal and grassy smell to them. However, the underlying terpenes of each strain can be as different as night and day! Many people will enjoy the sweet, citrus-smelling notes in some cannabis strains while others would much rather have the pungent, diesel-like aroma. Once you find what you like in terms of smell in one of your phenos, put it aside for further growing!

• Tastes and Flavors – The flavors of one particular marijuana strain can also vary depending on the phenos, believe it or not. Are you someone who is more into the sweet tasting profiles of strains? Or would you much rather have the dank, skunky ones that provide strong kicks to the throat? Either way, certain phenos of strains will give you a wide choice of tastes! Of course, trying out each bud might not be ideal especially since you will have to clone them. Take note that the smell of your strains emulate the tastes that they have. This would be a good basis.

• Highs and Effects – There have been times when indica-dominant phenos have reportedly contained some slight energizing effects and vice versa. Choose the phenos that will give you what you need in terms of how they affect your bodies. 

• Size and Yield – Now, for the main bit. Phenos, as we said before, can come in all shapes and sizes! This is a very important factor to consider mainly because you will want to keep the phenos that provide the most yields during harvests. Additionally, this can save up some space for your gardens. 

Cloning Your Plants for Phenos

One method that does not consider the varying appearances, tastes, smells and factors of your plants is through the use of clones for growing phenos. It is actually very common practice for many growers to start labelling their phenos, picking off the ones that they want to have, and subsequently cloning these in order to get constant qualities from your plants. 

Why Should You Use Clones for Phenotype Searching?

Using clones instead of seeds for cultivating is probably the only way that you can get carbon copies of each of your buds. Because they will not be affected by the physical and environmental conditions surrounding your plants. Plus, they will turn out exactly how you would expect them to!

You see, clones are formed by taking cuttings from a mother plant and subsequently cultivating it into an optimal growing medium. Through this method, the clones will get every quality that their mother plant displays. From the smells, tastes, effects, and appearance, clones will carry over both good and bad traits that their mothers contain.

This shouldn’t be all that surprising. Clones, as the word suggests, is literally a developing part of the plant from which it is from. You are basically duplicating the mother plant by taking one of its stems and subsequently growing it in another space.

For people who have found the phenos that they enjoy the most, using clones is the best way. It guarantees you constant quality marijuana buds. Without having the worry of getting something that will display different features, using clones is a method of growing that is getting more and more popular. 

How to Get Your Own Phenos

Once you have certain cannabis plants in their vegetative stages, you can begin scanning the crops for various phenos that the seeds have produced. The first step that you will have to do is to tag them and label each of the phenos accordingly. Using plant tags and giving them distinct numbers will help you differentiate them from one another. On a separate notebook, try jotting down the characteristics that each of them display this early in their plant lives.

Next order of business is to clone the phenos that you want to continue growing. After selecting the ones that have made into your choice of cultivation, wait until they are mature enough to be cloned. Remember, obtaining cuttings from a plant causes damage since you will be cutting them off! Cutting them too early can lead to stunted growth of even dying plants. Wait until anywhere between the fourth to sixth week of the vegetative stages before cloning.

After you have obtained your clones, you can now cultivate them just like ordinary marijuana plants! See, it’s that simple to come up with your own chosen phenos! These clones will start growing from the vegging periods. You will likely have shorter cultivation cycles as opposed to using seeds. The most important thing to do is to continuously label and tag them. This way, you will know what kinds they are.

Phenos come in all different kinds. Of course, they are still practically the same strains. So there is no need to worry about deviating too much from the originals! But it’s the little details in the qualities of the strains that make a huge difference. As such, you can really maximize your satisfaction by picking the best phenos for you!