Outbreeding

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

Outbreeding is the process of crossing or hybridizing plants or groups of plants with other plants to which there is no, or only a distant, relation. Any time a breeder is hybridizing using plants that reside outside of the family, group, or variety, hybrid seed is produced.

For example, an F1 hybrid seed is the first generation offspring resulting from a cross of two distinct true-breeding plants or populations. Each of the parent populations were hybridized (outcrossed to each other) to produce the new generation, which is now comprised of genetics from both parental populations. Outcrossing results in the introduction of new and different genetic material to each of the respective pools.