Maximum Yield Cannabis USA August / September 2017 | Page 30

grow
b
It Runs in
the famIly
THE CONFUSING C
WORLD OF CANNABIS
PHENOTYPES
Unlike many other plants,
cannabis isn’t hermaphroditic.
It has distinct male and female
individuals that, when bred
together, have the potential
to produce a vast number of
genetically different offspring all
at once. So, how do you make
sense of all this variation?
Cory Hughes is here to help.
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grow. heal. learn. enjoy.
annabis plants come in all shapes
and sizes. Even within a crop of a
single strain, you can see some pretty
drastic differences between plants.
So, how is it that one strain can end up
producing plants with such dramatic
variations in color, smell, and taste?
It all comes down to two factors that
dictate pretty much everything in
nature: genetics and environment.
First, let’s look at the basics. When
we talk about all those differences,
we are talking about cannabis
phenotypes. Phenotypes are variations
in observable traits brought about
by the effects of the environment
on the plant’s underlying genetics.
Phenotypes are often confused
with genotypes, so let’s clarify
the difference. A genotype is the
underlying genetic makeup or genetic
code of an organism. It’s the base
genetics of an individual organism.
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