Antonio’s cannabis crossbreeding case study

Dutch Passion ran their first limited edition 4/20 day promotion with independent breeder Antonio recently. Antonio has been a cannabis grower and breeder for over two decades with dozens of cannabis cup wins. Over the years he has grown thousands of plants, only the very finest of these are preserved as cuttings in what many consider to be one of the best private cannabis collections in Europe. This is the previously untold story of Antonio’s ongoing quest to find & develop unsurpassed cannabis genetics.

The basics of crossbreeding cannabis

Here is a brief history from Antonio of his involvement in cannabis, from an early fascination to the current point where he has almost 40 cannabis cups.

- I started smoking and growing more than 2 decades ago as a teenager.

- From my 16^th birthday, in the early 2000’s, the idea/passion hit me that I would really love to work in the cannabis industry and eventually create my own cannabis seeds that hopefully would be grown and cherished across the world. Fast forward to 2024 and here we are!

- When I started studying after high school all I could really focus on was growing, smoking, and experiencing all the different things cannabis had to offer. I can say it became a sort of obsession for me.

- I started experimenting with all the different clones available back then. I would buy and grow various types of cannabis seeds, growing techniques, nutrients etc.

- I set up my own experiments eventually (with clones) to compare nutrients, but also to compare HPS with LED (back in the day when the first LEDs just came out).

- Lab testing quickly became a critical and indispensable tool to see what the buds really contained. A grower’s personal judgement can only be accurate to a certain point. Extensive analytical lab testing has now become an essential part of every stage of my selection process/decision making over the last decade. Of course, the same is also true for the rest of the world’s most serious breeders.

- I always shared all my experiences with my family, friends and my collective who are a group of like-minded individuals that love the cannabis plant almost as much as I do myself. Without the collective, I would have not made it this far. So, a special thanks to them for all those hours of working together, debating which one is best and sharing our passion!

- Back in 2015 the time had come to start competing professionally with the best breeders at cannabis cups. The first strains I entered immediately won prizes, at the Spannabis and Highlife Cup, for example. I was super happy and proud; this was something I wanted to do more often and with more focus! In the following years the number of cannabis cups would continue to accumulate, and my genetics collection continued to improve as I acquired new genetics, new knowledge, and numerous priceless breeding/genetics contacts. I prefer strong effects, rich taste and organically grown buds… and as you might have guessed I have become a bit of a self-styled connoisseur.

- Now in 2024, I have been fortunate enough to have just under 40 cannabis cup wins (across Europe) in total. My goal is to reach 50 in the next few years. That would be an awesome achievement!

The 420 crossbreeding project background

Partly thanks to all the rigorous lab-work, my collection of elite mother plants has never been this good and it attracts plenty of discussion. Dutch Passion and I got together and floated the idea of celebrating 2024 4/20 day with a limited edition feminised seed drop using some of my tastiest, most consistent and powerful genetics. Here’s some of the background to the work that led up to the release of Sherbelato Cake, Sour Tropicana Cookies and Triangle Sherbet Kush feminised cannabis seeds with Dutch Passion.

Many excellent cultivars have failed to make my collection simply because the terpene profile or cannabinoid content isn’t quite up to the demanding standards required to gain a permanent home in the mother collection. During recent years the following changes have marked some new approaches to my work methods:

- I began conducting serious (and pretty ruthless) professional selections saving only genuinely premium genetics, both from regular seeds and feminised cannabis seeds, about 7 years ago around 2016/2017.

- I started breeding increasingly with regular cannabis seed varieties about 3-4 years ago. Since then, there has been a lot more testing and professional selections with the collective to understand the tricks of the trade. We learned a great deal about what to do and (perhaps more importantly) what NOT to do in order to refine and stabilise the best cannabis genetics.

- During the past 2 years finally, some feminised breeding came into the mix and again this has also been a learning curve - with a lot of valuable input from seasoned pros, which is just part of the game I guess.

- After many years of intense effort (and a bit of luck along the way) we have an incredible selection of exceptional male & female plants to work with and some of these were obvious candidates to use when creating these new limited edition cannabis seeds with Dutch Passion.

As a cannabis professional, it’s a real privilege to have these genetics to work with and we have some great projects underway.

During my latest breeding runs I think the cannabis god Shiva gave me a sign about when my journey could really start…

Mother plants selection and preservation

Antonio and his network have successfully grown, collected and traded some extra-special cuttings over many years of hard work. Identifying and preserving these genetics is a full-time job, here are Antonio’s notes on the background to his work:

The mother plants:

- The Sherbet mother is a very reliable, stable, forgiving, potent and good yielding plant that has been a key part of the collection for many years. It was easy to make her the first pick. She is a well-known, rock-solid and fully tested cultivar to work with.

- The others all come from an extensive selection process, sometimes taking a few years of testing in different environments/climates in order to make the final pick and using them to breed further.

- Gelato x Wedding Cake, is a sought-after USA cross of two heavy weights from the past 5 years. I just had to make a cross with these based on the terpy genetics and create new USA cannabis seed varieties that can combine a very high potency with a solid yield.

- Sour Tropicana Cookies is a new cross of a Sour Diesel/Tropicana Cookies, which is incredibly dank and can have some beautiful pigmentation in the flowers. I wanted something more Sativa leaning to give the growers/smokers looking for a slightly more energising high a good choice too during this limited drop.

- The Triangle Sherbet Kush comes from a selection process of a regular cross between a Sour Banana Sherbet mother that was gifted to me years ago and a Leeroy father. The selected phenotype is like its parents also really potent, more than 25% THC in several lab tests and reeks like a sour limey earthy kush.

Pollination process: how to produce stable feminised seeds

Assembling a dream collection of genetics is only half the process when it comes to producing great cannabis seeds. The timing/process of pollination is key.

Some breeders, including Antonio, prefer to synchronise pollen release from a male plant kept in the same grow room as several females. Others will collect and freeze pollen, applying it by hand with a brush later. Note that fresh or freezer-stored pollen will eventually become ‘clumpy’ and lose its ability to be brushed easily onto female buds.

With the right males and females gathered for pollination, Antonio explained a little more about the cannabis seed varieties he had worked so hard to create:

Sherbelato Cake (Sherbet x (Gelato x Wedding Cake))

Sherbelato Cake is a feminised photoperiod cross of an award-winning Sherbet mother with Gelato x Wedding Cake. Dutch Passion wanted a premium strength banger with cannabis-cup winning taste, so I went to my star Sherbet mother and crossed her with a glittering Wedding Cake x Gelato frosty hybrid. The terps are richer than the parent strains and we have 20%+ THC levels with heavy yields. It couldn’t have come out any better!

These are feminised cannabis seeds with an 8-to-9-week bloom time and indica-leaning genetics. The buds are compact with a thick trichome coating and a connoisseur terp profile that you don’t always see even on the better-quality commercial strains.

Sherbelato Cake is perfect for growing with the SOG method or for growing naturally. The plants respond well to topping, snapping, bending and other grow techniques.

Sherbelato Cake® Sherbet x (Gelato x Wedding Cake)
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		8-9 weeks
	Hybrid		XXL
	Extremely high

Order Now

Sherbelato Cake® Sherbet x (Gelato x Wedding Cake)
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		8-9 weeks
	Hybrid		XXL
	Extremely high

Order Now

Sherbelato Cake® Sherbet x (Gelato x Wedding Cake)
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		8-9 weeks
	Hybrid		XXL
	Extremely high		Limited Edition

Order Now

Sour Tropicana Sherbet (Sherbet x Sour Tropicana Cookies)

Sour Tropicana Sherbet is a cross between my prized Sherbet mother and Sour Tropicana Cookies. She is a sativa-leaning hybrid sometimes with colourful rose/pink hues thanks to the purple Sour Tropicana Cookies parent genetics.

The additional sativa stretch makes her well suited for LST and HST growing techniques and for growing with the SCROG method. The sativa genetics result in a 9-to-10-week bloom time, and again this is offered as a photoperiod feminised seed variety.

She is easy to grow with buds that are powerful with a creative/energising vibe (not a couch locker!). Expect THC levels around 20- 25% from experienced growers with cannabis cup winning quality in both strength, taste, and appearance.

Sour Tropicana Sherbet® Sherbet x Sour Tropicana Cookies
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		9-10 weeks
	Hybrid		XL
	Very high

Order Now

Sour Tropicana Sherbet® Sherbet x Sour Tropicana Cookies
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		9-10 weeks
	Hybrid		XL
	Very high

Order Now

Sour Tropicana Sherbet® Sherbet x Sour Tropicana Cookies
	Feminised		Indoor
	USA Special		9-10 weeks
	Hybrid		XL
	Very high		Limited Edition

Order Now

Triangle Sherbet Kush

You get a free feminised seed of Triangle Sherbet Kush with both the Sour Tropicana Sherbet and the Sherbelato Cake. The genetics came from crossing Leeroy with Sour Banana Sherbet with two years of subsequent selection to produce a specimen with solid, repeatable 25% THC levels.

When buying the Sherbelato Cake you get an S1 (self-crossed) Triangle Sherbet Kush S1 feminised seed (Sour Banana Sherbet x Leeroy) x (Sour Banana Sherbet x Leeroy).

When buying the Sour Tropicana Sherbet you get a Triangle Sherbet Kush BX1 feminised seed. ‘BX1’ means back-crossed, it was back-crossed with the original Sour Banana Sherbet parent, i.e. (Sour Banana Sherbet) x (Triangle Sherbet Kush = Sour Banana Sherbet x Leeroy).

The goal of the ‘BX1’ variant was to create a Triangle Sherbet Kush that leans a little more towards the original Sour Banana Sherbet parent, making her more sour, fruity and creamy than the S1. Either version assures you some very special new genetics for your grow room and delivers memorable hand-crafted quality levels from some of the best genetics in my collection.

Crossbreeding genetic expression evaluation

Collecting and assembling a fine collection of cannabis cup winning mother plants is one thing. Learning the skills to turn genetics into consistent, stable fine quality cannabis seeds is another. Here are Antonio’s key learnings on this journey in his own words:

Turning the ladies and making feminised cannabis seeds:

- Female plants can be reversed (or turned male) in order to create ‘female’ pollen (i.e. with no male chromosomes). Once a classical female plant has been pollinated with this it produces seeds which only give rise to female plants (so called ‘feminised seeds’).

- Timing of the pollination process, and therefore the availability of ‘female pollen’ from a reversed female, is absolutely crucial. Planning is important to ‘reverse’ the lady in question, so the ‘female pollen’ is ready to be released at the precise moment that the flowering females are fully white haired and in early/middle bloom.

- Once the pollination has succeeded you see the pistils turning orange almost immediately. Usually within 1, to a maximum of 2 days, everything is covered with orange hairs. A sign for breeders that pollination had succeeded.

- Seeds will form then fairly quickly and need at least around 5-6 weeks to mature, preferably 6-7 weeks is the time you should allow for them to ripen fully.

Things that stood out:

- Once the breeding has succeeded, you see a difference in development of the flowers which are now destined to produce seeds rather than sinsemilla.

- The difference between the appearance, the trichome density and aromas can vary once the buds have been pollinated. In some strains the difference between pollinated & un-pollinated bud appearance can be quite distinct. Some, when pollinated, stay as potent and crazy smelling as their un-pollinated versions. Whilst other strains would look and smell like a weaker version of their un-pollinated versions.

- Cannabis seed ripening in various strains can be completely different for each strain and once fully mature the seeds can easily pop/fall out when they are really ripe.

- Both natural pollination and hand pollination turn out fine. If you want to prevent pollen flying around everywhere I can really recommend using a thin pencil brush and pollination by hand, it gives great results as long as the pollen is fresh.

Antonio’s key learnings and breeding insights

Dutch Passion are particularly proud to work with Antonio on his first commercial feminised seed release. His commitment to excellence and passion for cannabis genetics are core-values to Dutch Passion too, making this 4/20 day limited edition seed collaboration a natural and easy choice for both partners.

Two of Antonio’s top-tips may help you elevate the quality of your future crops. Firstly, Antonio believes that a quality LED grow light is now a must-have for any serious home grower seeking to maximise THC as well as terps. Secondly Antonio is a big believer in growing in large, aerated grow sacks (felt bags, airpots or similar using soil/coco) using slow-release organic nutrients.

Slow-release nutrients greatly simplify feeding - for many ‘average’ growers over/under-feeding remains one of the greatest repeat problems. Slow-release nutrients such as those from the market leader BioTabs are especially recommended - even to expert level growers such as Antonio.

Thanks to Antonio for his hard work bringing Sherbelato Cake, Sour Tropicana Sherbet and Triangle Sherbet Kush feminised seeds to Dutch Passion customers! The final words go to Antonio: