Regular seeds are non-feminized cannabis seeds. They are usually a bit more expensive than feminized seed varieties but offer several advantages over them.
These seeds have a natural ratio of female and male plants that make breeding easy. This makes them perfect for growers who want to experiment with breeding and create new strains.
Stable Genetics
Stable genetics are a crucial part of ensuring that plants grow consistently from one generation to the next. This process is called plant breeding, and it takes a lot of time and capital to get it right.
When you breed strains together, you choose traits you want in your new plant, and impart those characteristics into the offspring over several generations. Desirable traits become dominant, whereas undesirable ones are gradually eliminated from the gene pool over time.
If you are breeding a strain with unstable parent stock, it is important to backcross your seed. This technique can speed up the stabilization process and reinforce preferred dominant characteristics.
Despite the difficulty in breeding stable seed, it is worth the effort for the benefits you’ll enjoy from them. You’ll have a better chance of developing new strains with consistent results and a reliable yield performance.
Better Yields
There are a lot of things to look out for when deciding which seed type is right for you. But perhaps one of the most important is the yield.
If you are looking for a strain that can produce a huge crop, regular seeds may be the way to go. These strains are known for being highly potent and can be harvested within ten weeks of flowering.
Another reason why regular seeds are preferable to feminized ones is because they are more stable when cloned. This makes them a better choice for beginners who are hoping to take clones from quality mothers.
Less Risk of Sexing Males
If you are a small-scale grower, or have an indoor operation with a strict number of plants allowed to thrive, a good quality feminized seed is an excellent investment. You can get a nice yield without having to worry about 40% of your plants going to waste due to male pollination.
One of the most interesting aspects of a male-female hybrid is that it’s often difficult to tell when you have a true male plant in your crop. The best way to identify this is by spotting the pre-flowers which are typically tiny and are easily overlooked during a busy growing season. The other trick is to remove these males from your crop as quickly as possible. This won’t just save you money on seed costs, but it will also protect your female plants from being fertilised by stray males that may be lurking around. The best part is that it will also save you time and hassles in the long run.
Less Expensive
If you’re looking for seed that’s less expensive, consider heirloom seeds. Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated and usually less expensive than hybrids, which are the result of carefully controlled plant breeding.
Heirlooms are also easier to save from the plants themselves and offer a good chance of producing true-to-type plants. Moreover, growing heirlooms helps preserve genetic diversity in a way that may be difficult or impossible to do with new hybrids.
However, if you’re not interested in saving seed, there are other types of seed available, including hybrids and feminized cannabis seeds. Hybrids are usually more expensive because they require additional breeding work to produce, but they often offer unique characteristics such as disease resistance or specific cultural traits that make them well suited for certain locations. Feminized seeds, on the other hand, are ideal for growers who prefer a cannabinoid-rich, bud-producing crop. This makes them an excellent choice for outdoor or indoor operations that are capped at a specific number of plants.
