Cannabis seeds come in a variety of shapes and sizes. But most healthy seeds feature a consistent tear-drop shape.
Soak the seed in a glass of water at room temperature. Then move it (carefully) into soil pots. The best growing medium for this stage is a high-quality, premium-grade soil mix that has been soaked in water and laced with root stimulator.
Male and Female
As cannabis is a dioecious plant, female plants must be pollinated by male plants to produce seeds. This is why many growers choose feminized seeds.
Feminized seeds are derived from cannabis plants that have been genetically altered to only produce female flowers. This is done by exposing the plant to light at certain times during the dark flowering period or spraying it with Colloidal Silver, among other techniques.
In order to tell if a cannabis seed is male or female, look for pistils growing out of the small buds tucked into the crux of each branch. The pistils will appear wispy and white in color. Male plants produce pollen sacs that look rounded and distinct splits running lengthwise, much like a tiny crab claw.
Checking your cannabis crop to see if it is a male or female is important for a high-quality harvest. Male plants will waste energy producing buds and seeds and can severely limit the yield of a harvested crop.
Feminized
Feminized seeds were developed as a solution to the difficulty growers faced with regular cannabis plants. They have a 99% chance of growing as female plants and eliminate the need to throw out male plants when cultivating.
Feminized cannabis plants can be made by spraying a regular female plant with a chemical that induces hermaphroditism, such as gibberellic acid, to produce pollen that only has female chromosomes. This pollen can then be used to pollinate flowers on another female plant, producing feminized seeds.
Growers who use feminized seeds can expect to have a predominately female crop, which is easier to manage and more likely to produce the highest quality buds. Also, with a female-only harvest, there is less risk of male plants attracting pests and spreading disease to the rest of the crop. This makes feminized seeds a great option for beginner and veteran growers alike. They are also a more cost-effective way to get the same quality of marijuana as regular seeds.
Regular
Unlike feminized cannabis seeds, regular strains are not subject to any kind of genetic manipulation. Therefore, they produce robust descendants that are easy to work with. It’s also possible to clone plants that grow from regular seeds.
Theoretically, a batch of 10 regular seeds should yield a ratio of about 50% females and males. However, this depends on luck and the growing environment.
Regular seeds are perfect for seasoned growers who want to cultivate superior quality weed. These plants are characterized by their unique characteristics, such as flowering time, strength and resistance to pests. Growers can select the best phenotypes to cultivate as mother plants or use them for hybridisation. By doing so, they can create new cultivars with desirable characteristics such as aroma, terpene profile and high THC levels. These cultivars can then be bred with their female counterparts to produce even more excellent marijuana. This is the essence of selective breeding. This process has been practised by humans since the beginnings of agriculture.
Auto-flower
Autoflowering strains are the fastest to reach harvest, with some varieties ready in ten weeks from seed. They are a good choice for new growers who want to cultivate in the spring and aren’t sure how long the growing season will be.
i49’s autoflower strains are a mix of modern cannabis varieties and Ruderalis plants. Ruderalis is a wildflower that grows closer to the north and south poles than cannabis, and its genes give our auto-flowering cultivars a greater resistance to harsher climates as well as common pests and diseases.
Germination of autoflowering seeds occurs much the same as it does for regular or feminized marijuana seeds. Place the seeds on one of the plates in your makeshift germination station, and cover with the second plate. The seeds will sprout and pull their small embryonic leaves (cotyledons) out of the seed shell within a week. They will require less veg nutrients than other cannabis strains, but more bloom nutrients in their flowering phase.