Growing marijuana requires proper planning. Seeds are an essential part of this process and they come in several varieties including feminized, autoflowering, and regular.
While many growers opt for feminized seeds due to no wasted time sexing out male plants, regular seeds offer some unique advantages. Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of using regular seed.
Stable Genetics
Stable seeds come from strains that have been bred over multiple generations through a process known as plant breeding. This involves crossing and backcrossing plants to impart desired characteristics into future generations. The process is time consuming and requires the grower to have the patience, money, and resources to breed over twelve generations of plants to create stable seed.
Regular seeds produce male plants by up to 50%, which growers must weed out of their crop. This can be costly and time consuming, especially in large grows. Additionally, if the male plants are not removed from the grow, they will pollinate the females and lower yields.
Feminized seeds eliminate this problem by producing female plants 99.9% of the time, which means that growers can expect high yields without having to weed out any male plants. This is why feminized seeds have become so popular among growers.
Cost Effective
Traditionally, the seed industry has tested varieties for yield, germination, cold tolerance, vigor, lodging and shattering resistance, nutritional value, disease resistance and other qualities. These tests can provide growers with valuable information, allowing them to choose a variety that meets their growing needs.
Regular seeds are a popular choice for breeders because they produce 50% male plants, which are important for back crossing and creating new cultivars. Feminized seeds, on the other hand, are created using hermaphrodite plants and therefore have a higher chance of becoming hermaphrodite themselves under stress.
The genetics in feminized seeds cost more than those of regular seed because they are harder to produce and require more work for the grower. However, sexing out the male plants can save the grower from wasting space and water on non-producing plants. Growing a pack of regular seeds for breeding and experimenting will cost the grower less than a pack of feminized or autoflowering seeds, making them a good value in most cases.
Unaltered Genetics
The biggest reason why regular seed is still popular among growers is its unaltered genetics. Unlike feminized seeds that have been engineered to produce only female plants, regular seeds produce both male and female cannabis plants. It is this natural proportion that allows breeders to create new strains.
Growing a cannabis strain that produces your favourite terpenes, effects, or colours is made easy with regular seeds. Growers can plant regular seeds close together and let the males pollinate the females, ensuring that they will receive a consistent supply of seeds.
Regular seeds also make it easy for growers to experiment with cross breeding. This is an ideal way to find the perfect cultivar for your needs and to create a completely unique strain of their own. Using regular seeds will help to conserve space and reduce the amount of nutrients, light and growing medium that is wasted when sexing cannabis plants.
Variety
Regular seeds grow into male or female plants and are ideal for those who want to cultivate a range of strains that differ in flavour, aroma, THC and CBD levels. These varieties are also good for breeding purposes as they have a 50/50 ratio of male to female plants, making it easy to isolate and produce a crop of female colas that will be used for seed production.
If you’re an experienced gardener then regular seed is a great choice for you to grow your own strains of cannabis. By separating the males from the females early into flowering you can collect a batch of fresh seeds for next season.
You should always ensure that you don’t use any company names in the variety name as this could cause confusion with other companies that are marketing seed that already has a legal, registered name for the same type of variety. This is illegal under the Federal Seed Act and can lead to a fine for violating the law.