If you are looking to grow cannabis and breed cultivars, regular seed is your best choice. Unlike feminized seeds, they will produce both male and female plants.
Regular seeds operate exactly how nature intended and allow you to create new cultivars or superior clones. Keep reading to learn more about the advantages of growing regular seeds.
Genetic Stability
As with cell banks, viral seed should be extensively characterized to demonstrate genotypic and phenotypic stability throughout isolation, passage and production. This should include a detailed characterization of the donor screening and testing, as well as a description of any manipulations (e.g. cold-adaptation, development of temperature sensitivity or attenuation of virulence) that may have been performed.
Breeding stable parents produces offspring with a predictable ratio of desirable to undesirable traits, following Mendelian inheritance. This process takes several generations, after which the desired traits will become dominant and recombine in offspring over time.
Most regular seeds grow on a photoperiod schedule, meaning they shift from vegetative to flowering in response to the amount of daylight hours they receive. However, some strains are feminized autoflowering varieties that continue to progress through the growing process regardless of the light hours they receive. This allows them to avoid the need for a short shift in light, and they’re becoming increasingly popular amongst growers.
Breeding Potential
Unlike feminized seeds, which are guaranteed to produce only female plants for flower production, regular cannabis seeds will produce both male and female specimens. This is a great thing for breeders, who can select the best female plants to become mothers and produce superior-quality clones.
Because male plants can pollinate their sisters and reduce yield, it is crucial to identify and remove any that emerge. This requires careful observation and can be time-consuming. However, with the proper care and attention, it is possible to achieve a 50% female/male ratio from a batch of 10 seeds or more.
The ability to breed also means that growers can experiment with the strain’s genetics and discover new phenotypes not available in feminized seeds. This can lead to unique and delicious cultivars. The potential for phenotype variation is another reason that many experienced growers prefer regular seed over feminized. It’s a fun and rewarding way to explore and develop the perfect cannabis strain for you.
Flowering Time
Many of our regular cannabis strains are incredibly fast to flower, with most taking around 9 weeks or less from seed to harvest under optimised conditions. This is ideal for growers that prefer a quicker harvest, or for those wanting to take advantage of the heavy yields of these photoperiod strains.
Flowering time depends on a complex network of factors including light, circadian clock and temperature. Genes such as PHYA, GI and CO have also been identified as controlling flowering in model species.
Royal Queen Seeds are proud to stock a huge collection of classic regular cannabis seeds. These include Critical, a fast-flowering indica that is perfect for beginners, or breeders looking to incorporate this solid indica into their breeding projects. We also offer AK-47, a true legend that has won multiple Cannabis Cup awards around the world and earned itself a place in the hearts of stoners everywhere. This potent THC-heavy strain takes between 10-12 weeks to complete flower and is sure to satisfy even the most demanding smokers.
Price
Regular seeds are relatively inexpensive which makes them the most affordable seed category in our collection. Since these seeds have a 50/50 chance of emerging as male or female, they are ideal for growers that like to breed their own strains.
This is because growers can use their male plants to pollinate their female cannabis plant and create new smokable buds and seeds for the next harvest. For those that enjoy making their own genetic crosses, this is an important part of the growing process as it allows them to make a large quantity of smokable buds in a small amount of time.
Despite the fact that feminized seeds have taken over a lot of the market, our regular seed collection is still very popular for experienced growers who prefer to work with the classic genetics that were so prevalent in cannabis cultivation before feminised seeds were introduced. We feature a vast selection of these seeds from expert breeders such as Dutch Passion, Dinafem and DNA Genetics.
