Regular seed is the best choice for growers and breeders who want to work with a strain’s full genetic lineage. It allows for the discovery of new phenotypes that are not possible with feminized seeds.
Growing regular seeds requires careful inspection of plants during the flowering stage to identify male plants and remove them. This saves time and resources such as water and nutrients that could be wasted on producing male plants.
Breeding
For gardeners who are interested in breeding their own cultivars, regular seeds allow for a much larger number of male and female plants to be produced. This can be important for achieving the desired ratio of plants needed for a specific cross.
When a grower has the ability to work with a large number of phenos, they are able to separate male and female plants early and select for the ones that meet their requirements in terms of height, structure, internodal spacing, aroma, and more. This can save the grower a lot of wasted hydro system space, use of nutrients and growing medium as well as the time and effort of manually sexing 40% of their crop.
The biggest difference between feminized and regular seeds is found within their chromosomes. Feminized seeds only contain female chromosomes (XX) while regular seeds can produce either male or female specimens, or even hermaphrodites. This makes it very difficult to create a pure female plant from a regular seed without the use of artificial methods like stressing.
Cloning
Clones are a great option for new growers or for those who want a specific strain for a particular harvest. However, clones lack variety. If you work with a particular mother plant, the clones will produce phenotypes of that parent, but they won’t be as varied as the thousands of seeds that are available to order from seedbanks online. Additionally, clones will often become male plants (hermaphrodites) and this can put you over legal plant count limits or leave you with fewer female plants than expected.
Finally, clones can be a bit more difficult to work with than seeds, especially when they’re collected from sick or stressed mothers. Clones require the right growing medium and need a constant supply of a balanced nutrient solution for proper root development. They can also be easily exposed to pests and diseases if not handled properly. Fortunately, most of these challenges can be avoided by using healthy mother plants to collect clones.
Genetic Stability
Genetic stability refers to the ability of a virus to maintain its genome over time. It is critical for successful production because it allows for replication without disruption. This is important because any mutations in the viral genome could affect vaccine production and lead to inconsistent results. To minimize genetic instability, vaccine manufacturers must test their master cell banks and extended cell bank stock for stability throughout production.
To test for genetic stability, scientists use random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) or methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) markers to analyze seed germination and seedlings produced from them. This study compared non-stored seeds to seedlings produced from stored rye seeds that had been imbibed for either 35 degC and 15% water content or 29 days under air or vacuum conditions. It was found that RAPD markers were significantly different between the two groups, indicating a change in genetic stability and cytosine methylation. This is likely due to the degradation of seed germination through storage and imbibition.
Price
As a result of the popularity of feminized and autoflower seeds, there are less regular seed growers today. However, regular seeds can still be a great choice for those looking to cultivate quality plants.
Unlike feminized seeds, which guarantee female plants, regular cannabis seeds produce both male and female plants. This means that a grower must identify the sex of each plant prior to flowering in order to remove the male plants. This is a time-consuming process, especially for new growers.
Many growers prefer regular seeds for their potency. They believe that regular strains can be just as potent, if not more, than feminized and autoflowering seeds. Dutch Passion’s collection of regular marijuana seeds includes a wide range of legendary classics from the 1980s and earlier. These are some of the best old school genetics that have never been made into a feminized variety and are available to all growers who choose to try their hand at growing regular cannabis seeds.
