If you’re a grower looking to expand your genetic options, regular seed is an excellent choice. Although often overlooked by modern growers, regular seeds can offer many unique phenotypes that are impossible to replicate with feminized seeds.
Regular seeds work just how nature intended, with a 50% chance of emerging as either male or female plants. They are also less prone to hermaphroditism caused by stress from techniques like topping, fimming, and lollypopping.
Cost
Regular seed is essential for breeding cannabis, preserving genetic stability and opening the door to new strains and combinations of genotypes. This process also enables phenotype variation, allowing growers to cultivate plants with distinct flavors, aromas, and effects.
The cost of regular seed is determined by its seed quality, which varies between different breeders and seed banks. Often, higher-quality seeds have more desirable traits and are more expensive than lower-quality seeds. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the best seeds are always the most expensive.
Growing a crop with regular seeds requires the grower to sex each plant during the growing phase and remove any male plants before they produce pollen. This can be a time-consuming process, but it is essential for successful cultivation. Having a predominately female crop is easier to manage and improves the yield and quality of the buds. A predominantly female crop will also reduce the risk of hermaphrodite plants, which can ruin the entire harvest.
Genetics
Regular seeds are a great option for first-time growers as they do not produce hermaphrodite plants. They are also less prone to stress during the growing process. The plant will also be stronger and more resilient. Additionally, you can avoid the risk of wasting space and nutrient resources in your growing area by removing hermaphrodite plants early on.
Genetic factors with direct effects on seed size are likely to contribute to natural variation in these traits, but it is not clear how these genes interact with other determinants of seed quality. To better understand this interaction, we performed a QTL mapping analysis with multiple parents. This approach revealed that QTL for seed size and seed number do not overlap and are distinct.
For growers, regular seed offers the opportunity to work on breeding projects and cultivate a wide range of potent strains with unique terpene profiles. This type of seed is especially useful for those who want to develop their own strains and cultivate cuttings.
Pollination
A plant produces seeds for future generations by transferring the genetic information in the flower’s pollen to another flower of the same species. This process is called cross-pollination. Whether this process is successful depends on the ability of a flower to attract animals that transfer pollen from one flower to another. These animals are referred to as “pollinators.”
In a successful cross-pollination, a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell in the flower’s ovule. This process is also known as double fertilization. The resulting seed combines the hereditary characteristics of both parent flowers and produces offspring with new, unique traits that are better adapted to the environment in which the plant grows.
In order to facilitate pollination, flowers have male and female reproductive organs and produce a sticky substance that helps the pollen to adhere to animal fur or feathers. Flowers can also be shaped to attract specific types of pollinators, such as bumble bees for birch or hummingbirds for conifers. In addition, some plants are wind-pollinated.
Yield
The yield of regular seed is determined by the proportion of male to female plants that sprout. This ratio varies from batch to batch, but on average it is 50/50. As a result, you can expect an ideal yield when growing these seeds, provided that you remove the male plants before they produce pollen.
If you do not eliminate male plants before they pollinate, you will end up with far lower yields. This is because the male plants will consume all of your plants’ resources and energy, leaving them with little to no energy left for producing buds.
Despite the challenge of identifying and removing male plants, growers and breeders enjoy working with regular cannabis seeds. This is because they offer the potential for phenotype variation, and they preserve genetic stability. This is vital for breeders who are looking to develop new strains. These stable genetics also ensure that the desirable traits are passed on to subsequent generations of offspring.
