Regular seeds produce both male and female plants, making them more natural and sustainable than feminized seeds. They’re an excellent choice for growers and breeders looking to cultivate their own strains.
Regular seeds are also less susceptible to hermaphroditism, stress, pest problems and weather fluctuations than feminized seed. They’re also the preferred seed for those who want to take cuttings or clones from their plants.
Stable Genetics
Creating a stable seed strain takes time, patience and a lot of capital. Breeders have to carefully select a mother plant that has all the desired characteristics and backcross her for multiple generations in order to impart those traits into new plants.
This is a time consuming process, but it allows breeders to produce plants that are almost guaranteed to exhibit the sought after phenotypes they are working so hard to create. This can give growers a great sense of security that they will get exactly what they want, every harvest.
This stability also makes it easier for breeders to keep mother plants from which they can take cuttings/clones and repeat the process over again. This can save a lot of time and money and is something that many growers find invaluable. Especially those who have their own breeding program they are working on and would like to ensure they can replicate the same results each time.
Unaltered Plants
Whether you’re interested in preserving traditional strains or want to experiment with crossbreeding, regular seeds provide the most natural offspring. This means that there’s a good chance that you will produce hermaphrodite plants (plants that possess both male and female reproductive organs), although the likelihood of this can be significantly reduced by carefully monitoring the plant.
Moreover, hermaphrodites are often stronger and more resilient than feminized plants, meaning that they can withstand a wide range of environmental conditions. This makes them a great choice for small-scale indoor growers or those who are legally capped at a limited number of plants.
For experienced growers, regular seeds can yield a huge harvest of high-quality buds. They require a Mediterranean climate and take ten weeks to reach maturity in September. The only drawback is that you will need to cull a number of male plants, which will reduce the overall yield. But, you’ll also avoid wasting growing medium and nutrients.
Less Expensive
If you’re a grower, it all comes down to the type of plant you choose for your next crop. Choosing between autoflower, feminized or regular seed all depends on your growth expectations, space limitations and personal opinion of quality.
Feminized seeds are significantly more expensive than regular cannabis seeds. This is due to the extra effort that goes into making feminized plants. Feminized plants are nearly guaranteed to produce smokable buds so it’s worth the extra cost for most growers.
Growers that go with regular seed, on the other hand, will have to work hard to produce a harvest from half of their seeds. This will involve weeding out male plants, something that’s not necessary when you grow feminized seed or use an automated system. Male plants are useful to breeders though because they produce pollen that can be used to create new strains of cannabis. This process is called crossbreeding and can be very effective in producing unique cultivars that offer specific terpenes and potency levels.
More Versatile
Regular seed is the most versatile of the three main types of marijuana seeds, giving growers plenty of options. They can breed plants that produce the terpenes they want and highs they enjoy, creating a strain that is all their own.
Moreover, growing regular seeds allows for the cultivation of classic cultivars that never made it to feminized form and have been lost to history. Cultivating these gems is a great way for growers to step up their cultivation game and learn from old-school phenotypes that offer exceptional stability and potency.
Whether you’re looking for extreme potency, specific terpene profiles, or beautiful colors, regular seeds will let you achieve your vision. Then, once you find a specimen you love, you can clone it to replicate its unique traits. This is a simple yet gratifying way to advance your cultivating skills and produce a variety of high-quality buds for your own enjoyment.
