Cross-Cultures, Feminized Seeds and Malformed Buds: What You Need to Know About Regular Seedlings and Feminized Seeds
Regular seeds have endless possibilities for new growers to explore. At first, in the early days of Sensi Seeds and the European cannabis seed market, a normal seed was simply a regular seed. Today, use the word regular to separate the original seeds from feminized cannabis seeds, which are typically feminized but never called regular seeds by any means.
Cultivational differences between normal and feminized seeds are the biggest advantage new breeders have to jump on. A regular seed contains all of its parents characteristics and genetics, which make it immediately recognizable as marijuana. However, it cannot grow beyond the level of mother-to-mother. Feminized seeds, on the other hand, can be multiplied (mastered) by adding additional genes from other sources. This allows new generation strains that have superior attributes to those derived from the regular seed but with the added disadvantage of their origins.
One of the most important disadvantages of feminized seeds is cross-contamination. Cross-pollination is common in conventional growing techniques because one female plant is likely to cross with a male plant from another marijuana plant. Once this happens, the pollen secreted from the mother plant is mixed with the pollen secreted by the father plant. All the offspring plants are, indeed, created equal. This means that each plant is sterile and poses no health risks for the consumer.
Another common disadvantage of cross-pollination is that the amount of active proteins available in the crop can be lower than a pure male marijuana plant. This is because the mother plant will produce more pollen to share with the crop and thus end up containing less protein for the grower’s harvest. The end result is that the overall potency of the cannabis seed is diminished. In addition, males are more prone to disease and lower yields.
Another disadvantage of cross-pollination occurs when the mother’s plants are genetically female and the hybrid offspring are male. This is known as sensor isolation. Once the cannabis seed is sowed into the land and the field is cultivated and made into buds, the male plants within the field may begin to pollinate with the female plants in the greenhouse. The result is that the sensu isolation occurs and in every plant, resulting in an unintended generation of plants with two distinctly different traits.
For growers, there is a third disadvantage that should be considered when choosing to grow feminized seeds. Since these seeds are created with only male plants, they have less possibility of flowering and growing healthy leaves and flowers. The result is that more time is wasted for crop production since the plant will not bloom due to lack of flowers and leaves. The end result is that the more feminized seeds are produced, the lower crop potential for that year.
While many argue that breeding regular cannabis seeds with feminized ones is a competitive threat to the producer, it is not true. It is perfectly legal to do so under certain circumstances. If the farmer has signed a release form, then it can be attempted without fear of legal action. This does not mean that the feminized cannabis seed is defective or less quality than the regular one. The same traits are found in regular seeds, just in a much weaker degree.
With this information in mind, the best solution is to choose an efficient marijuana genetics strain to grow. This will ensure consistent yields and high quality crops each and every time. Growers that are looking for a highly productive crop should consider hybrid varieties of cannabis seeds strains as well as feminized strains when growing their crop.