Regular seed plants endure a minimum of genetic tampering, making them the preferred choice for many growers. They’re recommended for beginner cultivators to gain a full understanding of the cultivation process and plant health.
Growing regular seeds will produce a 50-50 mix of male and female plants. The female colas can be used for breeding purposes to create new strains.
Breeding
While many growers only want female plants, breeders need to have both male and female flowers in order to produce new seeds. This process is called pollination and it is what allows for the creation of new varieties. Feminized seeds can’t be pollinated, so they are not suitable for breeding. This is a problem because it could discourage breeding among growers and make it more difficult to bring new strains to market.
Regular seeds also allow for cloning, which is the process of creating an exact genetic copy of a specimen. This is useful for growers who are after a specific trait such as a certain terpene profile or a particular colour.
Breeding is a crucial part of the cannabis industry and it requires a large amount of time and effort. As a result, the breeding process is becoming more and more specialized and focused on producing a limited number of varieties that can be easily reproduced.
Cloning
Cloning is a method of reproduction used by plants, fungi and bacteria. It involves inserting DNA from one organism into the genetic material of another organism, such as a virus, bacteria or plasmid. The inserted DNA is then replicated in the host organism, creating many copies of the original gene.
Plant cloning is often done by growing cells from actively dividing parts of the plant, called meristems, in liquid culture. This allows scientists to grow many identical cells in a short period of time. Then the cells can be matured in solid culture medium, allowing them to grow into whole plants.
Cloning is a controversial technique because some people feel it treats animals as commodities rather than sentient beings. They argue that cloning can result in higher levels of animal suffering than standard breeding methods, due to surgery required to obtain oocytes or embryos, pregnancy losses, sickness and death in newborns and distress from disease in the animals produced as disease models.
Genetics
Production of high quality seed is an important part of modern plant breeding programs. It is a complex process that requires high technical skills and a heavy financial investment. Seed producers must ensure that their seed is free from disease and other factors that affect varietal deterioration.
Genetics is one of the central pillars of biology and it plays an essential role in many other disciplines, such as agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology. The study of heredity and genes has been of great interest to humankind for thousands of years, as evidenced by a Babylonian tablet dating back 6,000 years that lists pedigrees of horses and old carvings showing cross-pollination of date palm trees.
Variations in the timing of reproductive phenology can influence the genetic diversity present in seed orchards. A short pollination season promotes exchange of clonal genes but can also reduce heterozygosity. The results of an accelerated-aging test conducted on Douglas-fir families indicate that the rate of varietal deterioration is determined by the underlying genetics of the seed lot.
Yield
Whether you want to create your own unique strains or simply enjoy the fruit of your labour then working with regular seeds is a great choice. As the name suggests they contain male and female plants, so growers will need to take the time to sex them well before flowering in order to get a full harvest of pure smokable buds. This process can be impractical for growers with limited hydro system space or those who are legally capped to a strict number of plants.
Regular seeds also run the risk of producing hermaphrodite plants, whereas feminized seeds will only produce weed that is 100% female. This means you’ll need to be very careful about stressing your cannabis plants with techniques like topping, fimming and lollypopping as these could lead them to becoming hermaphrodites. This is one of the key reasons that many growers choose feminized seeds. They provide consistency and better yields from their crops.