Regular Seed to Feminize or Hybrid Flowers?
When you come here asking yourselves, should I get feminized or regular seed, let us firstly learn what these terms actually mean and what all the differences are between them. Regular seeds are the female counterpart of the male marijuana plant, which contains only one set of chromosomes (sex chromosome) as opposed to the woman’s normal two sets of chromosomes. As compared to marijuana plants, the cannabis plant contains only one set of chromosomes (the sex chromosome) and hence cannot grow feminized.
For those of you who don’t know, feminized or regular seed is a plant that has been altered in some way for the purpose of making it more suitable for growing outdoors. This is where feminization can take place. Normally, seeds are normally grown in pots indoors and then just kept in dark rooms in order to ‘deliver’ their dormant characteristics. After a few months when the plant starts to bloom and grows a little bit more, it is removed from the pot and placed into the light cycle, which is critical for all budding plants. The cycle just kills the plant and a new one grows in its place.
The reason why feminized seed is more potent and better than regular seed is because during the light cycle, the plant is subjected to a greater amount of energy and therefore, the potency increases manifold. This is because during the light cycle, the plant’s metabolism also speed-up and the plant is ready to flower. In addition, the plant is also deprived of the male hormone, thereby ensuring that the flowering of the plant happens sooner. These facts ensure that feminized seeds are much more potent than regular seeds and thus should be used whenever possible.
So, why would someone want to go through all that trouble just to grow feminized plants? Well, most people do not have the time or energy to nurture a regular seed crop. For instance, if you wanted to grow a medicinal marijuana crop, you would need to have at least four different strains (well over a dozen, if you wanted that much), and if you wanted to grow a super-sized super-weed (I have heard of some plants reaching 100 feet tall) you would need to have more than nine different strains! And that’s just the beginning; when you think about breeding, it becomes exponentially harder.
A lot of people choose to start feminizing their plants when they want to cross-pollinate. Cross-pollination is essential for plants to produce healthy and/or disease-free seeds – so if you wanted to make some super-grow cannabis, you would have to start cross-pollinating your female plants right away. Why? Well, the male plants are genetically inclined to produce regular strains of cannabis, and if you cross-pollinate them with the females, they will produce regular strains of cannabis. The problem is, it’s very difficult to find seeds that are specific to a certain strain, and it’s very easy to get caught up in the feminization process, buying a whole bunch of seeds, planting them in your garden, then trying to take care of them like your typical plants. Plus, you might not actually end up growing anything worth smoking.
Another reason why people choose to feminize their plants before choosing to harvest them is because it makes it much easier to control the environment in which they grow. With traditional, seeds-only gardening, you are forced to deal with whatever Mother Nature decides to provide. If she’s got her way, your crops will grow a certain way, but if she doesn’t, you’ll be forced to change your plan. If you choose to grow with seeds, however, you can make adjustments as little as possible, and you always know exactly what kind of crops you’re getting.
One other advantage of growing using regular seeds is that it actually minimizes your chances of suffering from insect infestations, like some insects do. Since the seeds are usually all female, they don’t create any male insects to eat them, so if an insect decides to attack a plant, it will usually go after the female plants first, leaving the male-only ones alone. Some insects may do this naturally, but it’s very rare. This is one reason why a lot of growers choose to keep their plants completely infested to minimize problems with bugs.
Now that we’ve gone over the advantages of breeding and feminizing, it’s time to talk about the disadvantages. One major disadvantage of using seeds is that it can be expensive. You have to purchase the seeds, purchase a greenhouse, get some pots and keep the plants in there. Of course, once you’ve started selling the product, these costs start to add up very fast! Fortunately, though, you don’t really need to spend much money to begin earning money with this product, since it can be inexpensive to buy feminized strains and then just keep breeding and selling them to make money.