When it comes to buying cannabis seeds, you might well be faced with choices such as autoflower, feminized, as well as regular. Autoflowering seeds ensure consistent growth without the need for light scheduling. Feminized seeds ensure that no room or time is lost sexing out males. For reproduction, developing, and providing rigorous development, photoperiod or regular cannabis seeds are the best.

This is, however, far too much technological jargon. Each farmer has an opinion on which seed is perfect, and it all boils down to growth goals, space constraints, including personal preference.

We also need to consider the essential differences between males and females before we can compare feminized seeds to normal or auto-flowering seeds. Female, male, or asexual cannabis plants exist. Pollen sacks grow on male plants, mostly during the flowering stage.

Female plants produce pre-flowers, also known as pistils, which capture pollen and turn it into seeds. Anything after that is pretty easy. The male plant fertilizes the female plant, resulting in seed production.

Hermaphroditic plants also have pollen sacks as well as pistils, making them a problem for farmers. Whenever a marijuana plant is stressed, for example, by extreme weather conditions or abrupt lighting changes, its protective instinct kicks in. In these circumstances, this plant recognizes no chance of fertilization relatively soon, so it turns to a process known as dichogamy.

In plant biology, dichogamy, also known as simultaneous hermaphroditism, refers to the female plant’s development of pollen sacks of self-pollination to ensure the survival of its chromosomes. There have also been instances where males have developed pistols, but this is extremely rare.

What Are Feminized Seeds?

Throughout the early days of feminization, feminized seeds also made a lot of progress. It all boils down to the fact that feminized seeds lack male chromosomes. This ensures that any plant born from even a feminized seed bears female flowers.

If the pollen you are using to fertilize a female seed arises from either a female plant, you get feminized cannabis seeds. So you mix the chromosomes of 2 female plants, resulting in just female offspring. You’ll have to get the feminized cannabis plant that will grow male flowers in order to have this feminine pollen. There are two approaches to this:

1. Using colloidal silver to treat the female cannabis plant
2. By purposely causing stress to the plant

The chances of the seeds being hermaphroditic are slim while colloidal silver is used. This one is due to the fact that perhaps the female who created the pollen has very few genetic factors to be a hermaphrodite.

A silver ion prevents the development of ethane, which is required by the plant to grow female flowers when female plants are given small traces of colloidal silver. Those female plants are forced to develop male pollen sacs as a result of this. Pollen reproduces female plants, which develop feminized seeds as a result of this fertilization.

How Is Feminized Genetics Made?

Feminized genetics is created by simply crossing two females. To compel female plants to make pollen, growers use two different methods. They fertilize another female plant, resulting in a lifetime of feminized seeds from its flowers.

We understand what you might be thinking: how could a female plant develop pollen sacs out of nowhere?! There are two options for accomplishing this. Growers can cause female plants to develop pollen sacs by preventing the development of ethylene amounts in plant cells. This system can be catalyzed with a mixture of different agents, the strongest of which is colloidal silver.

The second approach relies on mother nature’s strong ability to reproduce. When female cannabis plants go unfertilized, they will take the matter into their own side. They will periodically switch sexes in an effort to fertilize themselves. They contain strange-looking mucus stages known as “bananas” verbosely.  A “female pollen” is collected by farmers and used to grow and harvest female flowers in order to grow feminized seeds.

When should you choose feminized seeds?

Male plants aren’t necessarily a must-have if a farmer is breeding cannabis strains. They simply take up too much space, but if they go unnoticed, they can fertilise female flowers, resulting in seeded buds. Since feminized seeds are hundred percent female, most farmers prefer them. Therefore it is quite important to know how to choose Cannabis seeds, considering factors such as strain, gender of the plant, flowering duration, difficulty of growth, height of the plant, potential harvest and so on.

There is also no need to spend time mostly during the flowering cycle, carefully checking the plant’s gender. You sow the seeds, care for the plant, and reap the benefits of sweet, flavorful buds.

If you want assured females but don’t want to make new seeds nor clones, feminized seeds seem to be the way to go. Not any more sexing, allowing you to make optimal use of the rising space without any of the pain of praying and hoping of females and literally germinating the seeds you want.

Advantages of Feminized Cannabis Seeds

• The use of feminized seeds guarantees that just female plants grow in your greenhouse, allowing for quick and easy cannabis growth. It avoids the needless effort of replanting and preserving male plants, which must be eliminated eventually.
• Feminized seeds ensure that each and every plant produces cannabis by ensuring that only female plants become produced. This results in increased yield since the largest impact space is often used efficiently by preventing the formation of male cannabis plants.
• When it comes to making mother plants, feminized seeds are just as successful as regular seeds. Furthermore, even though manufacturing is done on a wide scale, the goods are standardized.
• The number of hermaphroditic plants produced by feminized seeds could be used to enhance the outcome of the seeds. Hermaphrodites are now almost completely absent in feminized seeds from either a respectable breeder.

Disadvantages of Feminized Cannabis Seeds

• They’re not suitable for breeding.
• Owing to bad genes or environmental factors, some people develop hermaphrodites.
• Produce clones that are less active

What are regular seeds?

Male marijuana seeds, contrary to popular belief, are not widely available. Though we do produce feminized seeds, “masculine ” seeds tend to be of little concern. Regular seeds are seeds that have a 50 % chance of becoming male or female.

The Kempsey of female cannabis plants develops regular seeds whenever a male cannabis plant reproduces a female cannabis plant. They behave just as they do in existence, with no need for human interference.

Regular seeds have the advantage of allowing you to harvest seeds for potential use if you ever need a male to fertilize the female plants. Mostly on the downside, you’ll need to germinate a double amount of plants to ensure that after the males are removed, you’ll have enough females to adequately balance out the growing room and achieve the desired production.

How Is Regular Genetics Made?

Regular genetics are totally natural. They are also the product of how cannabis originated in existence. There is no messing or adjusting involved.

Breeder regular genetics reach all of the histories long to outcross ancestors found throughout the world, from both the peaks of India to either the coasts of Jamaica.

Farmers, however, have produced regular variants by mixing the chromosomes of two distinct subspecies. This ends in a progeny which reflects the characteristics of both parent strains.

When should you choose regular seeds?

For a variety of purposes, many experienced growers tend to grow regular seeds. First, females derived from regular seeds are best suited to serve as cloning mother plants. Some people believe that regular seeds produce better buds, but this is a point of contention.

Second, instead of using “feminized” pollen for seed production, farmers will use a specific male to fertilize a female to produce powerful crosses or fantastic hybrids.

Third, if you’d like to take your gardening activity to another level by breeding your own seeds, you’ll require males to do so.

Advantages of Regular Cannabis Seeds

• They are also the originals, and many people believe that genetics are purer.
• All males and females emerge, making it simple to produce new seeds.
• Through their processing, they don’t really require the use of chemical agents.
• Compared to others, they are much more successful as mother plants in supporting clones.

Disadvantages of Regular Cannabis Seeds

• Most growers aren’t interested in males.

What Are Autoflowering Seeds?

Ruderalis seeds, also known as auto-flowering seeds, come from the wilds of the world’s northern climes, typically over 50 degrees near the equator. The Ruderalis community is best known for its ability to self-flower. This indicates that they just do not depend on respiration to develop.

Just about all plant species receive the signal to replicate when the amount of hours of sunlight varies seasonally in their environment. It was given the name auto-flowering because of its power to initiate flowering due to changes in the life cycle of plants instead of the climate.

Autoflowering varieties are generally small and grow fast. They just have a few branches and develop extremely small leaves. Within only ten weeks, they also go through a life span, from seed to seed generation.

How Is Autoflowering Genetics Made?

Cannabis auto-flowering genetics, the different species, which includes the auto-flowering trait, are used by purebreds to produce auto-flowering seeds.

Cannabis ruderalis is modified to suit East Europe, Belarus, and the National capital of Asia’s short growth seasons as well as extremely cold climates. The subspecies were forced to bloom by themselves due to its shorter summer in such areas.

Ruderalis doesn’t really have time for nonsense. Even before the short summer finally ends and even the cold weather of winter grasps the ground, such plants must reproduce. Rather than a shift in exposure to light, they gained the ability to bloom depending on the time and age.

Indica as well as Sativa subspecies, on the other hand, are photoperiod types. Flowering is triggered by shorter light periods, which is an environmental warning signifying the impending arrival of autumn and cooler days.

Pure ruderalis plants are hardly ever cultivated. They’re thin, shrubby, have a lower THC content, and generate low yields. For farmers, however, they are worth their weight in gold. They use all these plants to add the auto-flowering feature to the good photoperiod varieties.

Why should you choose auto-flowering seeds?

Growing an auto-flowering plant has numerous advantages. One of them would be that they need very little upkeep. This function appeals to beginner growers because they do not need the grower to change the lighting cycle to initiate the flowering process.

Another advantage is the short flowering period, which enables the farmers to harvest several times in a single season.

This is particularly useful if you only have a small amount of time or need to get cannabis as early as possible. Also, when planting inside a small tent or cabinet closet, you could still get a good harvest of nice quality buds because the plants grow thick yet small.

A shortened flowering period, on the other hand, implies a lower yield. They’re even less suited to cloning. That’s because, regardless of the size or growth, the slicing maintains the same biological cycle as the mother then enters the flowering stage. This typically results in relatively small, undeveloped plants which produce a low yield for auto-flowering strains.

Advantages of Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds

• Autoflowering seeds produce low-growing, low-maintenance plants, making them perfect for farmers working in much less climatic conditions, with space limitations, or even for legal growing with a growth parameters cap.
• Autoflowering seeds allow for the production of incredibly fast, simple-to-grow cannabis plants with better heat tolerance. Autoflowering cannabis seed also resulted in earlier harvests, with some people reporting two harvests from one season!
• Since these seeds are hardy and resistant to fungus, bugs, including frost, they could be grown basically anywhere for the majority of the year because often it doesn’t get too cold. This guarantees a consistent, appropriate crop each time.
• Although THC levels in autoflower plants are low, CBD rates are rising, which makes it a great choice for medical users. CBD reduces the potency and mildness of marijuana’s toxicity, effectively removing THC’s addictive effects.

Disadvantages of Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds

• Decreased output
• THC levels are lower
• Cloning is difficult.

Final Thoughts

What does make a grower prefer auto-flower over feminized or regular seeds? It’s usually a combination of growing experience, the main harvest target, as well as space and time restrictions.

Consider autoflower strains if you’re a newbie grower and have limited grow space. Feminized is a good option for larger operations that want to market their crop production but need to adhere to a fixed plant count. Lastly, those who want a more conventional solution and have plenty of room would most definitely stick to standard photoperiod seeds.

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