Are fem seeds more stable/similar than regular seeds? I know fem seeds most often have a higher rate for hermies and freaky plants but I am wondering about fem seeds being the same "randomness" compared to the differences that comes from growing regular seeds. For example, I can grow out 20 topbreeder regular seeds and end up with a wide variety of phenos...some bad, some average and maybe a keeper or two. But in regards to fem seeds it is possible that the fem seeds are more "the same"...similar to clones. OTOH is it the better breeders who can develop regular seeds which put out less pheno's and dial in on the best traits of the parents they chose?
I ask these questions because over the years I have spent a lot of money on the high-end/top breeder regular seeds only to find a HUGE difference in pheno types. And I often have a hard time finding real keepers. ( I won't even get into the poor germination rates for now) I do some pollen chucking of my own and IMO I see no difference in top breeder strains compared to my pollen chucked stuff. I don't mind paying top dollar for big-name seeds but in the last 10 years I haven't been impressed with the cannabis seed industry. Thoughts?
BTW I have been growing for 30 years or so and do not consider myself a novice grower.
Well here is another man's opinion on your question.
Good read,
I'de like to take a moment to help clarify some cloudy areas pertaining to Feminized seeds and Hermaphroditism.
First and foremost, many people aren't aware that Hermaphroditism is 100% natural in flowering plants and it's an actual survival adaptation.
Cannabis is a very simple but yet very complex organism. It has many adaptational abilities that help it ensure that it's genetics will prevail, in this aspect it is very simple and similar to all other dioecious plants. The Cannabis plant is a dioecious annual angiosperm. Also known as an annual flowering plant that has either male or female sex parts. Flowering plants have long been the study of amazing survival phenomena. There are many different types of flowering plants most of which are classified into two categories, Bisexual or Unisexual. Almost all Bisexual plants are literally natural Hermaphrodites or Monoclinous. Once classified as either Bisexual or Unisexual there are many other classifications that more specifically describes the sexual situations and genetic tendancies of the species itsself.
Cannabis falls into the Unisexual category. But Cannabis is actually very unique and quite complex in the sexual aspect of plant life. Cannabis is a Dioecious species. However, It also falls into the Subdioecious family. Subdioecious is a tendency in some dioecious plants to produce monoecious variants. The plant in particular would have to normally produce male or female plants but some are hermaphroditic, with female plants producing some male or hermaphroditic flowers or vice versa. The condition is thought to represent a transition between hermaphroditism and dioecy.
Hermaphroditism is a genetic adaptation present in almost all flowering plant life. With regard to Cannabis this is even more evident as every single cannabis plant sustains the ability to turn hermaphroditic in its genes. Regardless of the male/female genetic material inside the seed.
In lamen terms, what this means is that
even with regular Cannabis seeds you can still end up with a hermaphrodite because it's a reserved genetic ability.
However, there is a twist and an actual reason for it. The only way a Cannabis plant will turn hermaphroditic is if it has some type of irregular and/or sudden stressor. This stressor could be anything, from a sudden lack of nutrients all the way to light leaks. Also, different strains and genetic compounds will exhibit different stress level requirements. Meaning some genetics will hermaphrodite a lot easier than others and vice versa.
To achieve feminized seeds you have to create a genetic anomole where the male gene is completely absent but the sexual exchange still occurs... It can be any strain or genetic compound of Cannabis plant because they all contain the hormones and growth response to turn hermaphroditic but it has to be female. In order to trigger that hormone however, what has to happen is the plant must be stressed to the point that it triggers the Hermaphroditic hormonal growth response. There are numerous methods to stress a Cannabis plant to the point that it turns hermaphroditic. The most common method used amoung professional breeders is the use of Collidial Silver chemical hormone compound. Once the hormone has been triggered the plant instinctively begins to produce pollen sacs. These pollen sacs are very unique though because they do not contain any male genes. They are all female genetics. The result of pollenation from female pollen is seeds that have developed in the absence of male genes, a.k.a. feminized seeds.
The myth behind all this is that somehow by doing this it segregates the plants hermaphroditic genes and makes them more prominent. I call it a myth because it is exactly that. There is no scientific evidence that this occurs or that this phenomena even CAN occur. The hermaphroditic ability is determined in the plants genetics from the beginning of it's life as a seed... If the original plant/s genetics are naturally prone to hermaphroditism than ANY seed, feminized or not, is going to exhibit that ability based on that plants genetic tendancies and the stress levels required to trigger the hormonal response specific to that plant. There is no way to change that plants genetic compound or it's hormonal response levels. To achieve something like that would require genetic manipulation. Hermaphrodites are not genetically altered plants. They are 100% natural and carry all the original genetics of the mother plant... A feminized seed will respond the same as a normally bred seed under the same environmental stressors.
My opinion on this is that I have yet to see anyone actually try to prove this by side by side trial. However, I stand a firm ground by the side of the current scientific evidence on the issue. The only seeds I will use are feminized seeds. I wouldn't have it any other way. Throughout my cultivation experience I have indeed had a few hermies that just happened to have been sprouted from feminized seeds. However that doesn't make them any different from the hermies I got from regular seeds. Yes, I have and you can too, get a hermaphrodite from regular seeds.
Before I knew anything about genetics, botany, or feminized seeds I did like everyone else did. Just took seeds from a good bag, germinated them in paper towel, then planted them in the dirt and hoped for the best. Being inexperienced during my beginning years of cultivation my environments were always far from optimal. I had bullchit CFL setups and T5s at the time, scrappy grow boxes that weren't properly sealed off and what not. I was having horrible luck. I had more males than females half the time. And the females I did get were the sorriest excuse for a deficient plant you could imagine. Something striked me as odd one harvest when I noticed two of my ladies had beans in it! I was absolutely POSITIVE I had weeded out all the males. Needless to say I found two hermaphrodites. At the time I didn't know Cannabis plants could do that. That's when I got online and started reading about hermaphroditism. That's right, I learned and experienced my first hermaphrodites from REGULAR Cannabis seeds. I learned as much as I could about the subject after that. I started getting very serious about cultivating. I even took a Botany class to help better my understanding of plant life. Once I learned about feminized seeds, hermaphroditism and everything in between, I went femi and never looked back!
The bottom line is this. Any Cannabis plant can turn hermie. Some strains are more prone to the response than others. We cannot change that response, it is genetic.
Here's a good way to look at it also -
You can start with 10 regular seeds and end up with 10 females. Or you could end up with 10 males. Or you could end up with 9 males and 1 female. Or you can end up with 8 males, 1 hermie and 1 female. Or 9 females and 1 male. Or you could end up with 8 females, 1 hermie and 1 male. Or you could end up with 10 hermies. (LOTS of variables)
Or you can start with 10 feminized seeds and end up with 10 females. Or you could end up with 9 females and 1 hermie. Or you can end up with 8 females, 1 hermie, and uhhh, another female? Or you could end up with 10 hermies... (Only a few variables)
The point is, regardless of the hermaphroditic tendancy, by using feminized seeds you VASTLY increase your chances of a female outcome. Not to mention it can save a LOT of time by cloning those feminized plants. The actual biological proccess of inducing the hermaphroditic hormone, whether it is induced naturally or chemically, is basically an exploit on a natural occurance. But this does not mean that it's not a natural occurance to begin with.
