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With medical marijuana laws in 23 states and legalization in four, cannabis cultivation is popping off. Many amateurs report losing time and money upon the first major snag in the process: sexing the plants.
Few grasp the plant comes in male and female forms. Male pollen ruins the potency of unfertilized female flower buds (sensimilla). Normally, germinating marijuana seeds and sexing saplings is a matter of luck, but breeders are increasingly offering seeds that take luck out of the equation.
Expert cultivator and author Jorge Cervantes writes, “To the best of my knowledge there is no way to distinguish male from female seeds.”
You plant ten and hope maybe five are female, then kill the males. When 8 or all 10 are males, in a $100 ten-pack — you can see why gardeners are reaching for sure-shot, “feminized” seeds.
“Feminized” seeds only flower female, and come from a process that alters normal seed development. Dutch Passion Seeds’ owner, Henk, popularized feminized seeds in the late 1990s, Cervantes states.
Some of the best breeders in the world offer feminized lines and more join them every day. They’re big in Europe, representing over 90% of sales in some countries, states Green House seeds.
Feminized genetics are ideal for quick and easy growing and flowering, Sensi Seeds writes. “With feminized seeds, gardeners decide how many bushes they want, germinate that number of seeds, then simply grow, flower and reap their rewards.”
Breeders make feminized seeds by stressing a female plant into growing male sex features like pollen, and then using this pollen to fertilize another female. The resulting seeds lack male chromosomes.
Stressing products in use include eliteXelite, the hormone giberillic acid, or the more popular silver thiosulfate solution, Cervantes said.
There is little difference in aroma, flavor, and THC levels between a regular and ‘fem’ variety, High Times reports. But feminized seeds got a bad reputation due to early efforts with plants that had high hermaphroditic tendencies.
“The problem with this method is that subsequent generations will have the same latent intersex tendencies. Stress also brings on inter¬sex tendencies earlier,” said Cervantes.
Modern techniques coax pollen from highly unhermaphroditic strains, but they’re still not the best mothers.
Hard core growers turn their nose up at feminized seeds, Cannabis Culture writes, and prefer mother plants and clones. But outside The Netherlands and North America (where shipping seeds breaks federal law) cloning isn’t as popular.
Feminized seeds are great for growers without access to clean clones, or for demoing an exotic strain you can’t get in clone form locally, or for folks that don’t want to clone their own — especially newcomers, and guerrilla growers.
“More people are trying their hand at gardening than ever,” said Cervantes. “It’s unbelievable now — it really is.”
Here’s some of our favorite fem seeds out there:
High-Supplies: Amnesia Feminized; Afghan Outdoor Feminized; Ice Feminized; Chrystal Feminized
Old School Breeders Association: Feminized Purple Kush; Feminized Nevil’s Haze; Feminized BC Mango X NH21 (fem purple kush seeds- winner 1st prize for the Medical Marijuana Cup at the Treating Yourself Medical Marijuana Expo in Toronto July, 2010)
Sensi Seeds: White Diesel Feminized
Full Spectrum Seeds : Feminized Night Owl (a super high CBD strain with “predominant genetics coming from Harlequin, White Russian, and Sour Diesel”, Night Owl is 65 percent sativa and has a CBD:THC ratio of anywhere from 12:1 to 25:1 in almost every plant.)
Cali Connection: Feminized Alien OG — “Cali Connection’s Alien OG partners the one & only Tahoe OG cut with the new Alien Kush (a verifield Alien Tech Pheno – Reversed Male) for a double dose of power, a triple helping of frosty trichomes & just the right touch of hash.”
Royal Queen Seeds: Feminized Amnesia Haze; Feminized OG Kush.
Amsterdam Marijuana Seeds: Caramelicious Feminized; Durban Poison Feminized; Limoncello Haze Feminized (winner of the High Times Cannabis Cup 2008 and 2009 — a mix of Lemon Ice and XTRM Super Silver Haze with citrus flavor.)
Nirvana Seeds: Hawaii Maui Waui feminized — a “Lanky tropical Cannabis Sativa. Carefully inbred Citrussy aroma, smooth fruity flavor. Old school genetics. Inspiring, not too overpowering high.”; New York Power Diesel feminized — “F1 hybrid of Sativa Mexicana and Aurora Indica. Shockingly powerful terpenoids. Lemony flavor and diesel-like aroma. Surprisingly tight bud structure.”; Raspberry Cough feminized — “Clear, uppy yet calming effects. Highly recommended medical F1 cross. Spicy, very Dutch taste. Plants can be grown closely together for maximum yields.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2015/01/28/what-are-feminized-marijuana-seeds/
Few grasp the plant comes in male and female forms. Male pollen ruins the potency of unfertilized female flower buds (sensimilla). Normally, germinating marijuana seeds and sexing saplings is a matter of luck, but breeders are increasingly offering seeds that take luck out of the equation.
Expert cultivator and author Jorge Cervantes writes, “To the best of my knowledge there is no way to distinguish male from female seeds.”
You plant ten and hope maybe five are female, then kill the males. When 8 or all 10 are males, in a $100 ten-pack — you can see why gardeners are reaching for sure-shot, “feminized” seeds.
“Feminized” seeds only flower female, and come from a process that alters normal seed development. Dutch Passion Seeds’ owner, Henk, popularized feminized seeds in the late 1990s, Cervantes states.
Some of the best breeders in the world offer feminized lines and more join them every day. They’re big in Europe, representing over 90% of sales in some countries, states Green House seeds.
Feminized genetics are ideal for quick and easy growing and flowering, Sensi Seeds writes. “With feminized seeds, gardeners decide how many bushes they want, germinate that number of seeds, then simply grow, flower and reap their rewards.”
Breeders make feminized seeds by stressing a female plant into growing male sex features like pollen, and then using this pollen to fertilize another female. The resulting seeds lack male chromosomes.
Stressing products in use include eliteXelite, the hormone giberillic acid, or the more popular silver thiosulfate solution, Cervantes said.
There is little difference in aroma, flavor, and THC levels between a regular and ‘fem’ variety, High Times reports. But feminized seeds got a bad reputation due to early efforts with plants that had high hermaphroditic tendencies.
“The problem with this method is that subsequent generations will have the same latent intersex tendencies. Stress also brings on inter¬sex tendencies earlier,” said Cervantes.
Modern techniques coax pollen from highly unhermaphroditic strains, but they’re still not the best mothers.
Hard core growers turn their nose up at feminized seeds, Cannabis Culture writes, and prefer mother plants and clones. But outside The Netherlands and North America (where shipping seeds breaks federal law) cloning isn’t as popular.
Feminized seeds are great for growers without access to clean clones, or for demoing an exotic strain you can’t get in clone form locally, or for folks that don’t want to clone their own — especially newcomers, and guerrilla growers.
“More people are trying their hand at gardening than ever,” said Cervantes. “It’s unbelievable now — it really is.”
Here’s some of our favorite fem seeds out there:
High-Supplies: Amnesia Feminized; Afghan Outdoor Feminized; Ice Feminized; Chrystal Feminized
Old School Breeders Association: Feminized Purple Kush; Feminized Nevil’s Haze; Feminized BC Mango X NH21 (fem purple kush seeds- winner 1st prize for the Medical Marijuana Cup at the Treating Yourself Medical Marijuana Expo in Toronto July, 2010)
Sensi Seeds: White Diesel Feminized
Full Spectrum Seeds : Feminized Night Owl (a super high CBD strain with “predominant genetics coming from Harlequin, White Russian, and Sour Diesel”, Night Owl is 65 percent sativa and has a CBD:THC ratio of anywhere from 12:1 to 25:1 in almost every plant.)
Cali Connection: Feminized Alien OG — “Cali Connection’s Alien OG partners the one & only Tahoe OG cut with the new Alien Kush (a verifield Alien Tech Pheno – Reversed Male) for a double dose of power, a triple helping of frosty trichomes & just the right touch of hash.”
Royal Queen Seeds: Feminized Amnesia Haze; Feminized OG Kush.
Amsterdam Marijuana Seeds: Caramelicious Feminized; Durban Poison Feminized; Limoncello Haze Feminized (winner of the High Times Cannabis Cup 2008 and 2009 — a mix of Lemon Ice and XTRM Super Silver Haze with citrus flavor.)
Nirvana Seeds: Hawaii Maui Waui feminized — a “Lanky tropical Cannabis Sativa. Carefully inbred Citrussy aroma, smooth fruity flavor. Old school genetics. Inspiring, not too overpowering high.”; New York Power Diesel feminized — “F1 hybrid of Sativa Mexicana and Aurora Indica. Shockingly powerful terpenoids. Lemony flavor and diesel-like aroma. Surprisingly tight bud structure.”; Raspberry Cough feminized — “Clear, uppy yet calming effects. Highly recommended medical F1 cross. Spicy, very Dutch taste. Plants can be grown closely together for maximum yields.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2015/01/28/what-are-feminized-marijuana-seeds/
