The Three Different Cannabis Seed Types
You won’t be able to distinguish between male and female weed seeds when looking at real seeds or images of them; they can be either male or female, or even hermaphrodites. However, you can save your entire harvest if you know how these different cannabis seeds differ from one another and from their sex.
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A brief description of each type of seed is provided below so you can choose the best one for your garden.
Regular Cannabis Seeds
The process of crossing a male plant with a female plant yields regular weed seeds. Either male or female cannabis plants can be grown from the resultant seeds. Until the plant reaches the flowering stage, when the plants will start to present their sex, it is unknown how many regular weed seeds will grow into male or female cannabis plants.
The primary distinction between male and female cannabis plants is that the former only yield the psychoactive flowers that we eat, while the latter produce pollen that can cause problems for growers. In order to avoid jeopardizing the entire grow, growers usually destroy male plants when they fertilize female plants, as the resultant flowers are less THC and full of seeds.
Male plants transmit genetic traits to their progeny and contribute significantly to the genetic diversity of cannabis strains, despite the difficulties they may pose to grow operations. Regular seeds give growers the chance to see the full expression of that strain’s genetic heritage, while female plants yield the desired flower.
The Feminized Seeds
Genetic mutations are used to create weed seeds that are specifically mutated to produce only female plants and to increase the amount of the target flower or bud. Feminized seeds are preferred by many cannabis growers because they greatly lower the risk of male plants compromising the harvest.
The genetics of the plant are manipulated to produce female seeds. Under certain stressful conditions, female plants have the ability to produce “male” flowers that contain pollen. Once another female plant is fertilized with this pollen, all of the resulting offspring should become female.
There are several ways to accomplish this. For instance, you could introduce light at specific intervals during the gloomy flowering hours or use colloidal silver spray to induce a chemical shift in female plants that results in the production of pollen-bearing male flowers.
Auto-flower Seeds
For those who are new to cultivating cannabis, auto-flower seeds could be a good option. Auto-flower seeds are cultivated in such a way that, regardless of the light cycle they have been exposed to, the plant will automatically start to flower when it reaches a specific maturity after a predetermined amount of time. This usually takes place ten weeks after seeding, as opposed to flowering in time for the daily cycles of light.
Auto-flowering strains are created by crossing contemporary Cannabis Ruderalis strains with modern strains. Three different subtypes of cannabis exist: Indica, Sativa, and Ruderalis. Ruderalis cannabis strains are usually found nearer the North and South Poles and have a significantly shorter life span than strains that originate closer to the Equator.
Owing to the prolonged absence of sunlight at both the North and South Poles, certain strains of Cannabis Ruderalis have evolved to the point where they will complete their life cycle regardless of the amount of light present; this trait was inherited by auto-flower seeds.