Cannabis is grown from two sources: cannabis seeds and/or clones from a mother plant. Most of cannabis growers prefer seeds over clones because plants grown from seeds are leafier, with bigger and more resinous cannabis buds.
If you are not an experienced cannabis grower, then regular cannabis seeds could be challenging for you as they could be both male and female. Nonetheless, there are alternatives for cannabis growers that don’t want to deal with male cannabis plants and separate them from the female cannabis plants. For instance, you can buy feminized cannabis seeds and other type of seeds known as “autoflowering” cannabis seeds.
Regular Cannabis Seeds
Regular seeds are the easiest to obtain. As a matter of fact, you don’t even need to buy cannabis seeds. If you have a male cannabis plant, then this plant can pollinate female plants. After pollination, the female cannabis plants will produce regular cannabis seeds. Regular cannabis seeds are a good option for cannabis growers that want to produce their own cannabis strains. For example, you can experiment more and select your best cannabis strains to produce top quality cannabis.
A cannabis plant takes about 4 to 8 months to grow. In addition, a cannabis plant has different life cycles which are: germination, seedling, vegetative and flowering. As a annual plant, cannabis plants die after the flowering stage. Nonetheless, it’s possible to revert the plant to a vegetative stage with light schedules, for example, 18 hours of light and 6 hours in dark.
Most of cannabis growers want only female cannabis plants as these plants are the ones that produce cannabis buds. With regular cannabis plants, you can’t know if they will become male or female. Therefore, many cannabis growers prefer to buy feminized cannabis seeds.
Feminized Cannabis Seeds
We have already written an article about feminized cannabis seeds. There are mainly three ways to obtain feminized seeds which are spraying colloidal silver on the female plant, spraying gibberellic acid and rodelization.
Feminized cannabis seeds are suitable for beginners and cannabis growers with a limited space to grow cannabis plants (like growing cannabis indoors).
These seeds are genetically altered to ensure that at least 95% of the seeds produce female cannabis plants. Male cannabis plants produce little amounts of cannabinoids. Moreover, male cannabis has been mainly used to produce fiber and fabric. Furthermore, the advantage of feminized cannabis seeds is that you will ensure your plants are all female and you will not have to worry about male cannabis plants pollinating your female plants.
Autoflowering Seeds
Autoflowering cannabis switch from a vegetative stage to a flowering stage based on age rather than the ratio of light-dark hours they get. This type of seeds is a hybrid of cannabis Sativa or Indica with cannabis ruderalis, which is a cannabis plant native to Central, Eastern Europe and Russia. Cannabis Ruderalis has a lower THC content than cannabis Sativa or Indica. Nonetheless, they are high in CBD which makes them a good variety for CBD users.
The first autoflowering cannabis had low THC concentrations, and hence, they were not very popular. Cannabis Ruderalis flowers autoflower regardless of the hours of light it gets (approximately within 2–3 weeks).
Ruderalis cannabis is crossed with cannabis sativa because the cannabis Ruderalis plant has low THC levels. Therefore, from this cross, we get a plant that autoflowers and that also has higher THC levels than a standard cannabis Ruderalis plant.
New autoflowering strains have as much THC content as THC-rich cannabis Sativa and Indica strains. Autoflowering cannabis seeds have become very popular because of their ability to flower without depending on darkness. New strains can reach up to 27% of THC.
Types of Seeds: Conclusion
You can choose between three types of cannabis seeds: regular cannabis seeds, feminized cannabis seeds and autoflowering seeds.
Regular cannabis seeds are a good option for experienced growers that want to produce their own cannabis strains. However, if you are a beginner, then you better start with feminized seeds as you will not have to separate female plants from male plants. In addition, feminized seeds are ideal for people who have a limited space to plant cannabis (indoors).
Finally, we have autoflowering seeds. This kind of seeds have the ability to flower without depending on darkness. Moreover, new strains have the same THC levels as THC-rich cannabis Sativa or Indica.
Originally published at https://www.getispire.com on September 3, 2020.
