Regular cannabis seeds all have male and female reproductive seeds in an ideal ratio of 50/50. Therefore, to see which is which, the cannabis seeds must be grown and germinated in a controlled environment (in a dark room with no artificial light and no smells) for a period of one month. Once the plants are ready, they should be separated to check which of the two types of cannabis is the predominant species. At this point the female can be separated and the male can be discarded. This will ensure that no harmful chemicals or fungi have been transferred and that the cannabis seeds do not contain unwanted seeds.
There are many ways that regular cannabis seeds can be used as well. One of the most important uses is to introduce new genes into a plant, thus increasing the probability of it having new and beneficial traits. In turn, when the beneficial mutations have been introduced, the plants should have the ability to reproduce these beneficial traits. Thus, any new strain with a beneficial trait could be propagated through regular seeds.
Since females are the more dominant species, it would be more advantageous to grow cannabis plants with females than males during normal growing cycles. This is because only females are able to send down the seeds from the tips of their branches, so all the new seeds that come up must be through female buds. When breeding for these feminized seeds, make sure that you only purchase feminized seeds that are described as “feminized”. There are also some hybrid seeds on the market that are considered to be “all-women”, but are actually cross-breeding strains of male and female plants.
Because of the highly favorable environment for breeding, many seed banks are now offering this service. Most seed companies have feminized seeds from various reputable breeders who specialize in cross-breeding strains to create new traits that are specific to certain types of plants. The majority of marijuana breeders work with large breed production facilities, so it is very unlikely that small independent breeders like yourself will ever find your way to one of these seed banks.
However, it is possible to find strains of feminized cannabis seeds on your own through a process known as “bundling”. Simply put, when you buy any number of regular cannabis seeds from a variety of sources, they may come in small bundles – similar to how you would bundle your favorite books. While each bundle is individually yours, however, they are grouped together based on the type of buds (understandably) and then each bud within the group is bred to develop characteristics specific to that type of bud. For instance, if you bought three different strains of buds – Arabica, Sativa, and Flora – and then tried to blend them all, you might end up with two distinctly different plants, one Arabica and one Sativa. This is because the three different buds came from three different plant sources, and because all three of them contain various characteristics, some desirable and some undesirable, they were all grouped together.
When you bundle these three plants together, however, you create a new plant with entirely new genetics. All three plants share the same basic traits, just with differing amounts of these traits. When you grow this new plant, it will develop in many new ways, depending on the specific genes that each of the plants carry. When you bundle a regular cannabis seeds collection with feminized plants, the new plant you grow will have significantly more potential to become highly productive, because all of its traits will be maximized – even the ones you don’t like!
There are several different things that make the genetics of regular cannabis seeds very different than those of feminized plants. In general, the bigger the plant, the more variable its environment is. The more compact it is, the more likely it is to grow well in a compact space. And in general, the faster it grows, the greater its potential for producing large quantities of high quality buds.
Regular cannabis seeds tend to be a little slower growing; this is because of the nature of the chromosomes that are in each of the plants. As feminized seeds increase in speed, they tend to become hybrids, which often have traits that are very similar to each other, but which have very different origins. When you look at the three categories of cannabis plants (which include the Indica, which was used to be the ‘standard’ type of cannabis, and the Sativa, which are the most common variety), the differences between the three are primarily found in their genotype. The hybrids tend to have a wider range of hybridization from purebred plants, than do the purebreds. But overall, the differences between the three categories of cannabis plants, when compared to feminized seeds, are slight and are easily manipulated through breeding.