Is Regular cannabis Seeds a Good Source For Starting Cultures?
The regular purchase of cannabis seeds at your local gardening shop is probably your best bet in growing your own marijuana. However, every time you germinate these, you are taking a risk. There is also a pretty good chance they will grow up into flowering females or more-potent pollen-producing male plants. So, if they produce fewer THC -rich buds, what’s the purpose of growing regular seeds anyway?
Well, male plants are very beneficial when it comes to marijuana breeding. In fact, marijuana enthusiasts have been known to breed their plants using male and female plants. This is usually referred to as crossbreeding, and is a common practice for those who enjoy experimenting with different species. The theory is simple: producing a plant that contains a higher percentage of one gender than the other is more likely to produce high quality buds. Crossbreeding can be done fairly easily using regular cannabis seeds. The important thing is choosing the right crossbreeds for the specific plant you want to produce.
Some of the most popular breeds for crossbreeding are Sativa and Haze, although Hybrid and Indica are always options as well. If you plan to start with one of these two types of plants, you should know that it is possible to either plant each of them into a regular cannabis seed, or you can put each one through a full-flowering cycle using just the female. Although this is easier said than done, it can be done. Just be sure to fully feminize each plant individually using either male or female plants before crossbreeding.
In most cases, growers choose to feminize their plants using only the female. This makes sense because females have a much shorter flowering time than males. For this reason, they are the fastest way to produce feminized cannabis seeds. However, some growers prefer to crossbreed both genders in order to produce hybrid marijuana plants that have a longer flowering time, or are naturally longer.
Hybrid strains are created when two parents to produce a plant that is of a certain trait and combine them to create a new plant. Examples of these traits are traits found in tall growing plants with a greater amount of water retention than others. Many times breeders will use only one generation of cannabis as the basis for creating a new hybrid strain. Once complete, they will breed additional generations of the same strain using sterile and growing roots.
Strain selection is another technique that breeders use when crossbreeding. Instead of simply picking out the best females and allowing nature to take its course, breeders select only the best males and let nature take its course. They select only the strongest, most likely to produce the best pollen. Often this means choosing plants with low pollination potential or ones with bright colors. This type of breeding produces a highly potent product with very little work from the grower.
If breeders could choose only the best genetics and create controlled environments they could in theory create a new and better strain each time. This is basically what is happening with many high profile strains such as Chronic, Blue Dream and Lemonade. These highly respected names have their origins on regular seeds, and some of their current lines were actually created from regular cannabis seeds.
The most effective way to crossbreed plants without causing any damage to the plant is to fertilise them with pollen from one parent and leave the other unharmed. When crossbreeding stems and leaves, it is often necessary to fertilise the opposite ends with different pollen, creating an unbalanced environment that can cause the plant to become stressed and unhealthy. If the fertiliser is taken directly from the plant itself, the plant will be able to absorb it fully. Creating a controlled environment through crossbreeding means that no harmful side effects come from the practice.