How do regular and feminized cannabis seeds differ?

Many people enjoyed growing it and working with its natural process, even before major advances in cannabis genes. Feminized cannabis seeds are becoming more popular than their standard counterparts in recent years. But does that make them better? What is the difference between regular and fertilized seeds? Let’s look at the inner workings and discover what they are.

Understanding the Sex of Cannabis Plants

The sex of cannabis plants is what makes the difference between regular and hybrid cannabis seeds. As with other plants, such as yew and willow, some cannabis seeds are male while others can be considered female. It’s a natural process that which they will exchange genetic information, which leads to the creation and maintenance of future plants and seeds with characteristics from both parents. The process of reproduction and mating leads to steady improvements each generation.

What are regular cannabis seeds?

With this knowledge, we can better explain regular cannabis seeds. The chances of a “regular” seed being either male or female are 50%. Intersex plants are also possible, though they are rare and not something to be expected. You will need to wait until your plants have grown a lot before you can tell the difference. Before anything, if your plants are

Regular Auto-flowering Cannabis Seeds

While most cannabis seeds are grown on a photoperiod basis, meaning that they change from vegetative to flowering depending upon how much light they get, some auto-flowering cannabis seeds can continue the process regardless of whether or not there is a light shift. It is important to be clear that they require a lot of light throughout their lives, but it doesn’t mean you have to decrease the light hours to move from the vegetative phase to blooming.

What are Feminized Cannabis Seeds and How Do They Work?

If that’s the case, then what are feminized cannabis seeds? Feminized seeds offer almost equal chances of producing female plants. Regular seeds, however, have a similar chance of producing male or female plants. Some feminized seeds can still produce male plants, but it is a small percentage.

They won’t allow you to breed them. However, you can rest assured that you won’t have to remove any plants. And, just like the female varieties of regular seed, they will reach their ideal size and yields if your care is taken.

Auto-flowering Feminized Cannabis Seeds

There are also auto-flowering varieties that can be used in place of regular seeds. As with other auto-flowers, feminized self-flowering seeds can progress through their entire life cycle as long as they have enough light.They grow very similarly to regular varieties in this sense. Feminized auto-flowering seeds are far more popular than regular varieties because they don’t require growers to worry about finding male plants within the time frame before pollination.

Regular Cannabis Seeds vs. Feminized Cannabis Seeds

After we have clarified the definitions of regular and feminized seed, let’s now look at how regular cannabis seeds differ.

Regular Cannabis Seeds

Price

Before you plant a seed, the differences between these varieties are obvious. Regular cannabis seeds will be less expensive than feminized ones. Although regular seeds are more popular, you will only get bud-producing plants out of half the average number of seeds (it could be more or less). Prices can vary depending on the quality of the seed and strain.

Yield

Concentrating on plants that produce viable buds (i.e. If you focus on the plants that produce viable buds (i.e., the female plants), then you will get the best yield. As we have already mentioned, about half of the seeds in a packet will yield female plants. You won’t likely get as many seeds per pack as you would with 10 feminized seeds. You’ll also get lower yields if the male plants pollinate your females.

Growing

When you are planting these seeds, make sure to either remove male plants before they produce pollen or to prepare to breed the desired parent (in this instance, a female plant) with them. As we have already explained, if you fail to do this, your female plants will produce far fewer buds than they would otherwise because their energy is being used on new seeds. You can keep your male plants out of harm’s way by getting them out early. Then your growth process can continue uninterrupted and you can focus all your nutrients and water on helping the females reach their ideal size and yields.

Genetic Stability

Regular seeds aren’t genetically modified so the genetics of the plants will remain stable. We’ll show you why this isn’t true for feminized seeds. The modification necessary to ensure that female plants are produced results in genetics that are significantly less stable over time. This is not something you should worry about with regular seeds.

Cloning

Because of their genetic stability, you can also take some reliable clones from your plants. Because their genetics are unhampered with, they can grow strong and healthy plants. Clones made from feminized mother plant clones are much riskier.

Breeding

You’ll have an easier time cultivating regular seeds if you are breeding. You’ll have a natural mix of male and female plants. This means you can let the plants grow together and allow the males to pollinate the females. Then you will have lots of seeds to choose from.

Feminized Cannabis Seeds

Price

The price difference between regular and feminized cannabis seeds will be obvious. Particularly, feminized cannabis seeds will be more expensive. There are two reasons for this. The first is that feminized seeds are more expensive because of the extra effort involved. A pack of feminized seeds will yield a much higher return on investment than a single harvest.

Yield

You’ll get twice as many seeds from your feminized pack if there are females, so you will get twice as many yields. This is not an exact measure, since 1 in 1000 seeds from a feminized package will turn male. However, those odds are low enough to allow you to double your stash.

Growing

You’ll be able to grow feminized seeds with less hassle because you won’t have to worry about male plants dying. You will end up with more money because you’ll get more viable buds from all of the nutrients you use.

Genetic Stability

We’ve already discussed the benefits of feminized seeds, including their price. These varieties are not genetically stable, which is a big disadvantage. You might be wondering what that means. If you do manage to obtain seeds from your feminized plants you will find it almost impossible to grow them. Feminized seeds are unstable because of the genetic modification that is required to make them. They won’t look as similar to their parents when they do eventually grow and they won’t produce as much as their first-generation counterparts.

Cloning

Cloning is not as easy as with regular seeds. The same reason why feminized seeds don’t work is because of their unstable genetics. The seeds of regular plants can withstand virtually no genetic manipulation, but feminized seeds can, and they are far more likely to bear strong descendants.

Breeding

Finally, feminized seeds are almost impossible to breed because you won’t get a male plant for every 1000 seeds. If this is your goal, it’s better to get regular varieties.

Are Regular Cannabis Seeds Better Than Feminized Seeds?

With all that said, we know you are curious about the answer to one question: Which seeds are best? Are you looking for regular or feminized seeds?It all depends on your goals as a grower, as we have discussed. Do you want to create new strains or clones of your plants? Regular seeds are best for breeding new strains and growing the seeds/clones from your plants. Regular seed packs have more stable genetics.If you are primarily focused on producing high-quality, usable buds, we recommend that you purchase feminized seeds.

Are you unsure if you should buy regular or feminized cannabis seeds?

Let’s close by asking you one last question. Should you buy regular or hybrid cannabis seeds? As we have said, it is important to consider your own goals as a cannabis grower. We believe it is important that cannabis growers, particularly those who have some experience, are familiar with the basics of strain breeding. We also want you to produce huge amounts of cannabis. We recommend that you try both of these varieties. You’ll only be able to tell which type of grower you are if you try both.