About the differences between regular, feminized and autoflowering seeds. A guide for beginners in the garden.
If you are thinking of growing your own cannabis yourself, you will notice very quickly that the right accessories are not the problem! There is a grow-shop in every big city, even Amazon will deliver the complete set to your doorstep, including soil, fertilizer and the right lamps. The exhaust air systems and the appropriate activated carbon filter can be easily lift, so a successful grow is nothing in the way.
The choice of the variety
One thing stands in the way of a successful grow: the right variety! "What should there be for big differences?" Some ask themselves. The answer is pretty simple: there are HUGE differences between the different varieties and breeds.
Let's start in a nutshell: You are on the Internet, you have just hammered in "buy cannabis seeds" into the Google search and are now completely overwhelmed: a huge selection of manufacturers, from A as "Amsterdam Seeds Center" on S as "Sensi Seeds" or "Serious Seeds" to Z like "Zamnesia" is (at least felt) represented by every letter of the alphabet. The good news: With this selection, you are guaranteed to find the right variety for your needs and tastes.
And here's Tipo Uno as well: The variety has to be right for you and your project.
"And how do I know that?" - Pssst, do not ask, read on!
The First Steps
You click on any website in good luck, lands on a seed shop and realizes very quickly: There are extremely many varieties, categories and search filters ... And you are already overstrained ... Understandable! Here, too, we start again quite simple: There are, in a nutshell, three different types of cannabis seeds: Regular, feminized and autoflowering. Keep that in mind!
Regular seeds
Regular in this case simply means: This strain is quite normal and unchanged in the genome! The purchased seeds can be either male or female. The rate is almost exactly 50% under optimal conditions, so 100 normal seeds will normally be 50 female and 50 male. Who wants to grow grass itself should know: ONLY the female plants are interesting! Male plants can not be smoked and should be sorted out as soon as possible, otherwise they fertilize the female plants with their pollen. If that happens, you have a huge problem: The female plants produce seeds, the THC content goes into the cellar and the flowers are much smaller ... What does not matter anyway, who wants to smoke Weed with seeds?
The advantage of these varieties: They are stable, resistant to stress and you can breed your own seeds with these varieties. For many professionals, these varieties are therefore the standard.
Feminised seeds
You can almost guess it from the name: feminized seeds grow ONLY female plants! This has a big advantage: you no longer have to sort out anything and you no longer have the risk of missing a male plant! Sounds great again at first sight!
But let's take a look at how feminized seeds are made - that's not natural, of course ...
There are at least two methods that work very well:
The slightly older method: Take two female plants, stress one of them until it begins to hermaphrodite, so also forms male flowers, and then places the two in a quiet corner ... Final result: The resulting seeds contain only female chromosomes (XX ), so all resulting plants become female.
Of course, to make this process as easy as possible, you take at least one female genetics that naturally likes to tweak. And here is the extreme disadvantage of this method: Of course, this "I-hermaphrodite-like" gene is passed on to 50%! And with that comes the problem of what many professional growers of feminized varieties have noticed around the world: they hermaphrodite gladly very much! And no professional grower wants to be with ladies who turn into semi-mutated men with breasts at the slightest stress!
Therefore, for some years now, that's hard to say, a slightly newer method:
Silver nitrate + sodium thiosulfate!
Sounds like crack lab, it works the same way:
A female plant is sprayed with a solution of silver nitrate and sodium thiosulfate and then sent to the flower together with another female plant. Effect: Due to the chemical club, the plant kills some leaves, but in the best case, it recovers and begins to hermaphrodite by the hardcore stress. IMPORTANT: Without the chemical leg, the plant must NOT hermaphrodite! There are so-called "stress tests", with which the plant is selected. (extremely high pH value, short day phases, temperature stress, etc.) Only when the plant survives all the stress tests and has proven to be a "stable female", does it get rid of the chemical legacy, so it is compelled by chemicals to quit and give up its genetics another lady continues.
Result: Feminised seeds WITHOUT the "i-hermaphrodite-like" gene in the code! But: the treatment with the chemistry club probably has a strong effect on the genome! If you continue breeding with feminized varieties, only inferior, stressed plants with a strange, incestuous gene pool will emerge within a few generations.
Autoflowering seeds
These varieties are a small exception, as they are not made by any intervention in nature, but simply by naturally crossing. Autoflowering varieties, in contrast to all others, have a kind of "internal clock" that they follow. In plain language that means: These varieties do not care if the sun shines 12 or 18 hours a day! When they are planted their watch starts to run, most autoflowering varieties need about 8-12 weeks from germination to harvest.
The cannabis strain "Cannabis Ruderalis", a species native to Eastern Europe / Russia / Northern Afghanistan, is always found in autoflowering varieties and grows very small and daintily. Thanks to evolution, ruderalis plants have evolved to take full advantage of the existing light, whether little or not. "Yea, cool, less stress with light change" now think some. You have probably read the words "very small and daintily"! Autoflowering varieties were bred for ONE application: Outdoor! Because the cool thing is: Even in our climate, you can easily make 2-3 passes per year with autoflowering varieties! For indoor gardeners, these varieties are completely unsuitable! For best results, the lights should be on permanently for 20h / day. In addition, the THC content of autoflowering varieties is always very low, the buds never being as hard and resinous as normal photoperiod dependent plants.
The right variety for your needs
Let's go back to the beginning! There I meant "The variety has to fit to you and your project !!"
So here are all the advantages and disadvantages and what that means for you:
Regular varieties:
You have a 50:50 chance on every plant. If you value good quality, have space, want stable varieties, like to invest a little more time, or are looking for a new mom, buy regular varieties, select a mom, and work with cuttings!
Feminated varieties:
You have very little space, you want to visit your plants as rarely as possible and only harvest quickly? Then you should order a feminized variety! 10 seeds give 10 female plants, you do not have to sort out anything and only change the rhythm of the lamp once. Small disadvantage: feminized varieties are always a bit more expensive. Most breeders sell either 5 feminized or 11 regular seeds for the same price.
Autoflowering varieties:
You want to grow outdoor? And not three meters high bushes? Then autoflowering varieties are just right for you! These are usually smaller than a meter, start to bloom very quickly and are very easy to handle on the outside! Just a little water every now and then, fertilizers usually do not need these plants anyway, because they stay so small. And do not forget: Do not plant autoflowering species indoors! They are neither "faster" nor "better" than regular or feminized varieties! They are only independent of the season, which allows you to harvest outdoor several times a year. Indoor they are but a waste of electricity!
So happy growing! :D
