The marijuana plant is one of the most famous and talked-about plants in recent years. Out of the prohibited issues, this cannabis plant has been researched, therefore, medical and health benefits have been discovered. This is why many people are now very interested in getting marijuana seeds. Continue reading to find out more.
The Basics of Regular Marijuana Seeds
Marijuana seeds are very different. There are regular seeds, autoflowering seeds, and feminized seeds. Each one has specific morphological characteristics. Regular seeds are very famous for being fresh from any form of chemical manipulation. The composition is purely natural without any form of additives. They are very common to get and are quite easy to acquire. Each seed has various morphological characteristics. However, they are usually physically seen as dark brown, although you can find light brown seeds in some strains.
Regular cannabis seeds are produced when a male cannabis plant pollinates a female cannabis plant. Male pollen is released from ripe pollen sacs and blown by the wind or transported by a breeder until you find receptive stigmas in the female flowers. Pollination results in hundreds, if not thousands, more regular cannabis seeds which will all, in turn, produce either male or female cannabis plants.
What Are Regular Cannabis Seeds Used For?
There are two main purposes for growing regular cannabis seeds, aside from the usual and most common one of simply growing some cannabis buds.
- Breeding – Selective crossings of one plant strain to another has been done since the early beginnings of agriculture. This has been done with all kinds of plant life. Sometimes this is done to produce maximum yields of whichever crops the plant produces that are desired by the people growing. Sometimes, it can be done just for fun and for experimentation. Whatever your main purpose of the breeding is, it would be best, to begin with, all the genetic material in order to give the new cross the best chances of success. This helps rather than missing the chromosomes that are absent in feminized marijuana seeds.
- Cloning – The second use for regular cannabis seeds is the one that was before the dawn of feminized seeds, used to harvest crops of uniform cannabis plants without any males among them. This technique, called cloning, is done with plants that have their full set of chromosomes and all the strong qualities that they possess. From a crop grown from regular cannabis seeds, the female plants are selected to become “mothers” because they can produce hundreds of “children” over the space of several years. The clones that you can take from mother plants are tiny duplicates down to the genetic materials, so, yes, they will be female plants.
Growing Your Own Regular Cannabis Seeds
Contrary to the way modern marijuana growers think, growing regular marijuana seeds are not more difficult compared to cultivating feminized ones. They are accessible to everyone, even for beginners. Until the early 2000s, people only learned how to cultivate using regular seeds and choosing between males and females was just another part of the growing cycle.
Naturally, 50 percent of the regular marijuana seeds are males and the other half are female plants. Of course, a number of factors can influence this ratio, but if you are using more than ten seeds, it is close to impossible to not get a single female plant at all. Some people think that environmental conditions might influence male vs. female ratios, but this theory has not been verified yet.
So, generally, experts recommend that people must germinate 15 to 16 regular cannabis seeds every square meter in small flowerpots. You can grow them for a few weeks and then, switch to bloom right before removing the males and transplanting the females into the containers. Normally, experts use six to ten plants per square meter during the flowering stage.
The Process of Cannabis Seed Pollination
Regular seed pollination produces both female and male cannabis plants. Growers quickly remove males from the growing area, leaving the remaining female plants to become resilient and strong. Females are typically stronger plants that rarely succumb to the tendency of being hermaphrodites.
Female cannabis plants have a heavy layer of resin coating them. The resin is sticky and thick, which helps it naturally, quickly, and easily capture pollen produced by male marijuana plants. Once the female plant captures the pollen, she becomes fertilized and therefore produces seeds.
Nevertheless, when home growers keep the females from being pollinated, the females will only produce a very high amount of resin. When they remain unfertilized, it leads to the production of trichomes, the frosty goo, which is responsible for the production of medical properties and gives out a psychoactive high.
Therefore, a non-pollinated cannabis flower is so much more potent than having a fertilized one. In the efforts to capture any male pollen floating in the air, it produces increased amounts of trichomes. Once the female plant becomes fertilized, she will begin concentrating all the energy into producing seeds, instead of producing the desired cannabis resin.
Amateur marijuana growers also prefer regular seeds because of costs. Because most savvy growers are in the market for female-only seeds, the demand for regular seeds is lower which makes them even more affordable.
How to Purchase Regular Cannabis Seeds
Many world-renowned seed banks are located in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, and other countries where marijuana legislation are less restricted. Seed banks provide seeds from a variety of different seed breeders.
- Research Regular Marijuana Seeds Online – Before you purchase regular marijuana seeds online, you will need to figure out what strain you want to grow and which breeder you want to purchase your seeds from. You can also do some research and find an online grow journal that has all the details about growing instructions for specific strains. Through these, you will be able to see notes of other breeders and look at photos of final results.
- Shop at Cannabis Dispensaries – Staff at dispensaries will be able to provide you information on the cannabis seeds that they sell. Take note though, there are a lot of dispensaries that focus on selling end-products and cannabis flowers. It is a great idea to call ahead and ask their staff if they are knowledgeable enough to know about seeds and give the needed information about growing seeds.
Growing cannabis seeds will surely be a fun experience that can be enjoyed if you are careful with what you do. Always remember that some seeds might germinate while others may not, but take the entire process as a learning experience. The more you gain experience, the more you will be knowledgeable about what you should do.