Seeds are the small germination cells that make up the embryo of a cannabis plant. They need to be germinated and planted into a growing medium like soil, coco or peat for the plant to grow.
They also need to be nourished, kept healthy and given the right environment for their development. Depending on the seed, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to months for them to sprout and mature.
Strains
Cannabis seeds contain all of the genetic information that is needed for a plant to grow and produce cannabis. This genetic information dictates the physical characteristics that a plant will have as it grows and matures.
There are several different types of cannabis seed available on the market. These include regular, feminized, autoflowering, and genetically modified seeds.
When choosing the right seed, it is important to consider your growing conditions and climate. Some strains have specific needs for water, nutrients, and flowering time.
Whether you’re growing outdoors or indoors, it’s important to choose a strain that will thrive in your area. For example, if you live in a temperate climate, you may want to opt for a strain that can withstand slightly higher levels of humidity.
Genetics
Each plant has a specific collection of genes (or genotype) which can affect its growth, flowering, and production of various traits. These traits are then inherited by the offspring of the two plant parents, which can result in a wide variety of strains.
Seed breeding is a process of selectively crossing or inbreeding strains to create new varieties with desirable traits. It is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, but it can also add significant predictability to growers’ operations.
Cannabis seeds can be bred in several ways to capture and combine certain traits, such as yield or THC content. These techniques include backcrossing, a process in which a plant parent is crossed with another to increase its homozygous genetics and strengthen its desirable traits. Inbred lines are also a common method of breeding, which is used to produce stable strains that have a single dominant phenotype generation after generation.
Feminization
The feminization of cannabis seed is an important part of a grower’s workflow. This process eliminates the risk of accidental pollination and ensures that all the plants produced are female.
Feminized seeds are created by eliminating the male chromosomes in the plant so that only female plants produce buds. This results in a higher yield of cannabis than plants that contain both male and female chromosomes.
Before feminized seeds, growers had to separate male and female plants to prevent them from pollinating each other. This made cultivation of cannabis difficult and time-consuming.
Cloning
Cloning cannabis seed is a very simple process that can be done in almost any growing medium. You simply cut a small piece of the plant, place it in a rooting medium, and water it until sufficient roots have grown.
The best clones are those that come from healthy, strong plants free of pests or disease. You can spot this by checking the root growth, coloring, and if there are any white spots on the leaves or stems.
The best clones will grow quickly and produce a good yield. But they may not be as potent as a plant grown from seeds. This is because a seed needs to germinate before it can enter the vegetative stage.
Germination
Cannabis seeds have a unique ability to sprout and grow into a healthy plant. This process, called germination, happens when a small white root breaks through the shell of the seed.
In order for cannabis seeds to germinate, they need moisture and warmth. Temperatures that are too cold and/or too dry can also reduce germination rates and kill weaker seedlings.
For this reason, it is best to germinate cannabis seeds indoors. This is especially true if you’re using a heating mat to warm your environment.
Many growers make the mistake of watering their jiffy pods before they are used for seed germination, which can lead to reduced germination rates or even prevent them from germinating altogether. This is something that the Dutch Passion team have seen happen to many growers, so we recommend that you don’t do this.
