Regular seeds are a type of Cannabis seed that produce plants with approximately 50% male and 50% female flowers. These are ideal for breeding new strains and creating hybrids.
While these plants can be more difficult to grow and may require a bit of extra effort to remove the males, they are also incredibly rewarding to work with.
Breeding
Breeding is a vital part of growing marijuana. It allows you to make your plant even better, and can yield new phenotypes and cultivars that are not available from feminized seeds.
Regular seed is the natural offspring of a female cannabis plant that has been pollinated by a male. They carry both male and female DNA in an ideal proportion of 50/50.
However, they can sometimes be intersex or hermaphrodites. This is because of their genetic information, and a variety of environmental factors can play a role in the sex of a regular seed.
Feminized seed, on the other hand, have only female chromosomes in an ideal proportion of 50%. This means that the resulting female plants should not be hermaphrodite, although they can still go through a lot of stress.
If you’re looking for a cheaper price, want to avoid discarding male plants, or just prefer growing without the hassle of sexing your seeds, regular seed is your best bet. Our seed selection offers a wide range of excellent regular seed varieties for growers to enjoy.
Cloning
A clone is a genetic copy of a cannabis plant, usually from the same mother plant. It can be an exact duplicate of the mother or can contain a few differences.
A grower can use clones to introduce certain genetics into their herd faster than breeding from seed. For example, if they wanted to introduce disease resistance into their herd rapidly, they could use clones to make multiple females with the genetics for that trait.
Unlike seeds, which take several weeks to germinate, clones can be planted immediately. This can save time, space, and money. It also allows a grower to incorporate a new phenotype without having to conduct a scaled pheno-hunt.
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which a male plant (or hermaphrodite) releases pollen into the air and then winds it until it finds receptive stigmas on a female flower. This produces hundreds, if not thousands, of regular cannabis seeds, which will in turn produce either male or female plants.
Generally speaking, the best time to pollinate a female plant is after her initial flowering stage, when she has formed a small bag of buds with fully-formed white stigmas. This is because the pollen still takes 3 to 5 days to reach the calyx and ovary, which are vital for fertilisation.
Once you have pollinated your female plant, it is important to separate her from other mature flowers until seeds are forming. Once they are, you can reintroduce her to your grow space. You should also switch to a vegetative nutrient schedule until the seeds are mature.
Seed Saving
Saving regular seed is the act of collecting seeds from one plant or crop and storing them for future use. It’s an excellent way to conserve genetic diversity in the garden, as well as a way to preserve your favorite varieties of plants.
When choosing which seeds to save, it’s important to choose only open-pollinated and/or heirloom seed varieties. These are seed crops that have been carefully selected from the healthiest, most vigorous, and highest-yielding plants.
Heirlooms are particularly desirable for seed saving because they produce seeds that will reproduce true to their parent plant and re-grow as the original plant would have.
After harvesting, air dry the seeds completely before storing them for future planting. This can be done in paper envelopes inside a Mason jar, in a seed storage box, or even in zip-closure bags that have all the air pressed out of them. It’s a good idea to label your packets and date them.
