Regular seeds are the old-fashioned way to grow marijuana plants. Feminized and autoflowering seeds are relatively recent developments, allowing growers to find a balance between flower production and breeding potential.
Although feminized seeds are cheaper and more versatile than regular seed, some growers still prefer the traditional method. Luckily, there are plenty of breeders offering regular cannabis seeds that grow both male and female plants.
Cost
The cost of regular seed can vary widely depending on a number of factors. This includes the quality of the seed, its supply and demand, and trends.
Typically, high-quality seeds with higher genetic quality can be more expensive than their cheaper counterparts. They are also likely to have more complex flavors and a higher chemical content.
However, some low-cost cannabis seeds can be quite cheap. One type is variety blends, which usually consist of several older varieties that have been mixed together and sold as a single seed.
This can be a good way to get started, but it’s worth checking out what varieties are included in the blend before buying. It can be worth paying a little extra to ensure you’re getting quality alfalfa genetics rather than low-quality varieties.
Feminized seeds are a good choice for growers looking to maximize their yield. With a higher probability that every seed will be female, you’ll have twice as many plants to harvest.
Genetic Stability
The genetic stability of a strain is critical to its overall health and performance. Typically, breeders will stabilise a strain over several generations to ensure it expresses the desired traits in the offspring.
This involves selecting a healthy mother and father, crossing them to produce hybrid offspring that have varying predictability as to their parent’s traits, and breeding the offspring for a desired combination of alleles that would make them suitable for commercial production. This method is known as Mendelian inheritance.
DNA stability is an important aspect of germplasm conservation, and has recently been investigated in stored or aged seeds. In this study, we compared DNA stability and epigenetic changes in Secale cereale seeds that had been stored at 35 degC, 15% wc under air or vacuum for 13 days. We also compared these seeds to seedlings that were produced from them.
Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is when an organism reproduces by itself without the need for mating. This type of reproductive behavior can occur in many different types of organisms, including plants and animals.
A variety of plant species produce new plants from buds, stems and underground stems called rhizomes. Other plants make new plants from spores, which are tiny spheres that can travel through the air and land on another plant or animal.
This form of asexual reproduction is common in plants, fungi and algae. Some animal populations also produce new individuals from fragments of their own bodies or a piece of a parent organism.
In many asexual species, offspring are exact replicas of the parent. This can be beneficial in a stable environment, but it may lead to extinction if the genetic variation within an asexual lineage is low. A pure asexual population also lacks the recombination and segregation events that are important in sexual reproduction, which can increase the genetic diversity of a species.
Pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a male flower to a female flower in order to start the production of seeds. It is an important process for all plants.
Typically, pollination occurs when the anthers of one plant’s flower are moved by wind to the stigma of another of the same species. The seeds that develop on this new stigma will grow into new plants.
Seeds can be produced through either self-pollination or cross-pollination. Generally, self-pollination is preferable for breeding purposes as it produces stronger and more vigorous plants.
Once a female plant becomes ready for pollination, the pollen sacs (anthers) that hold the pollen begin to split open. Once this happens, the pollen can be extracted from the female’s flowers.
