Regular seed is a good option for a beginner grower looking to get some experience growing cannabis. They are less expensive than feminized seeds, and you won’t need to kill any male plants as they can become female or hermaphrodite (developing both male and female flowers).
They also give you more opportunities to breed your own strains with unique characteristics. You can also use them for clones and cuttings.
Breeding
Breeding enables growers to create new or improved varieties, by mating selected male and female specimens. This process is especially useful for cultivars with a particular desired phenotype, such as extreme potency, or certain flavour and/or colour preferences.
Breeders can also increase the desirable traits of a strain using crosses or hybrids. This is particularly effective for old school strains that were never feminized, as well as genetically unaltered cultivars.
Feminized seeds are seed breeders’ choice for maximizing yields and ensuring a high quality crop. This is a more predictable way to produce a crop, as there’s a much lower chance that any plants will be male.
Because a predominately female crop will produce better quality and higher-yielding buds, feminized seeds are also more profitable for growers. They’re also less likely to attract pests and disease, making it easier to maintain healthy plants.
Cloning
Cloning is a technique used by scientists to create exact genetic copies of living things. Plants, single-celled organisms, and even animals can be cloned.
The main advantage of cloning over seed production is consistent quality and yields. Clones produce exactly the same type of cannabis as their mother plant, which means that you can expect a uniform crop.
However, clones are more susceptible to environmental stressors than seeds. This is why it’s important to make sure that you only buy clones from reputable sources.
You should also make sure that the clones you’re growing are disease and pest-free. These problems can ruin the entire garden if you don’t properly vet your source.
Genetic Stability
Genetic stability is a complex issue and can have significant impact on agronomic production and germplasm conservation. It refers to unwanted changes in a genome that affect its functionality and/or gene expression.
The genetic stability of a plant variety can be altered by mutations or the loss of a single nucleotide in the DNA code, which causes a change in the protein expression levels. This can result in a reduction of seed yield or a decrease in the quality of the produced seeds.
This process, called seed ageing, can be a major problem for agronomists and germplasm conservation because it can result in a loss of vigour and viability. During this process, seeds follow a reverse-sigmoidal viability loss curve that starts with a stable stage and progressively declines in viability.
In the present study, we assessed DNA stability and epigenetic changes during storage of rye seeds, stored-imbibed seeds and seedlings, using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique and methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) markers. Percentages of stability and MSAP changes were compared between non-stored and stored seeds at different stages of deterioration, as well as between stored-imbibed and seedlings from the same lot.
Price
The price of regular seed depends on a number of factors, including the type of genetics that have been used, the strain’s THC level, and its legality in your location. Often, a higher THC strain is more expensive than a low-THC strain.
In addition, a high demand for these seeds elevates the price. This is especially true if the genetics are from a famous seed bank.
As a result, some growers choose to buy regular seeds instead of feminized ones. This saves them money in the long run because they don’t have to spend as much time sexing their plants.
A number of reputable seed banks and breeders use their own genetics to produce a strain, which requires a lot of time and effort on their part. Consequently, these strains tend to be priced higher than their feminized counterparts.
