Regular cannabis seeds offer growers several advantages that feminized ones do not. It’s up to the individual grower’s aims and experience to determine which type is right for them.
Whether it be extreme potency, a specific terpene profile or colour – regular seed allows breeders to reproduce their favourite specimens. This is done through cloning.
Breeding
Breeding is the sexual reproduction of offspring, usually between male and female plants or animals. It is a process by which humans have been able to enhance many of the food, medicine and fibers we use today. This has been accomplished through selective cultivation and breeding animals for ideal characteristics, such as fine wool or high milk output.
Plant breeders select plants with desirable traits to produce new cultivars for food, fuel, fabric, landscape, shelter, eco-systems services and other purposes. Selections are based on biological assessment in target environments, pedigree information and more sophisticated genetic analysis such as molecular markers.
Early agriculturalists began unintentional breeding of vegetables and fruits by selecting for qualities like sweetness or size, but intentional breeding began with the introduction of seeds from cultivated crops into herds of livestock. Modern plant breeding uses a wide range of methodologies including outcrossing, crossing between distinct landraces and utilizing clonal seed parent lines.
Cloning
Clones give you an exact copy of your mother plant, which means the same grow characteristics and flavor profile every time. However, as a side effect, they will also carry any flaws their DNA contains.
During cloning, you’ll need to work in a clean environment and disinfect razors and scissors before you cut the stems. You’ll also need to make sure the mother plant is well into its vegetative cycle before you take the cuttings.
Clones are hard to come by for home growers, since they need to be cut from an active vegetative plant. They’re more fragile than seeds and can die if you handle them aggressively or don’t provide them with a sterile environment. They’re also more expensive than seeds, but if you can find them, they’ll outperform seeds in most ways. Seeds, on the other hand, have a natural ability to adapt to their environment, meaning they can adjust their genetics to suit different conditions.
Mother Plants
When a grower wants to get a steady supply of fresh, healthy clones they need to keep a mother plant in the vegetative phase of growth. This will allow it to produce new branches that growers can cut and grow into clones. A well-kept mother plant can live for years, continuously producing branches or cuttings that can be used to make clones.
These plants need special care to ensure that they are able to offer quality clones. They need to be fed with a nutrient ratio that is optimized for vegetative growth and branching. They should also be given rooting hormones to help them develop a dense network of roots.
Keeping a healthy mother plant can be a time-consuming process, but it can save growers a lot of money in the long run. It can also avoid the hassle of phenotype hunting and give them access to high-quality genetics that will improve their yield. However, the key to a successful mother plant is the growing environment – the perfect combination of nutrients, humidity control, lighting and temperature.
Seeds
Seeds are the simplest form of a plant and usually have a hard outer covering that protects the embryo inside until it is ready to start growing (germinate). A seed contains all of the building blocks for a whole plant, like leaves, stems and roots. Seeds are also an important food source and a key component of ecosystems.
A seed can be any shape or size, and it is the result of one sperm cell fertilizing an egg cell in an angiosperm or gymnosperm plant. The seeds of open pollinated plants, such as heirloom varieties, grow true to type, meaning they will produce the same kind of plant as the parent, if other plants don’t cross-pollinate them.
Seeds are used for many purposes, including crop production and landscaping. They can also be used to produce new varieties of crops with desirable characteristics through plant breeding. Basic seed, or foundation seed, is certified by a government agency to meet certain standards for purity and germination before it can be sold to farmers.
