Regular seed offers growers the possibility to create a wide range of strains. They contain male and female specimens so that breeders can produce a new cultivar through the process of crossing.
This requires the ability to quickly identify the male plants in your crop, preventing them from pollinating the females and spoiling your yield. It is a skill that every cultivator must develop over time.
Breeding
For growers who prefer to hand-breed their own strains, regular seed is the best choice. By selecting a male and female specimen from your favourite cultivar, you can create offspring that display the best of both parents’ traits. This is known as crossing, and is the primary method by which most modern hybrids are created.
With a batch of 10 seeds, you should expect about 50% female and 50% male plants on average. This is because hermaphrodite plants are much more likely to emerge when the plant is stressed by techniques such as topping, fimming, lollypopping and defoliation.
As such, it is often a good idea to start with more than 10 seeds when planting your own breeding project. This way you can ensure that you have enough plants to select the very best, and eliminate any faulty offspring.
When it comes to choosing your marijuana seeds, every cultivator has different needs and priorities. For example, some people want to choose feminized or autoflower seeds, while others are more concerned with the genetics and flavour profile of a particular strain. The choice comes down to personal preference, cultivation expectations and space restrictions. Whatever your decision, you should always buy the highest-quality seeds you can afford to maintain your garden’s health and vigour.
Cloning
With cloning, growers take a cutting from an existing female cannabis plant and root it in soil or a hydroponic growing medium. This process eliminates the need for male plants and the need to watch for them sprouting, which can skew a harvest timeline. It also means you’re guaranteed a 100% female plant for smokable buds (since male plants produce pollen sacs and detract from the yield of a mature marijuana plant).
Clones need to be taken care of, and they’ll often require more nutrients than seedlings. They should be checked daily for adequate water and nutrient levels and must be kept in a healthy, sterile environment because diseases like powdery mildew can spread quickly from one clone to the rest of your garden.
Another advantage of regular seed is that it gives you the chance to cook up your own crossbreeds – those unique specimens that combine a specific flavour profile, morphology and colour with a high level of potency and a good yield. It also takes less time to reach harvest from a seed than it does from a rooted clone. However, seeds can be more likely to become hermaphrodites under certain conditions, so it’s wise to order more than you need just in case.
Seeds for sale
Regular seeds are an ideal choice for growers who wish to work with a wide selection of phenotypes for breeding purposes. The reason for this is that the seeds are more likely to produce both male and female plants in larger numbers than feminized seeds (although over a sample size of 10 you should be able to expect to find around 50%). The ability to identify the sex of each plant early on is extremely beneficial, as it allows you to cull the males before they pollinate your females.
For example, Tropic Thunder regular, a tropical indica, will produce fruity tones and mellow vibes that bring to mind sunset cocktails. This strain is a great choice for veteran cultivators and requires a greenhouse environment to thrive. It will flower in 8-10 weeks and yield a crop of up to 35 oz.
At Herbies, we’re proud to carry a wide range of top-quality regular cannabis seeds from the best breeders in the business including ILGM, Crop King Seeds and Beaver Seeds. Each of these brands has been carefully selected for their top-notch genetics, high germination rates and reasonable prices. In addition, we offer free seeds with every order and useful branded gifts to make your cannabis seeds experience even more special.
