If you’re planning your next crop, choosing the right seed type is important. You can choose from regular, feminized or autoflowering seeds.
Feminized and autoflower seeds produce a higher percentage of female plants than regular seeds. However, some cultivators prefer regular seeds due to their lower price and the ability to weed out male plants.
Cost
The cost of regular seed varies depending on location and supplier. It also depends on the type of seed, as different options offer varying benefits. For example, annual ryegrass seeds are the most expensive, whereas wheat is the least expensive. A good way to determine the price of your seeds is to use a decision tool that compares yield and economic returns.
Despite being cheaper than feminized seeds, regular seed is not the best option for growers looking to maximize yield. This is because the majority of plants grown from regular seeds are males, and growers must manually weed them out. This process can take time and can result in a lot of waste, including nutrients and substrate.
However, it is worth noting that many growers prefer working with regular seeds because they offer a more natural and less tampered growing experience. They also give growers the opportunity to cultivate both female and male plants for breeding purposes.
Genetics
The seed of a plant contains nutrients needed for embryo growth and dormancy, and the outer coating provides a physical barrier to external contamination. Seed traits such as germination time, sex determination, and viability can be improved by a number of genetic and agronomic techniques. Genetic and agronomic approaches are also accelerating our understanding of the complex pathways that control seed development, dormancy, and germination in crop species.
Feminized seeds are preferred by growers who want a guaranteed ratio of female to male plants in their crop. However, regular seeds will also produce male plants, so some growers prefer to use them alongside feminized seeds to increase their chances of getting a good yield.
Sunwest Genetics has a well-organized website with seed categories such as bestselling seeds and autoflowering strains. This allows you to quickly select the strain that suits your needs. In addition, their customer service representatives are available through live chat and phone.
Seed germination
Seed germination is the process by which a seed sprouts into a new plant, and it occurs under favorable conditions of water, oxygen, temperature, and light. It can also refer to the growth of sporeling hyphae or thalli from fungi and the growth of pollen tubes from pollen grains in flowering plants.
Mature seeds contain food reserves, or endosperm, that provide nourishment for the embryo inside the seed. The uptake of water by seeds, a process known as imbibition, activates enzymes that begin the germination process. As the radicle and plumule emerge from the seed, they absorb energy from the endosperm and begin growing.
You can determine the germination rate of your seeds by calculating the number of seeds that germinate per day over a period of 15 days and recording your results in a table. To conduct this experiment, you will need a petri dish and filter paper. Count 50 seeds and moisten them with enough water to make them wet, but not so much that they start to float.
Pollination
One of the most important functions of flowers is pollination, the process by which a plant transfers its male gametes to a female carpel. During pollination, the pollen grains from a plant’s anthers (male part) rub or drop onto a flower’s stigma (female part). Once there, they germinate to form pollen tubes that carry the male gametes to a female carpel, where they fertilize the ovary. This fertilization produces seeds and fruit.
The process of pollination can be improved by limiting the number of fertilized flowers that mature into seed, which is called outcrossing. Outcrossing is essential for ensuring that genetic diversity is maintained in the population. In addition, outcrossing reduces the amount of inbreeding within a species, which can lead to weakened adaptation to changing environments.
JD Irving has a program to improve its regular seed through outcrossing and genetic selection. This is done by selecting the best trees for a range of qualities such as tree straightness and fast growth and then grafting them together in the seed orchard.
