Although feminized seeds are growing in popularity, regular seeds have their own set of advantages. Growers choose regular seeds because they produce both male and female cannabis plants. Male plants can be separated from the female plants and used to fertilize the female plants, creating new strains.
Additionally, regular seeds are less prone to hermaphrodites than feminized plants. However, there are some drawbacks to growing regular seeds.
Breeding
Regular seeds are a good choice for breeders who want to create a new strain. They give growers the opportunity to work with male and female plants, which allows them to determine sex from an early stage. This makes it possible for growers to eliminate any male plants before they pollinate the females.
However, it takes more time and effort to separate male and female plants with regular seeds than feminized ones. This can lead to a lower yield than if you had used feminized seeds.
Another advantage of using regular seeds is that they have a higher chance of becoming hermaphrodites than feminized ones. This means that they are less prone to stress throughout the growing process and can produce more viable buds. This can be beneficial for growers who want a larger harvest. However, they must be careful to remove any male plants as soon as they start producing pollen sacs. Otherwise, they will ruin the crop.
Cloning
Cloning regular seeds enables growers to take cuttings from existing plants, or mother plants, and recreate them as a new specimen. This process is essential for anyone who wants to preserve specific traits in a strain, such as flavour, colour or morphology.
However, growing from clones requires careful attention to the growing environment. The clone must be kept in water until it roots, and the medium must contain enough nutrients to support growth. Clones also need high humidity and fresh air, so it is important to open up the propagator and remove the clone from time to time to allow fresh air in.
The main drawback of cloning is that male plants can pollinate the female plant, so growers need to carefully separate male and female plants until they are in the flowering stage. This is easier to do with feminized seeds as they don’t have the potential for male plants. However, this can result in smaller yields for some growers.
Genetic Diversity
A high level of genetic diversity is important to a plant’s survival and adaptation. However, this genetic diversity can be compromised by a variety of factors. One such factor is small population sizes, which can lead to increased selfing rates and inbreeding depression. These factors may also reduce seedling vitality and survival. A study by Wojacki et al. found that the number of maternal lines in a sample influences the effective allele numbers of offspring trees.
The analysis used COLONY to compensate for null alleles and allele dropouts during marker genotyping of parental plants and their offspring. This resulted in higher estimates of observed and expected heterozygosity than would be predicted by a random mating model alone. However, these estimates are likely inflated by the presence of biparental inbreeding among close relatives, especially when allele frequencies are low. This effect is especially noticeable in H. sericea and H. teretifolia, which have high sM and sC estimates.
Price
The price of regular seeds varies, but they are generally one of the most affordable categories of cannabis seed. This makes them a great option for beginners who are looking to get started with growing. However, prices have been steadily increasing because of a number of factors including intellectual property, regulation, and funding.
In contrast to feminized seeds, which operate as designed, regular seeds have a 50% chance of producing male plants and a 50% chance of growing flowering females. This is perfect for breeders because it allows them to create new cultivars and superior clones.
Herbies has a vast selection of regular marijuana seeds to choose from. Their expert team can help you find the perfect strain to suit your needs, from high THC content and potency to fast flowering times and rich terpene profiles. They also offer stealth shipping to keep your purchase discreet and private. Check out their website for more information.
