WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CANNABIS SEEDS?
Cannabis seeds are generally divided into three categories: regular seeds, feminized seeds and auto flowering seeds.
- Regular seeds are produced when cannabis plants are naturally pollinated, or when regular breeding techniques are used.
They have a 50/50 chance of being male or female; the only way to tell their sex is to grow them out. Male seeds grow up to be male cannabis plants, and male cannabis plants produce no bud. Unless you are breeding your own genetics, you want to get rid of the male ASAP. A male cannabis plant will pollinate all of your female plants (as well as your neighbor’s), so it is imperative that you remove and bag that guy as soon as you’ve identified him!
We’re only interested in the ladies.
- Feminized seeds are guaranteed to be female cannabis plants. Female cannabis plants produce the flowers or buds, which hold the majority of the plant’s medicinal properties.
Feminized seeds are created in various ways. One method is to stress out a healthy female plant during its flowering stage by interrupting its light cycle. Another method is to spray the female plant with a mixture of colloidal silver. The silver solution obstructs ethylene production; ethylene being a hormone involved in flowering. The result is a female plant that produces male buds with pollen sacs. The genetics carried by these pollen sacs are all female, owing to the fact that they are developed on a genetically female plant. When those flowers then pollenate another plant, they produce feminized seeds.
- Auto flowering seeds are different from photo-period seeds in that they automatically begin to flower when the cannabis plant reaches a certain size or stage of development.
Cannabis indica or Cannabis sativa strains are crossed with Cannabis ruderalis strains, creating auto flowering varieties. Ruderalis plants are native to Russia, and only grow up to 60cm due to the cold.
Most auto flowering strains grow from seed to harvest in less than 10 weeks. They are more resistant to colder temperatures, and they can be grown outdoors all year round.
While this may sound amazing, they do have their disadvantages. They generally tend to be much smaller and lower yielding than photo-period seeds. They’re also a bit sensitive; practice makes perfect when it comes to growing auto flowering cannabis seeds.
