As the use of marijuana becomes legalized in many states and countries, cannabis connoisseurs are also exploring every benefit that can be derived from this amazing plant. As the “green revolution” is spreading like wildfire, the attention towards marijuana is not just concentrated on its effects on both recreational and medical purposes, but cannabis cultivators and growers are also exploring the different methods to produce high-quality marijuana products.
If you have tried your green thumb in growing regular marijuana seeds and have been a part of the rapid cannabis growing culture, perhaps you want to try other varieties like cultivating feminized cannabis seeds.
What are feminized cannabis seeds?
If you have limited growing space, then growing feminized marijuana seeds is advisable for you. Feminized cannabis seeds are specialized cannabis seeds that are bred to eliminate male chromosomes. Feminized seeds are growing female plants. This is very popular with cannabis cultivators because female plants produce more active compounds such as THC and CBD, and female plants are more smokable. Feminized seeds develop from female plants. They are almost 100% hermaphrodites, and they can grow big and develop bigger yields. Feminized produce fewer leaves, and plants grown with feminized seeds are easy to prune.
How are feminized seeds produced?
There are several ways and methods to produce feminized seeds. Cannabis cultivators use methods that involve the use of pollen that is produced from the stamens of the female plant. The pollen used only carries the X chromosome, which is used to pollinate another regular female plant. It will produce seeds with only female sex combinations or XX chromosomes. There are several ways to induce male flowers on a female plant to possess only the X chromosomes.
- Gibberellic acid: This chemical compound should be in diluted form. When applied to female plants, it will bring X-bearing pollen.
- Silver Thiosulfate: This is another compound that has the same effects as Gibberellic acid. It induces male stamens on the female plant resulting in exclusive X-bearing pollen. This compound is a half-and-half combination of sodium thiosulfate and silver nitrate.
- Stress: This is an organic method of producing stress that happens when a flowering female produces some male flowers when the plant is subjected to natural or environmental stressors. By changing the photoperiod to random or switching from flowering to vegetative, temperature stress and other stressors can cause the production of the male plant on a predominantly female plant.
- Realization Method: This involves a natural process when the female plant is stressed. When they are stressed and nearing the ending of their life, and they have not been fertilized, they will grow their own pollen sacs with the aid of male chromosomes. This method increases the possibility of producing female seeds.
What are the dangers of forced feminized seeds?
Feminized seeds are specialized seeds. Cannabis is known to be a dioecious plant. As there are many advantages of feminized seeds, there are also risks, dangers, and disadvantages that come along with cultivating cannabis seeds.
- Feminized seeds are expensive. This is a given fact as these are specialized seeds. Feminized seeds are costly compared to regular marijuana seeds because they are expected to produce female plants that contain high THC and CBD contents; likewise, the plant develops strains that have great flavors and aromas. Prices of regular and feminized seeds vary depending on the strain as well.
- They are more sensitive to cultivate compared to regular seeds. Feminized seeds are produced from very careful and detailed genetic manipulation. The feminized seeds are too sensitive that it is better not to touch them during the flowering cycle since it will affect the quality of their flowers. It can also affect or hurt the system. It should not experience any stress as it will affect the total production of your plant. Expert cannabis cultivators advise you to leave or not to touch your plants as much as possible.
- Feminized seeds cannot withstand temperature changes and stress: As mentioned, feminized seeds are sensitive, and they cannot handle stress like changes in the temperature of the weather. Anything that brings them stress affects the plant’s productivity. You have to grow cannabis feminized seeds with extra care.
- Feminized seeds cannot reproduce seeds: Feminized seeds are becoming popular because of their best qualities, but one very important disadvantage of feminized seeds is that they are not able to reproduce seeds. To produce other cannabis seeds, you have to have male seeds. This applies to all plants; that is just how nature works.
Feminized seeds can pose danger to a breeder. The main issue is the hermaphrodite, which is a valid concern. Hermaphrodites are male and female that have some flowers of the opposite sex. Hermaphrodites should not be used as feminized seed crop parents. Regardless of whether the plants are being reversed, they present a risk of hermaphroditic expression to which regular seeds are not immune. If you are confident that plant reserved was a type that is hard to reverse, it should not be very risky than using a regular seed. It is important to know how the feminized parent plant was chosen. It is important to know that the selection process was not just based on the phenotype, but also that the feminized female plant has undergone a battery of stress tests to see how easily it shows hermaphroditism.
Feminized seeds are the latest trend in the cannabis cultivating culture. It may pose some risk, yet given the benefits it can bring, we are sure that it will not go away and will develop more as more research and studies are being done to perfect the production of feminized seeds.
Conclusion
The danger and the risk of cultivating forced feminized marijuana seeds is an issue that can be dealt with, especially when master cannabis cultivators are finding ways to improve and enhance the cultivating methods involving feminized cannabis seeds.
So far, growing feminized cannabis seeds have shown many benefits, and its advantages have been recognized in the cannabis community. With curious cannabis consumers and cultivators continuously exploring the benefits of cultivating marijuana, in the nearest future, we won’t be worrying about any dangers that forced feminized marijuana can impose.
