Here are 10 interesting facts about cannabis seeds to share with your friends.
- Creating feminized versions of plant seeds did not originate with cannabis, but was a technique used in agriculture for many years before being adapted for cannabis in the 1980’s.
- There are several different methods of creating feminized cannabis seeds but they all rely on stressing a female plant until it becomes hermaphroditic and produces pollen, which is then used to fertilize another female plant.
- When feminized cannabis seeds were first released, there were concerns from some growers that the plants they produced would be unstable hermaphrodites. These fears proved mostly groundless, and as feminization techniques continue to improve, this problem now rarely occurs.
- Feminized cannabis seeds produce feminized, not female, plants, according to the proper scientific definitions. However they are still sometimes referred to as ‘female seeds’. As all the plants they produce should grow and flower like females, it is easy to see how the two names are used interchangeably.
- When feminized cannabis seeds were first introduced for sale, they were more expensive – sometimes much more so – than regular seeds. Fortunately nowadays there are many different varieties of good quality, very affordable feminized cannabis seeds available, giving growers a wide range of choice for their money.
- Feminized cannabis seeds grow under the same conditions as regular cannabis seeds and require no special additional nutrients, techniques or equipment.
- The storage conditions required for feminized cannabis seeds are exactly the same as those for regular seeds. They should be kept perfectly dry, at a temperature of between 5 and 7 degrees centigrade, and in the dark. The door of a refrigerator is usually an ideal place.
- Feminized cannabis seeds have advantages for pretty much all growers, but especially for people growing their own medicinal cannabis as they may have less time and energy to spend checking for and weeding out make plants when they begin to appear, as is necessary with regular cannabis seeds.
- There is a misconception about feminized cannabis seeds, namely that they are genetically engineered. Genetic modification describes selective breeding processes that could also occur naturally – Skunk #1 and all other cannabis hybrids could be correctly called ‘genetically modified’. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, is when the dna of one species is directly infused with the dna of another – tomatoes with fish genes, for example. Luckily this has yet to occur with cannabis; feminized cannabis seeds, though a fantastic breakthrough in breeding, are not genetically engineered.
- Sensi Seeds has an ever-growing selection of feminized seeds, in response to many requests from our fans for feminized versions of our most popular and award -winning strains.
by Sensi Seeds
Originally published in Weed World Magazine issue 132
