Marijuana is a booming business. The legalization of marijuana in major states and nations around the world is the fundamental reason why the cannabis market is booming currently. This allowed many people to obtain high-quality marijuana seeds for growing their own cannabis plants.
bgThe marijuana market grew, and so did the methods of growing cannabis. There are now three primary marijuana seed kinds, each with their own unique qualities and attributes, thanks to the advancement of human understanding about cannabis plants and breeding processes. It’s autoflowering, standard, and feminized seeds.
So, which of the three main marijuana seeds is best for you? To answer that, we need to know more about seeds.
Autoflowering
1. What are they
Autoflowering cannabis seeds, as the name implies, blossom automatically with the passing of time. You may force marijuana plants into blooming by adjusting their photoperiod. For them to flower, you must reduce their light hours and boost their dark hours.
However, autoflowering marijuana strains do not require you to modify your photoperiod because they do not rely on the number of light and dark hours to transition from vegetative to flowering. That is, they bloom only with the passage of time. You no longer have to modify the light and dark hours. But why? We must examine their past.
Autoflowering marijuana strains are derived from the Marijuana ruderalis plant, the third marijuana species. Marijuana ruderalis is a plant that grows naturally in cold, mountainous locations. Some Marijuana ruderalis plants could be discovered in the Hindu Kush mountain range or other northern-like mountainous areas where other cannabis plants cannot survive.
However, millions of generations of adaptation allowed the Cannabis ruderalis plant to thrive in severe climates and cold mountainous places. As a result, Cannabis ruderalis has grown into the plants it is today.
Sunlight is limited in areas where Cannabis ruderalis grows. That means Cannabis ruderalis couldn’t rely on photoperiod to flower. They were able to gain the capacity to flower solely based on time and age.
Much as autoflowering cannabis ruderalis is fantastic, it wasn’t until the first autoflowering strain that it became a cannabis industry staple. Lowryder was created by crossing Northern Lights with a ruderalis strain called “Mexican Rudy”. He has now been utilized to develop more autoflowering strains.
Autoflowering marijuana cultivars have changed the face of marijuana seed cultivation. Because of its many advantages, many breeders and producers are now hoping to increase autoflowering marijuana strains.
2. Appearance
Even compared to little indica strains, autoflowering marijuana plants are tiny. It’s because their Marijuana ruderalis descendants had to grow in settings that limited their height. Their origins did not have much sunlight. Obviously, they were deficient in nutrients. So they stayed small all their lives and passed this trait on to their progeny, the autoflowering strains.
Aside from their size, autoflowering plants have a different development pattern compared to indicas and sativas. Like sativas, these strains have wide, light green leaves. Most autoflowering marijuana strains produce little buds, so don’t expect a big yield.
3. Attributes
Autoflowering Strains have similar effects to normal marijuana strains. So an autoflowering White Widow has the same effects as a typical White Widow. Their potency sets them apart from their ordinary counterparts.
Marijuana ruderalis, like hemp, is a marijuana variety with low THC content. Their genetics are used to generate autoflowering cannabis strains, which naturally have lower quantities of THC and other cannabinoids than ordinary cannabis strains.
Autoflowering cultivars have a shorter lifespan than regular marijuana strains. This implies they flower far faster than ordinary seeds. Developed to grow and blossom quickly in anticipation of the winter season, where even Cannabis ruderalis struggles to thrive. Depending on their genetics, autoflowering marijuana strains can be harvested in 6 to 9 weeks.
Since autoflowering marijuana plants have Cannabis ruderalis genetics, they can withstand cold weather, mold, mildew, and infections. Its hardiness and resilience come from the Cannabis ruderalis’ history of growing in harsh and inhospitable places.
While there are numerous reasons to grow autoflowering strains, they were once considered novelty plants owing to their low THC content.
However, new autoflowering strains developed by breeders changed the marijuana market. They are now far more potent than the original Lowryder and its offspring.
While autoflowering marijuana strains are still not as potent as ordinary cannabis buds, they are improving.
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4. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Autoflowering plants are easier to grow because they don’t need light to flower. They are also hardy and resilient plants that require minimal care.
- They are small plants that require little space. That makes them ideal for stealth growers and those who lack space for larger marijuana strains. Of course, the smaller the plants, the more you can grow in a small space.
- That means more harvests. Autoflowering strains flowers speedily. In a sense, you can harvest more of these strains per year than regular seeds. More buds, eh? That means you can smoke more or sell more of them.
Cons:
- Autoflowering strains have small buds due to their small size. That means they don’t produce the highest yields, even though autoflowering strains are now beinG developed to match regular strain yields.
- Autoflowering marijuana strains contain less THC than regular strains. They aren’t as potent as other strains and don’t provide the same high and experience as regular marijuana. This is fine for beginners, but not for long-time users.
- Their fixed lifespan makes them unsuitable for cloning. Clones age like their mothers. So, cloning an autoflowering strain will result in smaller plants with lower yields because the clones simply follow the mother plant’s age.
Regular
1. What are they
Regular marijuana seeds are just like regular cannabis strains in that they have no special properties. They develop in the same way as regular marijuana plants and can be male or female. In short, they are your typical indica or sativa strains.
2. Appearance
Regular marijuana seeds look like indicas and sativas. Indica marijuana plants are smaller and rarely grow taller than six feet. And they’re darker. Sativa marijuana plants can grow up to 12 feet tall. They are thin and lanky with lighter green leaves.
Male marijuana plants produce pollen sacs that open to pollinate near the area of female marijuana plants. Females, unlike males, produce flowers which can be harvested for either their buds or seeds.
3. Attributes
As stated previously, regular marijuana seeds are not distinguished from other cannabis seeds. Their characteristics vary depending on the marijuana strain. In a sense, an indica has the traits of an indica, while a sativa has the traits of a sativa. Hybrids are a bit different because their traits are determined by their genetics and parent strains.
Regular cannabis seeds are either male or female. In that sense, you won’t know if your seeds are male or female. You just need to wait until they reach a certain age to judge their sex. Depending on your goals and needs, you may need to discard male plants before pollen sacs develop.
4. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- As for regular marijuana seeds, you don’t need to change your growing methods.
- They are great for breeding and seed production because they can pollinate female marijuana plants.
- The presence of male plants prevents hermaphroditism, which occurs when female plants develop male traits to pollinate themselves.
- Generating different phenotypes from regular marijuana seeds is rare due to generations of backcrossing and stabilization.
- Female marijuana plants are ideal for cloning because they are hermaphrodite resistant.
Cons:
- Males on your growth space will cause issues if you only want to produce buds because they slow down female bud development.
- Regular cannabis seeds have a 50% chance of producing males with no buds, wasting roughly half of your seeds.
- They are inefficient because they grow slowly and may become males instead of females.
Feminized
What are they
Feminized marijuana seeds always produce female cannabis plants. Yes, you can avoid having your seeds grow into useless male plants that don’t produce buds. As you may know, the female plants’ buds contain the majority of THC and terpenes, which provide the psychoactive high and health benefits. In other words, the buds are the most profitable part of the marijuana plant.
Feminized marijuana seeds can be made in two ways. The first method uses colloidal silver to force a female marijuana plant to produce pollen sacs that can be gathered to pollinate other female marijuana plants. The rodelization method relies on the emergence of hermaphrodites. Hermaphrodites are female marijuana plants that can develop male characteristics in order to pollinate.
The pollen produced by the pollen sacs collected by both methods can be used to produce feminized seeds because there is no male marijuana genetics involved in the production of those seeds.
2. Appearance
Feminized marijuana plants look like regular cannabis plants, except they are all female. In other words, when fully grown, feminized marijuana seeds are identical to regular cannabis seeds. They will always be females, except when some females become hermaphrodites.
3. Attributes
Feminized marijuana seeds are identical to regular cannabis seeds but apart from that they will always produce female marijuana plants. Technically, they are the same as regular cannabis seeds. However, feminized marijuana seeds are more likely to become hermaphrodites due to environmental stresses and the lack of males forcing them to become hermaphrodites to pollinate themselves.
4. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Your plants will all be bud-producing females thanks to these efficient methods.
- With no males around, your female marijuana plants can concentrate on producing high-quality cannabis buds.
- You no longer need to waste time growing seeds that will eventually turn into males that require a lot of work to get rid of.
Cons:
- Not good for making marijuana seeds or breeding new cannabis strains.
- Feminized plants are not ideal for cloning because they are more likely to become hermaphrodites.
- Hermaphrodism is a common issue with feminized marijuana seeds.
- Their Genetic makeup is not as stable as regular seeds.
- This means that your feminized marijuana seeds are more likely to produce phenotypes.
