Seeded vs unseeded quality-wise yield-wise

[Miko]

Hello dear friends!

I've been thinking lately on experimenting with polinating plants and harvesting seeded bud. Before I proceed I'd like some input from you ICMAGers. Provided I intend on making tinkture and some charas (no bud smoking) what do yyu think I'd loose yieldwise if any? What I also want to know is how do ou think quality of seeded bud compares to its unseeded clone? And last but not least, how much sooner a seeded plant will mature as opposed to to unseeded, from your experience?

 

[MrMcBean]

Hi,

I dont recommend making seeds, unless you absolutely know you want to. Its usually not worth it due to yield loss and quality.. if you can just get one bud pollinated like some of the pros here then its worth a try.. but not a whole plant. youll have wayy too many seeds. I leave the breeding to the pros..

After pollination the seed takes 6-8 weeks to mature. seeds usually take a week or two longer to mature than the same unpollinated plant would.

Its always worth a try.. sounds like you got some other things planned aswell.

 

[Miko]

Hi MrMcBean thank you for reply
I don't intend breeding but seeds are good to have anyway. The reason I want to try this is not seeds but possible differences in quality of high

 

[dontstepongrass]

i had a plant hermie on me because of an led light that flicked on and off during nighttime hours. after i noticed the nanners i pinpointed the cause and resolved it.

BUT the nanners kept coming. i plucked em as i saw em, but alas you can never find them all!

anyways, i was gifted 6 feminized purps beans. so i guess i inadvertently did the correct thing lol

 

[DangerP]

Seeds are very complex little structures, and so they take a whole lot of energy to produce. Since your plant only has so much energy (whatever light it can take in through its leaves), any energy it spends on seeds is energy it doesn't have to spend on other growth, including THC production.

If you're already producing more than you need than seeds won't hurt anything. If you want to get the maximum possible yield, both of bud and bud derivatives, then you don't want to grow seeds.

 

[Miko]

Hi DugerP thanks for reply. I am not so sure that your thc/seed shared energy theory makes much sence. Seeded plants produce just as much resin so why not THC. I understand it will most likely yield less just because of smaller surface area, but just how much less I'd love to know some kind of estimate. I dunno, may be there will be 20% less resin and it's totally fin with me if that resin of higher quality, more desirable high. I'll be trying this with a nice BB cut as soon as the clones root and grow up a bit with OHaze hopefully coming later.

 

[the_shadow]

Miko -

I've used one strain and grown it 3 different ways.

Regular (no topping/LST/etc): not very good yield, but was good quality bud
Seeded (lst'd then pollinated): extremely low yield, harvested early so hardly any of the seeds were viable. not nearly as quality as regular gro
Scrog (this ones ongoing): appears to be best method yet, check my sig if interested


I mention this because as you can see, when I seeded the same plant my yeild was reduced by at least 50%. In addition, the bud was not quality like the first grow, and you will need to wait a loooooong time to make sure the seeds are viable. I'm not saying seeds will cause 50% reduction everytime, but for this particular strain it did.

It's fun to experiment, I pollinate every male I get just to build a locker full of strain pollin for later experiments. My words of caution are:
*segregate your pollin and pollinated plant completely from your other fems. that pollin gets everywhere real quick and can quickly ruin a gro room
*If you normally harvest at 60 days, go to at least 80 to ensure viable seeds
*document exactly what you do. This way, if you decide to experiment more, you always know where your strains came from.
*Collect any excess pollin in a sealed jar and label it with strain info. this will be invaluable for future breeding experiments

g'luck!

 

[Wannabreed]

Hi,
I made my own female seeds
But seeds were nice and near all are germinating, pollen on 1 month 12/12 old plants and 1 month for maturation.
Lost arround ~70% of weed/energy that gone into seeds

 

[Chomas]

Hi DugerP thanks for reply. I am not so sure that your thc/seed shared energy theory makes much sence. Seeded plants produce just as much resin so why not THC. I understand it will most likely yield less just because of smaller surface area, but just how much less I'd love to know some kind of estimate. I dunno, may be there will be 20% less resin and it's totally fin with me if that resin of higher quality, more desirable high. I'll be trying this with a nice BB cut as soon as the clones root and grow up a bit with OHaze hopefully coming later.

actually his theory is correct

seed formation takes away from THC production, it's a fact

 

[reefa cheefa]

i have heard this theory about less yield to be correct. but if pollinated at say 6wks on a 12wk plant u already have a good base of bud to start off. sure most of the energy is use to make seed but as long as it has extra time to mature, mature but is as potent as mature bud. i read threads stating both sides of what u guys are saying and its fair to say its strain dependant. what about that good ol' seedy ass thai

 

[Miko]

the_shadow thanks for sharing! I understand the yield suffers. Do you speak bud yield or hash? I am talking resin only here. Bad thing you cut the seeded plant too early.

Chomas, I haven't seen any info to suggest it let alone calling it fact. Please, post more info if you have any. The info I've been able to find to this moment suggests that seeded plants may produce superior cannabinoid mix compard to sensimila.

reefa cheefa, good point on strain dependancy. should keep that in mind thanks

I've made lots of seeds in my grows but never really payed attention. Now as I don't smoke buds anymore it's all different game.

 

[gramsci.antonio]

Chomas, I haven't seen any info to suggest it let alone calling it fact. Please, post more info if you have any. The info I've been able to find to this moment suggests that seeded plants may produce superior cannabinoid mix compard to sensimila.

i've heard this too

 

[Luther Budbank]

I've done several crosses. It is my experience that the quality does not suffer much, but I have no side-by-side comparisons. My seeded bud has been plenty potent. Quantity certainly does decline. As soon as the pollen hits the female, she stops stretching and starts producing seeds. That's a small price to pay for having seeds with good genetics without the risk, albeit small, of ordering seeds.

 

[sunnydog]

actually his theory is correct

seed formation takes away from THC production, it's a fact

I've read the opposite, that seeded bud will make more resin,(presumably also moreTHC) to try to protect the developing seeds.
However, I find I end up damaging the bud with seeds to remove them.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

i agree with wannabreed my 1st 3 runs this yr was all about breeding hand pollenating the whole plant every bud site @ 3wks in. 4-6wks later most of the seed are mature and for sure yield is effected unless you only do a lower bud or 2. for sure taste and high, hash high and taste diff story that good but bud smoke ehhhh leaves more to be desired. but i all ready know what the strains yield and taste like before seeded and quality of the high as for resin production strain dependent i would think i didnt notice any loss of trichromes due to seeds.

seeded sugar shack lower very lower lol


now that whole plant center pic fully seeded i prolly got 1,000 seed easy from just this pheno 2 others where seeded also 1 phatty only 1 lower no resin production loss there. strain is Kauai Kush F2 = Abussive og kush x Maui Waui i made F3's from 3 different pheno i had. this pheno i call snow bunny just look @ her glisten



phatty

 

[Ickis]

I am an old school smoker. The summer of 1972. The weed was all seeded. We would crush up the buds on an album or tray and tilt one end and the seeds would roll out. When sensimilia came around I never thought it was better tasting or even close to the potency of great seeded bud. Soon that's all there was.

I think it might have been more because the seedless was indoor grown. Yes it might be different..piney, fruity whatever. I think outdoor grown seeded pot (strain for strain) to be more potent. I also think that seeded pot once all the seeds are removed is better tasting then the same strain seedless.

My most potent weed was always my seed plots. It just became obvious that everybody payed more for seedless. The seed plot seeded females also matured a little sooner. I always was told (back in the day) that the resins and thc were like sunburn protection it was the SunTan Lotion theory. It made more and darkened up quicker. It's probably been disproved now but in my experience seeded weed matures quicker, taste better and is more potent.

There is just more flavor and a mix of flavors and an earthy dankiness to deseeded seeded weed. I'm so old school I think a little seed as some spice to a joint. I think a joint taste way better than a vaporizer. So you can tell me I'm nuts. It's cool! LOL!

 

[Miko]

Thanks for all the replies!

Just to remind you all this topic is nt about seeds or breeding or even buds - it's about resin.

I put two cuts into flower next week, one will be seeded the other sensimilia. Will take 9 weeks till maturity. Yield will most likely be a bit lower, maybe 10-20% would be my guess, time will tell. I hope for improved smoke experience.

 

[toodles]

I made seeds my last grow of MNS SuperSilverHaze. I got way more than I intended because I forgot and left my male in the room. 2/3 plants were pretty heavily pollinated from the top down. One was just lightly pollinated.

The potentcy was not affected much, if at all.

Yield WAS greatly affected though. The one indica dom pheno only yielded 35 grams dry. VERY good smoke though.

The one sativa dom pheno that got pollinated pretty heavily yielded only about 70grams. For comparison, the very lightly sativa dom yielded about 120 grams. All those weights include the seeds still in the buds. So yield will suck when you make a lot of seeds.

I'm happy though. I have well over a thousand seeds of primo genetics. I am just now finishing up a grow of three plants from the worst of the phenos, the lil indica one. The plants are nice.

A word about potency and seeds.

Those of you who are like me and old enough to remember the old time Columbian sativas from the 60's and early 70's will KNOW that seeds don't necessarily affect potency.

Regarding times to mature:

I realize this can possibly vary with strain, the health of the plant, etc. but those who say you have to wait 6,8,12 weeks etc. to harvest seeds, let them "age" or dry, are wrong....IMO of course

I pollinated the plant I'm growing out seeds from on March 30th. I harvested the first seeds from her on May 1st, about 31 days after pollination...and planted them right then. I nearly had the mother plant and the daughter plants in flower at the same time!!!!!!!!!!! The one lightly seeded sativa pheno went 101 days.
Seeds can be ready in about 30 days...or were for me.

Seeds are fun to make and can save you a shitload of money. Plus you never know. You may find a really special plant(s) as a result of your own crosses.


Toodles

 

[Psychosativa]

Offspring is the most important aim of any organism. Living beings usually put all their efforts in reproduction.

MJ obviously "wants" to protect her seeds, so it is logical that the cannabinoid profile of seeded bud should be more "toxic" and complex in order to protect seeds against mammals, insects and microorganisms.

BTW, did anyone use to watch David Attenborough's The Private Life of Plants? Geez I loved that show.

 

[jawnroot]

This is the bottom line of it:

Seeded bud (once the seeds are taken out, of course) is just as potent as seedless gram per gram.

Seeded plants will yield anywhere from 50% to 70% less than a non seeded plant. This is because 50% to 70% of the buds have turned to seed.

There is a reason why we all grow seedless. If you want to get bags full of seeds and a few grams of good reefer, than by all means pollinate your plants. But if you're only growing for bud, it seems silly to pollinate.

To each his own, as they say.