Opinions on Indoor Feminised Grow Strains?

[saint82]

I'm starting a small indoor op and was after some opinions on good strains going from everyones experience.
I'm after something easy to grow, hardy with a good yield.
Because of space I want to go with feminised seeds, but I've heard this is a bit of a minefield and quality is varied between seed banks.
I was originally thinking Master Kush but thought it best to check with some pros

 

[pinecone]

Because of space I want to go with feminised seeds, but I've heard this is a bit of a minefield and quality is varied between seed banks.

I honestly can't tell you from personal experience as I've never grown a fem seeds. Anecdotal evidence would suggest higher hermie rates with fem seeds, but lots of people seem to grow them out without difficulty. They may be more sensitive to environmental stress so some growers with small light leaks and temp problems may have more difficulty than others.

It is possible to work with non-fem strains in tight confines. Most (all) MJ plants will show their sex after 3- 5-weeks from sprout while they are still in their vegetative stage (under 18+ hours of light). If you keep them in small containers you can fit a bunch of plants in a small footprint and transplant to larger containers once the males are identified and disposed of. Technically, you could use 16oz cups until plants are sexed (but you would be watering everyday after 3-4 weeks).

I was originally thinking Master Kush but thought it best to check with some pros

I honestly don't know. You might do a search, see if you can find someone that has grown it and PM them.

With MJ seeds there isn't as strong a relationship between price and quality as you might expect. It might not be a bad idea to look for something cheap that a lot of people have grown and been pleased with. You do probably want a hybrid as they will grow faster and, thus, be easier to be patient with. Along these lines suggest looking some of the Cannicopia Deep Chunk crosses as they are cheap (<$40 USD), F1 hybrids, and there are a lot of documented grows. Deep Chunk is a short, thick indica so most of the crosses should be very manageable in tight spaces. They aren't fem seeds though.

Pinecone

 

[saint82]

chers pincone - you raise some interesting points. Ill let you know what I end up choosing

 

[oldschoolfarmer]

I'm a big fan of feminized g13xhaze. I've grown her 3 times indoor with pretty decent yields. My next indoor fem will probly be kali, but I'm not groin for yields anymore

 

[saint82]

did you use a particular seedbank - many hermies in your grow?

 

[MickTheBrag]

white widow. peace.

 

[DrunkenMessiah]

Feminized seeds aren't all that special, I've made plenty myself, it is very easy. Grow the desired plant as a female mother. Take clones. Subject some of the clones to high stress environments (I use a fan to constantly blow them, giberillic acid, and I set the timer to put an hour of light right in the middle of their night time. Turns the plants 100% male every time) and leave the others alone. Pollinate the female clones with pollen from the ones you turned male (which aren't real males, they still have the genetic predisposition to be female) and, TA-DA! Femminized seeds!

This is all that the big seed banks are doing to create the mythical feminized seeds. Personally I have never seen the point in them, I can get male/female/hermie ratios ( six males, seventy three females and one hermie on my most successful run) that are just as good with non-fem seeds as people tend to get with feminized beans. Genetic predisposition only has a mild influence on whether a cannabis plant ends up male or female. Sexual orientation is much more dependent on the conditions that the plant is subject to than the specific set of chromosomes it had to start with. Fem seeds still have the same problems with stretch, flower timing, turning hermie, etc. Fem seeds aren't really as much of a boon to grow newbs as you might think.

If you are going to a seed bank for an easy-to-grow first-timer strain (ESPECIALLY if you have space constraints like you) you need to look for something called 'lowrider'

Lowrider is not a specific strain so much as it is a type of strain. Lowrider is also known as 'autoflowering' because it does just that. You pop lowrider beans under a 12 hour day and keep them there until they finish. The plants will automatically veg, sex, flower and mature without messing with light timing at all. Lowrider plants are also 100% flowering and will never produce hermies. But how can this be? It sounds contradictory given that I just said femmenized seeds can produce males, hermies or females. The existence of lowrider should mean that all my preaching about the sex of cannabis being dependent on the environment is bullshit, right? Ah, but there is a loophole! The trick with lowrider is that they actually have no sex at all. Lowrider plants are sterile! They cannot reproduce. With no sex organs the plant grows into its default state which is to have flowers and trichomes-a-pleanty. They are the easiest, lowest maintenance, hardest-to-screw-up designer strains in existence. They tend to stay very squat and bushy (even under strech-inducing HPS lamps!) and unlike many designer strains are remarkably hard to kill. They run medium-to-high yields (for small spaces) and are generally trouble-free.

Lowrider strains where all the rage with stealth cab and other hight-restricted growers back on the Overgrow forums. For some reason they are not as prevelent anymore, but many reputible seed banks still cary a variety of autoflowering strains. Forget 'femenized seeds', they are overpriced and not particularly helpful to the newbie grower. Lowrider all the way, I know you'll have good luck with it.

Good luck and happy gardening!

-DM

 

[dongle69]

Fem seeds can be great.
They are cheap and great for newbies and pro growers.
I love "The Church."
I have popped over 300 of them.
No hermies or males.

 

[EmeraldHaze]

I've grown from feminized seeds twice, and non-feminized seeds once.

I much preferred the feminized seeds, given that one (out of a meager 3 plant crop) of the non-fem plants turned male, taking a big chunk out of my overall yield.

I've never had any problems with hermies in either of my fem crops (or at all, for that matter).

 

[saint82]

Drunken Messiah - wow - ive been educated. I remember reading abt lowrider on OG many yrs ago and had comletely forgotten. I'll definately do a bit more research on this.

Dongle69 - Never heard of that strain before but just had a quick look and found 5 frminised seeds for under twenty quid - what a bargain!!

lol, bad luck emerald but thats what I'm saying. With such a small space dont really want to be messing about.

A mate of mine was telling me to buy normal seeds and veg for abt 4 weeks. Then take a cutting of each plant, root them then flower them for a coule of weeks to determine the sex of each cutting and therefore the plant.
It all sounds a bit too long to me, any of you heard of this technique?

I'm gonna do a bit of research on the lowriders but dongle, if your saying the Church is a good strain which is quite easy to grow, I might get a cheeky pack of 5!

 

[greenisgold]

With all of the trimming/growing techniques, LR is a waste of time IMO. I grew them out back in the OG days and it was a mistake. Not sure how in the hell you are going to get med to high yields with LR? But there are a lot of auto flowering strains now.
FEM seeds work great, but IMO they do not have the vigor that non fem seeds have. But for the grower who does not care about cloning, has a small ops and wants a 90 percent female rate, then fem all the way. If you are a shitty grower, with a crappy space then yes you run into hermie traits with "any" seed, fem or non fem.
I have grown 100's of fem seeds, some good, some shitty but oly had one or two plants that showed hermie traits but they still produced and did not seed. There is a very inexpensive female strain called super girl from nirvana. Try them as you might like them and if ya fuck up, it's not much money down the drain. Master kush is great, but it's up to the high "you" want. Stay away from GH female seed as some them just plain suck! Over mkt crap.
Peace

 

[sparkjumper]

I've never had problems with fem seeds until now,one of my DP flo's got basically nanner covered about 3 weeks into 12/12,never seen anything like it.I've always had good luck with female seeds NL they are a good company.If they ever come out with fem grapefruit again its a great strain

 

[purpledomgoddes]

seed run...

seed run...

acquire 10-xyz seeds. preferably of broadly varying genetic make-up, or known desired traits. can also stay w/ single desire trait/1 specific genotype/phenotype.
plant all seeds.

after 3 weeks veg, flower all out.

note all visible traits in males and females.

take cuttings from all plants, place in small containers.

do seed run.

eat fruit of plants when harvested.

should now have xyz+... seeds. no need to ever acquire again.

separate seeds, according to female from which came from. take note of taste of fruit from said females.

now have bonsai mums and seeds, and males, if desired to be kept/further breeding; and fruit to eat while next batch of seeds germed.

should be able to have f1 hybrid vigor in all of the xyz seeds harvested from seeds run. + will have variation and general strength of seed plants.

same day plants begin flowering, 10-xyz more seeds are sown. so, @ end of group a's flowering, group b has had 45-70+ days of veg+sexing+preflower, depending on time takes to fully mature.

same day/week/when convenient, place sexed females into flowering.

minimizes need for seed/cutting acquisition+maximizes variation+f1 hybrid vigor in all seedlings.

can x and re-x, bx, make different lines, etc. all in minimal space.

 

[dbfr3sh]

figured for shits an giggles id chime in. Nirvana's SNow white is a very easy to grow plant that produces dense nugs of high widow variety. i flowered under a 220w t5 system with 5 plants and got a little under 8oz (.86gpw). they loved nutes and never had any problems with them. although of wouldnt grow again becuase im looking for that "something new genetics". but she sure is easy and care free. enjoy....(vegged 4.5 weeks-flowered 8 weeks)

before flowering...

couple of weeks into flowering...

a month or so...

just about done...

finshed product (sow to finish...97days)

Good luck

 

[saint82]

8oz only using 220w - I'm stunned, I never thought you could get that kind of weight with that amount of wattage. Them buds look amazing. noticed you topped them a couple of times? They not very tall - that would be ideal for my small space - is it the screen that kept the height down?
Cheers!

 

[dbfr3sh]

yea best part is there not topped....at all.

its hard to see but all i did was tie the main top down to the bucket 90*. this made the plant extend its internodes. i tied down for a week on, 3 days off, a week on, 3 days off-etc. then left it on and for the first 3 weeks i put in a scrog screen to help with the stretch and organize the colas. then i took that off and let finish. i credit alot to the genetics because after about 3 weeks old (veg) they took off and went nuts. i can only imagine if i had more time to grow them and pruned them!

 

[Sleepy]

Female Seeds via Seedbay/SeedBoutique...

Female Seeds via Seedbay/SeedBoutique...

hello...

i am not affiliated with either entity, but...

i have grown a few of their starins.

White Widow
Zamal x Neville's Haze
Grapefruit x Neville's Haze

never so much as a male flower on any of them, no hermies.

i know some of the strains i've grown are not currently available, but i would easily recommend white widow or grapefruit to any indoor grower.

the white widow was super easy to grow...practically on autopilot the whole time.

excellent smoke and a good yielder, in my experience.

check out some grow threads from mrwags and you can see what the strains can do in hydro.

peace.