Feminized vs. "Normal"

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 27, 2016

I don't know if this thread already exists, I'm sure it does, but the search engine on here isn't all that friendly. If so, feel free to point me in that direction :friends:

Is there a benefit to growing "Normal" seeds as opposed to Feminized? I am growing Feminized since I'm a noob and it seemed like the easy thing to do for a noob (K.I.S.S.).

It seems like a waste of time, energy, water, soil, light, grow space, etc. to eventually throw out half your plants (or whatever number).

I'm sure there is a benefit since people do it, just haven't figured out what that is yet :smoke out:

Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction or filling me in on this information!

Tri_Cho_Me

RockinRobot · Oct 27, 2016

The biggest issue with feminized seeds is many unscrupulous breeders sell seeds from plants that hermied on their own as opposed to having been treated with something to force it. These seeds tend to pass on the hermie properties.

Have also heard it said that you have better chance of getting different phenos with regular seeds as opposed to fem but no hard data on that that I'm aware of.

Snook · Oct 27, 2016

look into autos.. even more foolproof I'm told.

EDIT: airbud does autos..

Phaeton · Oct 28, 2016

When beginning the garden in the 1990's regular seeds were used to find an exceptional plant and the plant was then cloned until a better plant came along. Four years is the record for keeping a single strain as the main producer.

The reason was separating out the male plants. This more than doubled the labor involved.
With the advent of quality feminised seeds I made the change over last year.
Variety increased within strains, clones are exact and can be depended on. Feminised seeds vary quite a bit and trial and error was the only way to find the brand and strain that functioned best.

Euphoria, LSD, Pineapple Express 2, Northern Light, and Jack Herer all are currently growing fine marijuana. An equal number of strains had no consistency or did not smoke well. Out of ten strains five were keepers, I like the ratio.
Overall it is simpler than cloning and I have more variety available even if the average size of plants is down from the large clones chosen in the past.

Hermaphrodites were no more common than with cloning, part of the reason I waited so many years.
Several autoflowers per year are being harvested as well, not quite ready for prime time but several magnitudes better than just two years ago.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

RockinRobot said:
The biggest issue with feminized seeds is many unscrupulous breeders sell seeds from plants that hermied on their own as opposed to having been treated with something to force it. These seeds tend to pass on the hermie properties.

Have also heard it said that you have better chance of getting different phenos with regular seeds as opposed to fem but no hard data on that that I'm aware of.

Interesting and informative! Didn't think about someone packaging hermie seeds. I guess I'm too trustworthy.

The pheno thing is interesting. I might cross the "Pheno Hunting" bridge down the road when I have a bit more experience under my belt. Well, that, and I feel like everything I am doing right now is new, so I am just trying to walk not run.

Thanks again!
Tri_Cho_Me

Snook · Oct 28, 2016

Phaeton said:
When beginning the garden in the 1990's regular seeds were used to find an exceptional plant and the plant was then cloned until a better plant came along. Four years is the record for keeping a single strain as the main producer.
The reason was separating out the male plants. This more than doubled the labor involved. With the advent of quality feminised seeds I made the change over last year. Variety increased within strains, clones are exact and can be depended on. Feminised seeds vary quite a bit and trial and error was the only way to find the brand and strain that functioned best.

Euphoria, LSD, Pineapple Express 2, Northern Light, and Jack Herer all are currently growing fine marijuana. An equal number of strains had no consistency or did not smoke well. Out of ten strains five were keepers, I like the ratio.
Overall it is simpler than cloning and I have more variety available even if the average size of plants is down from the large clones chosen in the past.

Hermaphrodites were no more common than with cloning, part of the reason I waited so many years.
Several autoflowers per year are being harvested as well, not quite ready for prime time but several magnitudes better than just two years ago.

do you sell seeds? :biggrin:

I don't know where you got the 4 year record for keeping a mother alive but I'm not buying it... maybe I'm misunderstanding your meaning. Simpler than cloning? maybe true, cloning isn't any harder than popping seeds but buying seeds is many more times as expensive and no conservation of an 'elite' strain that might be lost ina one off seed without clones.. I'm not sure what the underlined above is saying... but variety is always there with a new seed, regs or fems.. autos??? yes, culling males is a PITA if youre not breeding but if you are, theres no recourse.. The first fem breeder I saw (not saying he was the absolute first) was BigBuddah, I was growing his reg cheese, found that elite strain seed but was too new to this game, thought it was easy and lost the clones due to stupidity.. bought more BBC seeds but they were fems by then, never even came close again.. luck of the draw?? :dunno:

. unscrupulous seed vendors are something that wasn't as common in the 90s but they were there. If I can get them, I buy regs but fems are easier on the selection process.. :tiphat:

Easy7 · Oct 28, 2016

Fem Seeds are great for start to finish guerrilla grows. Yet clones are better.

Popping a seed is always a treasure hunt. I feel better about clones from reg seed than fem stock.

If no reg seed can be searched for mothers indoors fem seed is less work for guerrilla. When only wanting to site prep a few plants it's less risky with fems than regs. I have found fems hermie less outdoors. I never had a reg hermie indoors.

There is nothing as frustrating as popping regs outside and having all males. Not that fems don't have their chance of freaks that don't put on the weight.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

Easy7 said:
Fem Seeds are great for start to finish guerrilla grows. Yet clones are better.

Popping a seed is always a treasure hunt. I feel better about clones from reg seed than fem stock.

If no reg seed can be searched for mothers indoors fem seed is less work for guerrilla. When only wanting to site prep a few plants it's less risky with fems than regs. I have found fems hermie less outdoors. I never had a reg hermie indoors.

There is nothing as frustrating as popping regs outside and having all males. Not that fems don't have their chance of freaks that don't put on the weight.

Makes sense...

I wonder if a feminized seed that hermies, if it hermies because it was bound to hermie from the second it was created as a seed (genetics), or if it hermies because of conditions involved? Could I lower my chances of a seed going hermie if I provide perfect conditions? Or would it still hermie regardless? Does that make sense?

Tri_Cho_Me

Beanzy · Oct 28, 2016

This is more a question rather than a statement but somewhere I 'heard' or read that regular seeds are more stable and stronger - heartier? Is the main reason people buy regular seeds because hey want to reproduce the strain? Or use the males for breeding?
I have no access to clones or even know anyone actively growing so I am leaning towards feminized.
My plan is to do outdoor guerrilla and I travel with my job so I won't have access st the crucial days of finding the males as I may be out of the country.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

Itsjustaflower said:
This is more a question rather than a statement but somewhere I 'heard' or read that regular seeds are more stable and stronger - heartier? Is the main reason people buy regular seeds because hey want to reproduce the strain? Or use the males for breeding?
I have no access to clones or even know anyone actively growing so I am leaning towards feminized.
My plan is to do outdoor guerrilla and I travel with my job so I won't have access st the crucial days of finding the males as I may be out of the country.

I could understand heartier.

In my opinion, from the research I've done and YouTube grow videos watched, I think people plant Regular seeds for breeding purposes.

I too don't have access to clones or know anyone else growing, so had to go with seeds. And like I said in my initial post, went with feminized for the simplicity factor.

How are you going to do outdoor guerrilla? State park? Private land that isn't yours?

Thanks for stopping by!
Tri_Cho_Me

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

I guess my question should be if my sole purpose is buds and top shelf flower, is there a difference between feminized and normal? Or a benefit to one or the other..

Tri_Cho_Me

aridbud · Oct 28, 2016

Have also heard it said that you have better chance of getting different phenos with regular seeds as opposed to fem but no hard data on that that I'm aware of.
Exactly!!

There are those (myself included) that have grown long enough to realize regular seeds seemingly are more potent than femmed versions. I know others may/will disagree.

Side by side comparisons femmed version and regular on same strain...regular (and choice of better phenos) are a bit more potent from my decades of grow experience.

However, femmed offer you a female and hopefully not hermied.
Good luck!

Beanzy · Oct 28, 2016

Tri_Cho_Me said:
I could understand heartier.

In my opinion, from the research I've done and YouTube grow videos watched, I think people plant Regular seeds for breeding purposes.

I too don't have access to clones or know anyone else growing, so had to go with seeds. And like I said in my initial post, went with feminized for the simplicity factor.

How are you going to do outdoor guerrilla? State park? Private land that isn't yours?

Thanks for stopping by!
Tri_Cho_Me

I plan on doing private land grow on some abandoned overgrown orange orchards in Central Florida . We have the Sun that's for sure but with that can be steaming summer humidity so leaning towards Sativa but prefer the Indica buzz. I am not sure if Autoflower would have time to accumulate bud rot.
My plan: dig 10 holes about18" deep by 24" wide, mixup some FFOF with some water polymer crystals, bury a empty bottle with neck sticking out drilled with little holes because we have droughts here too. Germinate in jiffy plugs set outside to acclimate than hike out to the holes water and leave to see what happens. I may start with 3 or 4 to see how it goes. I have big ass backpack for carrying soil , water, entrenching tool. I think I may need to do some fencing hopefully not but lots of deer and wild hogs around.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

aridbud said:
Have also heard it said that you have better chance of getting different phenos with regular seeds as opposed to fem but no hard data on that that I'm aware of.
Exactly!!

There are those (myself included) that have grown long enough to realize regular seeds seemingly are more potent than femmed versions. I know others may/will disagree.

Side by side comparisons femmed version and regular on same strain...regular (and choice of better phenos) are a bit more potent from my decades of grow experience.

However, femmed offer you a female and hopefully not hermied.
Good luck!

Good to know! I will have to try Regular seeds once I get some grows under my belt. Thanks!

Itsjustaflower said:
I plan on doing private land grow on some abandoned overgrown orange orchards in Central Florida . We have the Sun that's for sure but with that can be steaming summer humidity so leaning towards Sativa but prefer the Indica buzz. I am not sure if Autoflower would have time to accumulate bud rot.
My plan: dig 10 holes about18" deep by 24" wide, mixup some FFOF with some water polymer crystals, bury a empty bottle with neck sticking out drilled with little holes because we have droughts here too. Germinate in jiffy plugs set outside to acclimate than hike out to the holes water and leave to see what happens. I may start with 3 or 4 to see how it goes. I have big ass backpack for carrying soil , water, entrenching tool. I think I may need to do some fencing hopefully not but lots of deer and wild hogs around.

Very interesting! If I were you, I would try to find a way to get them as far along in the seedling/vegetative stage as much as possible. I would think the further a long you can get them, the better chances for success you will have.

I have access to private land via my father, but it is private land that I don't have access to without him, and he does not know of my love for cannabis.
I could attempt to access quickly without permission (wouldn't be a huge deal if I were 'caught', I have permission to be there, but would have to explain myself) but I am having trouble finding a place on said property where the plant/s wouldn't be seen for the summer and early fall.
Much of the property is either timber or grass trails. We'll see if my access changes in the future or if I could find a reason to access the property without my father but letting him know I will be down there so it's legit. Maybe I can say I'm taking pictures or fiddling with the trail cameras.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Good luck to you! Be sure to pack a camera with you on your first attempt.

Tri_Cho_Me

corky1968 · Oct 28, 2016

Regular seeds all the way.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 28, 2016

corky1968 said:
Regular seeds all the way.

Why?

Tri_Cho_Me

corky1968 · Oct 28, 2016

Because I like to breed and I don't trust feminized seeds.

If your only growing to smoke then it probably doesn't matter.

stoned40yrs · Oct 28, 2016

corky1968 said:
Because I like to breed and I don't trust feminized seeds.

If your only growing to smoke then it probably doesn't matter.

You should say you don't trust the guy who made them :biggrin:

Dubi is a excellent breeder and his company ACE is very trustworthy. He recommended to my mate to use the fem Malawi for breeding purposes over the Reg seeds. A pack of fems will have less variation over regs. Some good strains seeds are not available anymore, just clones. Nice to reverse these and make S1s to share. :biggrin:

CSF_Raziel · Oct 29, 2016

Depends on the scale and what you're doing

Depends on the scale and what you're doing

Depends on the application. For the hobbyist and personal growing, feminised seeds are great. When you get a little more serious, you'll want regular seeds. Here's why.

Feminised seeds are more prone to be or turn into a hermaphrodite, thus producing unwanted male flowers and ultimately seeds. For that reason alone, it makes sense for someone who is either breeding or growing on a larger scale to start from regular seeds.

A lot of big growers will buy many regular seeds (sometimes more more than 100 seeds) and grow them all out in the attempt to find an exceptional version (phenotype) of their desired strain. When you grow that many seeds out, you're going to come across a lot more to choose from (obviously) and hopefully you'll be able to select a lady that you can turn into a mom or breed with one of the males to make more seeds.

A classic example is with AK-47. It used to be common for growers to pop packs of seeds to find the rare cherry phenotype.

Tri_Cho_Me · Oct 29, 2016

CSF_Raziel said:
Depends on the application. For the hobbyist and personal growing, feminised seeds are great. When you get a little more serious, you'll want regular seeds. Here's why.

Feminised seeds are more prone to be or turn into a hermaphrodite, thus producing unwanted male flowers and ultimately seeds. For that reason alone, it makes sense for someone who is either breeding or growing on a larger scale to start from regular seeds.

A lot of big growers will buy many regular seeds (sometimes more more than 100 seeds) and grow them all out in the attempt to find an exceptional version (phenotype) of their desired strain. When you grow that many seeds out, you're going to come across a lot more to choose from (obviously) and hopefully you'll be able to select a lady that you can turn into a mom or breed with one of the males to make more seeds.

A classic example is with AK-47. It used to be common for growers to pop packs of seeds to find the rare cherry phenotype.

And feminized seeds are less prone to show different phenotype's?
Could you plant 100 feminized and still find different pheno's?

I'm growing Strawberry Kush right now. Are my pheno's then either OG Kush or Strawberry Cough?

Tri_Cho_Me

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