Feminized vs. "Normal"

Snook said:

Light leak hermis! Funny how the smallest occasionally flashing light from a cycle timer, plug strip or digital readouts on electrical components can be overlooked and will hermie up any plant, no matter how stable it might be. I'd guess it's the culprit in many complaints about feminized seeds that are males but in reality, hermies.

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I was having a conversation with a friend about covering indicator lights on various appliances in the grow room. He swears that those little lights are a problem. I don't have an opinion but do plants during herm under a full moon? How much light is too much?

Fixer said:

I was having a conversation with a friend about covering indicator lights on various appliances in the grow room. He swears that those little lights are a problem. I don't have an opinion but do plants during herm under a full moon? How much light is too much?

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In my experience, it's a matter of differences in light intensities. Flowering which developed with moon light from the beginning, is different from flowering in complete darkness with a low light source very ciose to plants.

After a few genetics threw males near those light sources, my light bars and indicator lights are covered with foil tape.

There'e a whole other aspect to the fems vs regular seeds.

It involves your right to continue growing that strain if you choose. Should you have to repurchase the same fem seeds year after year for meds that work for you, only to find out at some point that they are no longer in production or the strain has strayed? Imagine if you had to repurchase grass for your lawn every year. Why would someone want to keep mothers instead of seeds? The pheno or "the cut"? If people educated themselves in the selection process then these strains could get better year over year.

RockinRobot said:

Light leaks causing hermies is a myth at best. I have so many light leaks on my flower room you can see daylight in spots and I never get hermies. I have 3 separate strains and never get hermies.

Hermies come from bad genetics period

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BS!

There's a whole host of reasons that causes a plant to hermie. Abuse and stress is #1. If you love them to death, then get light leaks, it could be considered stress.

Snook said:

BS!

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You're entitled to your opinion. Just remember opinions are like assholes. We all have them and they all stink.

Bottom line if a strain hermies on me I ditch it unless it is late nanners that are common on some sativas. Good genetics won't herm from a light leak. A light left on in mid dark perhaps but IMHO if a small light leak causes hermies then you have shit genetics.

I totally agree with the fems not having the same phenos as the regs.

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I think little-soldier hit it on the nose here. Feminized seeds naturally have less variation than regular ones. That could be good for a large outdoor grow, for example. The reason breeders say fem seeds are crappy for breeding is the lack of variation prevents improvements over generations through selection. Same for pheno hunting. A large F2 batch (regular seeds) with great variability is very likely to produce that Unicorn pheno, while the feminized batch has no chance at all no matter how many seeds you start with.

Also, feminizing has different effects on different plants. It always produces a certain amount of reduced variability, but doesn't always make seeds with the exact same traits as mom. Some times they're pretty close, other times they're not. It really depends on moms recent parentage, and unless she's from an IBL, only a progeny test will find out what the kids will look like. That's not to say a hybrid, or even 'double hybrid' can't produce (wysiwyg) the traits she shows through selfing. She could, but you'd need to grow out the kids to find out.

As to whether selfing automatically causes a reduction in vigor, I've probably made feminized seeds about 3-4 times ever, so I'm certainly no expert. I would be inclined to guess that the vigor would depend on the mother plant being selfed. Some might produce wimpy seedlings, other might be fine. Need to grow 'em out and find out.

Zeez said:

There'e a whole other aspect to the fems vs regular seeds.

It involves your right to continue growing that strain if you choose. Should you have to repurchase the same fem seeds year after year for meds that work for you, only to find out at some point that they are no longer in production or the strain has strayed? Imagine if you had to repurchase grass for your lawn every year. Why would someone want to keep mothers instead of seeds? The pheno or "the cut"? If people educated themselves in the selection process then these strains could get better year over year.

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Can't you induce the feminized plant to make pollen with CS to produce new seeds?

Fixer said:

Can't you induce the feminized plant to make pollen with CS to produce new seeds?

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You can, STS. That's why all the seeds are feminized.

From experience I believe that yes, light leaks as well as the moon, causes the female plant to produce male polen to polinate itself in order to reproduce. It would explain why I always end up with a seed here or there out of my outdoor harvest. Makes sense to me anyways, and its an opinion based on facts from personal experience, thats because I wash my asshole so it dont stink lol. I remember when I started reading all about ganja. Litterally spent 100s of hours reading and learning from experienced growers. I thought I knew it all.. untill I started growing..