I think they're just for people too lazy to make a selection from a standard pack. Their instability means they absolutely aren't worthy of further breeding projects, and pose a threat to the maintenance of special genetics. In other words, fems are the road to mediocrity.
None of them. Fem seeds are whack. A backwards step in breeding, devoid of any real work. Why do you think real breeders like DJ, Steve, Shanti, Neville, Chimera, and Karma absolutely refuse to produce them?
The big Dutch seedbanks hyped fems as the next great thing, but they're really just the path of least resistance. It's a lot easier to reverse a momma than actually work with studs to line breed consistent stock. IMO, reversed pollen chucks don't constitute breeding.
Now that the the mainstream has accepted the idea of fems at face value, they demand them, and the seedbanks have to supply them to stay competitive, even though they know the many disadvantages.
I think they're just for people too lazy to make a selection from a standard pack. Their instability means they absolutely aren't worthy of further breeding projects, and pose a threat to the maintenance of special genetics. In other words, fems are the road to mediocrity.
The worst thing of all about fem seed is that seedbanks somehow think it's justifiable to sell them for more money. WTF?!? How do they justify the price discrepancy when everything about fems makes seed production easier and more efficient?!? The answer: hype and a consumer base lacking a solid understanding of what they're actually buying.
Stick with naturally produced seed lines. If you do run fems, use them as a one and done fix, and for god's sake, please don't pollute the gene pool by crossing them with anything else.
There are people, that just cannot afford having males in their garden. Imagine pop a pack of 10, and get 9 males, ending up only 1 female. No room to preserve clones and no timeframe to wait for clones to root and veg. I could call that fucked up grow.
I use both. Sometimes I fill gaps with female seeds, because I need a solid crop in 8 weeks, not end up seeing just another male after few weeks.
I disagree. CS is easy to produce and apply. Gibberellic acid can be cheaply purchased and sprayed...Here is the problem with your take on things...
For one, it is much harder to breed using forced pollen that it is to breed with a M/F strategy. Any fool can let a male pollen up and use it. Not many have the skills needed to force pollen...other than the crap grower stressing his plants with the grow environment.
Yes, picking two females with desirable traits and creating a reversed cross gives you a good idea of the kind of traits that the offspring are going to express (or at least you would think so, but the results can be surprisingly unpredictable). Shortcuts are always appealing, but at what cost to the stability of genetic lines? As I suggested, you never really know how two plants genes are going to recombine, so unless you're talking about s1s I'd disagree that you have a better idea of the outcome than you do with traditional breeding practices using proven males.And when a person selects for fem seeds, he is selecting two proven females. He sees what their buds look like and the growing structure they take on before he uses them.
The person who uses the male has no clue, not really. Especially if he is using plants grown from an F1 breeding. He can select all day long, and not really know what sort of progeny that male may put out. He only selected it because he felt it smelled funky, or looked big, or some other trait...but he really doesn't know squat about it.
If some of those guys use reversals, I was unaware. Do tell...Forcing for fems to throw pollen is absolutely a tool for breeding. And it is used all the time, even by some of the names you mentioned.
Some breeders won't put out fem lines because folks like you exist on a high level still. There are lots that take the voodoo and hearsay and make them facts in their minds. Some go as far as to lobby against fem seeds simply because of their confused take on things.
At the end of the day, the facts are the deciding factor, and you are not bringing many facts to the table with your rant.
lol...I would love to hear your detailed take on how fem seeds pollutes the gene pool.