my plant got fertilized and went to seed . this probably cut my harvest by 1/2 but it gives me some seeds to play with . some of them are immature, tiny, green and soft. others seem to be mature . 1 of 4 , so far, has sprouted, not the big, meaty schlong of a sprout that i was used to with my Reeferman seeds, but rather small .
my question is this : if a seed sprouts does that mean it is a viable seed ?
my question is this : if a seed sprouts does that mean it is a viable seed ?
I don't think I ever heard of a sprout refered to in this way. Colas yes, but never a sprout :smile: Anyway I don't feel it's fair to say a fertalized plant give half a yield. In fact they can give a pretty nice size yield on the scale if all the seeds get ripe. I had a crop recently that I tried to hand pollinate certain buds. Unfortunately I misjudged the potency of pollen and my whole crop got pollinated. Still it was pretty damn good weed and a good bit of it, you just had the added hassle of picking out the seeds. Now I'm not a breeder so I'm just giving you my understanding of it, but the key depends on when the females recieve the pollen and start seed developement. You don't want to hit it right as you go to flower because there's still important growth taking place. So you wait a few weeks until you past stretch and then you pollinate. The plant has had more time to develope more bud sites which will give you a decent yield. Generally speaking it takes about three weeks for a seed to fully form and ripen, if you hit it just after stretch then the seeds should have plenty of time to ripen. What I mean by ripen is that the seeds are full size (for it's strain) dark and/or spotted. Seeds that don't fit that description may still grow but you're more likely to have problems. Many people in the habit of making seed say that you shouldn't try to grow them right away. Rather you should seal them in an airtight, moisture free container and store them in a refrigerator for a few days to a few weeks. They say this tricks the seed into thinking it has gone thru winter and this triggers a reaction in them when they warm back up to room temp. Also it's good to give them time and leave them in the bud as you do so, they'll continue to ripen some while the bud is going thru it's early curing stages. I'm not sure that thing about the refigeration is true though because my seeds were so ripe and heavy that every now and then one would fall into the pot it's parent plant was in and sprout. :smile: Another point about seeds is, everyone says that if a crop gets seeded you lose potency and yield. I have not compared enough strains grown with and without seeds grown under the same conditions to make that call. You do lose something in that a certain amount of the plant's resources go towards seed production that otherwise would have gone to more bud production. I guess it helps to think of things from the plant's perspective. It doesn't know you and there is no evidence a plant has any sort of consiousness, it doesn't know about getting high or that we want it to put out more triches. It's got a very basic drive, grow big, tall and bushy real quick to dominate an area so it can soak up as much sun before flower as possible, if it's a male it likely begins to work on developing pollen before the females flower, once flowering begins the females sole objective is to pump out flowers that in turn put out pistils (the hairs) which catch the pollen. Pistils have a short life span and therefore if a plant does not get fertalized it cranks out more and more flowers, this is what most growers want their plants to do all the way thru. Now once a plant gets pollinated or once you get beyond a certain point into flower the emphasis changes from pumping out flowers to pumping out resin. The resin to the plant is all about insulation and protection, that's why it concentrates at the bud sites and the surrounding leaves. If the plant is fertalized it's basically making sure the seeds and the flowers incubating them are well protected long enough for them to ripen. If it's not pollinated it's trying to protect the flowers long enough to hopefully become pollinated. Some plants will even go as far as becoming hermies to pollinate themselves aftar having gone beyond a normal flowering without becoming pollinated.
