What Ive Learned About Femmed Seeds

[D.S. Toker. MD]

Ive noticed some characteristics of femmed seeds and i wonder if others have as well. Ive grown around 40 packs of femmed beans from 9 different companies and i feel like thats a pretty good sampling. Most of the strains were grown both indoors and out.

I hope we never reach a point where femmed seeds are all you can purchase, but theyre great for people living in places that will only allow you to grow 3 or 4 plants or for outdoor growers growing from seed.

1. I believe ive seen that femmed seeds have a homogonous quality that doesnt exist in the regular seeds. It seems like femminization has the effect of reducing the variation of characteristics such as physical appearance, potency etc. Ive found much less variation in the femmed seed varieties when compared to regular seeds and a tendency toward an averaging of plant characteristics..

Sensi Star provides a good example of this. If you grow out a pack of standard sensi star seeds, youre likely to get a number of pheno's that range from a almost haze looking plant that can take 12 weeks to finish to a short greasy fuelish plant that finishes in 55 days with a heavy knockout stone.

The femmed packs of ss have 2 pheno's. One that is a christmas tree shape and another that is a bush shaped. Both finish within a week of one another outdoors- earlier(end of sept.) than all of the pheno's in the regular pack except for the short pheno, The typical plant of regular sensi star seeds finishes mid to late october outdoors.The potency of the 2 pheno's is still more than a lot of strains, but reduced slightly compared to the reg seeds. Variation has been reduced greatly in the femmed packs ive grown of ss when compared to regs. I think he possiblity of finding that special plant dissaapears during the fem process and ive seen that same effect in nearly every variety of femmed seeds ive grown where ive also grown the reg seeds.

2. Ive found fems to be more stable sexually than regular seeds outdoors, but indoors they seem more sensitive to lighting and are more easy to hermie than regular seeds.

Finally, every pack of femmed seeds ive grown finished earlier outdoors than seeds from a regular pack. I dont know why that is, but ive seen it in almost every strain ive grown.

Anyone else noticed any differences from regular seeds?.

 

[funkervogt]

Sensi Star provides a good example of this. If you grow out a pack of standard sensi star seeds, youre likely to get a number of pheno's that range from a almost haze looking plant that can take 12 weeks to finish to a short greasy fuelish plant that finishes in 55 days with a heavy knockout stone.

The femmed packs of ss have 2 pheno's. One that is a christmas tree shape and another that is a bush shaped. Both finish within a week of one another outdoors- earlier(end of sept.) than all of the pheno's in the regular pack except for the short pheno, The typical plant of regular sensi star seeds finishes mid to late october outdoors.The potency of the 2 pheno's is still more than a lot of strains, but reduced slightly compared to the reg seeds. Variation has been reduced greatly in the femmed packs ive grown of ss when compared to regs. I think he possiblity of finding that special plant dissaapears during the fem process and ive seen that same effect in nearly every variety of femmed seeds ive grown where ive also grown the reg seeds.

I don't have much to add here except I'm a bit surprised. It doesn't seem like act of merely feminizing seeds would have that much of an effect on the finished product... but clearly it does.

I pulled out the quote about Sensi Star because it's a favorite of mine and I have a feminized 5-pack waiting in the freeze at the moment. I'm happy to hear that I'll be unlikely to find some wild, 12-week finishers but also dismayed that these might be less than ideal genetics. My understanding of a feminized seed is that it's the exact same genetic but the seeds have been "fixed" to automagically turn girly without ill-effect.

Could they be using different parents for the feminized seeds vs regular?

 

[hoosierdaddy]

The very same consistency could exist using regular progeny seeds, however to reach such a stage of genetics requires lots of selection and squaring up for the desired characteristics.
Using the male P requires growing out lots of progeny just to be able to pick a male to use.
With femmed beans, the selection process has been done, and all the qualities of the finished product can be seen in the two female P's. Be they two very similar phenotypes with one being forced for feminized seed, or an even faster selection of one true breeding female that is selfed for S1. Both are naturally going to be relatively consistent.

The only difference between the two is the lack of a chromosome in one. Whether or not the lack of "maleness" in the genetic code is a problem is the only thing in question, IME...and the jury is still out if that is even a factor.

 

[mixin]

now i want to smoke some sensi star

 

[zachrockbadenof]

only fem'd seeds we have tried were some of rez's beans.. we got a pack of basic kush... 1st 9 seeds were straight males, finally the last seed was a lady.. was not impressed with the smoke

and a pack of rez's abusive kush... sowed 4 seeds... all ladies... smoke was 'ok'...

that's the total of our experience with fem'd seeds...

 

[folkmaster]

Very good info thanks D.S. Toker...I like it when someone shares from personal experience over indirect knowledge passed down any day of the week.
I have many fem seeds from grows where a hidden hermi knocked up a few girls..But only bought fems seeds once...That was female seeds Maroc.. I have a ton of Satori(reg male) X Maroc(femmed) seeds, that I seeded intentionally. They are sitting on a back burner for now.. Which gets me to my question...With your(or anybody elses) experience, should I expect a lot of hermies from the Satori/Maroc cross?

 

[vod]

Could they be using different parents for the feminized seeds vs regular?

Of course they do. -> No males in the pool.

 

[vod]

The only difference between the two is the lack of a chromosome in one. Whether or not the lack of "maleness" in the genetic code is a problem is the only thing in question, IME...and the jury is still out if that is even a factor.

well, your females from reg seed lack the very same chromosome.

 

[h&r]

Fem'd Seeds Suck Shit

 

[whodair]

DP fem oasis = herm. fuckin garbage

 

[TLoft13]

well, your females from reg seed lack the very same chromosome.

So, your father didn't contribute to your genetic makeup?

 

[Justa6655321]

Fem seeds are almost a clone of the mother they were taken from so there shouldnt be any genetic difference. Unless pollen from a different female is used....or there is a mutation of a gene in the process

 

[hoosierdaddy]

I agree VOD, and that is my point. There may have been question raised about whether there may be some male specific genetic matieral that isn't getting passed on when we force fems. And even if that is the case, it could be a good or a bad thing...
Perhaps its the males that carry on the genetic code for hermie? And if the male is left out of the equation for a few generations, maybe the hermie trait can be totally eradicated?
If the femed seed taboo would not have been started so early on, perhaps there would have been more anecdotal info concerning breeding with fems only. But, the taboo was started, and IMO started because of the poor selections that the first to offer femmed seeds made. Their poor selections led to hermies, and led to the myth that femmed seeds are hermie prone.

So far, I have see no evidence at all of forcing females to be a problem genetically, unless we dead end a self by crossing back to it repeatedly.

 

[vod]

So, your father didn't contribute to your genetic makeup?

of course he did. to exactly 50%.
but question not pertinent. a female doesn't get the Y chromosome. otherwise it would be a male.

There may have been question raised about whether there may be some male specific genetic matieral that isn't getting passed on when we force fems. And even if that is the case, it could be a good or a bad thing...

Dunno if it's male specific in any other sense, than that it is specific to this particular male parent plant and isn't used anymore.

Although it seems that in general the male populations in nature harbor more freaks than the female, due to them being more expendable.

Anyway the benefit of breeding with fems is that you know what you are crossing. You still need to test your progeny, but at least you know how both parents work as females.

 

[DocLeaf]

Hi

1. Some fem. lines like AUH#2 at GHSco show plenty variation between siblings (Mango , N. Haze, and Laos),, other varieties like Critical from Royal Queen Seeds show less variation in lineage,, the old Grapefruit fem. line showed little deviance if at all.. It ALL depends on the method of breeding,, some breeders use hybrid parents today,,, which gives diversity in their feminized seeds after!

2. We just bred off a fem. clone of Critical,, just to see what happens breeding new fem. lines,, so far so good,, they hatched out the soil trays on Xmas day

fritillary Painted Lady:

hope this helps,,, someone

 

[folkmaster]

Hi DocLeaf, Thanks for the input.. Hope the The Critical line turns out great, What did you cross it with ?

 

[DocLeaf]

Thanks It's Critical x [W.Widow x Free Tibet].

 

[jaybutta]

Femming isn't breeding...breeding takes years, true males, and thousands of plants...Merry Xmas...jay

 

[DocLeaf]

Femming isn't breeding...breeding takes years, true males, and thousands of plants...Merry Xmas...jay

Making fem. seeds isn't breeding,,,

However,, it does NOT take 1000s of plants or years to breed seed lines together,, it takes about 100 days!

Peace n love

 

[erbium]

Making fem. seeds isn't breeding,,,

However,, it does NOT take 1000s of plants or years to breed seed lines together,, it takes about 100 days!

Peace n love

If you're a bootlegger.

I get my seeds at Mr Nice for reasons such as they will grow a 1,000 or so looking for a male or a female.

The percent of kick-ass goes down dramatically as the size of the room and the amount of plants used in the selection of ma's and pa's go down.

Consistency of kick-ass is what ya get naturally bred using the best out of thousands parent stock is used. With healthy thick gened ma's and pa's you can make seeds to use forever.

female seeds scare me.