When you are contemplating or planning to start growing your cannabis, you think about cannabis seeds. As we may all know now, there are different strains of cannabis, namely Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Ruderalis. When you purchase cannabis seeds, most sellers will ask you to choose a seed type from either of the strains of cannabis. If you don’t know the advantages and drawbacks of each class, you may have difficulty deciding which one to go with. However, this guide will provide you with insights into the different kinds of cannabis seeds for sale, the advantages and drawbacks of each of them.

Regular cannabis seeds

When you grow regular cannabis seeds, they result in both male and female plants. In this case, you don’t have control over the sex of the plants. Regular seeds are usually produced through the pollination of a male and a female cannabis plant. When cultivating cannabis, you can hand pollinate them by picking pollen grains from the male plant and pollinating them with the female plant. The resulting seeds are usually similar to the seeds produced by the wild pollination of cannabis plants.

When you buy regular cannabis seeds, it is impossible to tell the male to female plants’ ratio until they start flowering, which is when they present their sex. If you want to produce female cannabis buds, you have to remove the male cannabis plants before releasing pollen so that the females do not release seeds. Once they are pollinated, they release seeds that fall to the ground for new germination or harvesting, and then the female plant begins to die.

Pros

Regular seeds are advantageous for first-time growers since they are easy to grow and experiment with. They are cheap and are easily accessible at Homegrown Cannabis Co. Many experts advise beginners to start with regular seeds because they are easy and inexpensive to replace even if they make mistakes.

Regular seeds are also useful to plant breeders who require both male and female cannabis plants to experiment with cross-breeding to develop the unique characteristics of cannabis plants. Again, regular seeds are available in all the different cannabis strains.

Cons

It is impossible to differentiate the female and male plants from regular cannabis seeds until the flowering stage or 3-4weeks. Again, you could end up with more male plants on your farm, which are not helpful unless you practice selective breeding or collect pollen for future use. Usually, the female cannabis plant is the one that produces the buds cannabis users love.

Feminized cannabis seeds

Plant feminized cannabis seeds result in only female cannabis plants, so you don’t have to worry about male plants pollinating the females on the farm. However, sometimes feminized seeds are produced when the female plant produces pollen ( hermaphrodite plant). A hermaphrodite cannabis plant develops when the female cannabis plant is exposed to environmental stressors or stressed conditions such as intense UV rays, inadequate water, or artificial means such as spraying the plant with colloidal silver.

When the female plant produces pollens, the grower collects the pollen and uses it to self germinate the female flowers, which results in all feminized cannabis seeds. After self-pollination, there is a guarantee that the plant will produce all feminized seeds because of the lack of the male y-chromosome during reproduction. Experienced growers have learned how to take advantage of such conditions to develop feminized cannabis seeds that produce all cannabis users’ buds.

Pros

Feminized cannabis seeds result in all-female cannabis plants. If you want to come up with female cannabis buds without the worry of accidentally growing male plants, you can use feminized seeds. Feminized seeds produce recreational and medicinal cannabis.

Cons

Feminized seeds are a bit expensive than regular seeds. Again, they are not suitable if you want to practice cross-breeding new strains or collecting pollen for pollen banking or future use.

Auto-flowering cannabis seeds

The most common types of cannabis seeds are Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica. However, another strain known as Cannabis Ruderalis that commonly grows in the northern parts of Europe and Russia is characterized by automatically flowering despite the long winter climates. The spring and summer seasons are usually short in these regions, so the Cannabis Ruderalis naturally adapted to fewer light requirements to germinate and flower hence auto-flowering cannabis seeds. What happens is, the auto-flowering cannabis seeds will start flowering naturally when they reach a certain age, regardless of the light cycle. As opposed to flowering with the daily light schedules, auto-flower cannabis seeds will flower and finish their light cycle no matter how much light is present. Experienced cross breeders have combined the low THC cannabis Ruderalis with other potent strains to produce auto flower cannabis seeds that bloom as soon as they reach maturity.

Pros

Autoflowering cannabis plants are easier to maintain in cold climates where summers are shorter and have minimum light requirements. So you do not need an elaborate lighting system if you are growing them indoors.

Also, they produce small plants that auto-flower quickly, so they are suitable if you don’t have a giant growing space, for instance, growing indoors. They make short-statured plants ideal if you do not want your cannabis plants to exceed a specific height limit. Therefore, you also don’t need a complicated cultivation plan.

Again, auto-flowering cannabis seeds result in cannabis plants with low THC but high in CBD, making them a good bud for medicinal cannabis users.

Cons

Autoflowering cannabis seeds produce cannabis flowers with shallow THC content, so they may not be suitable if you want buds with high THC content. Again, they have small and short-statured plants, so they may not be ideal if you are after large quantities of cannabis buds.

Wrap up

When choosing cannabis seeds, consider your growing experience. If you are a beginner, select cannabis seeds that require minimal hands-on experience to avoid losses as you grow your skills. However, depending on how much work you would like to put in the process, you can produce bountiful yields of cannabis buds. All in all, consider your growing space, conditions, budget, and the amount of effort you are ready to dedicate to the process.