Are feminized seeds worth the extra money?

[eebytocs]

yes i would say so. definatly for my grow that i only attend every 2months. theres no chance of going and finding all your plants have been pollinated. easy to set them up and off you go. i can only say that for automatic grows though with a hydro set up

 

[SSNUGS]

I prefer Femizized just for the fact that you pass over the headaches and all of the time you use trying to figure out what you have. But saying that not all seeds that you buy Fem will pop Fem but your odds are alot better by doing so. If you want to make a new strain use the seeds you bought Fem then try to do all the work to cross them up at least you know what you're working with.

 

[GrumpyGrower]

Everyone will have a different answer depending on their situation and expectations.

For me, buying feminized seeds helps limit the factors you must consider when planing a grow. You don't know how many will germ and how many will be sickly/runts, but at least you can know the ones that do make it are female.

Of course your plans for what you want after you have nice healthy females is also a factor. If you plan to breed that is much different than if you plan to clone or just grow to harvest and be done with the strain. It's all relative.

 

[justintym2]

i have used both and i agree why take a chance of having males with your girls but the fem seeds are way better for a novice grower .. i have one room and one space .alot of time and money goes into our grows we dont want to flip our cycles and find out we put all that time into males..i planted four plants and two ended up male so i cut them out ..that was after using nutes and electricity ( $$$ )so disappointed anyway they where regs. the other two female dif strain ..neither are feminized..

 

[Jasonlee247]

I believe that buying feminized seeds promotes hermaphroditic traits in top strains world wide. No you dont plan to continue the plant another generation, but it happens. this will increase the difficulty of preventing hermaphrodites longterm IMO. Just look athe the Ruderalis strains. I believe selective breeding is the cause of that too.

 

[OffTheRadar]

Purchasing Feminized seeds has both positives and negatives. Obviously the extra cost is prohibitive for some and from my experience not worth spending the money. For the additional money spent on "Fem" seeds, you could very well spend that money on acquiring more strains. There is nothing like having a well rounded variety*of strains. With a little research and work, the ratio of females to males can be manipulated to yield a greater number of girls than would normally occur . Techniques such as temperature management, the use of certain spectrum lighting and nitrogen adjustment are proven methods in increasing the likelihood of female plants. Save your money, acquire quality strains and do a little homework and you will have all the females you need to get the job done.

Thanks for this interesting comment, ntezbngreen. I was mainly trying to find out if they are more potent for some reason of chemical manipulation in feminizing but I liked the comment on economics. Thanks for the input.
Namaste, OTR

 

[Jackalope]

well it really depends on how deep your pockets are. I refuse to spend the money on feminized seed when they are so easy to make yourself. Sure it takes a couple of grows but once you have completed the procedure you end up with quite a few feminized beans that should last you years if you take care of them correctly. Read this:

Feminizing Seeds by Soma


Article by Soma

Feminized seeds occur as a result of stress, other than genetics. All cannabis plants can and will make male flowers under stress. Certain strains like a higher PH, some like a lower one. Some like a lot of food, some like a lot less. There is quite a lot of variety in marijuana genetics, and you can�t treat every plant the same way.

It takes many harvests before you really get to know a particular strain. Just like getting to know human friends, it takes time. I have grown strains for a decade and am truly getting to know every nuance the different plants exhibit. I can recognize them from a distance. I must say that I get a lot of help from my friends, both in making seeds and learning new and better ways of working with this sacred plant.

I named this new method �Rodelization� after a friend who helped me realize and make use of this way of creating female seeds. After growing crop after crop of the same plant in the same conditions, I noticed that if I flowered the plants 10-14 days longer than usual, they would develop male �bananas�. A male banana is a very slight male flower on a female marijuana plant that is formed because of stress. Usually they do not let out any pollen early enough to make seeds, but they sometimes do. They are a built in safety factor so in case of sever conditions, the plant can make sure that the species is furthered.

To me a male banana is quite a beautiful thing. It has the potential of making all female seeds. Many growers out there have male banana phobia. They see one and have heart palpitations, they want to cut down the entire crop or at least take tweezers and pluck the little yellow emerging devices out. I call them �Emergency Devices� because they emerge at times of stress.

In the Rodelization method, the male banana is very valuable. After growing your female plant 10-14 days longer than usual, hang them up to dry, then carefully take them off the drying lines and inspect for bananas. Each and every banana should be removed and placed in a small bag labeled very accurately. These sealed bags can be placed in the fridge for one to two months and still remain potent.

For the second phase you need to already have a crop that�s already 2 � weeks into flowering. Take your sealed bag of pollen out of the fridge, and proceed to impregnate your new crop of females. To do this, you must first match the female plant and the pollen from the same strain in the previous crop. Shut down all the fans in the grow room. Then take a very fine paint brush, dip it in the bag of pollen, and paint it on the female flower. Do this to each different strain you have growing together. I have done it with ten different kinds in the same room with great success.

I use the lower flowers to make seeds, leaving the top colas seedless for smoking. This method takes time(two crops), but is completely organic and lets you have great quality smoke at the same time you make your female seeds. If you�re one of those growers that has never grown seeds for fear of not having something good to smoke, you will love this method.

You can also use this pollen to make new female crosses by cross pollinating. The older females with the bananas can be brought into the room with the younger, un-pollinated females when they are three weeks into flowering. Turn all of the circulation fans on high, and the little bits of pollen will proceed to make it around the room. Do this for several days. Six to seven weeks later you will have ripe 100% female seeds; not nearly as many as a male plant would make, but enough to start over somewhere else with the same genetics.

As a farmer who has been forced to move his genetics far away from where they started, I know very well the value of seeds. My friend Adam from THSeeds in Amsterdam has a motto that I love to borrow these days: �Drop seeds not bombs�.

You took the absolutely worst person to tell how to feminize seeds. Yes plants can hermie from stress. The plants Soma use's hermie because he does not bred it out. Soma breeds and grows as natural as possible. This is all fine and dandy tell you spend tons of money on his genetics. This is something that should be mentioned so people are aware before hand.
The highest price I have ever paid for seeds was for Soma's Lavender. All plants hermied even the males had hairs. Every now and then you are going to get a batch of bad seeds. At the prices Soma wants for his genetics you can't keep trying tell you find a good one.

I was sold on Soma genetics and followed him for years. That is why I spent so much and was so disappointed. Only after talking with others I found out the "why" this happens with his genetics. Sorry for busting your bubble. My bubble cost me almost 300$