How to make feminized seeds?
Feminized Cannabis seeds are seeds that are created from breeding two female plants. When you plant them, they germinate and grow only into female Cannabis plants.
To make feminized marijuana seeds, first, you have to buy or make your own Colloidal Silver. Then, during the first 3-4 weeks of flowering, spray the bud areas of your known female plant regularly with Colloidal Silver until pollen sacs form and start splitting open. After, start harvesting your feminized pollen when pollen sacs swell and open up like a balloon. The harvested feminized pollen will be used to pollinate another female Cannabis plant. When calyxes on the buds of your female Cannabis plant will get large and fat after around six weeks post pollination, it is time to harvest your feminized seeds. There are also common mistakes that most growers commit during the vegetative and flowering stages. Some of this is ignoring huge fan leaves, insects, exposure to extreme temperature, high humidity, and poor airflow of the growing space.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know to make your own feminized Cannabis Seeds.
How to make feminized seeds?
What are feminized cannabis seeds?
Feminized Cannabis seeds are seeds that are created from breeding two female plants. When you plant them, they germinate and grow into female Cannabis plants. The resulting seeds grow into bud-bearing female plants due to the absence of male Cannabis chromosomes.
By using feminized seeds, you will most likely only grow female cannabis plants. That way, you do not have to worry about removing male cannabis plants that would destroy your harvest by pollinating your female cannabis plant.
What are the various methods to produce feminized seeds?
There are various ways to guarantee that female plants produce pollen. Most of these methods require chemicals that are often sprayed on your Cannabis plants. Once you sprinkle it with your chosen chemical, the plant will eventually produce feminized pollen containing only chromosome XX. These pollens are used to pollinate other female Cannabis plants to produce feminized seeds. To dig deeper about it, the following are some of the most commonly used methods to produce feminized seeds:
Rodelization
Rodelization or stress is a natural process of producing feminized Cannabis seeds. It is done by forcing the female Cannabis plant to develop a male pollen sac or stamen.
There are a variety of ways to stress the Cannabis plants to develop male flowers. However, most growers prefer delaying the harvest 2 to 3 weeks to force the Cannabis plants to grow male flowers without stressing them so much.
Though this procedure will produce a lesser quantity of pollen than other methods, it is enough to collect a handful of seeds to create your feminized seeds. Rodelization has a significant advantage since it is a 100 percent natural process, which means it does not use any chemicals. Thus, it is the best alternative for any grower who wants a few seeds and likes to keep the process simple without any chemical or laboratory products being used. However, the drawback of Rodelization is that among the methods presented in this article, this is the only procedure that may produce Cannabis plants with hermaphroditic tendencies.
STS or Silver Thiosulfate Solution
Silver Thiosulfate Solution or STS is the commonly used procedure by most growers. The solution in this process is a half-and-half combination of Sodium Thiosulfate and Silver Nitrate. This solution is sprayed on the female Cannabis plants and inhibits their ethylene action in developing male flowers the moment flowering has been started. It causes a hormonal reaction of stress in your Cannabis plants that trigger gender change.
To do this method, you have to choose a few Cannabis plants. Please make sure all of them are female, coming from one strain, and are nearly mature. After, you will take one of them and separate it from the group. Then spray it with STS and let it dry. Afterward, put it back to the other female plants that you have previously selected.
Since the new "male" (female plant with male characteristics) plant is genetically female, its pollen only contains female genetic information. Hence, after a couple of weeks, your pollinated female plants will make feminized seeds since no male genetic data was available in their gene pool.
Colloidal Silver
It is a distilled water-based solution wherein microscopic particles of silver are suspended. Colloids will never settle out and cannot be easily removed by regular filtration. You can buy Colloidal silver, or you may make your own.
Feminizing clones is a common practice as the attributes such as cannabinoid potency, and growth velocity of the mother plant are known. You can force the plant to develop male reproductive organs using a solution made of 30ppm colloidal silver and distilled water.
If you are planning to make your Colloidal silver, the following are the things that you will need to create it (proceed at your own risk):
- First, you need to have a 9 or 12 volts battery, equal negative and positive electrical wire length, distilled water, pure silver (or silver coin), and an alligator clip.
- Connect the ends of the electrical wire to the battery while the other ends are attached to the alligator clip.
- Then, clip the alligator clip to the pure silver or coin.
- Submerge the pure silver or coin in the distilled water overnight. The electric current from the battery will result in silver ions suspending in the water, creating your colloidal silver water solution.
- During the process, wear nonconductive gloves to avoid electrocuting yourself.
Gibberellins are plant hormones that aid in the regulation of several plant development processes. Various gibberellins are on the market, but gibberellic acid is the most frequent and effective (Gibberellin GA3). This substance is sprayed on the plants a few days before the photoperiod changes to flowering, similar to colloidal silver.
One of the adverse effects of gibberellic acid is a considerable stretching of the treated sections of the plant, so don’t be shocked if your plants experience this! A dose of about 100ppm is recommended to get the optimum benefits from gibberellic acid.
What are the steps to feminized seeds?
There are several steps that you have to follow to make your feminized seeds. For you to be guided, follow the following easy steps:
Step 1: During the first 3-4 weeks of flowering, spray the bud areas of your known female plant regularly until pollen sacs form and start splitting open.
Change to a 12/12 light schedule when you’re ready to start flower formation. Wait till your photoperiod plant is 5-6 weeks old before starting the flowering stage. Start with a more mature plant because some young plants seem to have problems and take much longer going through the feminization process, and their pollen may not be as fertile.
Step 2: Start harvesting your Feminized Pollen.
When pollen sacs are harvest-ready, they swell and open up like a balloon. Do not harvest too early, and maintain spraying the bud sites every day until this time, or you will wind up with empty pollen sacs. When the pollen sacs are ready, the pollen-protecting leaf portion begins to fracture. It is now time to collect the feminized pollen. Collecting pollen sacs directly and letting them dry for a week is one of the simplest ways to do this. They can then be placed in a bag and shook to catch all of the pollen easily.
Step 3: Pollinate other Female Cannabis Plant.
Use the feminized pollen you’ve gathered to pollinate a female plant that has been flowering for around 2-3 weeks at this time. Although it is feasible to pollinate the same plant as the original, it is not advised due to the time differences. Also, attempting to pollinate buds too late in the flowering stage leads to reduced seed production. It is better to pollinate a separate female plant that bloomed a few weeks after the original. It increases the number of seeds produced while providing adequate time for the new female plant to mature. In comparison to self-pollination, it also enhances genetic diversity.
Step 4: Wait for six weeks, then harvest the Seeds.
The calyxes on the buds of your female Cannabis plant will get large and fat after around six weeks post pollination. When your seeds start bursting out, you realize it is time to harvest them. Congratulate yourself for having feminized seeds at this moment.
Can feminizing seeds result in hermaphrodite plants?
The feminizing seed will result in hermaphrodite plants if you do it the wrong way. However, with the aid of different and well-tested methods and feminizing programs, the goal of breeding out any Cannabis plants with hermaphroditic tendencies is avoided. It is advisable that if you buy feminized seeds, you need to validate the trustworthiness of the breeders to make sure that every plant will grow as female.