Feminized cannabis seeds

Feminized cannabis seeds

Feminized cannabis seeds first appeared in the 1990’s, they were invented by Dutch Passion and feminized cannabis seeds now account for 95%+ of all cannabis seeds sold.

Regular cannabis seeds produce male and female plants in roughly equal numbers. But today regular cannabis seeds account for under 3% of Dutch Passion seed sales, even though our 15 varieties is one of the most complete collections of regular cannabis seeds still available. Most home growers simply do not like to use their time, space and electricity growing male cannabis plants. Most home growers prefer to grow a small number of high quality female plants, and the best way to do that is from cuttings (clones) or from feminized cannabis seeds, which are usually bought online or from the local seed shop.

How were feminized cannabis seeds created?

Back in the 1990’s Dutch Passion’s founder, Henk van Dalen, was growing some cannabis plants from regular seeds, they were the only type of cannabis seed available at the time. Cannabis growers had dreamed of feminized cannabis seeds, but it was generally accepted that it was not possible for cannabis. One day Henk noticed something unusual when studying some female plants which had been left to flower for several weeks longer than usual. It was one of those experiments just to see what happened if a female was left to bloom for much longer than anyone would normally think about. It was an experiment that would change cannabis growing forever, because he noticed the female plants eventually produced male flowers. Henk collected the pollen and used it to pollinate some other female plants and a few weeks later he collected the seeds which had formed. Again, it was one of those experiments done ‘just to see’ what happened.

The seeds were planted, and to everyones astonishment every seed produced a female plant. There was huge eagerness to try to understand it, and perhaps a chance to repeat the experiment and see if this discovery could be put to a practical use. So more female plants were grown from regular seed, and sure enough several weeks after the normal harvest date, the females began to produce male flowers. The pollen was carefully collected, Henk called this ‘female pollen’ because the seeds created from it only gave rise to female plants. This larger, second experiment confirmed the initial findings. Feminized cannabis seeds had been created at Dutch Passion, though at first not everyone believed it.

The process of collecting ‘female pollen’ from over-ripe female cannabis plants was not suitable for mass-production of seeds. Today each seed company has their own preferred chemical way of creating ‘female’ pollen to use in the creation of feminized seeds.

Today, feminized cannabis seeds are vital to growers of all kinds. Feminized autoflowering cannabis seeds are becoming almost as popular as photoperiod seeds, they are an easy and convenient way to grow cannabis both indoors and outdoors. Many first time cannabis growers choose feminized auto seeds because they are so easy and flexible to grow.

Feminized CBD-rich cannabis seeds are popular with medical growers. Many outdoor growers also rely on feminized seeds, without them they would risk male plants pollinating the entire crop.

Regular seeds are popular with some old-school growers and small scale seed banks. Dutch Passion’s regular seed sales are so low that we regard it as a service rather than a viable business. For most growers, feminized seeds are the preferred way to grow your own cannabis.

Feminized cannabis seeds
December 30th 2016
Categories : Cannabis Plant