Methods for Producing Feminized Seeds
It is normally very hard to get female marijuana plants when you plant the seeds. Normally, the male plants are the one that come up often. This limits the possibility of producing feminized seeds from the plants. If there was a possibility that you could get the most female seeds out of the female plants, then this would be the most appropriate thing to do. Fortunately, there are methods that have been designed in order to increase the chances of acquiring the most out of the plants.
Marijuana pollination always starts with the traditional fertilization. There is no argument that the unfertilized female marijuana plants obviously have the best smoke and produce a more natural THC but for some reasons, you will have to pollinate them. One of the reasons is to get seeds for the next year’s planting season instead of buying the stack from marijuana seed companies.
Marijuana seed companies from overseas are not a lot to be trusted that much. A marijuana grower never knows what he/she is getting once the shipment arrives. It is even common to find marijuana seeds that have not yet fully matured. This leads to most of the seeds not even germinates which results in a huge loss. Therefore, the only way to trust the seeds is if you prepare them yourself through pollination of other crops. This does not mean that the quality of the smoke will not be there, it will only be reduced. Also, there is no guarantee that you will produce female seeds only.
Traditional Method of Marijuana Seed Fertilization
In the outdoor set up, the marijuana plants fully rely on wind to help in fertilization. This is fully done with the help of genetics too. Male marijuana plants mature really fast and are fully mature two weeks ahead of the female plants. Within these two weeks, the male plant will grow taller and start producing pollen sacs. They look similar to buds but upon opening up, they produce a fine, sticky substance which is the main component for fertilization.
As the male is performing all these functions, the female is quickly maturing. The female then starts producing stigmas that trap in the male pollen as result into reproduction of female marijuana seeds. There is also the option growing the plants in an indoor set up this leaves the plants to fertilize on their own and frequently produce female plants. Most growers tend to cut down the male plants in order to provide the unfertilized female plant. But for this reason, there is the need to live at least one male plant for the purpose of pollination. Therefore, after the plants grow, select the best male plant and do whatever you want with the rest.
When you isolate the male plant, ensure it receives 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. While still doing this, ensure that the female plants continuous light. When the male plant fully flowers, it will be able to produce enough pollen of the plant. This will make it easier for you that you will not need to transfer pollen manually from the male plant to the female plant. In fact, you can save it up for later. All you need is to have a paper and an envelope. Whenever the pollen sacs open, empty the pollen in the paper and put it in an envelope and label it “for later use”. Then put it in a freezer to preserve the pollen. When time comes to pollinate, retract the envelope and pollinate.
Non-Traditional techniques
The first thing that you require to understand is that without any kind of external manipulation, it is highly unlikely to know the sexual characteristics of the plants. The female plant is loved by farmers due to its high level of THC. With the traditional methods, one cannot be so sure of the kind of the plant they will get. It could be a batch of males only or females only or a mixture. Ideally, any farmer would like to have only a pure strand of female marijuana plant due to the high quality smoke.
Seed feminization is a technique that allows the farmer to only grow a higher percentage of the female plants. Fertilization has its own advantages but feminization is the best. Marijuana seed companies will often sell feminized marijuana seeds and will strive to assure you that the product is the best but this might be a façade. There have been cases where the supposed feminized seeds will churn out male plants or hermaphrodites.
The two main procedures are usually rodelization and colloidal silver. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. If this is done correctly, they can supply a full batch of feminized seeds.
Rodelization
Rodelization supposedly manipulates the natural and the biological factors of the female plant. There are times that the female plant will become stressed or other times the plants nears its lifecycle and has not yet being fertilized. Thus, sensing this is a crucial situation, it will start to fertilize itself and grow pollen sacs. Marijuana plants will often try to extend their life line and thus the female plant will most likely produce seeds that have a female characteristic. This can be explained in terms of genetics. The female genetics and the reproductive material, that is the eggs and the pollen, will likely to produce a female seed. This is known as the crux in seed ferminization. This is the goal of the rodelization process. Though this process may seem a bit simple when saying it theoretically, it is usually a bit difficult during its practice.
When doing this, you can segregate a single plant to perform rodelization. When the plants flowers up and the pollen sacs are created, you can harvest the pollen in a paper and envelope and then choose which plant will receive the pollen. This will result to the female plant fertilizing itself and producing feminized seeds. The only problem with this procedure is that it is unreliable. It requires a lot of factor for the procedure to turn out right. By doing this, you also reduce the level of THC thus you cannot select a huge part of the flower. The flower you choose might not react as you expect.
Colloidal silver
The colloidal silver procedure is a bit different. Small amounts of colloidal silver (pure silver) is put in distilled water, the water is then sprayed on the female plants during the flowering stage. This will enable the plants to produce the same pollen sacs as those in the rodelization period. Also, the genetic material that is in the pollen has full female characteristics. This will make sure that the plant will strictly produce female marijuana seeds.
Obviously, this does not constitute the simple application of pure silver coins in the water. There is much more to be used, especially electricity. A 9-volt battery and connector have to be used. The materials can be pure silver coins or silver wires. The electric wires have to be connected to the silver coins and placed in the cup but the water should not be into contact with the wires. When the current passes through the silver coin, silver ions will be created. This procedure needs to be left for about 7 hours minimum. The longer the time, the higher the colloidal silver solution you get. After the solution is made and the sprayed to the plant, it should be continued until male pollen sacs start forming. This is usually about two weeks. Then collect the pollen and fertilize as done before.
The disadvantage with this procedure is that it is time consuming and difficult. It is also expensive. There is a commercial colloidal silver solution that is also expensive.
Cloning
With the above options a bit expensive and hard to do, most marijuana farmers may not have that personal time to wait or that much money to use. For such farmers, there is another method that is cost effective and also sure of getting the female seeds. This is called cloning. Though it is not a fully seed feminization method, it will surely provide feminized seeds that can provide female marijuana plants on a reliable and consistent basis. Cloning involves picking up a strong plant and recreate it, thus you will be able to get high quality smoke at a cheap cost.
Light-Poisoning Method
This is a very simple method. What will happen is that, in the initial three weeks in the flowering stage, break the cycle of the dark period. Allow one hour of light at the middle of the light period, that is 5.5 hours darkness, one hour of light, 5.5 hours of darkness again. Do this repeatedly for the three weeks then after revert back to the twelve hours of light and darkness. This will cause enough stress for the plant to be a “hermie” and fertilize itself. This will happen to the other female plants and no mal plants will be required.
Gibberellic Acid Treatment
The first thing you require to do is to select the favorite female plant that you would like to spray. Then after selecting, spray the plant approximate two feet away from it. Start by spraying under the leaves and then revert to the top. This has to be done around fourteen days before the flowering cycle starts in the plant. After the two weeks, repeat the procedure when the plant is ready for the 12 hour light and dark period each. This will make the plant to turn into a “hermie” and thus pollinate. This will not produce any male plant. It is important to note a plant that has been treated with Gibberellic Acid.
