Producing Feminized Seeds

All of our varieties are feminized seeds. Feminized cannabis seeds are created through a process designed to ensure that all seeds will produce female plants, which are the ones that flower and produce the desired buds with high levels of THC, CBD, CBG, and THCV. Male plants, on the other hand, do not produce buds and are typically only used for breeding. There are several methods for producing feminized seeds, but we only use one around the farm. Learn about our process below.

Here’s how feminized cannabis seeds are typically produced:

1. Starting with Female Plants

The process begins with a high-quality female cannabis plant. The goal is to ensure that the offspring from this plant are also female, as female plants are the ones that produce buds. Since cannabis is a dioecious species (having male and female plants), the challenge is to prevent the females from being pollinated by male plants. 

We take the process of picking our pollinators very seriously and each has been selected over many generations of inbreeding. Our goal is to produce genetics that are homogenous - and it all starts with dialing in both the pollinator and the receiver.

2. Inducing Female Plant to Produce Male Flowers (Sex Reversal)

To create feminized seeds, we induce a female plant to produce male flowers, which contain pollen. We do this by stressing the female plant in a controlled way to produce male sex organs. There are a few ways to achieve this:

• Silver Thiosulfate (STS): Our method involves spraying silver thiosulfate solution, which contains silver particles suspended in water. STS interferes with the plant’s ethylene production, a hormone involved in flower development, effectively forcing the plant to produce male flowers that carry only female chromosomes (XX).

• Colloidal Silver (CS): Works similarly to STS, a spray solution that will trigger female plants to produce male flowers.
  
  

• Stress-Induced Hermaphroditism: In the early days of feminized seeds, growers would use environmental stress (like light cycle manipulation or physical damage) to trigger a female plant to develop male flowers. However, this method is less predictable and often results in hermaphroditic plants that produce both male and female flowers. This was how feminized seed gained a bad reputation.

3. Pollination

Once the female plant has developed male flowers, it will produce pollen. The pollen from these male flowers is then used to pollinate another female plant. Because the pollen is from a female plant (XX), the seeds produced from this pollination will be genetically female (XX) as well.

4. Harvesting Feminized Seeds

The resulting seeds will carry only female genetic material (XX chromosomes), meaning that when planted, they will grow into female plants. The seeds are harvested once they have matured and dried we begin germination tests. For some of our varieties they are ready within weeks of harvest - others like our triploids need curing time. We see increases in germination rates from our triploids up to 6 months later.

5. Ensuring Consistency

Feminized seeds are generally more reliable than regular seeds because they eliminate the risk of male plants growing. However, some growers still choose to use regular seeds for genetic diversity or for breeding purposes. Feminized seeds are often favored for personal cultivation because they maximize the chances of growing a crop of female plants, which is the most desirable outcome for those looking to produce buds.

Advantages of Feminized Seeds:

• More Efficient Grow: Since only female plants produce the buds, feminized seeds ensure that all or most plants in the garden will produce flowers, making the cultivation process more efficient and predictable.
• No Need for Sexing Plants: Growers don’t need to worry about identifying and removing male plants during the growing season.
• Higher Yield: Since all plants are female, growers can focus their efforts on optimizing growth conditions for bud production.

Disadvantages:

• Potential for Hermaphroditism: If there is any genetic instability or if a plant is stressed too much, there is a chance that it may develop both male and female flowers (hermaphroditism), which can ruin the crop by pollinating other plants. However, in our breeding program we specifically remove any lines that show signs of instability.
• Genetic Homogeneity: Some growers prefer regular seeds because they can produce both male and female plants, which can be useful for breeding. Feminized seeds offer less genetic variety for this purpose.

For us, breeding feminized seeds is a no brainer. Feminized cannabis seeds offer growers the best odds at big production numbers.