Why buy feminized seeds?

I've been browsing seeds for a fresh grow under a dozen 3590's side by each with some additional side lighting and spaced as recommended. I always buy femmed seeds and I don't think I have to. I know what a male or female looks like very early on so why not buy reg? Been growing since b4 Dallas and Dynasty were the top TV shows. Do many of you buy reg and cull as needed? The only time I really got my ass kicked in the last 30-35 years was when i failed to ID a hermie out of a batch of femmed seeds. Talk about a disaster..

Rottedroots said:

I've been browsing seeds for a fresh grow under a dozen 3590's side by each with some additional side lighting and spaced as recommended. I always buy femmed seeds and I don't think I have to. I know what a male or female looks like very early on so why not buy reg? Been growing since b4 Dallas and Dynasty were the top TV shows. Do many of you buy reg and cull as needed? The only time I really got my ass kicked in the last 30-35 years was when i failed to ID a hermie out of a batch of femmed seeds. Talk about a disaster..

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I love to go with regs , thats where some of the dankest is found , and less hermie crap .

Its one less thing to deal with. Plus you really don't know how many males you will get. If you are trying to keep things legal and have a low plant cout it makes sense to use fems if you are not interested in creating seeds.

Rottedroots said:

I've been browsing seeds for a fresh grow under a dozen 3590's side by each with some additional side lighting and spaced as recommended. I always buy femmed seeds and I don't think I have to. I know what a male or female looks like very early on so why not buy reg? Been growing since b4 Dallas and Dynasty were the top TV shows. Do many of you buy reg and cull as needed? The only time I really got my ass kicked in the last 30-35 years was when i failed to ID a hermie out of a batch of femmed seeds. Talk about a disaster..

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It easyer to jus do fems but u should do regs veg a wk then 12/12after a wk u should start c mom's n dad's. Take males out put mom's on veg again theyl revert back to veg after a wk or so. U will probly get 1 special pheono. Keep as mother

Hello Roots,

We share a similar age and grow experience. Fem seeds were only available back in the day if you made them yourself. Breeders have reacted to what the market wanted I suppose. The same market demand has driven the autoflower craze. I remember the seed swap days when pheno hunting was part of the buzz. I agree that fem seeds have a tendency to hermie.

I have had more than a few crops go straight to hash when I was not vigilant. I run reg and fem but like @NirvanaMesa says, plant count matters where I live. For this reason I do not keep mother plants or males unless I am looking to breed which is rare these days. When I lived in the Netherlands I felt safe growing large numbers to pheno hunt. Sadly them days are over for me now.

I think when people first start growing they are not confident in early sexing and old hats just want to know they have females right off the bat. So many strains knocking around now everybody just wants to sample the latest "best strain ever" without growing out and sexing.

Cheers,
Will

Fems are better because the breeder can directly observe the female flower traits carried by both parents. This greatly increases the power of the breeder's selection. Also, both parents are potentially elites selected from many seeds.

Compare that to male selection for regular breeders. Virtually all commercial breeders, it seems, just rub some male stems, maybe flower them and pick the one with prettiest and most resinous male flowers. Some know how to reverse it to produce some female flowers but I don't think this is common. Then they chuck it. If you're lucky they'll run some seeds before selling to make sure it doesn't herm out but even that isn't guaranteed. I've never heard of a breeder doing is hitting the same clone with multiple males, growing out the seeds, and picking the male that produces the best female offspring. That's really the only way to know if your male carries good genes for female flowers. Nope, that takes way too much time and space ( == money).

So basically with regs you get a randomly selected male, selected mostly for vigor and a good stem rub. That's why regs aren't as good as fems in addition to being half male.

Rottedroots said:

I know what a male or female looks like very early on so why not buy reg?

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Removing Males in NFT is wasted space and dead roots is trouble

budman111 said:

Removing Males in NFT is wasted space and dead roots is trouble

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Yes I can imagine that would be some what of a ball ache. So you veg and flower using NFT? I must admit it is one of the only hydro system I never tried. Always like the idea though. I use organic soil in felt pots with a DIY SIPS watering system. My grows are small now and I like the relationship between soil and grower. Just a personal preference, I like playing with my micro herds. If I ran anything bigger than a square metre I would defiantly revert back to hydro. I'm an old boy now and big grows with soil would be too much like hard work.

Cheers,
Will

I personally run reg seeds. This is because most of the strains I like to run don't come in fem. I've heard fem seeds have more tendency to herm but I've yet to find anything to support that claim.
I usually start a batch of 10 or so in soil and wait for preflowers. Once I've identified females and males I'll cull the males and grow out the best 4 females. Then from there I'll snip clones and keep a mother of the preferred plant.

Lately instead of killing off a line to start a new one I've been tempted to use CS to make my own fem seeds.

Hashishh said:

. I've heard fem seeds have more tendency to herm but I've yet to find anything to support that claim.

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I have 99.9% success rate in many years using feminized, the one that hermied on me was a notorious Taho OG form Cali Connections, I'm guessing the bad rep is simply bad growers blaming their tools.

budman111 said:

I have 99.9% success rate in many years using feminized, the one that hermied on me was a notorious Taho OG form Cali Connections, I'm guessing the bad rep is simply bad growers blaming their tools.

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That happens all too often. Someone screws up their grow so they blame the genetics, seeds, etc... There are strains that have more of a tendency to hermie. Thai sativa's are one. Over feeding can stress the plant and stress can cause a plant to hermie. From many of the pictures people post it's obvious that many are stressing their plants by over feeding.

I prefer regular seeds myself but I actually want males to grow out and select for pollen for breeding purposes. I make seeds and new crosses every grow. I also make feminized seeds to give away to friends and have for years. Not once have any hermied.

I liked NFT I did it a long time ago. It was my intro to hydro. Grew fast and strong. But culling the males opened room for the ladies to grow. You don't grow big in NFT, more of a sog. At least that's what I found worked........although I didn't clone or think fem seeds where readily available at the time.