Feminized marijuana seeds are seeds that only produce female marijuana plants. But there are some misconceptions about marijuana, feminized marijuana seeds and hermaphrodites (plants that display intersexuality) which should be addressed. Unlike more complex organisms, marijuana is not firmly one sex or the other. It’s a very unusual plant in that it’s an annual plant that is also dioeciously (producing separate male and female flowers on different plants), but every marijuana plant has the ability to produce flowers of the opposite sex under certain circumstances.
It’s a survival mechanism for the species, allowing marijuana to succeed and reproduce while being both annual and dioeciously. There are marijuana plants that become intersexual quite easy, in response to stress in the growing environment such as temperature fluctuations, irregularity, physical damage, light cycle, etc. This is a survival response – the marijuana plant detects that growing conditions are not favorable, which means that its chances of reproduction lower. Poor conditions mean that a marijuana plant is less likely to survive the complete season, and also that there’s less chance a marijuana plant of the opposite sex is close enough to pollinate it. In these conditions, some female marijuana plants will grow staminate flowers (which are male) in order to produce their own pollen, fertilize their own pistil flowers (female) and produce seeds which will grow again the following season. Male marijuana plants will sometimes grow pistil flowers, but this is less common.
Early feminized marijuana seeds usually were made with two female marijuana plants, one of which had been identified as having hermaphrodite tendencies, i.e. prone to produce male marijuana flowers when it was stressed. The intersexual-prone marijuana plant would be stressed with light cycle interruption or pruning and encouraged to produce male marijuana flowers, the pollen from which would be applied to the ‘true’ female (i.e. a plant that did not easily display intersexuality when stressed). The downside of this method was that the female marijuana ‘pollen donors’ were individuals which had quite a strong tendency to turn intersexual, and that this tendency was very likely to be inherited by the feminized seeds produced in this way.
Using different forms of silver, female marijuana plants with a very minor tendency to turn intersexual – plants that would stay female even in harsh, irregular, stressful conditions – could be forced to produce male marijuana flowers. This means that their offspring have no more tendency that a normal female marijuana plant to turn intersexual. The feminized strains sold by I Love Growing Marijuana are produced in this way. In short, intersexuality is a fundamental part of the marijuana genome. Each individual marijuana plant simply has a greater or lesser tendency to turn hermaphrodite, in response to different conditions. In addition, the marijuana plants used to make feminized marijuana seeds are definitely not genetically modified! No genes are added or removed. If anything, the parent marijuana plants are physically modified through the use of silver and the seeds are produced in the usual way, through pollination.
Will all plants grown from feminized marijuana seeds be female?
All marijuana plants grown from the feminized strains sold in our marijuana seed shop will be genetically female. An often heard argument in regards to feminized marijuana seeds is the problem of hermaphrodites. In the early days of feminized marijuana seeds this might have happened but nowadays hermaphrodites are very rare. All feminized marijuana seeds sold in our webshop are as stable as regular marijuana seeds. New feminizing techniques and an intensive, multi-stage breeding programs make sure that today’s feminized marijuana seeds are 100% stable, consistent and very productive.
Want to know more about growing marijuana? Get a free guide about growing marijuana at this link here.
