Benefits Of Using Feminized Seeds For Better Yields
Having half of your efforts lost can be frustrating when growing cannabis.
You plant, tend, wait, and then you wrack your brain over a week trying to find and remove male plants to save your crop. All their space, water, and time — they were gone. And when you miss just one male plant, you could lose your entire harvest.
This is a challenge that all growers have encountered at some time. But there's a smarter way to grow. Feminized seeds were created to address this issue — providing a dependable, effective, high-yielding alternative to standard seeds from the beginning.
This article explains the top 5 advantages of feminized seeds and why growers prefer them over regular seeds.
1. Every Seed Counts Toward Your Yield
The primary benefit of feminized seeds is straightforward. All seeds will have buds grow from them. This is because feminized seeds have been cultivated with the removal of the male chromosomes, meaning that almost all plants that sprout from these seeds will be female.
About half the plants will be male with regular seeds. Male plants do not make the buds that you are growing. Inevitably worse, they pollinate female plants, which means you get a harvest of seeds instead of a strong, heavy load of flowers.
With feminized seeds, that worry is gone. Every seed you plant works toward the harvest that you get. This means there is no wasted space, no wasted nutrients, and no wasted weeks of crop growth on plants that are not going to yield fruit.
This is enough for any grower who wants to produce as much output as possible – feminized seeds are the obvious choice to start with.
2. Save You Significant Time and Resources
Growing is an investment of time, money, space and energy. All the resources a male plant uses are resources a female plant could have used. Additionally, it is necessary to detect male plants early in the growing season; there is a need to constantly monitor, and even experienced growers can be late.
Not the case with women seeds. There is no need to wait weeks for pollen sacs or worry about cross-pollination. Rather, you can spend your time and attention on what is important – providing your female plants the best conditions for growth.
This efficiency also applies to your growing area. No matter the amount of space—whether you're doing a small indoor tent or a large plot outdoors—you need to make every square foot count. With feminized seeds, you can do just that and fill that space with plants that will produce.
Also, the savings can be compounded. For any grower, feminized seeds are a good long-term investment as there are fewer wasted seeds, fewer wasted grow cycles, and a more predictable return on each grow.
3. Ideal for Beginners and Experienced Growers Alike
One of the most useful advantages of feminised seeds is the ease with which they make growing easy. The learning curve of growing cannabis is already very steep if you're just starting out. Knowing about light cycles, nutrients, pH, humidity, and temperature will keep any new grower busy enough. To complicate things even more, plants can be sexed.
Feminized seeds make things a lot easier. You don't have to know and cut out male plants, so you can concentrate on all other cultivation aspects. This helps to reduce stress and increase the rewards, particularly for new growers.
Furthermore, it does not matter if you are an experienced grower or not; you benefit equally from it. Feminized seeds are suitable if you know what you intend to do, and allow you to grow with more precision and predictability. You will know exactly what each plant in your space is going to do, which will give you greater confidence when planning your canopy, calculating your nutrients and projecting your yield.
4. Flexibility for Both Indoor and Outdoor Growing
Feminized seeds can be cultivated in any growing conditions. They're also great for indoor or outdoor use, so they are an all-around option.
The controlled environment for indoor growers means you have complete control over light cycles, temperature and humidity. With indoor setups, you can produce the exact light cycle that feminized plants need to get them to flower. This creates a more uniform and reliable crop that is ready to harvest.
Outdoor growers can also successfully grow feminized plants, as long as they choose plants for their region that will do well. It's important to select the correct strain for your area. A strain that has been selected for outdoor use would be far more resilient to the natural light cycle, rainfall and temperature changes than a strain that has been selected only for indoor use.
5. A Wide Range of Strains to Match Your Goals
The best part of growing with feminized seeds is the different kinds that are available. If you're looking for heavy THC content, CBD levels, or anything in between, you've got options with feminized strains that can help you achieve your desired results.
The selection is vast, from Northern Lights, AK-47, Amnesia Haze to more unique varieties such as Sundae Driver, Gushers, Gelato and Mimosa. This variety allows growers to create their experience or harvest according to their needs and desires, not what is simply available in seed form.
In addition, every quality feminized seed should have backup genetics and third-party lab testing. Knowing what you're growing is crucial, so you can be sure the genetics work before you plant a seed, which is why it's essential to have a Certificate of Analysis on each strain.
Correctly stored feminized seeds can last 2 – 5 years. Keep in an airtight container, in a cool, dark, dry area, such as a refrigerator. Good storage will help to prevent moisture and temperature changes that will decrease seed germination as time passes.
Final Thoughts
It's not surprising that feminized seeds have revolutionized the way growers cultivate, as they offer several advantages. They remove one of the most time-consuming and resource-intensive aspects of the growing process, and return more consistent, higher-yielding results.
For both the grower planting their first seeds and those with an operation that they have been running for years, feminized seeds offer a better and more efficient way to a better harvest. Every plant contributes. All your area is utilized effectively. Each growing season brings you closer and closer to the results you're going for.
Use the appropriate seed and provide plants with their needs, and the harvest will follow.