Cannabis Seeds

With a growing market, standards and more premium cannabis are growing alongside it. Gone are the days of harvesting seeds from your street sack just to put it in the ground and hope something pops up. Premium seeds are a necessity for every home-grower, and they are out there but so are low-grade seeds. Seed quality is the number one priority before moving on to growing supplies and how-to grow. The end product of your flower depends on this first stage: choosing your seeds.

Now, the newbie home-grower needs to have a bit more knowledge on seeds, plants and their preferred growing conditions to decide on the best variety for them to grow and enjoy. What are regs, fems and autos? Which strains are fail-proof for a beginner gardener? Why does quality and source really matter? I always use SeedSupreme as a great resource to find out strain specs and as a trusted source of premium seeds.

Regs

You may have guessed it: Regs is short for regulars. Regs are the seeds that you would find as a product of a wild cannabis plant. Like other germinating plants, cannabis has two genders: male and female. The female produces our beloved flower while the male just fertilizes her to produce more seeds.

Pro

Growing regs is considered the O.G. way because it was how all the original gangsta’s grew their weed. Now, in the hype of bohemia, it is also considered an organic way of growing. Growing regs offers you the power to select the best germinating seeds.

Con

It’s a little more work. Regs have about a 66% chance of being female so you will grow more plants in order to choose which ones to keep and which to isolate or toss. You also have a slight risk of mixing up female and male, fertilizing your females or having a hermaphrodite. Fertilized females will still produce flower but usually it is less potent and will be filled with seeds. Your best bet is to start with a resilient strain like Girl Scout Cookies, one that is hard to mess up and still produces a potent and high-yielding product.

Fems

Fems, like regs, is an abbreviation as well – for feminized. So, these types of seeds are all guaranteed females. How does that happen? All feminized seeds come from the pollination of two female plants. Yes, it is possible to continue the existence of a species without the male counterpart. But females don’t just start breeding with each other. This happens in the wild when a plant is overly stressed, the plant is not being harvested or is dying – some type of stressor that risks the plant’s potential existence. But seed banks do this chemically.

Pro

There’s no guess work! Feel confident that all of your plants are female. You won’t have to get rid of any male plants or worry about pollination. All of your seeds are female and will produce great flower.

Con

Seed banks artificially induce feminized pollen. If buying from a reputable seed bank, you don’t have to worry about these cons because it is possible to increase feminization through high doses of nitrogen. However, some seed banks use chemicals like colloidal silver and gibberellic acid to force the plant to produce male pollen sacks. Remember, you are what you eat and what you smoke, so, at the end of the day, you will be inhaling these substances. While they aren’t necessarily toxic in small doses, they each have certain side effects that everyone who is smoking them should be aware of – so check with your doctor and be advised.

Autos

Again, an abbreviation. Autos is short for auto-flowering, and that is exactly what they do. Autos have been bred for easy growing, so if you have a brown thumb, you just might be successful with this type of seed.

Pro

Autos flower much quicker. They start flowering about three weeks in and are ready to harvest around three months from germination. That is about half the time of a regular plant. The most promising pro is the resilience without a light regime. Autos will bud no matter what the light schedule is like so no need to stick to a paranoid light timing schedule.

Con

For beginners, this is the seed to grow. The only con is that you will produce a lighter load, but if you grow more plants, you can have more product, obviously. Since the lifespan is so short, the plant only grows to a miniature size. Therefore, producing a small amount. Of course, your strain is always very important. You can find some strains that are high-yielding autos like Gorilla Glue so you reap more product in less time.