SAMPLE PAGE cover ww99.indd 1 18/05/ :42

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "SAMPLE PAGE cover ww99.indd 1 18/05/ :42"

Noah Hawkins
5 years ago
Views:

1 cover ww99.indd 1 18/05/ :42

I n this article I would like to look at some of the pros and cons of feminized seeds, discuss methods of feminization and the nature of hermaphroditism.

2 I n this article I would like to look at some of the pros and cons of feminized seeds, discuss methods of feminization and the nature of hermaphroditism. It is important to remember that cannabis has the potential to be both dioecious (having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals) and monoecious (having both the male and female reproductive organs in the same individual; hermaphrodite) and one must be careful when inducing hermaphroditism, or sex reversal, not to end up with whole populations of plants that herm out. R ecently I learned that 90% of seed sales internationally are feminized seeds. So far in my breeding work I have been predominantly opposed to feminization. I have always selected away from hermaphroditism and towards plants that are stable and dioecious. I have never used colchicine to try to induce polyploidy, or gibberellins or silver compounds to try to induce hermaphroditism or sex reversal. I have made feminized seeds through intentionally stressing plants and causing them to herm out and then putting them into a room with healthy non-stressed flowering clones and letting the stressed plant pollinate the non-stressed plants. We call this method top-crossing. Similar techniques are used when chemically inducing sex reversal. Plants treated with gibberellins or silver compounds are caused to turn hermaphrodite or from female to male and they are placed with healthy female plants that are in a state of pistillate peak fluorescence (ready for pollination) and the feminized pollen pollinates the female plants. In theory this works well, 98% or more of the offspring theoretically come out female and in theory there should be little or no hermaphroditism in the offspring of the healthy nonhermaphrodite plants. Now in practice this doesn t seem to be the case. I hear more and more stories of growers who bought guaranteed feminized seeds for their medical gardens and all of their plants morphed out (turned hermaphrodite). T he theory behind feminization makes total sense, if your intention is to grow sinsemellia (without seeds) then eliminating the potential for male plants would be ideal. In theory eliminating the y chromosome would insure a population of plants that would express all xx chromosome pairing (xx being female and xy being male) thus all of the plants would be female, however given the monoecious potential in cannabis plants, the lack of a y chromosome does not guarantee a seedless crop. Understand that when you chemically treat a female (xx) plant to produce male flowers you are inducing hermaphroditism, causing a female plant to have male flowers that will give you female (xx) pollen. Something similar occurs in nature. Many Southeast Asian varieties will tend to be monoecious in nature, many breeders such as the Haze Brothers from the central coast of California used Cambodian, Thai, Laotian, and Vietnamese sativas in addition to Mexican and Central American sativas to develop their original Haze strain in the 1970 s. In land-race equatorial sativas, especially Southeast Asian varieties, self-pollination or hermaphroditism is a commonly occurring trait. It is something that the plants have learned to do as an adaptive way of survival. My theory is that in equatorial areas the humidity is so high and the rain fall so common that there is not often enough dry pollen to blow from one plant to another. So as a way of adapting, the equatorial sativas became monoecious. It is much easier for the pollen to reach the pistils if both the male and female flowers are on the same branch. In California, indigenous land-race equatorial sativas have been hybridized and selectively bread away from monoecious hermaphrodite traits by growers who wanted seedless herb to smoke. For over 40 years the mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts and cousins of my generation have been selectively breeding away from hermaphroditism. Why is it that in the last 5-10 years it has become such a popular trend to produce or purchase FEM seeds? Is it that the novice balcony growers all over Europe aren t capable or competent enough to sex their plants? Is it that all of the closet cultivators across America are just too lazy to pull a couple males? In California medical marijuana patients are allowed 12 immature or 6 mature plants, this is to allow for half the plants to be culled, assuming you will get 50% males and 50% females. A good stable in-bred line will produce 90% females from seed without feminization. So if your goal is to grow sinsemellia, why would you choose seed from self-pollinating hermaphrodite plants? I have grown plenty of seedless herbs from feminized seeds that I have made by top crossing my moms into my clones. Because I never chemically induce hermaphroditism, I never really have issues with my feminized seeds going wrong. Sometimes I will have a few pistillate male flowers or bananas but never so much that they seed out my whole crop. In a lot of the Diesel/Chem Dawg family genetics the bananas are common, especially if your growing environment isn t stress free. If you want to know how to do it right, I will tell you, but first I want to tell you about one of the horror stories of growers I ve known who ve had it come out wrong. The most recent story I have heard is from a friend of mine who is a Dutch-German American. His father is German, his mother is Dutch, and he is born American. My bro, let s call him Jimmy, is a competent grower and collector of fine strains of cannabis. He is the primary care provider for his elderly parents who both have serious medical conditions and a definite need for medicinal cannabis to improve their WW99.indd /05/ :13

3 CANNABIS & COOKING 62 WW99.indd 62 18/05/ :34

4 Hindu Kush plants like this beauty from the good folks at Gibridov.net are great for outdoor growers. They can be ready for harvest at any time between August and mid-september. 76 WW99.indd 76 18/05/ :35

Outdoor growing is the pinnacle of cannabis growing......indoor growing is just an attempt to create outdoor growing conditions, indoors. Seldom, if ever, has this been successfully accomplished.

5 Outdoor growing is the pinnacle of cannabis growing......indoor growing is just an attempt to create outdoor growing conditions, indoors. Seldom, if ever, has this been successfully accomplished. God just does a better job, hands down. You ll find that the large majority of your strains / plants will taste and grow better; they ll also be much more potent when grown outdoors. The only exception to this rule is if you grow near a busy city. The pollution will clog your plant s stomatas and create sick, unhealthy plants. The cannabis plant absorbs everything in the soil, so growing by a road with oil runoff is very unwise. CHOOSING YOUR PLOT The first and most important thing you have to worry about is the security of your chosen plot. Growing a killer crop is nothing but a risk if you don t have a secure place to grow it. All your hard work could disappear and your freedom along with it one day if your plot isn t secure. That is why this is the most important step for growing outdoors. You want to find a spot secluded from the general public and with good cover plants. I recommend that you be at least 200 yards away from any trail, path, street, or building. Make sure that no artificial light is shining on your plants at night while this will help in the vegetation cycle, it will wreak havoc during the flowering cycle by delaying or completely stopping your plant from flowering or causing retarded budding structure. Find a spot with some briers and thorn bushes, blackberry bushes, poison ivy, poison oak, stinging nettle, or what have you, as long as it s something to deter uninvited guests. Your spot should also be away from any bright, colorful, inviting plants and blooms. Insects can also be good deterrents. Those pesky flies, bees, wasps, and gnats are great for keeping people from poking their nose around your plants. If you are considering growing underneath high voltage power lines, I urge you to reconsider. I know that these places look like prime real estate for growing, but anywhere that there are power lines there is annual, if not more frequent, servicing. I would also advise against growing on farmland for the same reasons; if the farmer doesn t find your plants, there is a good chance that the animals will. LIGHTING This Skunk #1 plant from Peak Seeds is a real beauty. Outdoor growers can harvest her at any time from late September until mid-october. This may very well be the most important aspect of growing cannabis. Having the required amount of sunlight can become a problem when trying to stay stealthy. In order to grow trichome covered, dense colas, you must have between six and seven hours of direct sunlight. Most experts will argue that you only need four or five, but in my (and my colleagues) experiences, this is just not true. Another debatable point is whether morning sun is better than afternoon WW99.indd /05/ :35

Plants can be either herbaceous or woody.

Plant Structure Plants can be either herbaceous or woody. Herbaceous plants are plants with growth which dies back to the ground each year, in contrast with woody plants Most herbaceous plants have stems