How to choose seeds

The amount of strains available on the market is unbelievable.. It’s great but it makes it very hard to choose !! Here is few question you have to ask yourself before buying seeds :

Is it legal to germinate seeds where you live ?

How much money can you spend on seeds ?

What is your grower experience and what are your expectations ?

Are you growing under a lamp or outside ?

What kind of effect and taste are you looking for ?

When choosing seeds, it’s good to read the strain presentation in order to be sure it will flourish in your condition and fit your needs.

People that are creating strains are called breeders. There are a lot of them out there, offering a very wide range of strains with a great variety of smell, taste, hardiness and effect, all this with a super different price between them !

About the price :

How come you can find a 10 seed pack of Jack herer for 15e and another one for 160e ?

It’s mainly because of the work that has been done on the strain, and sometimes about the marketing…

For example, the Jack herer was created by Sensi-seeds in the 90th, and is still sold by them (for 160e). Another breeder took the strain and worked on it to create a different version. Sannie’s jack F9 from the breeder Sannie’s seeds is a good example. Lately, some people simply make copies of the original strain and sell it cheap.

First of all, you prefer to grow feminised or Regular seeds ?

Regular seeds are the natural way cannabis grows, producing male and female plants. The grower has to remove male in order to prevent them pollinating the female plant ; or why not keep one or two beautiful male to create your own seeds ?! That’s the magic, you can keep your favorite genetics in a seed form and you can even create new hybrids ! On top of that, some regular strains show better performance compared to their feminised version.

Feminised seeds are mainly done by spraying hormon on a plant to reverse it sex. A female can then become a male and pollinise another female, producing seeds that will be mainly female. When the process fails or the growing conditions are stressful for the plant, the results might be a hermaphrodite plant (or monoique to be exact).

Monoique (hermaphrodites) plants produce both male and female flowers. These male flowers can pollinate a full growing space (or a garden) turning the crop into seeds at the cost of the bud production. On the market it’s usually feminised seeds that start to produce male flowers because of stress. Also, monoecious plants can be found in landrace strains.

Watchfulness in discovering these potential male flowers before they spread their pollen is the only solution.

Here is an overview of the different kind of seeds we can find on the market :

Sativa, Indica and Ruderalis (auto)

Pure sativa is a long, tall and delicate plant with fluffy buds, growing wild and cultivated traditionally between the tropics. Some strains need more than 4 month to be ripe.

Sativa effect is uplifting, motivating, euphoric and energetic. It is used as a medicine to improve appetite, get out of depression… It contains mainly THC and almost no CBD, with few exceptions.

Pure Indica is usually a short and stocky plant, but some strains can grow tall. They grow in harsh regions where they have been cultivated and selected for centuries. Hash from these regions has a well known reputation.

The Indica effect is relaxing, narcotic. It is used as a medicine to treat insomnia, pain, nervousness…

Pure ruderalis come from Russia and Kazakhstan. It grows by itself in these regions, and has the autoflowering gene. They grow and bloom fast, no matter the photoperiod (length of light in a day). They usually have low amount of cannabinoids, and the aroma is quiet discret.

Autoflowering strains have been created by making hybrids between ruderalis and Indica or sativa strains.

Hybrids

An hybrid is a cross between two different strains. The outcome usually shows a strong hybrid vigor and will show the characteristic of both parents. It offers a wide variation in between, giving space to a whole new range of shape, aroma and effects. If the process is done properly, the outcome can be very innovative and will give birth to a new strain.
Since the 60s, cannabis has been massively hybridized, as a result, most strains on the market have a long family tree.

For example hybrids allow to have sativa with short flowering time and new generation of autoflowering strains are hybrids between ruderalis and photoperiodic strains.

Medicinal strain

In fact, any cannabis strain can find a medicinal use. The beauty is that cannabis produces a wide range of molecules, giving very different results according to their combination.

It is now renowned that CBD is a medicinal molecule, but THC is also very effective as medicine. In addition, the cocktail of all molecules (cannabinoids, terpenes…) induce a great variety of possibilities, giving cannabis a very wide spectrum of use. A simple example could be strains showing a combination of THC and CBD, it usually induces a very comfortable effect perfect to deal with anxiety or nervousness.

If you’re growing for medicinal purposes, have a close look at the description of the strain you plan to grow, and make sure it fits with the ailment you have to deal with.

To dive deeper in the magic of cannabis strain, here are some more advanced knowledge to consciously know what seeds you're purchasing :

A landrace is a strain that is growing wild or that has been cultivated in the same area for decades or century. These kinds of plants are used to very specific conditions, and might struggle under a lamp or in a new region. Also, it is common to see monoique (hermaphrodite) trait in landrace.

An IBL (In Bred Line) is an hybrid or a landrace that has been grown for many generations with the goal of keeping the same traits over generations. In results, it is a very stable genetic.

A True F1 is the offspring of a cross between 2 different landrace or IBL. The hybrid vigor is very strong in a true F1 and this cross should show the best characteristic of both parents. It is a very stable cross, giving very similar plants from each seed. The most amazing True F1 have been done by crossing Indica landrace with sativa landrace, as these 2 are very different, their offspring are very unique.

F1, F2, F3... When crossing 2 strain together, the first generation is called F1, then the second is called F2 and so on. According to the Mendel law, it gives a good idea on how stable can be the strain, knowing that the F2 generation is usually the less stable, meaning that the plants grown from an F2 will show most differences.