How to Identify a Female Seed – A Guide to Feminized Seeds

How to identify a female seed as a grower is one of the most important steps to ensure your crop will produce female cannabis crops of the highest quality, without unwanted pollination in crops which will damage their beauty and flavor. However, it’s not about identifying the gender of a seed, which is a myth. It’s about what type of seed you use to ensure its desired gender.

Cannabis cultivators have to produce female plants since they have smokeable buds. The quality of those buds goes down greatly if a male cannabis plant pollinates them. It only takes one male plant to pollinate an entire crop of females.

We’ll answer a frequently asked question amongst new growers – Can you tell whether a seed is male or female by looking at it?

 

How To Identify Female Plants

On your female plants, white hairs are found on the calyxes of the flower, which is the first part of the flower to develop during flowering.

The Difference Between Male and Female Cannabis Seeds

It’s pretty easy to tell the difference between male and female cannabis plants, but what about cannabis seeds?

Can you tell female seeds from male seeds?

It is not possible to determine whether Cannabis seeds will produce male or female plants from their defining characteristics.

They produce more resin when their flowers are not pollinated. Essentially, female buds are a means of attracting male pollen and this is also why there is no such thing as male buds.

 

 

Why Do Growers Prefer Feminized Seeds?

When growing cannabis to produce mouth-watering buds, an experienced grower will ensure the crops are only female unless they are using them for pollinating to produce more seeds. The female cannabis plants produce flourishing, aromatic buds that males cannot. Not to say that male plants are bad. They serve different purposes. Without the male plant, there is no pollen to reproduce seeds.

The female cannabis plant provides a larger bud, high in THC and cannabinoids, that gives the best effects of what we want out of our crop. A grower will make sure to separate the males upon checking the gender of the plants, or they will use feminized seeds. The type of seed used will determine the process used to identify the gender.

What Types Of Cannabis Seeds Are There?

When growing Cannabis, you have 3 seed types to choose from, which are Regular, feminized, and autoflower. Feminized and autoflower seeds are both feminized with a few differences. Most growers prefer feminized seeds since they do not desire to cross their strains by producing cannabis seeds.

• Regular seeds – These are also called unsexed seeds. When working with regular seeds, you will produce a 50/50 mix of male and female cannabis plants. Male cannabis plants have pollen sacs that will pollinate your female plants, so these seeds are only ideal for breeders looking to cross their strains and start a seed bank.
• Feminized seeds – These are produced without male DNA and have over a 99% chance of producing female plants. You risk male plants pollinating your crop and producing lower-quality, seeded buds if you use unsexed seeds.
• Autoflower seeds – These seeds produce plants that flower on their own after about 4-6 weeks of growing. The advantage of autoflower seeds is that they don’t require you to pay attention to the light cycle and the hassles of dealing with timers. These seeds have smaller amountss than plants grown from feminized seeds.

 

Seed Gender Myths

Identifying a female cannabis seed is more challenging than looking at the seed or feeling the density of its shell. A visual of the early sprouting during the pre-flowering stage is the only way to determine the gender of a cannabis plant, in which the male will begin to produce small pods, and the female will produce more of a hairlike sprout. The myth of determining the gender of a seed can be dangerous to your intent if you’re not careful.

Some of these myths include rolling a seed across a flat surface, in which the female seed will roll easier; observing the appearance of the seed, in which the female seed looks healthier and bold; and environmental factors that play a role in the outcome of the gender. Although environmental stress can indeed cause hermaphrodite plants, the environmental factor has not been proven to be effective in the gender outcome of male or female plants.

The truth is, there is no guaranteed way of identifying the gender of a seed until the plant reaches the pre-flowering stage. Thankfully, a cannabis group in the 90s created the feminized seed and made our lives easier by giving us seeds that guarantee a 99% rate of female production.

How To See If You Have High Quality Seeds

A waxy coating should cover the entire surface of high-quality cannabis seeds. As an experienced grower, you should see this since if the seeds are held in the light, the shell will have a healthy sheen on the surface.

How To Guarantee Female Cannabis Plants

Feminized or autoflower seeds have over a 99% chance of producing female cannabis plants, making them popular amongst most growers. It’s important to understand that autoflower seed varieties are all feminized. The difference between these two seed types is that autoflower cannabis seeds do not require the same light conditions that feminized seeds require to reach the flowering stage. Female cannabis seeds are 99% guaranteed to produce female plants. Take a look at our current Feminized Seeds catalog.

Female Seeds vs. Regular Seeds

Female seeds are feminized and have over a 99% chance of producing female plants. Since they are not made with male cannabis genetics, you don’t have to worry about producing male plants.

Regular seeds are produced using male chromosomes and typically produce a 50/50 mix of male and female plants. It creates an unnecessary headache for the grower since you will have to remove the males from your grow.

Male cannabis plants will develop pollen sacs, their male sex organs. As soon as cannabis plants are pollinated, they will no longer devote energy to growing flowers. They will stop producing resin, which results in fewer buds and less THC. Instead of producing buds, that energy will go into producing seeds.

How Do I Avoid Producing Male Plants

Feminized seeds are selectively bred to not produce any males, eliminating a tedious part of the grow. If you want to produce the best plants, check out our selection of award-winning, high quality seeds. All of our seeds are feminized.

 

 

Germinating Seeds

Germinating seeds with a wet paper towel makes it short and simple. Only female plants produce buds. The vegetative stage is where you want to get when growing. You’ll never know a plant’s gender when working with unmarked seeds. Once you plant it, you will know whether it is male or female.

Where To Get The Best Feminized Cannabis Seeds

If you are looking for a reputable seed bank, look no further! OG Seeds prides itself on carrying the most exclusive, high-potency genetics anywhere. Our seeds are proudly made in America by experienced cultivators, and we guarantee germination. We also offer 25 percent off your first order with fast, free, discreet shipping to all 50 states.</p.

 

What Percentage Of Seeds Are Female?

If you don’t mind waiting for the plant to reach the pre-flowering phase to determine its gender, regular seeds are commonly known to have a 50/50 male-to-female ratio.

Cannabis growers looking to save time and energy and want to get the most out of their crops will use either feminized or autoflower seeds since they are 99 percent guaranteed to produce a female plant.

Cannabis seeds do not have defining characteristics that indicate whether they will produce male or female plants. There is no clear way to know whether or not you have male and female seeds just by looking at them, and the best way to produce a female Cannabis plant is to use feminized seeds.

 

How To Tell If Female Seeds Are Healthy

Although you can’t determine the gender of a seed by looking at it, you can determine how healthy a seed is by its looks. Healthier seeds tend to have a brown, tan, or black color with a shiny, waxy bold shell ranging from light to dark in hue. An unhealthy seed is usually softer and will break easier if squeezed. A healthy seed is typically harder, not easy to break, with no cracks in the shell.

The float test is a common way to test the health of a seed by placing it in water. A healthy seed will sink to the bottom after a certain amount of time. Usually, when the seed floats, it will not be used by the grower. Another more accurate way of testing a seed’s health is to germinate the seed. If the seed fails to germinate, it is an easy and direct way to determine whether it is healthy. Storing seeds in a cool, dry, dark environment will maintain the seed’s health in the long run.

 

Why Get Your Seeds From OG Seeds?

We offer fast, free, stealthy shipping to all 50 states and feature rare and exclusive genetics from Southern California. The cannabis seeds you purchase from us contain the best genetics, and will produce top-quality cannabis at harvest. Shop today and get 25% off your first order.

Other Grow Tips

• Early signs of male plant growth
• How to Feminize Cannabis Seeds step-by-step guide