Feminized Seeds?

[HuskyToker]

Just wondering how you get feminized seeds? Im not asking where to get them, but how it actually happens.

[ricslat]

Originally Posted by HuskyToker

Just wondering how you get feminized seeds? Im not asking where to get them, but how it actually happens.

fem seed, i'm told, is when a female plant turns hermie and pollinates other females...the seeds from the females are feminized...the hermie seeds are junk...this is exactally what happened to me this year...so i am now sitting on 5000+ fem seeds myself, bag seeds but fem none the less...cheers.

[HuskyToker]

wow nice, btw how long can seeds keep?

[Delta2012]

Kept cool, dry and dark or refrigerated it is as long as 5 years, frozen, in something like bubblewrap not directly as that will harm them, about 10.

Viable seeds are known to come from much older private seed collections from as long as 100 years ago, Hemp seeds are no different to many others, kept dry cool and dark Hemp will germinate after very long periods of storage, strains from very early scientific collections have been bought at botanical auctions which have been decades old and in places like London Docklands, overturned soil from development has raised deep buried seeds that have survived from 150+ years ago and germinated, although it is likely that out of may seeds only a few remained viable over such long periods.

But for most people today and the hybridised strains we all buy, not vulgar Hemp strains from way back when botanists brought them over to the west etc, the general advice is cool dark place and 5 years but viability does degenerate with age, that's for sure.

[Machine]

indeed they can have very long shelf lifes, i have just finished a grow with 3 year old seeds, that were kept in a baggie lol.

[Delta2012]

Good little find then.

[toastybiz]

To expand on this, you can think of two different types of hermies. The first is more common and is a screwed-up plant that you don't want to flower or to breed. It could have screwed up genetics or mutations. Such hermies typically show both male and female flowers all over the plant. If you do use such a plant for producing seeds there is no guarantee that the seeds will be feminized. The second type of hermie is an otherwise healthy female that produces select male flowers. These can be induced intentionally by using hormones and lighting stress on specific bud sites or by allowing a female to continue in flowering after peak maturity. Such male pollen sacs on otherwise healthy, normal females produce feminized pollen (no Y chromosomes). This feminized pollen is then what is used to pollinate another female to generate feminized seeds.

[ricslat]

Originally Posted by toastybiz

These can be induced intentionally by using hormones and lighting stress on specific bud sites or by allowing a female to continue in flowering after peak maturity. Such male pollen sacs on otherwise healthy, normal females produce feminized pollen (no Y chromosomes). This feminized pollen is then what is used to pollinate another female to generate feminized seeds.

way cool...if you over flower to get the hermie...do you harvest a portion of the plant and continue 12-12?...or no harvest?...or harvest and then reveg?...also any links that illustrate specific bud sight lighting stress?...v cool stuff...thanx.

[Delta2012]

If you don't want seeds and pollination you've got to be very vigilant with a herme and keep cutting the bananas and balls off, which are the male sex organs.

Trouble is that when snipped they multiply when more are put out.

If you are cutting male stems out this will cause the plant to slow down considerably and shock it, better to snip ball off and leave leaves etc, just get rid of the flowering componant.

Yes, you can keep snipping the male element out of a herme but if you really want to be safe and only have sensi and a plant hermes at the beginning of flowering photocycle it may seem like too much work and stress to keep on top of it so would be better to do away with it.

If you don't mind seeds, a few of them, try to keep on top of it so you get the bud from it but be prepared to be caught out by a missed banana that manages to pollinate and cause a few seeds but if you keep on top of it, this would be a minimal amount if it did pollinate.

Choice is yours.

Personally i don't mind seeds so wouldn't care, i'd just crop most, remove immature seeds and leave some on the plant to make sure some ripen properly and grow them later.

The bud from the ripened seeds would be very couchlock as well, for sleeping only, to be sure.

[toastybiz]

Originally Posted by ricslat

way cool...if you over flower to get the hermie...do you harvest a portion of the plant and continue 12-12?...or no harvest?...or harvest and then reveg?...also any links that illustrate specific bud sight lighting stress?...v cool stuff...thanx.

You can harvest the plant at any time as you wish. Sorry but don't know of any links that give details on how to light-stress to induce a femmed pollen hermie bud, it's tricky to do and the breeders don't like to let the secret out. It usually also involves application of gibberellic acid, a growth hormone.

[Delta2012]

During the dark photoperiod, slap bang in the middle you allow bright light to mess the hormone balances up, do that a couple of times and you've got a guaranteed herme.

Normal seeds can be feminised with this solution containing Ethylene Acid and Alginic Acid....
http://www.elementshydroponics.com/item/78

This you will find interesting, 5th post!

http://www.marijuanagrowing.eu/cannabis490.html

Contains a method to chemically produce hermes.

The contents of a feminising seedsoak is contained in that tutorial, although getting the chems to make it yourself is more hassle than simply buying the seedsoak product.