What are feminized seeds?
Feminized seeds are cannabis seeds bred to almost always give female plants, which are the ones that produce buds. They are the best sellers, because they save you from having to spot and remove male plants.
Cannabis has male plants and female plants. The females form the buds. The males produce pollen, and if that pollen reaches a female, it pollinates her: the plant puts its energy into making seeds and the buds end up full of them.
With ordinary seeds, known as regular seeds, roughly half the plants turn out male. Feminized seeds solve that: you sow them and, with rare exceptions, all the plants will be female.
To make them, seed banks get a female plant to produce pollen and use it to pollinate another female. Since no male takes part in the cross, the resulting seeds give female plants.
Advantages
- All your space is productive: you don't waste room or time on male plants.
- Simpler: you don't have to learn to tell the sex of your plants or remove them in time.
- Seedless buds: if there are no males nearby, the harvest comes out clean.
Disadvantages
- Not as good for breeding: if you want to make your own crosses and seeds, the usual thing is to start from regular seeds.
- Watch out for stress: a very stressed plant (from heat waves, light interruptions or poor care) can end up putting out a male flower or two. This is rare if you grow it well.
Are feminized and autoflowering the same thing?
No. "Feminized" refers to the sex of the plant, and "autoflowering" to how it flowers. A seed can be both at once: in fact, almost all the autoflowers on sale are also feminized. We state it on each product page.
Related terms
Before you grow, check the laws in your country: growing cannabis is not allowed everywhere.
