Feminised seeds are one of the greatest advances in cannabis growing. Growers used to grow more plants than they need, in the chance of having enough females. But now, cannabis seeds are available, that are pretty much guaranteed to be female. In this guide we will explain how to make Feminised cannabis seeds for yourself.
Using these techniques you will be able to preserve your favourite strain in seed form, instead of keeping a mother. You will also be able to begin breeding your own feminised cannabis plants! You can cross 2 females, of your favourite strains together, and as a result have thousands of feminised cannabis seeds at your disposal.
If you are going to make feminised cannabis seeds for the first time, then feel free to ask for help in our cannabis growers forum
How Feminised Cannabis Seeds are Made
For professional cannabis breeders, there is a long process of find the best female specimens, from a particular strain they would like to turn into seed. This could be 2 plants of the same strain, or a combination of two. They both, must be female cannabis plants!
Essentially, what happens is, a chemical called "Colloidal Silver" is sprayed onto one of the female plants, as they finish their vegetative growth and head into flower. Most growers will do this when they flip the lights to 12/12 to induce flowering.
The Colloidal silver, will encourage the female plant, to grow male reproductive organs and pollen. But, the genetics of the pollen produced is still female. Usually, pollen will come from a male cannabis plant and carry male genetics. This will give you regular seeds with a 50% chance of being male or female.
By using colloidal silver, you will ensure both parents of your seeds, are genetically female. So that means, only female genes will be passed down resulting in female plants. This is how feminised cannabis seeds are made.
What is colloidal silver?
To put it simply as possible, Colloidal silver is microparticles of silver that are suspended with electrolysis in pure distilled water. It sounds very complex, but it is very easy and inexpensive to make. You can also buy it from many grow shops online.
The silver ions in colloidal silver act as an ethylene inhibitor. This will force female plants to produce male flowers. These flowers will have pollen that has only female chromosomes.
You will need a solution that's between 20ppm and 30ppm. Weaker solutions than this maybe bring male flowers that have little or no viable pollen. If you make colloidal Silver yourself, use a PPM/TDS meter to measure the solution.
When to Spray Your Female with Colloidal Silver for Best Results?
Most growers will start to spray the female plant they would like to grow male flowers on, a few days before inducing the plant into flowering. You will continue to spray the plant, every day, for 2-3 weeks before you see male flowers form.
If you're not sure your plant is a female, then wait until you see pistils to confirm that they are, before applying CS. The result will be the same, just a little later on in the process.
How Often to Spray the Colloidal Silver?
Some growers will male flowers with just 5 days of spraying! Most will see them in 10 days, but generally about 2 weeks should is enough time.
Take things such as the strength of the colloid silver, how much you spray, and how often into consideration. Keep spraying, everyday, until you start seeing male flowers or "bananas" form. It generally takes a few weeks before you see them, so be patient.
Once you've sprayed a plant with colloidal silver, do not use it for extracts or smoke it. The silver microparticles are absorbed into the plant via the foliar feed. Even if you were to wash the buds, there will still be plenty of CS in the plant matter. This plant is now for breeding purposes only!
How to Pollinate a Cannabis Plant
Sometimes, the feminised pollen sacs do not open naturally. You may have to help the flowers open to reach the pollen. Cut them off and manually open them. Then just brush them against the pistils of the untreated female/s .
Also, turn the fans up in your grow room if possible. This will blow the pollen around the room more. For best results, and more seeds, it is a better idea, to manually extract the sacs from the treated female. Gather the pollen up and use a small makeup brush to apply it all to the white pistols across the untreated plant.
Self-pollination
You can make feminised cannabis seeds, with one single female plant. By creating feminised pollen on a female plant, you can use that pollen to pollinate itself. This will happen naturally, but manual extraction and pollination would result in better coverage, and produce more seeds.
You should let the female flower for a couple weeks before starting to apply CS. So that you plenty of bud sites as targets to apply the pollen.
How to Conserve a Mother Plant by Making Feminised Seeds.
You can use the techniques above, to preserve the strain of your mother plants. Some growers will keep a mother plant because it has some outstanding characteristics, and the genetics, need to be kept!
But sometimes, things happen, and you may not be able to keep a plant around for a while, and you have to destroy your mother plant.
Take a few cuttings from the mother, and let them root. When they are ready, veg them for a few weeks. When you the cuttings are big enough, and you are planning to flip them, start with the treatment of colloidal silver, and at the same time, flip your mother plant into flower.
After a couple of weeks, you mother plant will be showing signs of white pistols, and your cuttings will show signs of male organs.
Manually extract all of the pollen sacs, and use that to pollinate as much of the mother as possible. The more you can cover the more seeds you will have.
When you can start growing again, you can use these seeds to regrow your favourite strain. The phenotype may be a little different. But you will be close, and you will have hundreds maybe even thousands of seeds to hunt for the next phenotype.
Make you own Colloidal Silver!
Colloidal silver is so relatively easy to make, if you can grow cannabis, you can make this stuff. The entire system is very simple, and very effective if you follow the basics. You can follow this simple guide: How to Make Colloidal Silver.
To ensure the best results, make sure you're:
- Using pure (distilled) water
- And Pure (999/.9999) silver
- Giving electrolysis enough time (if making your own CS)
Be Patient!
Also, when spraying your plant with Cs, make sure you are:
- Spraying with a strong-enough solution
- Covering the plant thoroughly enough (drench the whole plant)
- Treating regularly enough (Spray at least once a day)
- Spraying for long enough (2-3 weeks)
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"There are many ways to go swimming with a cat”
― Macky
You can skip all the spraying and just force your plants to hermie....S1 fem seeds. Breeders like DJ Short use the technique all the time. I’ve done it to save genetics. Had a FPOG x Aliendawg Cherry that I forced to hermie. Raise the temp and interrupt the dark cycle....it’s ok because YOU are causing this to happen. The plant is not going hermie from bad genetics. Let it go longer if you do this as seeds need a bit more time to ripen than buds.
You can skip all the spraying and just force your plants to hermie....S1 fem seeds. Breeders like DJ Short use the technique all the time. I’ve done it to save genetics. Had a FPOG x Aliendawg Cherry that I forced to hermie. Raise the temp and interrupt the dark cycle....it’s ok because YOU are causing this to happen. The plant is not going hermie from bad genetics. Let it go longer if you do this as seeds need a bit more time to ripen than buds.
Nah man, then they carry a hermie gene close in there Liniage, the seeds are more likely to be hermie, or will easily hermie, if the genes are there.
"There are many ways to go swimming with a cat”
― Macky
@macky is it normal for the plant to not like the Colloidal Silver? Possibly I am over doing it.
I have a clone I have been spraying to reverse every day for 2 weeks and it looks a bit sick. All my other clones are very healthy and happy.
I know if I got sprayed with some crazy chemicals to change my sex then I don’t think I would be very happy either.
Cheers,
Jim
@aussie_jim Post a pic of it. I sprayed a single branch on one of my plants and after 2 weeks it was growing balls on that branch, but it never looked different from the rest of the branches on that plant.
Sativa to change the things I can, Indica to accept the things I can’t.
I’m confused as I’ve never tried this but I was under the impression that the plant should be beginning flower to do this. Twisted, TG, and anyone else who has successfully used silver to reverse a plant, please school me on this. One day I will be trying this.
I don’t know why it’s stressing your plant tho. Sorry brother
Random acts of kindness make the world a better place
@monkeydo I sprayed 1 branch of my plant daily just before lights out, this started the day i changed the light schedule for flower and took approximately 14 days.
The part of the plant i didn't spray showed pistols a couple days before the sprayed branch started showing balls.
My plant didn't have any ill effects other than a partial sex change.lol
Sativa to change the things I can, Indica to accept the things I can’t.
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