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Seeds: Selection, Banks, and Storage

There are approximately 450 seed varieties of cannabis on the market today.¹ Out of the 450 seed varieties, 200 are worth considering, and out of the 200 about 50 are truly outstanding.

A hybrid is the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics. Stock lines with common parents are loosely referred to as a “cannabis strain” by cultivators. Stable strains have stable genetic traits, which means that the offspring will all be very similar. In fact, most cannabis strains are called cannabis strains because of their uniformity in growth and reduced variations in the offspring. Hybrids tend to be unstable, or genetically unpredictable, because of their “newness.” A good stabilized hybrid eventually goes on to become a strain.

Out of the 450 seed varieties, we said that 200 were good. This leaves 250 that we have disregarded. Those 250 are usually very unstable hybrids. These hybrid plants are so unstable that their description is difficult because of the extent of the variations in the population.

Most unstable hybrids do not find their way into the market and are found only among breeders who are experimenting with plant genetics. Seed producers tend to only produce strains in the following categories (bearing in mind the discussion in Chapter 1):

• Pure Sativa

• Sativa (mostly Sativa species with some Indica)

• Pure Indica

• Indica (mostly Indica species with some Sativa)

• Indica/Sativa (50/50 cross between an Indica and a Sativa species)

• Ruderalis

Ruderalis is a problematic plant. It does not produce large quantities of THC or flower like the others. Ruderalis is considered substandard by most growers because it flowers according to age, not according to the photoperiod. This means that the Ruderalis cannabis plant will flower when it is mature enough to do so, and this flowering action of the Ruderalis plant is out of the grower’s hands, so to speak. Ruderalis is grown in countries that experience cold weather conditions—Russia, Eastern Europe, and Alaska are places where Ruderalis grows wild. It is an extremely sturdy plant for outdoor growing, however, the autoflowering properties of this plant make it hard to control. Trying to clone a Ruderalis plant is nearly impossible because it is extremely hard to force the clone to remain in the vegetative growth stage of the plant’s cycle. Photoperiod manipulation—the way growers control cannabis flowering with Indica and Sativa plants—does not work with Ruderalis plants. Photoperiod, an extremely important part of cannabis cultivation, is further explained in Chapter 8. One reason to grow Ruderalis is if you must grow outdoors, where the photoperiod is of no concern to you.

Seeds develop in the calyx. Here you can see seeds coming out from the calyx while others have not yet emerged. Photo Paradise Seeds.

Seeds that have just begun to germinate sandwiched in wet cheesecloth.

This stash of seeds from Paradise Seeds is enough to create several gardens for the next season. Photo Paradise Seeds.

Pure Sativa is a total head high. Pure Indica is a total body stone / couch-lock. A 50/50 cross will give a 50 percent head high and a 50 percent body stone. If an Indica plant is crossed slightly with a Sativa plant it will give a 60 percent body stone and a 40 percent head high. A Sativa plant that is crossed slightly with an Indica plant will give a 60 percent head high and a 40 percent body stone. The 60/40 ratio is the most common but breeders can also alter the ratio.

Equipped with this knowledge, you are now ready to choose a plant that fits your needs in terms of height, potency, and high. Your choice of seeds will also depend on whether you will grow indoors or outdoors. It will also depend on other characteristics of your grow space. There is no point trying to grow an eight-foot Sativa indoors if you don’t have the space, and a two-foot Indica plant may not survive outdoors if other plants compete with it for light. As a rule, we can always shorten the plant through pruning, but it is impossible to double the plant’s height if the plant’s genetics only allow two or three feet of growth. Indoor and outdoor grow spaces will be discussed more in later chapters. The rest of this chapter will focus on selecting, acquiring, and handling quality seeds.