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How To Make Feminized Seeds!

How To Make Feminized Seeds For Beginners!

Have you ever wondered how people make feminized cannabis seeds and how do they  know that the seeds are feminized? Well let me shed some light on this topic for you. There are many different ways that people can achieve this, but the two methods that I have done is using colloidal silver (my favorite) and the other is Rodelization(Not my favorite). Here in this article I’m going to explain how they make feminized cannabis seeds and why colloidal silver is my favorite technique. 

What Are Feminized Seeds

First thing first what are feminized seeds? To better understand this you have to know that cannabis is a dioecious plant. Meaning that there is a female and Male plant.  The female plant is the one that everyone loves with the buds and resin. While the male plant produces very little resin does not have buds and makes the pollen sacks. The way to identify the difference between the two plant is to check for pistils with white hairs or small balls where the nodes are. When cannabis is pollinated with a male and female plant you have a 50/50 chance for a female and a 50/50 Chance for a male plant from the offspring ( seeds ). 
To feminize your seeds you have to take out the male in the equation. Then force the female plant to hermaphrodite. Once you force the female to hermaphrodite and pollinate your plants your offspring (seeds) will not have genes from a male plant. Because the male plant was originally a female. Below I will describe ways to force your plant to hermaphrodite out! 

Rodelization

Rodelization is a technique that stresses the female cannabis plant forcing it to hermaphrodite out. But with this technique it emphasis on the genetics that have hermaphrodite tendencies already in the plant’s lineage. Hence why some strains tend to herm out more often than other strains. There are hundreds of ways to stress the plant out but the most common way is light poisoning. By constantly flipping your plant in and out of the flowering stage you will raise the chances of the plant to herm out. Some growers prefer this method because it’s a natural way to induce hermaphrodites and your not spraying your plants. The only drawback is the success rate could potentially be a lot lower. That is why this method is my least favorite for making feminized seeds. 

Colloidal Silver

Now we have finally made it to my favorite method for making feminized seeds, colloidal silver! “Yay!” Now let me explain what it is, colloidal silver are tiny particles of silver suspended in distilled water. The measurement of the silver particles are by parts per million (PPM). I was always told to use colloidal silver that is at least 30 ppm or over. 

Colloidal silver is fairly easy to make, but since I have not made it yet here’s a link to a website that teaches you how to make it.  ( How to make colloidal silver ) If your like me and do not have the time to make it you can purchase from amazon like I did! ( Buy colloidal silver ) Steps To Making Feminized SeedsHere I’ll explain the 5 steps that I use to make feminized seed. Click The Image To Buy From Amazon

Step 1: Picking The Perfect Starting Point

Using colloidal silver as a way to make feminized seeds you need to keep in mind that wherever you spray your plant you shouldn’t smoke. The seeds are good, but it’s highly recommended not to smoke the buds that you sprayed. That being said you’ll need to think twice about spraying your entire plant!     ( When I spray my plants I leave the main cola alone and will only spray 3 to 4  of the smaller branches on the bottom )

Step 2:  Figure Out How To Spray

This may sound simple, but Colloidal silver is actually real silver. Meaning that it is not cheap! If you put it into a massive spray bottle you can find yourself running out well before the balls develop. A beginner mistake that I made was spraying too broadly, it’s alway nice to keep everything exacted . ( When I spray my plants I use a small hair spray bottle) 

Step 3:  Spray Cycles

The First day of flowering is when you would want to spray your plants. You’ll need to spray your plants everyday until you see the balls begin to form! When you spray make sure that you heavily saturate the entire branch you want the balls on. This step usually takes about 3 weeks but some strains it could take longer. ( I spray mines twice a day, once when I wake up and once before I go to sleep until I see the sacks forming )Buy on Amazon click the link or image!Click The Image To Buy From Amazon

Step 4:   Inspect Plants

Remember that colloidal silver is a water base substance. You’ll want to make sure that your not growing mold with your plants. If your plants have an infection or disease there is a higher chance that your seeds would be deformed, or when you store your feminized seeds that the mold would transfer to the seeds. When your plant starts to make pollen sacks watch them closely because the sacks are more likely to catch mold than buds.

(What I found that helps prevent this is to defoliate unwanted growth and isolate the branches that you want leaving a gap! )

Notice that the branch is isolated and there is a gap from the rest of the plant. This keeps the colloidal silver off the other branches along with keeping the moisture from the spray away from the rest of the plant. Remember wherever colloidal silver is sprayed you do not want to smoke!

Step 5: Repeat Steps 3 And 4

Each strain flowers and reacts differently. Patience is the key! As long as you stay on top of it you should have feminized seeds in no time! 

Extras

Just to keep in mind when making feminized seeds is that every pair of white hairs would make a seed. If you pollinate your plant properly you should have a minimum of a few hundred seeds to a few thousand seeds. ​

Thank You!

Why Do Plants Need Calcium?

What Is Calcium?

What is calcium? Why do plants need calcium? Where do we get calcium from? These are some of the questions that beginner growers ask. Let’s begin with the basic first, calcium is a alkaline metal with the symbol Ca and its atomic number is 20 on the periodic table. Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the earth crust, and every living cell depends on it. But for today we would be talking about why plants need calcium. 

Why Do Plants Need Calcium?

Calcium is an essential secondary macro-nutrient that is absorbed by the roots of plants and travels by the xylem to new shoots and leaves. The plant uses calcium to strengthen cell walls, hold cells together, plants metabolism, and activates specific plant enzymes. Calcium improves the absorption of nutrients and helps in their translocation within the plant. Calcium is a alkaline metal which helps neutralize organic acids in plants that form during cell metabolism such as bonding to pectate acid to form calcium pectate. Unlike most macro-nutrients calcium is not a mobile nutrient meaning that it starts at the roots and ends at the leaves, it does not go up and down.This Island Is Covered with Limestone
( Limestone is mainly composed of  calcium carbonate or dolomite)

Calcium Deficiency 

In nature calcium deficiencies are rare because there is so much of it in the soil, unlike everything else calcium is not considered a leach able nutrient. But depending on your soil condition, what calcium you have could not be available to your plant. In This section  we are going to discuss a lot of the main causes for calcium deficiency.   

Environmental Stress

Calcium travels by transport of the xylem, as the plant draws in new water it releases the old water thru its leaves into the air. Humidity, temperature, light, soil condition and wind could potentially slow down transpiration affecting the intake of calcium. ( “Xylem: the vascular tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem.”) Definition from dictionary.com

Lack Of Watering

Very similar to environmental stresses the lack of water can and will cause a calcium deficiency. ( Remember that calcium is up taken with water by the xylem)

Water PH

When your PH is below 6 the solubility of calcium drops. ( Ideal PH is 6.0- 7.0)

What Happens When There Is Too Much Calcium?

Excessive calcium creates a nutrient lock preventing other important macro nutrients and micro nutrients from being adsorb. (Potassium, magnesium, manganese and iron and etc…. ) When you have an excessive amount of calcium you’ll begin to see symptoms of other deficiencies making it hard for the beginner grower to spot and diagnose.Calcium is consider a non leach able substance meaning that it doesn’t drain away with water. If you are adding more calcium than your plant can use and keep adding more and more flushing your plants might be difficult then anticipated.

Sources Of Calcium

Gypsum: Composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate ( Will Not Raise PH )   Buy Now!

Lime: Calcitic lime and/or Dolomite lime  ( Will Raise PH ) According to U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine some plants could pull carbon from calcium carbonate instead of from the air.   Buy Now!

Grounded Shells: You’ll want to bake them around 200 degrees  and then crush them up. ( Remember this method is more natural but takes longer to be available, you can add vinegar to speed up the process)

Bone meal:  Just like the name implies bone meal is finely grounded up animals. Buy Now! 

​Cal Mag: Calcium and Magnesium deficiency are most of the time associated together.    Buy Now!

 In a recent study we provided evidence that pigweed, an aggressive weed, attenuates this problem exploiting large crystals of calcium oxalate as dynamic carbon pools. This plant is able to photosynthesize even under drought conditions, when stomata are closed and water losses are limited, using carbon dioxide from crystal decomposition instead from the atmosphere. ​ U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine  

References 

ScienceDirect

Soil in the Environment By Daniel Hillel   

U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine  

Cell.com

​North Carolina  Department Of Agriculture 
And Consumer Services

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