A beginners guide to cannabis seeds

This isn’t a comprehensive guide, just a small overview. If you’re new to growing your own cannabis seeds, some of the terminology and methods can be confusing.

The easiest way to explain the different types is to compare to alcohol.

Just as there’s different varieties of alcohol which can be broken down further into types.

Example:

Whiskey is a variety of alcohol and you get different types like Jack Daniels, Jameson, Paddy’s etc.

You can break Cannabis down the same way

There are 2 main types of cannabis. I’ll give an overview in broad strokes.

1. Indica. This is what everyone thinks when talking about cannabis. It’s a body high and causes couch lock. Basically the kind you get stoned on, sit on the couch and mindlessly watch tv. Good painkiller, to relax and to help people sleep. This is the fat cannabis leaf type. Plants tend to grow more like a bush. Generally shorter and wider. Flowering time is a minimum of 8 weeks, usually 8-10 weeks.

1. Sativa. This is the mental and creative high. This is the type you use when painting, writing, basically anything creative. It’s a head high and good for during the day. Doesn’t tend to put people to sleep but can even give a burst of energy. Good for during the day when people are out and about. This is the skinny type leaf. These tend to grow like a tree, tall and thin. Flowering time is longer, generally 10-12 weeks.

Those are the two main types. Most strains nowadays are hybrids but tend to be dominant in one way.

Now you can break these down into further types.

Types of seeds

1. Regular seeds. These are a mix of male and female plants. Male plants are only good for cross breeding and don’t produce flower. We don’t sell these as they are a hassle. If you have a batch of female plants and don’t pull out the male asap the male will fertilise and ruin the females. They’ll just produce seeds instead of flower.
2. Feminised seeds. The most popular. These are seeds that will produce only female plants. These seeds are produced when an unfertilised female plant is put into panic mode (differing methods) and begins to produce seeds which are a clone of itself. These will be our main seller as you don’t have to worry about males so it makes things a lot easier for customers. These plants can also be cloned by taking cuttings. Flowering is induced by changing the plants light cycle. Go here to check out our strains.
3. Autoflower Feminised seeds. These are feminised plants with a difference. They will go into flower by themselves after a set amount of time. Customer does not have to induce flowering. Germinate, put them in a pot with as much light as possible (up to 20 hours) and they’ll do what they have to do. This is due to having a certain amount of ruderalis in them, usually 10%. Ruderalis is a plant that was found that did its own flowering and so was cross bred with plants. The big advantages are they are fast and easy. The big disadvantages are you will lose yield. They also CANNOT BE CLONED. Go here to check out our autoflowers
4. CBD seeds. These are becoming more and more popular. They are plants with high levels of CBD and low levels of THC. The reverse of normal plants. CBD has medicinal properties but does not have the psychoactive effects of THC. The CBD works as a painkiller without getting you messed up. Go here to check out our CBD seeds

Some generic terms you’ve probably come across.

Seed factors

Strength: How high the level of THC in the plant is. Ranges from 15% to mid 20’s. A mid’20’s plant such as white widow packs a hell of a punch. You can get stronger plants but they are very unstable. There are lab grown plants of 40% but they’re unicorns.

Kush: A generic term for an indica plant. Anything you see labelled as kush will be an indca.

Haze: A generic term for a sativa plant. Anything you see labelled as haze will be a sativa.

Flowering: In order to get a usable supply, you have to make the plant go into flower. Usually you change the light cycle to 12-12. 12 hours on and 12 hours off. This makes the plant think it’s time to flower. Basically screwing with the plant’s nature.

The length of time it takes for a plant to be ready after inducing flowering.

Veg time: How long you grow the plant before you induce flowering. This is usually around 3 months for the majority of our strains. Technically, you can keep it in veg as long as you want but you end up with some massive plants and the risk of stress increases.

Stress: Plants can be delicate. If there’s something in their environment they don’t like, they can stress out and turn into a hermie (a plant that is both male and female) this plant is basically ruined and will need to be removed immediately. They produce pollen will can fertilise other plants. Lack of/too much nutrients can cause stress, insects, temperature, humidity can all cause stress and hermies.

Light cycle: The amount of light a plant should get. In an indoor grow with lights, 18 hours on and 6 hours of darkness is good. Then when you want to induce flowering, gradually change that over to 12-12. Autos are good up to 20-4. Some say autos can do  24 on but that’s too stressful for the plants. Modern LED lights are good and cost effective. If you’re a beginner, LED is the way to go. More advanced growers will have more advanced setups.

I hope this was helpful for you. Don’t forget, if you have questions, you can always email us at info@coastalmary.com or use the livechat feature on the site.