Browse through most seed shops today and the regular section is the shelf at the back: shorter every year, marked lower than the feminized packs next to it, and bought by a shrinking group of people who know exactly what they are looking for. It is tempting to read that as the end of a technology. It is closer to the truth to read it as a library shrinking while the paperback rack next door grows. Every feminized line started as a regular one, each new cross needs a male somewhere in its pedigree, and the breadth of cannabis genetics that survives at all survives because somebody kept regular seed. Dedicated sellers such as https://breederregularseeds.com stock lines going back to the 1980s, sold in packs of 10 seeds because a pack is intended to be a population, not a single plant. This article sets out the argument for that unfashionable pack: what the male contributes, what a buyer gives up by not growing one, and how to get value with a pack instead of a copy.
Not Just Pollen
The lazy account of a male cannabis plant is “the one that makes pollen”, and to a flower grower that is all it. To a breeder it is half the genome of every seed which follows, and that half is selected with the same care as the female.
A male contributes structure, vigour, flowering speed, resistance to mould and pests, trichome density and the terpene chemistry exactly as the female does; it simply expresses several of those traits less visibly since it does not produce a smokable flower. Those who breed with regular seed invest at least as much time selecting males as females, and this is the work that a feminized cross borrows and cannot repeat. Reversing a female gives pollen; it cannot give a second set of selected genes.
How Diversity Leaks Away
Much of the feminized catalogue is made from S1 seeds: a single famous clone, reversed and crossed with itself. Each round of that selfing cuts in half the remaining genetic variation, and after a couple of generations what is left is essentially one plant repeated in marginally different forms.
That is acceptable for a grower who needs that one plant. It is a problem for everyone downstream. Recessive weaknesses surface: hermaphrodite tendencies, weak stems, sensitivity to one particular mould. Traits that existed in the parent line but absent in the chosen clone disappear out of the population entirely. A generation of such breeding leaves a market crowded with versions of a dozen clones, and a breeder wanting to create something different finds there is nothing remaining to work with. Regular seed from a true outcrossed line is the reservoir that replenishes the pool, and it can only persist if people keep growing it.
How to Judge a Male
Articles on selecting females are easy to find; guidance on picking males is rare, because most growers do not keep one long enough to judge. For a grower producing seed, these are the signs breeders watch for.
- Stability. A male that also shows female pistils under ordinary stress is rejected outright; that trait is the last thing worth carrying into a line.
- Structure. Tight internodes, a thick main stem and a frame that matches the intended female habit are passed on; a stretched, floppy male hands that down too.
- Restraint. Plants that dump huge amounts of pollen all at once are often the less desirable genetically; many breeders prefer moderate producers.
- Resin on the stem. Rub a stem or a pollen sac and smell it. A male with trichomes on its flower parts and a strong scent indicates it carries the terpene traits that are worth keeping.
- Timing. A male that shows sex early and matures in step with the females is more useful than a very early one that releases pollen before the female is receptive.
A Pack Is a Population
The error new regular-seed buyers make is seeing a pack as 10 attempts at the same plant. It is the opposite. A pack from a real outcrossed line is a sample of a population, and the point of growing it is to observe the range and choose from it.
About half the plants will be male, so a pack of 10 seeds yields around five females to compare and five males to discard or assess for breeding. Among the females, look for noticeable differences: height, flowering time, aroma, bud structure, resistance. This spread is not a flaw in the seed; it is what the seed is selling. The grower who takes cuttings from the strongest female and the best male now owns something a feminized pack cannot offer: a line of selected parents which are their own.
Three Ways to Cross
Holding selected parents means producing the next batch, and here the options multiply. Three methods account for most of what small-scale breeders attempt.
- Backcross. Take a chosen offspring back to one of its parents to lock in a specific quality. It tightens the genetics fast and is used when a single plant shows something worth keeping and the second contributed mostly vigour.
- Open pollination. Allow every male reach each female. It keeps the whole diversity of the line, produces a generous volume of seed, and involves no choosing at all. This is how landrace lines are kept alive, and it is the right approach when the goal is preservation rather than improvement.
- Selected cross. One chosen male on one or several chosen females, everything else removed. The offspring inherit the qualities of the two specific plants and show less variation than the original pack. Repeated over generations with stable choices, this is how a stable line is made.
Each of these require nothing more than a isolated space for the male, a paintbrush or a small bag, and a few weeks. None of them calls for the chemical reversal that feminized seed-making requires.
Landraces and Heirloom Lines
A number of lines were never been feminized and likely never will be: landraces gathered from places where cannabis was grown over centuries, and old hybrids from the first decades of modern breeding. They are sold as regular seed since the breeders maintaining them regard the population as the entire point, and reversing a single plant would erase exactly what makes the line worth keeping.
Growing a landrace from regular seed is different from growing a commercial hybrid. Expect large variation, extended flowering periods in tropical lines, tall plants, and qualities that made sense in a field but not in a tent. Expect also aromas and chemistry that no longer appear in the commercial market anywhere. Breeder Regular Seeds keeps a separate landrace and heirloom section, with each line marked with its origin of origin and the number of generations it has been grown out since the first collection.
Who Should Not Buy Regular Seeds
None of the above turns regular seed the right choice for everyone, and claiming otherwise does the product no service.
A grower with room for a handful of plants who needs every one of them to finish is better served with feminized seed. So is a grower who cannot afford to check the plants each day during the onset of flower, because a late male in a small space ruins everything inside days. A person running a single autoflower on a balcony has no use from a population they cannot select from. And anyone who is after a known famous plant repeated as closely as possible is better off looking for a feminized S1, not a two-parent cross. Regular seed is for the grower who intends to choose, to keep and eventually to produce something new; for anyone else the regular shelf is best left where it is.
Practicalities
Breeder Regular Seeds dispatches each order in unmarked parcels with the original packs intact inside and no on the exterior to indicate the contents. Orders to the United States are not accepted, as seed import is not permitted there. Seed law varies sharply by country: in many places owning seeds is lawful as genetic preservation while germinating them is not, and in others both are permitted under licence or both is. Checking the position where you live is the buyer’s responsibility, and no part of this article should be read as legal advice.