Short answer. If you want flowers, feminised seed saves space and time. If you want to breed, you need regular seed (real males), or you need to plan for feminised-only work. If you want one known plant exactly, a clean, tested clone is the only way. Autoflowering is a separate choice about flowering, and it comes in both regular and feminised seed.
The options
| Material | What you get | Best for | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular seed | ~1:1 males to females, real genetic males | Breeding, pheno hunts, preserving a line | Must sex and remove males |
| Feminised seed | Nearly all females, made with pollen from a sex-reversed female [1][2] | Flower production | No males to breed with; only as sex-stable as the reversed donor and the breeder's culling |
| Autoflower (regular or feminised) | Flowers by age [4] | Speed, small spaces, high latitudes | Can't usefully clone or keep mothers |
| Clone (cutting) | A copy of one genotype | Known performance, uniform crops | Pests, mildew, hop latent viroid (HLVd) [3]; somatic mutations accumulate in long-kept mothers [5] |
Do feminised seeds hermie more?
Well-made feminised seed shouldn't. The GenetixBay breeder position: cannabis is dioecious and stable, and herm-prone seed is mainly breeder error. Feminised seed from a female that hermed on its own (or under stress), from S1-on-S1 stacking, or from a "pollen chucker" who never grew the batch out carries that tendency into every seed, because seed from hermaphroditic flowers is female [1]. Seed made by controlled reversal (silver thiosulfate) of a female proven stable over several runs, then grown out and culled, is a different product. Controlled data comparing intersex rates between well-made feminised and regular seed are scarce, so judge the breeder: ask for the batch's grow-out herm rate. See feminised seed and sex reversal and diagnosing hermaphrodites.
Buyer's check. A breeder who meets the GenetixBay breeder's standard can tell you how many plants of the batch were grown out and how many showed intersex flowers. No grow-out data is a warning sign.
Clones: the hidden costs
- HLVd spreads through cuttings and contaminated tools, often without symptoms; disinfectants like ethanol and hydrogen peroxide were reported ineffective [3]. Ask for a recent negative test.
- Somatic mutations build up as a mother is kept for years, so "the same cut" from two sources can differ slightly [5] (Supported).
- Pests (mites, aphids, thrips, root aphids) and powdery mildew travel on cuttings. Quarantine every clone for 2-3 weeks.
How to read a GenetixBay seed pack
- GB-PKG on the pack is unique to that pack; scanning it activates it to your account.
- The pack links to a GB-BAT (the batch: parent plants, pollination date, feminised or regular) and a GB-GEN (the line).
- Check the line's evidence level (L0-L4) before trusting its parentage. See documenting lineage evidence.
Common mistakes
- Buying feminised seed for a breeding project, then discovering you have no males.
- Keeping a feminised plant that hermed as a mother, or saving its seed.
- Accepting clones without quarantine.
- Trusting a name instead of a source: the same "strain" name from two sellers is often two different genotypes. See why strain names are unreliable.
Evidence
- Feminised seed mechanism: Established [1][2].
- HLVd transmission by cuttings: Established [3].
- Somatic mutation in long-kept clones: Supported (one genomic study) [5].
- Herm-prone feminised seed comes mainly from careless feminising and selfing, not the method itself: GenetixBay house position (breeder experience); controlled comparisons are scarce.
