Feminised Seeds

What feminised seeds are, and why they matter

A feminised seed produces a female plant. That sounds unremarkable until you remember what the alternative involves: with regular seeds roughly half of what you plant is male, produces no usable flower, and has to be identified and removed before it pollinates everything around it. Miss one and a whole crop goes to seed.

Dutch Passion released the first commercially available feminised cannabis seeds in the 1990s. Before that, every grower budgeted for the waste. Today the entire Thai catalogue — all 22 strains — is feminised, so nothing you plant here is a coin toss.

What this does not mean

Feminised does not mean autoflowering. Most of these strains are photoperiod plants: they stay in vegetative growth until the dark period lengthens, and indoors that means you decide when they flower by switching to a 12/12 light schedule. Six strains in the catalogue are autoflowering as well as feminised, and those flower on age regardless of light.

Feminised also does not mean hermaphrodite-proof. Severe stress — heat spikes, light leaks during the dark period, a badly timed transplant — can still push a female plant to produce pollen sacs. Stable genetics make that far less likely, which is most of what you are paying for with a seed bank of this age, but no seed is immune to a grow room that swings twenty degrees.

Choosing from the 22

The practical split is flowering time. Nine strains finish in around eight weeks: Banana Blaze, Critical Orange Punch, Durban Poison, Frisian Dew, Glueberry O.G., HiFi 4G, Meringue, Mokum’s Tulip and Power Plant. In Thai humidity that speed is worth more than a slightly higher yield rating, because dense flowers sitting through an extra fortnight of damp air are how growers here lose crops.

At the other end, Amsterdam Amnesia, Siam’s Smile, Skywalker Haze and Tropical Tangie take nine to ten weeks and reward the wait with XL and XXL yields and long sativa-dominant flowers. Auto Ultimate is the longest in the catalogue at twelve to fifteen weeks from seed.

For potency, HiFi 4G, Meringue, Mokum’s Tulip, Sugar Bomb Punch and Auto Cinderella Jack sit in the extremely high THC band. For the opposite, the three CBD Charlotte’s Angel and Blackberry Kush varieties are bred for CBD with THC kept low.

Every strain is available as a single seed, so trying one before buying a ten-pack costs very little.