Ultimate Guide: How to Grow Feminized Cannabis Seeds, Clone for Phenotypes, and Create Your Own Strain

Hey there, Grow Weed Easy readers! Today we’re going to take a fun nerd approach to growing cannabis. If you’ve ever toked up on some dank bud and wondered how you can capture that strain magic in a bottle to play mad scientist later on, read up!

Our topic: understanding feminized cannabis seeds from start to finish, clone cannabis plants for phenotype selection aka hunting, reverse cannabis plants for breeding purposes, how to create your own cannabis strain from scratch, and how to make your own feminized seeds at home! ! 

Basic cannabis genetics will be explained also, since many terms get tossed around during conversations about breeding or creating your own cannabis strain. These include (but are not limited to): F1, F2, F3, S1, etc. 

Get ready folks, this article will be over 2500 words (we counted).

How To Grow Feminized Cannabis Seeds: Step by Step

Cannabis feminized seeds are the way to go when growing weed. You’ll get approximately 99% female offspring from your feminized cannabis seeds guaranteeing you won’t have to worry about males popping up in your grow space (unless you like growing males, in which case get at me bro! ). 

But how do you grow feminized cannabis seeds? Well, here we go! 

Growing Weed from Seed: Holistically From Seed to Harvest 

(Image courtesy of GelatoSeeds.com, click for feminized seeds.)

If you want to know how to grow weed from seeds at home for beginners, then follow this guide loosely. It’s more of a holistic approach to growing weed from seed. This means you grow with nature in mind rather than blasting your plants with synthetic nutrients.

Select your cannabis seeds – you want large, dark marbled seeds with the shells still intact.

Germinate the cannabis seeds by soaking them in lukewarm water for 24 hours or until they pop. From there you’ll place your cannabis seeds into a moist paper towel and keep them there for 1-5 days depending on when you see taproots appear.

Once taproots emerge, place your cannabis seed taproot down into a small pot with soil or better yet coco coir mixed with some type of soil (perlite or vermiculite works best).

Grow until cannabis flowering stage – the tricky part. You want to keep your lights on a schedule of 18 hours on and 6 hours off. Keep soil moist but not soaking. Feed only when the plant requires it. You want pH levels around 6.0 to 6.5 for soil growers.

When your seedling begins to outgrow its pot, give it more room. You know your cannabis plant needs more space when the roots start crowding out the pot. You can leave it a little longer than this but when in doubt, transplant.

Continue feeding into veg and introduce big time nutrients to ensure your plant grows big and bushy.

As soon as your cannabis plant is hardening off (prepared) for flower you can flip your lights to 12 hours on and 12 hours off to enter cannabis flowering stage. For outdoor grows, cannabis seeds should be planted after the last frost in a sunny location with plenty of space.

Ensure you’re checking your plants for pests and disease weekly. Prevention is key. 

Once your plants are flowered out and ready to harvest, ensure you dry and cure your cannabis buds for maximum results. If you follow all the steps above, you can expect up to 500 grams per square meter yield with good cannabis seeds and proper care.

What Is The Fastest Way To Grow Cannabis From Seeds?

There you have it folks. Basic information on how to grow cannabis seeds at home from seed to harvest. This information works for “how to grow cannabis seeds outdoors in pots” also. Make sure you play around with this information and discover what works best for you!

Clone Cannabis: Cannabis Cloning Techniques for Phenotype Selection 

Congratulations, you have successfully grown your cannabis plant from seed. Now it’s time to start messing around with “how to clone cannabis plants to find phenotypes.” Cannabis phenotype selections are commonly referred to as phenos for short.

A phenotype is the visible expression of your cannabis plant’s genetic makeup. Let’s say you have one cannabis plant that grows short and extremely dank smelling and another plant that grows tall with citrus undertones. Those plants are phenotypes of the same cannabis strain.

Pheno hunting is a great way to discover new phenos within a cannabis strain.

Why clone cannabis plants? When you clone cannabis you are creating a genetic replica of that plant. Sure, mutations can occur but for the most part, your clone will have the same traits as the mother plant.

You can grow out 10+ cannabis seeds from the same strain. Label them and observe them like they’re your children. As they grow take notes on everything you can observe.

• What smells does the cannabis plant have? 
• What time frame does it take for the plant to reach full height? 
• How does it handle pests and resistance? 
• How large are her buds? 
• How potent are her buds? 

Once you have your answer to all these questions, flower your cannabis plants and test out the buds. You’ll know after testing if you like her or not. If you do, take clones before harvest and discard the others.

Congratulations! You have discovered a true keeper phenotype. For even more consistency, combine your knowledge of cannabis cloning with pheno hunting!

Reversing Your Cannabis Plant for Breeding Purposes 

This process is also known as gender flipping if you search on Google. Reversing cannabis plants involves using a solution to turn your female cannabis plant male-ish. They’ll grow pollen sacs that contain feminized marijuana pollen instead of naners.

There are two ways you can reverse your cannabis plants: use silver thiosulfate or colloidal silver. From everything we’ve read and many members on the THC Farmer forums have told us, using STS works the best for viable pollen production.

Start spraying your cannabis plant you wish to reverse at least 1-2 weeks prior to your desired flip time. Make sure to spray the nodes every 3-5 days until you flip to flower. You can also spray until runoff each time if you’re using a hydro setup.

Reversed plants should have pollen sacs appearing within 2-4 weeks. Gently remove the pollen sacs with tweezers and place them into a glass container.

Label your container with the strain name and date flipped/reversed. Store in a cool dry place for future breeding projects.

Many breeders use reversed plants to create S1 seeds. S1 cannabis seeds are made by reversing a female cannabis plant and then using the pollen to pollinate itself or a clone of that same female plant.

Image Courtesy of North Atlantic Seed Co. 

Want to create your own cannabis strain? Incorporate reversing into your breeding program! 

Creating Your Own Cannabis Strain: Step by Step

Ah, yes. The home growers dream! How to create your own cannabis strain step by step.

It’s not as easy as buying two cannabis strains and flipping a coin to see which one dominates. But close! 

• There is no right or wrong way to create your own cannabis strain. However, the steps below provide basic information every cannabis breeder follows.
• Pick your parent cannabis plants and cross them.
• The simple. Easy. Answer. 
• I know, we had to coach you through it as well.
• For first-time breeders, we recommend crossing two F1 hybrids. Why? Because your first generation will pack all that hybrid vigor we talked about above.
• If you want to dive deeper into creating your own cannabis strain, click here to read an awesome article by Grow_diaries.com!

Make Your Own Feminized Cannabis Seeds At Home!

After learning how to reverse cannabis plants for breeding, you can apply that knowledge to make your own feminized cannabis seeds at home! ! 

It’s super easy too. 

Just follow the steps we listed above for reversing your cannabis plant, but grab one more female (or clone of the female you flipped) to pollinate with your reversed cannabis plant’s pollen.

Spray your chosen plant you want to reverse with STS about 2 weeks before you flip to flower.

At week 3-4 of flower, dust the cannabis buds with your female’s pollen. Wait 4-6 weeks for your cannabis seeds to mature.

Dry and store your cannabis seeds properly and you’re ready to go!

Again, please do not smoke any cannabis plant sprayed with STS. Although the seeds may be safe to use, we don’t recommend smoking the mother plant.

Want more science backing this method up? Check out this study published by Frontiers in Plant Science. It’s a peer-reviewed journal! 

Final Thoughts 

Breeding cannabis can be fun, but it sure is a science. You’ll learn a lot about your plants by breeding them yourself. As you start growing your own cannabis strain, you’re sure to run into problems.

That’s how you learn and improve your skills! Just remember, start small and document everything! Feel free to email me your new cannabis strain and I’ll add you to the list!

You can find Grow Diaries here!

Grow Weed Easy Cannabis Breeding FAQs (+ Burning Questions Answered!)

How do feminized seeds work? And why should I grow them? 

Feminized cannabis seeds will turn into female cannabis plants once grown. They are incredible beneficial for home growers who want to maximize their yield.

Reason being, you won’t grow any males (99.9% of the time). If you plant regular cannabis seeds, there is a good chance you’ll get male plants growing in your space. Not only does this mean less bud production, but your males will pollinate all your girls =No sex on the couch!.

Can I grow feminized cannabis seeds the same way I would with reg seeds?

Yes! There is no difference between growing cannabis seeds from start to finish. Phases such as germination, veg stage, and flower stage are the same for regular cannabis seeds or feminized seeds.

The only difference is you won’t have males growing with feminized weed seeds.

What’s the difference between F1 cannabis seeds and F2 cannabis seeds?

Simply put, F1 cannabis seeds are the first generation offspring from crossing two distinct cannabis parents. Also known as the P1 and P2. 

F2 would be the offspring from crossing two F1 cousins.

Hybrid vigor is strongest in the F1 generation. As you start breeding your own cannabis strain, you’ll eventually want to reach the F3 stage and beyond.

Once you reach this stage, you’ve selected the best of the best from your previous generations.

F3 cannabis plants are considered more stable. 

Okay what does S1 mean when it comes to cannabis genetics?

Similar to an F1 cannabis strain, S1 stands for “Selfed 1″ cannabis seeds.

These seeds are created by using a female cannabis plant, reversing it to produce pollen, and then pollinating either the female herself or a clone of that same female.

Think of S1 cannabis seeds like cloning, only in seed form.

Is an S1 cannabis strain better than say, an F1 or F2 strain?

Not necessarily. S1 strains excel at keeping a females genetics intact. Because of this many people will reverse their favorite clone to make seeds from it.

However, every generation after an S1 strain is born, you run the risk of inbreeding depression.

F1 hybrids on the other hand, will offer you more hybrid vigor.

How do I pheno hunt my cannabis seeds?

Purchase more than 10 cannabis seeds from the same seed batch.

Grow them all out in the same conditions and observe what you like and dislike about each cannabis plant.

Take note of smells, structure, yield amounts, potency, and much more. After they reach harvest, pick the girls you like best and clone them before harvest.

You’ve now successfully pheno hunted your cannabis seeds!

What’s the best way to clone cannabis plants?

Take clones from your weed plants you want to multiply. Cuttings should be 4-6″ long and taken from healthy branches growing veg.

Dip your clone into a rooting hormone then place into either a rock wool pellet or soil under higher humidity (80-90%) and warm temperatures (around 75 degrees).

Roots should appear in 7-10 days. Easy peasy! 

How do you reverse a cannabis plant? 

By using silver thiosulfate or colloidal silver. 

You’ll want to spray your plant’s nodes starting late veg going into early flower. Every 3-5 days until you are ready to flip to flower.

Reversed cannabis plants should grow pollen sacs within 2-4 weeks.

Silver thiosulfate works the best for producing viable female pollen.

Can I reverse a cannabis plant grown from feminized seeds?

Sure thing! Many breeders do this on the daily. 

The cannabis seeds you produce after doing this will be feminized as long as you use your reversed cannabis plant’s pollen on a female.

Keep in mind, if your female parent was not stable, your cannabis seeds will reflect that.

Will reversing a cannabis plant make it more likely to turn hermie in future generations?

Not by default. Reversing a cannabis plant does not make it predisposed to producing male flowers.

Hermaphrodite cannabis plants are produced by unstable genetics and/or extreme stress.

If you reverse a plant that has stable genetics, you can always flip it under stress to make sure it doesn’t have a hermie gene before you breed it.

How can I make my own feminized cannabis seeds at home?

Easy. First, you must reverse one of your female cannabis plants to make pollen.

After you have collected the pollen, find a female to pollinate with your cannabis plants pollen. Once you have isolated the plant, allow the cannabis buds to grow for 4-6 weeks.

After the cannabis seeds have matured, you can harvest your cannabis seeds and dry them to store away for future use.

What’s the easiest way to create my own cannabis strain?

Hell man, we talked about that above too!

Pick the traits you want out of a cannabis strain. Maybe you want crazy high THC levels with those traits.

Find a cannabis strain that tests high for THC and cross them.

Pheno hunt your seedlings after they reach maturity and then stabilize your winning cannabis plant by breeding it to an F1 or back to one of the original parent plants.

Do I need to have a male cannabis plant to breed weed?

Nope! Since you can now reverse cannabis plants at home you no longer need males to breed cannabis.

How many cannabis plants do I need to grow to find a good phenotype?

At least 10. I would suggest growing out at least 10 cannabis plants from the same seed batch.

The more plants you can grow, the more chance you have of finding that unicorn phenotype.

Remember, if you purchase an F2 or F3 cannabis seed pack, you will have even more variation within that pack.

What is hybrid vigor and why do F1 cannabis seeds have it?

Hybrid vigor, also known as heterosis, is the super traits you see in F1 cannabis plants.

Because you’ve combined two separate parents together, you’ll see an improvement in growth, yield, size, and sometimes potency.

Nature’s way of saying these plants are pumped because they have fresh genes!

Can I breed autoflowering cannabis plants the same way?

auto-flowering cannabis plants can be bred the same way as photoperiod strains.

The problem is, many traits can segregate in the offspring when breeding autoflowering cannabis strains.

Reversing autoflowering cannabis plants for feminized pollen also works, but you will still run into a lot of variations.

Breeding autoflowers is hard, but many breeders specialize in stabilizing autoflowering strains over multiple generations.

After I breed my own cannabis strain, how do I store cannabis seeds?

Once your cannabis seeds have dried, place them into an airtight container with silica packs to absorb moisture.

Place container in your fridge where temperatures stay between 35-40 degrees. Stored properly, your cannabis seeds can last up to 5 years.

Is it legal for me to breed my own cannabis at home?

That depends on where you live. If you live in a state/country that has cannabis legality for personal use, and you aren’t growing out of line with your laws.

Yes, breeding weed at home is perfectly fine!

What does the BX stand for when you see BX, BX1, BX2, etc..

Backcrossing. Breeders will backcross, or cross, their offspring back to either one of the parent plants or a clone of that parent plant.

For example, if you wanted to create a cannabis strain with more of the mother’s traits, you would fertilize the opposite parent plant with the females cannabis pollen.

This would be considered a BX1 because you’ve crossed the cannabis offspring back to the mother.

How long does it take to create your own cannabis strain?

If you want to rush it? A few months. 

Realistically, breeding cannabis can take 2-5+ years to create your own strain.

Sure you can make an F1 hybrid by crossing two plants together, but to reach that stabilized F4/F5 or even IBL cannabis level will take time.

Professional breeders have years (and years) under their belt. But home growers have been lucky enough to nail down their keeper cannabis plants a lot quicker by pheno hunting!

(Bonus): Can I smoke buds off of a plant that has been reversed?

Yes, but do not smoke anything on the plant that was sprayed.

Certain chemicals are used when reverting your cannabis plant. Although the seeds you produce from this method are safe to consume.

We personally would throw away the plant your reversed and just use it for seed/pollen production.