Regular vs Feminized (Reg vs Fem):

Reg or regular seed is seed produced with a natural male pollen donor and a natural female cannabis plant. Fem or Feminized seed is produced with a female pollen donor and a natural female cannabis plant.

Regular seed can produce male (XY) and female (XX) plants. Either laboratory testing or growing some seeds out and sexing them can help you identify if they are male or female. Males obviously make pollen which, when hitting a stigma, traveling through the style then into the ovary on a female plant, will cause the females to create seed. This can easily ruin a crop if a grower is going for seedless flower which makes identifying plant sex very important early in the growing process. 

There is nothing wrong with regular seeds. They can still produce amazing plants as long as they’re tended to appropriately just like with plants from feminized seeds. The main difference is knowing you’ll have to pop more seeds to account for any males you may have to get rid of if you’re going for seedless flower. Many people prefer regular seeds over feminized seeds for many reasons. One such reason is to breed their own strains and to create their own seed for next year’s grow.

Feminized seeds produce 99.9% female seeds due to the pollen donor being female (XX). Since a female in these instances is made to create pollen there is no ‘Y’ chromosome to pass along thus no natural males should be able to form from the seeds produced. This results in almost all the seeds from a feminized pollen donor (XX) and a natural female cannabis plant (XX) being female. This can save much time by cutting out the need to sex plants when planning for your particular grow space and harvest goals. Feminized seeds are preferred by many people as well for many reasons. One big reason being the time and money saved on growing out many possible males and sexing or testing them before discarding them. 

Both regular and feminized seed can lead to plants that show hermaphroditism (male and female sex organs/ anthers and pistils on the same plant) if not cared for properly or if poor parental choices were made by the breeder during seed creation. It is important to regularly check on your plants to monitor for unwanted anthers and remove them or the entire plant before they pollinate the other females in the grow space.

Feminized Seed:

• 99.9% Chance of female plant
• Can exhibit hermaphroditism
• Can produce amazing plants with high yields

Photoperiod vs AutoFlower (Photo vs Auto):

Photoperiod plants, or “Photos,” are cannabis plants that require a change in the amount of light they receive to trigger flowering. Generally 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of darkness will prompt photoperiod plants to create their sex organs (pistils/buds for female plants and anthers for male plants) and grow their flowers. This is often called “12/12” or “12/12 lighting.”

Auto-flowering plants do not require a change in light schedule to begin flowering and will do so after a certain number of days after being potted. This is due to the underlying genetics in auto-flower varieties that allow them to trigger flowering without any change in light schedule required. Auto-flower plants are not good candidates for cloning as they have a short window of time in vegetative growth before they start flowering out. This means any cuts taken from the ‘mother’ will still flower around the same time the mother would, making them poor choices for mother plants.

Some breeders have labeled particular strains as “Fast” or ‘Fast Flower.” This generally means the plant is still a photoperiod plant and will require a change in the amount of light/darkness it received to trigger flowering but that it will complete its flowering period much sooner than the average photoperiod plant.

Auto-Flower:

• Flowering triggered after a certain number of days regardless of light schedule
• Can be feminized or regular seed
• Does not handle transplanting very well
• Bad for cloning

Regular and Feminized seeds can be either photoperiod or auto-flowering varieties. 

Examples: 

A plant grown from a regular auto-flower seed would have a 50% chance of being male or female and would start flowering at a certain time after planting regardless of the amount of light it received. 

A plant grown from a feminized auto-flower seed would have a 99.9% chance of being female and would start flowering at a certain time after planting regardless of the amount of light it received.

A plant grown from a regular photoperiod seed would have a 50% chance of being male or female and would require a change in the amount of light it receives to trigger flowering. (12 hrs light/12 hrs dark)

A plant grown from a feminized photoperiod seed would have a 99.9% chance of being female and would require a change in the amount of light it receives to trigger flowering (12 hrs light/12 hrs dark)