7 Question About Cannabis Seeds That You Were Afraid To Ask

Do you have questions about cannabis seeds?

How Do You Find Good Cannabis Seeds? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Cannabis.net sat down with Daniel from Philosopher Seeds and hit him with the cannabis seed questions you wanted to know but were afraid to ask because you would sound stupid.

1. What makes a good cannabis seed?

Well, first of all, you need good parents. It's much easier to find outstanding plants in the offspring when you have parents of proven quality. Then you need to fix the desired traits in the offspring, which can take several generations of selecting and breeding. You also have to produce the seeds correctly and harvest them when they're ready, never before time. Post-processing of seeds is also important, you need to be gentle when harvesting and provide an environment suitable for storing the seeds. Performing germination and grow tests is of course crucial to determine the viability of a strain before it is released on the market. There's a lot of work involved in the creation of a new strain, and sometimes this work is lost because you don't reach the expected quality standard, so you just have to start from scratch with new parents or another breeding program. I'd say it's love, love from the breeder when he creates a strain, and love from the grower when he grows the seeds; that's what makes a good cannabis seed.

2. There are hundreds of cannabis seed banks and companies out there, why should someone chose your seeds over someone else?

There are basic aspects which other companies may have forgotten that we still have as cornerstone of our philosophy. We produce our own seeds, in most cases from selections of our own parents. We are breeders, not seed producers. We look for something different and unique in our strains; sometimes it'll be a certain THC:CBD ratio, while others it'll be a combination of flavor, potency and yield. We try to meet the needs of the widest possible range of users by developing all types of cannabis genetics. We love breeding cannabis! Also, our seeds are carefully packaged by our staff by hand, and we grow our strains regularly to test their performance both indoors and outdoors. Our seeds have a serial number so our customer service can easily solve any problem or incidence from our customers, something that we're proud to say happens very occasionally. Philosopher Seeds website has all the information needed about our strains, and we have a very comprehensive Blog and Grower's Handbook so everyone can learn different aspects on cannabis cultivation, resin extraction, etc.

cannabis seeds

3. How are seeds transported and shipped ? Overnight?

Once the customer has placed his order on our website his seeds are shipped on the same day, overnight at the latest. We work with professional and reliable transport companies so each order reaches its destination in perfect shape and as fast as possible. Logically, each order is discreetly packaged and there is no mention to what it contains. The seeds come in plastic tubes with silica gel to prevent excess moisture. The tube comes inside a lightproof click-clack box to protect the seeds from the light.

4. What are some of the hardest seeds to find?

Over the past decades, landraces are increasingly harder to find. Traditional cannabis-producing countries imported the new hybrids developed in America and Europe looking for plants with no hermaphorite traits and improved yields and quality. Economical profit of these traditional growers has a lot to say here. Thus, heirloom genetics are being displaced in favour of new hybrids, feminized in most occassions. You can find thousands of hybrids with just a few clicks, but you'd better like travelling if you're looking for pure, genuine landraces! And most times once you reach the fields in a valley of some exotic country you only see American or European genetics. Landraces are a treasure that should be kept, and we must all do our part.

5. What are the hardest seeds to grow, and what are the easiest seeds to grow?

If you're growing indoors you may have problems with certain landraces, especially with those not adapted to artificial lighting (which happens with our Early Maroc, an extremely fast landrace strain from Morocco only recommended for outdoor growers). Outdoors it all depends on climate conditions. Normally, the hardest seeds to grow are pure Sativas, plants with very prolonged flowering period; the longer the bloom period is, the more problems may appear, especially outdoors where your plants can end up covered with snow in some areas. That's why we're so proud of our Sativas, we spent lots of time and efforts to select the easiest plants to grow and with relatively short bloom periods, like our Easy Haze. Indicas and Indica/Sativa hybrids are often easier to grow. For us, offering easy to grow plants is one of the do's for any breeder, whether they are Indicas or Sativas.

seed cost

6. How much should good seeds cost?

Wow, that's a difficult one! There are plenty of factors which determine the price of a seed. Bulk seeds are cheap because there is no breeding there, no testing, just seed producing. From the salary of a breeder to the expenses on advertising or packaging, developing quality genetics for the final customer is not cheap at all. You have to pay salaries to breeders, growers, office staff, advertising, packaging, expos, shows, cups...and you need to have indoor grow rooms, with all the expenses derived from them; most seeds are produced indoors to reduce the chances of crossed-pollination, and you need artificial lighting to keep mother plants. Also, some of your hybrids may produce "X" amount of seeds per square meter in a specific time, while others may produce half the seeds and need more time to finish. Without forgetting that in some countries growing cannabis is illegal and you need some type of legal assistance if you are to enter the cannabis seed market. I think the price of our seeds is pretty fair, especially if you consider all this factors.

7. What part of the world do the best seeds come from now?

Well, I'd say North America and Europe have been leaders for the past decades. We have amazing strains developed decades ago in both the USA and Canada, which were then used in Europe to create awesome new hybrids. Since then, there has been a constant flow of strains (either clones or seeds) crossing the Atlantic in both directions, which at the end of the day has enriched both cannabis cultures. USA, Canada, Holland, Spain...very special and interesting things have happened in these countries with regard to breeding cannabis plants.

You can also watch on our Slideshare channel here..and you can visit Philosopher Seeds Here.

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