Cannabis Seeds
From the very beginning of human agricultural development, Cannabis Seeds have been prized not only for their ability to grow such a useful plant but even as a food source Cannabis Seeds alone pack almost every important vitamin, protein, acids, and oils needed for the human body to survive. Certain historians see Cannabis as one of the first plants to spur onwards humanity’s advancement in agriculture and society in general due to the vast importance this plant and its seeds once had in society. As a food, as hemp, and as medicine this plant and its seeds have been used for these purposes all throughout the Middle East, China, and SE Asia for all these properties and more. It is only in recent years that a negative stigma has been attached, but that is slowly fading into the annals of history.
Cannabis oil is a product that has gained some fame in recent years, as it has been shown to have therapeutic benefits for arthritis sufferers and positive effects on those with certain types of Cancers. The process to obtain this oil actually comes from the seeds themselves, with a special cold press extraction. Once extracted the oil can be used in a multitude of ways such as milk, cheeses, and sweets which have proven health benefits to the consumers and provide some key nutrients missing from today’s dietary staples. Besides the use as a food the obvious main use of weed seeds are to, well, grow Cannabis of course, with thousands of strain easily available.
Growing Cannabis Seeds?
So, yes, Cannabis seeds are definitely quite tasty and healthy, their main use in today’s society is the growth of high quality Cannabis. Starting in the 1970’s Amsterdam has taken the lead in the market of growing top-notch Cannabis through their intensive and highly scientific breeding programs that have created the highest quality CBD oral sprays to ever exist. Interestingly enough, just a few short decades ago these seeds were seen as completely worthless. Yet now, we are looking at a multi-million dollar international business based around them. The varieties available are massive today, outnumber the varieties available to other hobbyist plant growers such as hops and wine by a large margin. Through hard work and interaction throughout the international community of Cannabis breeders they have created products worth more than their weight in gold.
Interestingly, this massive expansion in the quality of Cannabis seeds and their subsequent explosion in value is due in many ways to the very people trying to persecute the substance and its users. Before the war on drugs, basic Cannabis seeds and CBD oils were available easily, the latter still legal in many western countries including here in UK with CBD Vape and CBD E Liquid with free delivery. They were seen as basically trash, they came still on the plant packed up in bricks from Mexico. As the war ramped up, breeders needed a way to pack more punch into their product while simultaneously increasing their growth output due to the reality of government regulation. It was not long for breeders to notice that female plants who remained unfertilized had an increase of both of these attributes, as they were much more potent and did not produce any seeds. Thus marked the beginning of modern Cannabis breeding.
And that really is the basics of how it started, the breeders kept the best to breed and produce seeds while the others were dried and sent out. By only keeping the best of the best to breed, they created super versions of their original strains throughout the generations. The breeders would document everything about the plant, yield, potency, flowering periods, disease resistance, and after a couple generations of consistency that was different from what they began with they had a new strain ready for the market.
Much of this occurred at seed banks, like those located in Amsterdam. Here they would, not only store seeds of their favorite varieties for future use and to guarantee the ability to grow a similar plant again, but they worked together always striving for new strains with new effects to see what was possible in the growing of these plants. Other developments occurred as well with the seeds during these times.
One such major advancement is known as a Feminized Cannabis seed. In a standard growing operation one has to assume a 1:1 ratio of male to female plants. The male plants are entirely useless for the standard Cannabis breeder, and they must be exterminated post-haste lest they fertilize the females ruining your yields. The solution to this was to breed a hermaphroditic plant, that is a female plant that is capable of producing pollen, with a female and harvesting the resulting seeds. Generally, this worked well as most of the seeds would be pure female. However, the hermaphroditic trait is passed on and an unlucky grower could end up with a female plant that produces pollen thus ruining the crop. Colloidal silver is the modern technique, spraying the plant with this compound does cause the female plant to pollenate but without the hermaphroditic gene being passed along. Today’s feminized plants use this technique to create 100% feminized seeds.
Auto-flowering seeds are another major advancement seen recently. These were formed by breeding either a Cannabis indica or a Cannabis sativa with a plant known as Cannabis ruderalis and commonly used in CBD edibles. The ruderalis is a non-psychoactive but extremely hardy strain of Cannabis, its special characteristic lies in the fact that it does not rely on light-cycles to flower. This means that these seeds grow plants that will flower after a set period of time no-matter what, this allows for a much more consistent grow and harvest rate.
Cannabis seeds are an often overlooked piece of human history and culture, a millennia of culture is behind every single one of those little brown orbs and in recent years we have sought to full take advantage of what is available to use in these seeds. As we keep going into the future, more developments will be made and as the legal restrictions are lifted a new golden age in Cannabis seeds lies before us.