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This Sweet Purple from Paradise Seeds has been bred for traits that really stand out. Photo Paradise Seeds.
A difficult low-yield strain to grow, but very potent, Neville’s Haze is reputedly some of the strongest cannabis around.
The potency of a plant depends on a number of factors. It should be the goal of every grower to produce a potent, high-grade product. Hash-making is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 17.
The Plant
When the word cannabis is uttered, the image of the famous leaf shape is immediately recalled. Leaves are in fact the least potent part of the plant, next to the stem and the roots. The cannabis plant can be divided into six main sections, the bud, stem, branch, nodes, leaves, and main cola.
Next, note that cannabis plants have genders. They can be male, female, or a mixed gender (commonly called the hermaphrodite condition). There is also a condition of the female plant called sinsemilla that growers and breeders alike need to understand.
Male Plant
The male plant contains low levels of THC and does not taste very good, but it can produce a high. Growers only cultivate male plants for pollen so that they can make seeds.
Female Plant
The female plant, when pollinated, produces THC but also produces seeds, which prevents larger quantities of bud from growing.
Hermaphrodite Plant
Hermaphrodite plants contain both male and female organs. If the pollen is viable, the plant will automatically pollinate itself (selfing), resulting in a crop that can never be sinsemilla. Some plants will become hermaphrodites under poor growing conditions or periods of great stress. Certain strains are more likely to become hermaphroditic than others. In general, growers avoid hermaphrodites.
Sinsemilla Plant
A non-pollinated female, or sinsemilla plant will produce more flowering buds and more quantities of THC than the male plant or a seeded female plant of the same strain. The buds produce resin, which contains THC and can drop down or spread onto the leaves. When fully mature, it should produce a very pleasing high, depending on the grow method, strain of plant, and time of harvest.
Males do not have pistils. Males are mostly used to provide pollen for future breeding endeavours to make seeds. Most growers cull them from the garden.
Hermaphrodite flowers, containing both male and female parts, are to be avoided. A stressed plant or unwelcome genetics can produce this undesirable result.
It should be the goal of every cannabis cultivator to grow non-pollinated female plants because these produce the best yield. The goal of a cannabis breeder is to produce quality seeds and plants. How breeders and growers achieve these goals is the subject of this book.
Cannabis Species
One of the mostly hotly contested topics in cannabis is the question of species. For nearly two hundred years, cannabis has been the subject of several serious and often contentious studies, including court trials, to determine its taxonomy. There was a legal necessity to make a viable (and possibly universal) statement on a complete scientific orientation for the cannabis species, along with a need to identify lawful and illicit substances.17 For this reason, the categorizing of cannabis is of immediate scientific concern. Today, we are able to answer many of these questions because of advancements in genetic research.
The History of the Scientific Classification of Cannabis
Older sources, such as the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, defines Cannabaceae as
of the hemp family of the nettle order (Urticales), containing two genera and three species of aromatic herbs distributed throughout temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Older authorities included the two genera, Cannabis and Humulus, in the mulberry (fig) family (Moraceae).18
The order of Rosales has replaced Urticales, but cannabis (hemp) is still in the same family Cannabaceae along with Hops (Humulus) and Celtis (hackberries). This means that cannabis is only in the same order of Rosales (Urticales) as nettles but is of the different family Cannabaceae and is more distinctly called cannabis to distinguish itself from Hops and Celtis (including the genera Gironniera, Parasponia, Pteroceltis, and Trema). Proceeding from this formal classification is the question over cannabis species.
Species
The term species is hard to define, but it can be referred to as “a fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus or subgenus and consisting of related organisms capable of interbreeding.”19 However, biologists agree that taxonomy at the species level is not always clear because it is a manmade description with limitations. A species is a classification of a distinct genus into groups that meets the main criteria of a population; the species reproduces itself by breeding within its own population group to produce fertile offspring. Usually, this definition comes with some standards that need to be upheld. If a population group, a species, can breed outside of its group, with another species population, to produce fertile offspring, then this appears to be in violation of the definition. At least one of the two parents seems to have been incorrectly classified as a different species to the other parent. It seems they should be from the same species and classed as such. However, some species can break these standards. Understanding geographical isolation is important because of the role it plays in species classification. Sometimes two separate populations, although considered separate species, can interbreed and produce viable offspring. They are nicknamed a “ring-species” because of these wider reaching breeding capabilities. Some ring-species produce infertile offspring. A common example is a cross between a donkey and horse to produce an infertile mule.
FLOWERING
Normally a pistil or two will show at first. With a magnifying aid you might even see these sooner with less growth.
There should be more than just one pistil. Look around the node areas of the plant. When one shows more will quickly follow.
This type of flowering development should be plentiful around the plant at all of the node regions. By this time a grower would have flipped to the 12/12 photoperiod.
It is important to know that all varieties of cannabis can interbreed, and produce fertile offspring.
The truth is that “species” is just a labelling system. The