Sinsemilla Growing of Marijuana

Marijuana is a curious plant when it is domesticated. Like certain other plants such as strawberries or apple trees, the cannabis sativa plant can be propagated by cutting a section from one plant and transplanting that cutting to grow on its own. Marijuana growing without seeds is known as sinsemilla, and it has become a world-renowned method for producing the most potent and unique marijuana strains on the market.

Cannabis growth for human recreational use depends on one underlying principle. Female plants are used due to the presence of THC-rich buds in between the leaves. These buds contain hundreds of tiny hairs that are designed to catch pollen from male plants. However, if male plants are removed from the growing environment, the little hairs do not catch the pollen. As a result, the female plant devotes more of its energy to producing larger buds with larger hairs that can be more effective at catching the male pollen (even though it's not present). This process of starving the female plant of the male reproductive component allows for optimum growth of THC-rich buds. If male plants are present, then they have the potential to fertilize the female plants. If this occurs, the female plant devotes less energy to creating larger buds and more toward producing seeds to create cannabis offspring.

One advantage of the sinsemilla growing technique is that growers automatically know if the clone plant will be male or female. When growing marijuana, growers generally discard male plants because they do not contain the THC-rich buds that account for the majority of marijuana consumption worldwide. Thus, when growing with seeds, the grower runs a 50% chance of getting male plants mixed in with female plants in the crop. If one has limited growing space in a world which has criminalized marijuana, the space that is available must be used to the fullest and most advantageous extent. Unfortunately, one does not know a plant is male or female until advanced stages in the growth phase when either buds or pollen glands start to emerge from between the cannabis leaves. In other words, much time and energy could be wasted attempting to grow female plants from seeds if the probability of the plant being male is 50/50. Therefore, sinsemilla provides a much more sure way of propagating and growing female cannabis plants.

Actually, cuttings can be used to determine if a cannabis plant is male or female. A cutting taken from a plant of indeterminate sex can be subjected to a certain light regimen, after which it will flower and determine the sex of the clone parent. However, if you are using cuttings to determine the sex of the plant, then you are perfectly capable of growing with the sinsemilla technique which depends on cuttings to work. Seeds can be completely eliminated with the exception of an initial crop that is started using seeds rather than cuttings.

Only unpollinated female plants can be used in the sinsemilla growing process. To accomplish this, male plants must be removed early in the growing phase of a crop to remove the risk of pollen reaching the female plant buds. Before a female plant flowers, a cutting can be taken to begin what is known as a clone bank. These clones will be genetically identical to the parent plant, which ensures that a viable strain of marijuana can be duplicated with little variation over subsequent growings. Furthermore, the clone plants will ripen at the same time which can help growers better plan their crop rotations and harvests. Finally, since cuttings have already attained a degree of growth when they are transplanted, the sinsemilla marijuana plant takes less time to ripen than one grown from a seed. All of these factors are particularly important in regions that have decriminalized marijuana, particularly the coffee house region of Amsterdam. These shops pride themselves on certain strains and varieties that can only be duplicated through the sinsemilla method of growth.

Marijuana once again demonstrates its versatility for human growth and consumption. Imagine the thriving and diverse market that could be created if marijuana was decriminalized in the United States and its cultivation put back into the hands of the farmer or gardener.