Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Clandestine
Morning Rusty! Just out of curiosity, what is the average female-to-male ratio of the seeds from plants you've purposefully feminized? I've never grown fem seeds, so I'm a little curious about the hype surrounding them.

Thanks! :jointsmile:
I never really gave much thought into percentages, but out of every few grows, (12 seeds per grow) I'll get one which shows male pre flowers. A couple of times, I let the 'male' grow out a bit, and it stayed male, with no signs of hermaphrodism. I don't know about it's effects on offspring, tho, because I've never used a 'femmed' male to breed.
But arbitrarily putting a percentage on results is folly. Every strain, every femming technique and even the gardener's schedules, I'm sure, can alter the numbers.

Yes, I could plant 12 'regular' seeds, wait for the males, and keep the left-over females. But with femmed seeds, I already know they will likely be female, and can select the strongest (or best looking representatives of that strain) to continue growing. Slow-growers and strain variants not allowed, lol.

The hype is that if you have room for 12 plants in flower, and only have room to start 12 seeds in your veg closet/room, you chance 50% males, possibly resulting in only 5 to 7 females left to flower. (give or take, but still not an optimal result) Even if the femmed seeds only produce 95% females, you should still expect 11-12 healthy female plants. The clones from the femmed ladies have never had any problems, either. I guess it all comes down to saving time, usable growspace, and effort.
Advantage: growing 3 or 4 different strains at the same time, without much worry about males.

If you have found you have a stable strain, I think it's worth it. If the strains you use are not particularly stable, and you get an occational hermie...likely not a good candidate for femming. Having said all that, I never let myself run out of seeds produced using the traditional male/female method.
I may be gutsy...but I'm not stupid. :thumbsup: