Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

consumption; just as seedless grapes or oranges are more desirable to consume, the same is true for cannabis. Having to remove the seeds from cannabis flowers prior to consumption is an inconvenience, and burning seeds taste bad and can ruin the smoking or vaporizing experience. We will discuss intersex plants in more detail later in the chapter.
The Creation of a Seed
    Cannabis is an anemophilous species; this is a fancy way of saying that it is wind-pollinated. Under natural, or wild conditions, male plants undergo dehiscence (shedding of pollen) and disperse vast quantities of pollen into the wind. The pollen travels on air currents and, by chance, lands on the stigma or style of a nearby, or not so nearby, pistillate individual. This is the pollination event. Because pollen from many species floats in the air, and there is a significant chance that pollen from other species will land on a fertile stigma of a waiting female plant, cannabis has evolved recognition systems that insure only species-specific pollen is able to germinate on the style and thus fertilize the female’s ovules. There is physical and biochemical recognition between the pollen grain and the stigmatic surface; together, these insure species identity.

The inside of a seed with half the outer shell removed.
    If the biochemical signal is correct and the stigma recognizes the pollen grain as cannabis, the pollen grain is hydrated by a flow of water from the pistil, and it germinates. Just as a seed germinates and sends a taproot into the soil, the pollen grain germinates and sends a pollen tube into the stigma and burrows toward the ovule. Once the tube reaches the ovary, the genetic material carried within pollen is delivered to the ovule, where it is united with the genetic material from the pistillate plant. This fertilization event occurs and creates what is to become an embryo. This embryo grows within a seed coat, and when fully mature in four to five weeks, can be planted and will blossom into a new generation of life.

Grains of male pollen slide down female pistils to fertilize the ovule located within the seed

Protective outer shell of a seed.

This germinated seed is the result of much selective breeding.

Yellowish clouds of pollen travel many miles to pollinate receptive females.
     
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How to Handle and Use Pollen
Collect carefully
Move male as far away from females as possible.
Limit pollen travel with filters and water.
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Ben Dronkers, owner of Sensi Seeds, seated in the center in white, collecting seeds in Afghanistan.
Making Seeds Step-by-Step
    Step One: Choose breeding parents. Selecting female plants for breeding is a much easier task than selecting males, because female plants readily demonstrate all the traits that are essentially important to a grower, or smoker (sometimes these are conflicting interests!). The breeder may want to place an emphasis on selecting for potency, flavor, yield, smell, resistance to pests, color, growth stature, etc. Cannabis for consumption is a group of pistillate flowers; a bud (a bud is a collection of pistillate flowers; a cola is a group of buds). All a grower/breeder/smoker has to do is watch these flowers develop over the life cycle, harvest, smoke a bud sample from each plant, and determine the positive and negative characters of each plant, for its growth as well as its smoking characteristics. Postharvest evaluation allows additional inspection of aromas and flavors, since these can change as the flower dries and cures.

Close-up of a pistil shows the complex structure.
    Choosing male plants with desirable characteristics is not so easy. Males obviously don’t produce female flowers; thus, judging resin content, floral stature, smells, etc., is more of an inferential task-males just don’t demonstrate these characters. Some breeders feel a good method for choosing a potential male is to rub the stem with your finger. The idea is if it exudes a pungent, resinous odor, it may be a good plant. This is really only a crude measure of the odor of the candidate. Although it can be a useful technique, it certainly should not be the major selection criteria.
    The best method for determining a potential male’s contribution as a breeding parent is the progeny test. Progeny testing is achieved by taking pollen from a potential breeding male and using it to make seeds with the chosen female(s). The resulting seed population is grown out and examined to determine the effect of the