Modified on: 21/07/2025
Breeders have long aimed to increase the number of female marijuana plants in each sowing because traditionally only about 50% of plants were female. Male plants produce flowers containing pollen and seeds, making the inflorescence unusable and risking pollination of female plants, which reduces commercial yield. To avoid wasting space and lowering crop yield, especially in industrial cultivation, growers had to remove male plants before reproduction.
Science solved this by introducing a substance into the seed—a sort of transparent coating—that ensures plants from feminized cannabis seeds contain only X chromosomes. This raises the probability of female plants from 50% to over 90%.
To create female seeds, breeders induce female plants to produce male flowers, which generate male pollen used to fertilize other female plants. This process allows female cannabis plants to produce seeds without male plants. The seeds produced this way, called feminized seeds, maintain genetics that result in a similarly high probability of female offspring.
