Some colas have short twisted sticky buds but the resin and taste produced by these plants is something to behold.
While all dense clusters of female flowers produced by cannabis are loosely referred to as “bud,” all unfertilized female flowers are called “sinsemilla”; however, the nature of members of plant populations that are hermaphrodite, monecious, gynodioecious, andridioecious, or subdioecious will tend to produce pollen that fertilizes the female flowers, producing seeded buds. While in general seeded bud is regarded as low in quality, this is not because of potency factors—as long as the pistils have time to mature to the point of optimal potency—but because it is harder to work with bud that has seeds. Seeds are sought afterwards in breeding programs, but usually only healthy ones from dioecious parents.
Advanced Sinsemilla Facts
Sinsemilla is a term for a type of “marijuana” first used by the American Spanishspeaking cannabis cultivation community and means “without seeds.” It occurs in cultivation where male plants are removed from the population, leaving only the female plants as part of a plan to promote optimal yields and results. However, with this type of technique there is a chance that fertilization can occur because it produces stress-related sexual change where some dioecious females will express gynodioecious sexuality by bearing male organs. For this reason, great care is taken in choosing a mother plant for a perpetual clone sinsemilla system that will push the female’s genetic capacity for pistil gland production to the maximum. This is undertaken while under the supervision of a grower who will manually remove the presence of any and all male reproductive organs where gynodioecious occurs. Sometimes it is better to remove a whole plant rather than let it pollinate the other sinsemilla-conditioned females. If the gynodioecious sex is too profuse, the grower will usually terminate cultivation of that clone population while trying to find a more suitable mother plant that can be tailor-made for a sinsemilla environment. Here we cannot overemphasize the need for good genetics if the sinsemilla grower wishes to generate the results that he needs.
While there can be some sustainable evidence to support a case for more psychoactive “cannabinoids” in sinsemilla produce, there is little evidence to support that the cannabinoid levels in the glands secreted by the pistils are of higher value. Rather, there is an optimal production of the number of glands.
There is a claim that a female in a sinsemilla environment is being stressed to receive pollen by generating more resin. This image, however, is distorted once more by the presence of high calyx and resin gland counts on some low potency strains and the low calyx low resin count of very high potency strains. The main concern for the cultivator here is to watch males in the flowering cycle of a sinsemilla crop.
These leaves are covered in trichomes and can be used to make hash or for cooking.
Federal research shows that the average potency of cannabis in the United States has increased very little. According to the Federal Potency Monitoring Project, in 1985 the average THC content of commercial-grade marijuana was 2.84 percent, and the average for high-grade sinsemilla in 1985 was 7.17 percent. In 1995, the potency of commercial-grade marijuana averaged 3.73 percent, while the potency of sinsemilla in 1995 averaged 7.51 percent. In 2001, commercial-grade marijuana averaged 4.72 percent THC, and the potency of sinsemilla in 2001 averaged 9.03 percent.40
Breeding for Desirable Traits
Because of the large-volume, high-yielding, resinous, potent, high calyx-to-leaf ratio, and high trichome production of a dioecious population of female-only plants for sinsemilla there is accordingly an increase in and refinement of the strains available to the cultivator—although tried and tested clones are maybe far more appropriate for those who want to get going immediately. For this reason, most growers are concerned with obtaining gynodioecious-resistant clones that meet the standards the grower wants from the genetic material. The grower will probably not want to be concerned with breeding for cannabis seeds (nuts or achenes) but is interested in C. indica species or subspecies indica/sativa hybrids; they will probably exclude most sativa because it is an expert plant to work with and unsuitable for anything less than a very sizeable growing area with longer flowering times. The cultivator will automatically stay away from hemp or from “auto-flowering” ruderalis in order to have sinsemilla results, although there is consideration for outdoor ruderalis/indica hybrids where the grower can only grow an auto-flowering cannabis strain because of short flowering seasons.
After harvesting growers manicure their bud. This is a tight cut that even ends up revealing some stem.
Working with dioecious populations is the common practice. A high calyx to leaf ratio of female flowers is the telltale sign of useful drug cultivars, if potent. Taste, smell, observable attractive traits, yields, and ease of manicuring are usually secondary appreciations after potency. The existence of the monecious types is for the production of hemp-related products, while dioecious types include both recreational and medical drug uses, and are also used in textile production for fiber. Note that there is a danger of casually associating some de-drugged hemp with normal cannabis hemp. We do not want to deal in detail with monecious individuals or populations.
Understanding Sex Determination Systems
Cannabis has been widely studied with regards to its sexual systems because of observable and repeatable sex reversal conditions.41 The usual expectancy of an XY sex-determination system was confirmed in 1924 by K. Hirata,42 but was disputed by J. H. Schaffner in 1925, who found through his own sex reversal studies in hemp that an X:A system was present and highly influenced by environmental conditions. 43 There is doubt over how the XY system occurs in cannabis, with statements that the Y chromosome is slightly larger than the X being difficult to distinguish.44 What is important to understand is that cannabis may be stressed to express all forms of sex within the same population.
Most strains that you will come across are the result of human intervention. Breeders try to produce strains that are tasty, smell good, and give the user different types of highs. Good strains are widely sought after by growers because you can be guaranteed that the seller of the seeds knows a great deal about the plant and its particular history.
Sativa
Height—Tall, averaging between 4 and 15 feet
Nodes—Long internodes between branches, 3 to 6 inches
Leaves—Thin, long, and pointy leaves with no markings or patterns
Blades—Usually between 6 and 12 blades per leaf
Indica
Height—Small, averaging between 6 inches and 4 feet
Nodes—Short internodes between branches, 3 inches
