If I bury this pot seed will it grow?

February 20, 2009 4:02 PM

So every now and then a few seeds show up in the shake. Are these real, growable marijuana seeds? If I planted one, and gave it all the TLC yer supposta, would it grow? Or do you need to get your hands on some sort of special seed stock if you hope to raise a plant?
posted by It ain't over yet to home & garden (11 comments total)

Yes, you can likely grow them. There are plenty of fora discussing various techniques. Looks like a lot of work to me.
posted by jdfan at 4:10 PM on February 20

Yes, it should grow, but the breeding stock will vary depending on where it comes from. There is a correlation between the quality of the marijuana and the quality of the seeds. Keep in mind that if it was grown south of the border, it might not be well suited for your local climate. If you are looking for indoor use, some seeds will be much better for indoor use.

If you have a variety of marijuana, save a few seeds from each kind and you can find out which ones do best.
posted by diamondsky at 4:18 PM on February 20

I've raised a few from seeds. They definitely have not been as strong as what I can buy. But the ones I raised were literally thrown in the garden or rescued from the compost and ignored to grow wild like the weed they are.
posted by saucysault at 4:31 PM on February 20

I accidentally grew one once, from a seed that was discarded by throwing it in a pot with another plant.
posted by All.star at 4:39 PM on February 20

"It doesn't take a miracle to cultivate a weed"
posted by piedmont at 4:40 PM on February 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yeah, it'll grow.

I've been tossing seeds in potted plants for years and they inevitably sprout into long leggy things that drop dead a week later. Even if they matured they would reflect the quality of the original weed -- not so great if I'm picking out seeds in the first place.

Growing quality pot takes some work -- myself, I've never had the patience or inclination to see a crop through. There is also an investment in lighting (pay attention here, large growers get popped all the time because their attics spit out a huge IR signature and/or their utility bills spike), ventilation (good weed stinks, like a skunk) and time. That said, if you want to grow for personal use I encourage it. It tends to remove the whole sleazy "drug dealer" part of the equation and puts you clearly in the victimless crime category.

The people I know who have grown high quality weed from seed have started with good seed stock. It's my understanding that having seeds sent from overseas (seed banks) has a pretty good success rate. Obviously you will want to take commonsense precautions to maintain deniability just in case those pesky postal inspectors are paying attention and you probably don't want to use your credit card.

If you want to grow for profit my advice would be to start working out now. It'll make you look better when you start doing push-ups with your new friends in jail.
posted by cedar at 4:55 PM on February 20 [2 favorites has favorites]

They are, and it would. Cultivation methods (as well as genetic makeup) make a big difference in final quality. Also be aware that for your purposes only the female plants matter, so for each seed that reaches maturity, there's only a 50% it will prove interesting.

And as Cedar points out, please recognize the significant legal implications of allowing said seeds to do what nature intended.
posted by fogovonslack at 8:16 PM on February 20

It's cute to see them germinate (toss them in with a houseplant) but it takes a little extra love to get them to grow big.

Also, you might end up with male plants which won't do much for you, recreation-wise.

If you do end up getting a healthy happy grown up female plant, she's gonna be odourous smelly.
posted by porpoise at 8:35 PM on February 20

They'll grow, just pick the ones that aren't cracked!! Put em on a wet paper towel and cover with saran wrap, then wait until they look like a little sperm, pop em in the soil, give LOTS of light for 24 hours for a month, switch to 12 hours of darkness, and enjoy ;)
posted by In Heaven at 9:58 PM on February 20

Putting aside all other issues of legality, security and so forth (which you should definitely not do were you to hyconsider taking this question beyond the hypothetical) sure, there are viable seeds in most weed.

The quality of the plant is variable and impossible to determine in advance. Marijuana is sexually gendered (it has distinct male and female plants, although there are varieties that strongly exhibit hermaphroditism as well). Males produce the pollen and are useless in terms of producing high quality marijuana - so half the seeds you might theoretically plant are going to be pointless except for making more seeds. More importantly, the biggest factor in the quality of the plant's product is its genetics.

The seed in your shake may be resulted from pollination by some random male, including an agricultural variety, because there are massive amounts of wild hemp from decades old agricultural production all over the place and there is plenty of hemp pollen floating around as a result. The genetics of the seed could therefor be pretty unfavorable for producing marijuana for smoking.

On the other hand, a seed might have set from stray pollen from the grower's own propagation program, in which case it could be as good as the product it was found in. Grown carefully, it could be better, if the product was poorly grown/harvested/dried/transported.

It's worth noting that many of the foundation varieties of the high-end cannabis breeding world were developed by people in California breeding out of stock from mostly indifferent Mexican commercial pot. The potential is always there: the principles of breeding for specific characteristics is like any other plant.

Serious commercial growers are managing their own propagation programs to generate a stable quality seed stock or getting seeds from the well-established and very lucrative market that exists, in some places openly or semi-openly (Holland, Canada - in Canada there was a thriving market that has been under attack by their authorities for a while now), for seeds of known varieties of exceptional quality. Some commercial seeds even exploit chemical manipulations to produce seeds with only female plants.

If you are really fascinated in the entirely hypothetical world of growing weed, consider checking out some books - Ed Rosenthal and Mel Frank are two classic authors.

Legally growing is quite a different issue than the sort of small scale possession most pot smokers deal in. Personally I'd never chance it these days but of course I'm a father now and a lot more conservative with respect to risk in general. I still wistfully hope someday (within my lifetime, please) it might become as accessible as home brewing, as it should be.
posted by nanojath at 10:37 PM on February 20

Your seeds are likely from an outdoor grow since an indoor grower would never let pollen spread among the female plants. Your seeds can be grown indoor or outdoor but if you go the indoor route in can definately be worth to try to get your hand on a specific indoor strain since theese are breeded for yield and quality under controlled curcumstances opposed to the outdoor strain where you want them as though as possible.
posted by ilike at 2:58 AM on February 21