Well, I’m not talking about breeding your pet! But…if you are considering CBD products for your pets, it’s always best to learn about how the ingredients are grown and what are best practices for all elements of the products you buy.
Growing hemp can be a very profitable business or an exciting hobby. Depending on whether you are growing these plants for personal or commercial needs, you need to be familiar with the method of cultivation and hemp’s life cycle.
Like most novice hemp breeders, you might think that breeding only females will bring you the highest yields. That’s true if you grow hemp to get CBD extract and other products. As you can see on Cheefbotanicals, male plants are not rich in cannabinoids (but they do have some), yet this doesn’t mean they are useless.
The main task of male hemp should be the pollination of female plants, but it should be carried out in controlled conditions, in order to get the best result. Only the highest quality male plants should be selected to share their genetic material with the ladies. This will help the female hemp acquire improved features and give buds of top-notch quality, and isn’t that what you would want in any product you buy for your pet?
Find the Best Fertilizer
When you start growing hemp, what you want to get are buds full of CBD. Dried flowers can be smoked or steamed, and by processing them, you can make CBD oil, tinctures, and many other hemp-based products that have healing properties. Please refer to my previous blog on how CBD may help your four-legged best friend.
Although males also develop flowers, they contain minimal amounts of cannabinoids. That’s why they don’t serve the same purpose as buds in female hemp. You can try to smoke them, but it just won’t be a pleasant experience. The desired soothing effect will be absent, and the taste, unpleasant. We all know how hard it is to give our pets meds that taste icky!
You can’t check the quality of male strains by consuming them. So you have to use other methods to find out which plant you can use as a fertilizer. That can be a daunting task, as you can spot a large number of ‘guys’ on a single plantation. An aggravating circumstance may be that even some female plants may exhibit some male characteristics temporarily (stress response).
See the source below to find out why having males too close to ladies is not desirable:
Physical Characteristics
Hemp is an annual plant, which in its short lifespan, needs to do many things. That is why its growth is intense, and it happens when the days are long and warm. During the growth phase, pay attention to how the stems develop. This way, you will easily spot male members of this species and know how to choose quality specimens.
Male plants don’t have cannabinoid production activity. That is why they use all their energy into developing physics, that is, into the stem. These specimens are generally taller and thicker than females, but this is not a desirable characteristic for fertilization.
Look for stalks that are not too tall and have fewer leaves. Such plants can develop buds and contain some amount of cannabinoids, which means they are good candidates for fertilizers. Also, the stems should be firm, and the buds densely-packed. Eliminate males that are full of spongy fibers and airy buds. Strong, hollow stems indicate a higher percentage of THC content in male plants.
Sniff It
Well, that’s what your dog would do! The intense, pleasant smell of the cannabis plant indicates the desired amount of terpenes in them. This substance gives a characteristic scent and aroma to buds and CBD products. Odorless or smelly males are not good fertilizers. If you fertilize ladies with pollen from stinky male plants, the buds’ quality and aroma won’t be pleasing.
Early Flowering Is a No-No
After the growth phase, the next stage in hemp’s life is blooming. It usually begins when the nights get longer than the day. Some males tend to bloom earlier, which is not a desirable feature in fertilizers. The problem is that these strains can turn into hermaphrodites. Then, they will waste pollen on self-fertilization. More on the issue of hermaphroditism read here.
Male individuals are very potent, and if pollen scattering is not prevented, they can pollinate an entire field of female hemp. Buds obtained from such plants are of the lowest quality because they are rich in seeds. But female strains do need a man. With controlled fertilization, you can get the most of both sides.
