No Mercy Supply

Female Seeds – Dream or (almost) Reality?

Since seeds have been outlawed, there has been a steady and wide-spread increase in the use of cuttings. The reasons are obvious: After all, this method is just as illegal and a lot of growers chose for the advantages of using cuttings. The question remains, whether this method is really that advantageous and if not, whether there are any alternatives. Grow! Looked around in the Netherlands, where the cutting-method was received with open arms twenty years ago. In a stat of highest euphoria the Dutch growers threw their seeds overboard at the time ad lovingly embraced the little baby-plant. In the meantime harsh reality has caught up with most of them and made them understand that cuttings do not only have advantages. Their obvious disadvantages are the reason for half of Holland being on the look-out for the alternative: 100% female seeds.

In this article we will review both, advantages and disadvantages of either method. We went to visit Cees of `No Mercy Supply`, who succeeded in producing 100% female seeds. He has no secrets and tells us openly how to manipulate the plant in order to achieve this result.
The fotos we were allowed to take at his place are unique and haven´t been published in any German magazine before. As weird as they may look at first glance, they are originals and have not been manipulated on the computer.

Cuttings aren´t always such great shakes.
A bit of history: In the seventies it was absolutely normal for the handful of people in the business of growing cannabis to grow their plants from seeds. Smoking grass wasn´t all that popular at the time and the grass one did smoke usually came from very far away. If one bought a little bag full occasionally, it would mainly contain stems and the few tops in it would hold a rich quantity of seeds. Everyone knew someone, who had tried to grow these seeds in their garden eventually, usually with the same result: firewood. But when the Americans came up with their sensimilla-seeds (which their legal situation still allowed them to grow undisturbedly back then), this was an eye-opener for many Dutch growers as well. Best known among them is Ben Donkers, cannabinologist with heart and soul and founder of the Sensi empire. He immediately recognized the importance of good quality seeds. And while all the others kept themselves busy with growing, he concentrated on seed-production. After a few years, cuttings made their entrance, still known as ´clones´. That seemed to be a great discovery, saving time and warranting success as well. Prices were about the same as those of seeds, but with every purchase one would usually get 10% extra to make up for those plants that wouldn´t come out. When the prices for cuttings dropped this generosity was brought to an end, but since the method still had its advantages, nobody complained anymore after a while. Growing from cuttings had started on a large scale. Funnily enough, it wasn´t done by cannabis-smoking connoisseurs, but rather, by people who had only one thing in mind: making loads of money fast. In their relentless pursuit of riches, these people didn`t shrink from using pesticides or oher substances that were potentially harmful to plants and humans alike.

Up until today the cuttings trade is still in the hands of those cowboys, because the real lovers of a good smoke prefer to let their plants bloom. Unfortunately reality is this, that most of the big grass-producers are profit-oriented Scrooges, who look at the plant merely as a chicken with golden eggs. Most of them have never smoked and they don´t give a monkeys about the quality of their produce. They find it completely normal to spray the plants right up until the last week and the health consequences there of certainly don´t give them any sleepless nights.

Internationally, the Dutch way is often seen as exemplary, but it definitely isn´t the only way. Other growers should learn from the twisted situation that has developed in the Netherlands. We are now ten years futher down the road and meanwhile have learned that the use of cuttings does definitely have its disadvantages.

The disadvantage of cuttings is that they are produced by humans, the biggest minus point being the desinterest and lack of knowledge of the producers. They only want one thing and that is a huge production. Usually, they start their plantations with cuttings they have simply purchased in a grow-shop. In other words, the genetic material of the motherplants is often geriatric, at the cost of everything we want in a plant: potency, taste, health and, not in the last place, a good harvest. As was already mentioned, the producers mainly want to fill their pockets, so one mustn´t assume that they would invest time and money to grow new motherplants from seeds. As long as the cuttings are still growing roots and have a greenish colour to them, these gentlemen think everything is fine. And in times of scarcity the growshops will even buy this junk.

Another problem quite common in the Netherlands are the different sorts on sale. The assortment contains almost 100% commercial rubbish, like `Elfjes´ or bad Skunk. One must consider the fact that the main part of the Dutch production is for export purposes. “They´ll buy everything in other countries”, is the prevailing thought and the prices asked and paid for this spinach are indeed ridiculous. Consequently, there is hardly any good grass to be found in the Netherlands anymore.

The next difficulty: It happens reguarly that People receive plants of a variety they haven´t ordered. Even worse, often the grower only realizes by the end of the flowering phase, that he has nurtured more than one variety, all with different time schedules, shich isn´t exactly making him happy, eighter.
Yet another big problem is the supply of cuttings. During the summer months it is virually impossible to buy good material, becuase the producers usually are more family men, who simply go on holiday with their wife and kids. After all, their profits want to be spent and that is why during the summer, there are more cuttings-producers to be found in Spain than in Holland. Upon their return it naturally takes them a few weeks to get their production going again. During those times of scarcity the prices of the cuttings still available rise into the astronomical. Those happy few who could lay thier hands on a few little plants run the risk of arriving at home with some limp leaves, because the heat has destroyed the plants in their carton box.

Plants may get ill as well – especially the motherplants that have been topped off for years and all the while have been rooting in ground, which is infested with the leftovers of all kinds of chemical garbage. If the motherplant has contracted an infection or developed root rot, these deseases are passsed on to the cuttings as well.

It simply isn´t possible to produce top quality on a rotten basis, the proverbial green fingers notwithstanding.

Female Seeds – more advantages than disadvantages?
What we perceive as the disadvantages of the use of cuttings, are, generally speaking, the advantages of the seedling-method. First of all, the harvest results are significantly higher than with cuttings. Seedlings are much stronger and therefore less susceptible to diseases. The assortment is quite varied and all those great plants from long ago are still available as seeds. The juridical situation concerning seeds is different as well. After all, seeds may be bought and sold freely in the Netherlands. (Though it remains to be seen, whether it will stay that way for long, editor´s note) And one does drive much more peacefully with a little bag of seeds in one´s pocket than with a back-seat full of moist cuttings in cartons, which steam up the windows and exude a very recognizable aroma...

A grow-shop only needs a small freezer in order to provide seeds all year round. And yet, with the Dutch growers cuttings have prevailed over seedlings for three simple reasons: low prices, no more fiddling with male and female plants and a shorter growth period. Only after a few days, cuttings are content with less than twelve hours of light; seedlings simply need more time than that.

How realistic then is the assumption that cannabis-growers will return to the seedlingmethod and when may this change occur? One person who may be able to answer these questions is Cees. That is why we went to Capelle in the Dutch province of Zeeland, where this excentric manipulator of genes resides.

Cees has gathered some fame in Holland through his firm ´No Mercy Supply`, which supplies grow-shops all over the country with CO₂ tablets and Bacterial. Particularly the CO₂ tablets, which are added to the water, have ignited hot discussions among the Dutch growers, because until recently nobody thought it was possible to supply the plant with CO₂ through the root system. The method Cees uses to produce female seed isn´t that new at all. American cannabis guru Mel Franks already wrote about it in the seventies and it has been applied in gardening for the longest time.

Grow!: “Cees, we are very curious to hear your story. Let´s start at the beginning: What does “XX-plants” mean?”

Cees: “XX means absolutely, totaly female.”

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Interview from GROW! Magazine (Nr. 3/2000)