Whether you’re building a seed library or creating your own crosses, this guide breaks down the basics of female reversal, and best practices — all from applied experience.
🌿 Always Start with Stable Genetics
✅ Only reverse plants you’ve grown multiple times and verified as stable.
Unproven plants can lead to wasted time and poor offspring…Herms !!!!
❌ Avoid reversing random clones or seedlings unless you’re 100% confident in their background.
⚠️ Using unstable genetics can result in:
- Hermaphrodites
- Weak or mutated plants
- XY (male) chromosomes in “feminized” seeds
🌿 Basic Cannabis Genetics: XX and XY
- 🌸 Female plants = XX chromosomes
- ♂️ Male plants = XY chromosomes
- 🔁 Reversing a stable female (XX) causes her to produce X-only pollen
→ Crossing this with another XX = all-female (XX) seeds
✅ True feminized seeds will not produce males.
🌿 Ethylene’s Role in Cannabis Sex Expression
Ethylene is the plant hormone that promotes female flower growth.
When ethylene is blocked or suppressed, it can trigger a genetically female (XX) plant to form male pollen sacs — Making only Female Pollen
🧪 This principle is the foundation of female reversal methods like:
- STS (Silver Thiosulfate Solution)
- Colloidal Silver
- Gibberellic Acid (GA3)
🚫 Reminder: You can’t create females from male (XY) plants
🌿 How to Hybridize Cannabis Plants
- Select two stable female plants.
- Reverse one using your chosen method.
- Collect pollen from mature sacs.
- Pollinate the second stable female.
- Harvest seeds after full maturity.
🌿 How I Reverse (Feminize) Cannabis Plants
Here are four reversal methods I’ve personally tested and my Favorite is ELITEXELITE
✨ EliteXElite (Preferred Method)
- ✅ One-time application
- 💯 100% success over 12+ reversal runs
- 🧘♂️ Least stressful to plants
🧪 STS – Silver Thiosulfate Solution
- ✔️ Very effective
- 🔁 Requires multiple sprays across several days
- ⚖️ Needs careful mixing and timing
💧 Colloidal Silver
- 🔄 Daily application required for 10–21 days
- ⏱️ Works best when applied early in flower
- 🧴 Best used on smaller plants or single branches
⚠️ Gibberellic Acid (GA3)
- ❗ High success rate with precision
- 💥 Stressful and easy to overdo
- 🧪 Use only with advanced knowledge of timing/dilution
🌿 Feminized Seed Types: S1 vs R1
🌱 S1 Seeds – Inbred Line self-sibling Clone
- Made by reversing a female and pollinating herself or a (Sibling Clone Preferred)
- 💡 Using a sibling clone is my go-to method — less plant stress and better seed Heath
- ✅ S1 seeds are feminized and are similar to the mother
- To be Clear This is not a Clone, there will be Pheno Diversity Depending on how many
- Parents are in the Lineage of the Pheno you are Reversing
🌱 R1 Seeds – Feminized Hybrid Cross
- Created by reversing a stable female and crossing it with a different stable female
- 💥 Produces all-female hybrid offspring
- 🎯 Best for creating new strain combinations with known parent traits
💡 Final Tips for Breeders
- 🌿 Always label and track phenotypes carefully
- 📓 Keep a reversal/grow diary to track success and patterns
- 🧬 Test your feminized seeds across multiple grows before sharing or selling
- 🚫 Never breed with hermaphroditic or unstable plant