I’m with CD on the “playing the lottery” aspect of feminizing seeds. Basic evolutionary theory says that if you or the environment select for a certain trait, and breed individuals exhibiting that trait, over time that trait will become more prevalent in the population of a species.
That works for preferred traits such as trichome density, THC/CBD ratios, maturation times, etc. But in feminizing, you are seeking to select (your “isolated female”) for “frequency of intersex expression”. You are intentionally selecting for a “bad” trait that you hope will never be expressed in the offspring. In doing so, you are violating the laws of evolution. Evolution will win, I am certain.
Most of the quality breeders that have been at this for a while do not feminize their seeds. I don’t really have a problem with hobby growers producing and using fems, and will even admit to being impressed with how well most fems hold up to stress in the grow diaries I’ve seen.
But the law’s the law. IF you select for “ease of intersexual expression” as a primary trait, eventually the trait will be dominant phenotypically in the population. Let’s face it, the strains that truly “never hermy” are the ones that are, by logic, never feminized. So I don’t mess with feminized seeds.
Go ahead and grow fems if you grow to smoke, and prefer to pay 2X the price for seeds rather than lose 25-40% of your seeds to culled males (I’ve never had a 50/50% female/male ratio from reg seeds, usually 70/30 or so).
But please, do not breed them, even to give away to friends. Don’t trade cuts without full disclosure they are feminized cuts. And for Godsakes, don’t feminize a fem’d mother plant…
-b420