How to Select From Thousands
Cannabis selection is not unlike wine selection (except with wines it’s all about the flavor profile since it all delivers alcohol in the end).
Autoflower vs Photoperiod
When growing your own, the next question is whether you want autoflower or photoperiod seeds. Autoflower plants will flower on their own, whereas photoperiod will grow and grow until you change the light period (hours of sunlight/day), and then they’ll start flowering.
Photoperiod is considered more advanced since experienced growers know what plant height and size they want before they trigger bloom, whereas for the most part autoflower just grows like any other plant regardless.
Blue Blood strain only comes in autoflower, whereas others are available in either.
Almost all seeds for sale are feminized, such that all plants will be female. Only female plants produce flowers and medicinal yield so they’re in high demand, but if you’re a serious grower then you’d want both male and female photoperiod seeds so that you can create your own greenhouse.
It’s said that photoperiod seeds are much larger, but there’s a trick: if you grow autoflower seeds in a very large hydroponic pot, they’ll get quite large. The more resistance there is at the root, the earlier the plant will flower. Stress causes flowering too, so if you transplant a small plant, it’ll stay small as the transplant will have triggered the flowering stage. If you get autoflower seeds, germinate them and then put them in the final hydroponic pot to grow and then don’t mess with it, you’ll get a quite large plant.
Medicinal Smoke vs Medicinal Edibles
Traditionally most people smoke weed. Edibles came later, and then tinctures (oil or alcohol based). The biggest factor here was decarboxilation, which you can ignore if you smoke it, a hidden factor if you cook with it, but crucial for tinctures.
Since most people smoke it, much of what you’ll read about seeds and their selection talks about the taste and smell profiles. Strawberry Cough is the most famous, such that when you smoke and then cough, you get a strawberry flavor!
If you don’t smoke it but use it in cannabutter or some other oil suspension and make brownies with it, these flavor profiles don’t matter unless you’d rather have your brownies taste a specific way. If you use a tincture, almost all of these flavor profiles will be lost.
The biggest factor is that smoking hits faster but doesn’t last as long. Edibles take an hour or more to kick in, but then it hangs with you for the rest of the day. Nowadays smoking a joint isn’t the only way to get medicine, and it’s almost no longer preferred for medical use: you’ll get the medicine you need almost as fast if you use an alcohol tincture under the tongue and will get far more accurate dosing.
The upshot is that flavor and scent profiles matter WAY less than what the strain delivers to cure your ills, the rest is a byproduct. Stoners care about how Blue Blood has an “earthy, piney aroma underlined by sweet notes of citrus and spice”, but I care about whether I can stop crying mid-day from pain and instead function as a human being.
Nevermind how it smells or tastes, focus on the strain that delivers the medicine you need and if you like the taste when you inhale, so much the better.
Cost/Benefit
This is a hard call. If you live in a state where cannabis is readily available then you have to consider whether spending money on hydroponics / soil, nutrients, water and electricity will outweigh just going to the nearby “drug den” (dispensary) and picking up an ounce of the strain you’re after. On the other hand, it’s likely that the local drug den won’t have the exact strain that you’re after. Nobody in Colorado stocks Blue Blood, so even though weed is abundant I had to grow my own.
Now that you’ve determined whether you want to grow from seed in the first place, and if so have selected the seeds you want, it’s time to get your thumb green.