October 11, 2025 Dirty Bird Genetics is celebrating two years this October, and now more than ever, I am unbelievably proud of the work our team is doing. Our efforts have compounded in a very observable way this year, and with each new cultivar we test, we are seeing that take shape. The excitement and optimism has been palpable. We have gotten increasingly intentional in our selections, and as we continue to compile data about our genetics and their combining potential, we become exponentially...

Cannabis plants are dioecious which means they can be male or female. The bud/flower and extracts people consume comes from female cannabis plants which produce cannabinoid rich trichomes. These trichomes house THCA (the precursor to THC) and other cannabinoids that have physical and mental effects when ingested.  While male plants can produce THC, they are much less potent than females and are not desirable for consumption. Male plants also produce pollen that can cause female plants to create...

Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd) is a highly infectious pathogen that consists of a single stranded loop of RNA.1 It is many times smaller than a typical virus and is actually a “Viroid.” It is also known as “dudding” or the “dudding disease.” HLVd was first discovered in Hops in 19872 and has since then been discovered in Cannabis.3 One study has shown that up to 90% of grow facilities in California have tested positive for HLVd at some point and that the infection has spread across cannabis in...

P: Parent Plants when beginning a cross. This is more of an arbitrary designation when beginning to breed a line to identify the two plants you started your project with. This will rarely be shown in this form on most commercial seed product. Many products that do include parentage will often cite “Mother” and “Father” for parent plants. F1: The first Filial generation. A cross of two unlike parent plants. Term used for regular breeding of a natural female and a natural male plant.   ...

Regular vs Feminized (Reg vs Fem) Reg or regular seed is seed produced with a natural male pollen donor and a natural female cannabis plant. Fem or Feminized seed is produced with a female pollen donor and a natural female cannabis plant. Regular seed can produce male (XY) and female (XX) plants. Either laboratory testing or growing some seeds out and sexing them can help you identify if they are male or female. Males obviously make pollen which, when hitting a stigma, traveling through...

Mold and mildew negatively affect many kinds of wild and cultivated plants. Powdery mildew (PM) and Botrytis (Bud rot) are two of the most common fungi that damage and, sometimes, destroy cultivated crops. Powdery Mildew Powdery mildew is the collective term for several species of fungi that have similar presentation and cause similar negative health effects in plants. It usually presents as distinctive white, fuzzy or ‘powdery’ patches on any above ground part of the plant (stems, leaves,...

To know when to harvest your cannabis can be tricky. We’ve created this guide to help you identify the major signs of harvest readiness to help you get the most out of your buds. To begin let’s have a quick review of the four major growth stages of cannabis. Growth Stages Germination: 2-10 days Seedling: 2-3 weeks Vegetative (‘Veg’): 3-15 weeks (or more depending on factors such as desired size, cultivar (strain) type, environmental variables such as RH, temp., light,...

By Ben Morris, Head Breeder at Dirty Bird Genetics Feminized vs Regular Seeds Whether you are a novice or an expert grower you have probably heard of “reg” or “regular” cannabis seeds and “fem” or “feminized” cannabis seeds, and having an understanding of regular versus feminized cannabis seeds is paramount to understanding breeding and feminization. Both reg and fem seeds produce cannabis plants when germinated, but with one big difference: feminized or fem seeds have a 99% chance of producing...

When running new genetics, whether ours or someone else’s, we have both concrete metrics and visceral qualities that we look for. What are the traits that we at Dirty Bird look for in a winning cut? And what should you be looking for if you are planning on keeping a mother plant of your favorite genetics? In this article, we’ll skim the surface of what we look for as seed breeders, and what home growers should look for if they’re interested in continuous cloning and/or creating their own genetics. Sexual...