Dumb question, perhaps, but…Why is growing bag seed a bad gamble?

I'm old (54)…but new to indoor growing (just ordered my first light this morning!)…and my "plan" is to try and pop some of these old seeds I have been saving. Most of the seed is just from random bags of MJ I bought on the street….some of it was good…some not so much. But the seeds I saved were always the big, fat, dark-striped ones.

Then like, three years ago, when I got my medical rec, I bought LOTS of strains. And, every now and then, there would be a seed in one of the buds. Now, those seeds were definitely from really good genetics.

I have been advised to not try and bother with the old bag seed…because there's probably a likelihood that they won't produce anything good.

But, what about the seeds from the dispensary buds' genetics? Will those seeds have a better chance of producing something as good as its parents?

Has anyone ever grown out something random, like I'm suggesting, and had really surprisingly GOOD results from it? -like produced a new phenotype that was superior? I mean…it has to happen sometimes…right? Doesn't the possibility of turning out the next "Chemdog" strain sound intriguing?

Anyway…thanks in advance for your input!

Grow all you got. You will be surprised. Just pop more beans than you need. Lets say you pop 20. 16 come up. lets say half are female. Out of those 8 you might keep one. Just grow plenty when you find a keeper clone her or self her. Some people say the hell with that but I think that's where the fun is. finding the diamonds in the rough.

Bagseed is unknown, unstable genetics. I grew bagseed my first grow, and learned a lot from it.
I even got some damn fine smoke despite myself. It was way better than the pot the seeds came from. I believe that most weed out there is really good weed grown badly. Some damn fine Sativas come from the Mexican states like Michuacan and Oahaca.
Grow your bagseed. Learn how to grow, what you are looking at, and THEN get some good genetics.
Good luck guy!

I don't think it is a bad idea at all. With love and care , you can end up with some really nice bud. You already have the seeds. awesome to learn with seeds that didn't cost a fortune. Learn to grow first, then buy seeds to get a certain strain that you are interested in.

Thanks everyone! Great advice! I will follow it!

I found some amazing genetics from bagseed. remember SOMEBODY grew that strain on purpose and those seeds came from somewhere. I love growing bagseed alongside my purchased genetics. and sometimes those bagseeds were accidently crossed and that cross might be a good find!

Grown as Sensimilla it will be better than a seeded plant.

Also Alot of bagseed grows I've done from the old mexican commercial bud, yields very well. Gotta remember those old commercial strains were typically big yielding varieties with moderate potency.

Good luck man you will enjoy the fruits of your first crop just ask for help when needed and keep a journal you will get help onsite here

Jack Harer said:

I believe that most weed out there is really good weed grown badly. Some damn fine Sativas come from the Mexican states like Michuacan and Oahaca.Grow your bagseed. Learn how to grow, what you are looking at, and THEN get some good genetics.

Click to expand...

Lotta truth there when it comes to the Sativas. Outside give them 7 months, nobody has that patience inside.

OK there are plenty of folks growing Sats inside actually. Just not much of a percentage of growers.

All that I've grown so far has been bag seed and while it can be hit or miss at times all but one of my grows so far turned out some great bud.

The one bad grow I wasted a couple months on, one of them turned out male and the other was a hermaphrodite. Against my better judgment and the advice of everyone on the internet I finished growing the hermi purely out of curiosity. I don't recommend it. Was essentially like smoking garbage and altogether for a 2-3ft plant it must have had over a thousand seeds.

I'm thinking attitude seedbank for my next endeavor. Bag seed can have great results but I can't wait to try growing a strain where I actually know wtf I'm growing.

Seeds in bags have usually 1 or 2 likely hoods. 1st one is then plant hermied or was pollinated late in bud season but there would usually be more then 1 not always but usually. 2nd a female plant will produce seeds whens it dying to reproduce. If that plant is outside and it has budded and way over ripe it will produce a few seeds a random seed in a bud here and there. I have always seen in my own personal eyes that is you find 1 random seed in a dank bag it will always pop and be female. It always has been like this to me. If you buy weed that has multiple seeds then most likely it hermied or was pollinated by a male plant. Everyone can say whaT they want about this post but its how it always has worked for me.

Hmm;

#1 Old bag seed: There are 2 BASIC types of Mexican weed that enters the US. One is a "northern" Sativa that comes "pressed" in blocks. This is usually not very good and accounts for the bulk of what comes over the border. "Blah"! The second a "southern" Sativa that is not really seen much anymore (we can do better our selves). While the quality can be quite good, it's also a LONG growing strain more like an "equatorial" strain that can flower as long as 24 weeks! Not knowing what your getting is the real point.
Remember that any sativa is going to flower longer, require less feeding and tend to be fussy about different things along the way. Learning from growing bag seed is not a bad idea at all to learn what your doing! But the point is to start out, DON'T expect the Dank from it!

#2 Bag seed from some dank, just a cpl a seed's: I would expect this to be female from the start! The plant will be just like mom was, but could have a another dominate pheno emerge in flower! If you want really good weed at the end of your grow. This is what I would opt for as the learning tool....At least you know what the basic potential is for the result. That gives you a way to compare what you did with what it was like out of the bag.

At any rate the OLD Mex seeds may not pop (or produce "healthy" offspring) due to age or how they were stored. The newer better seeds have a better chance of popping and running "normal".

Good Luck.

Go ahead and pop then beans what the hell. You'll know inside of a week if they're viable enough to pop. The ones that don't, pitch em out and run a handful or so of what you got. Its the best way to get a feel for growing. Some of them ones you said that were stragglers here and there from some good bud might kick your ass say 4 months or so from now.

man, eff all this, plant everything you got. up until 15 years ago every single seed was a bagseed, just because the law allowed people to start naming their shit it was over. there is no negative gamble about planting bagseeds unless you get males, which hey what can ya do.

I wouldnt hesitate to grow any seed that was the result of pollination-- who knows what you may get, but I'd hesitate to waste the resources on something that I found in a nug of dank because of the likeliness that it came from a hermie.