Seed types
What the ratio on a CBD seed line means, how to read the documented range, how these plants actually grow, and where the legal thresholds sit. What this page does not do is tell you what cannabis will do to your body.
Most modern cannabis has been selected to push tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as high as it will go. A CBD seed line is selected the other way: for plants that express cannabidiol (CBD) as the dominant cannabinoid, or in a deliberate proportion alongside THC.
That is a chemotype difference — a difference in what the plant makes. It is not a growing category. Two CBD-forward lines from different lineages can want completely different room heights, feed schedules and flowering windows, exactly like two THC-dominant lines would.
So the useful question when you are choosing seeds is not “is this a CBD strain?” but “what ratio does this line document, and how does this particular cultivar grow?” The first is answered below; the second is on the individual strain pages.
Ratios are conventionally written CBD:THC. The bands below are how the market talks about them; they are descriptive, not standardised, and different sellers draw the lines in slightly different places.
CBD is the dominant cannabinoid and THC sits at trace level. In most jurisdictions these are the lines that can fall under a hemp threshold, though whether a given plant does depends on the harvest test, not the seed label.
Clearly CBD-led but with a measurable THC fraction. Expect the plant to behave like any photoperiod or autoflower line of its type; the ratio describes chemistry, not growth habit.
CBD and THC in similar proportion. These lines are intoxicating — a balanced ratio is not a low-THC line, and it is not a substitute for a hemp-threshold cultivar.
A CBD-forward Critical Mass grows like Critical Mass. Cannabinoid ratio is a chemotype trait; height, stretch, flowering window, and feed response come from the lineage. Read the strain page, not the category, for how a specific line behaves.
Cannabinoid expression moves with phenotype, harvest timing, and environment. Every figure we publish is a documented range from our own grow-outs and the source breeder's records — not a certificate of analysis for the pack in your hand.
Cannabinoid content is not static through late flower. Pulling early or late moves the ratio as well as the total, which is one reason two growers running the same seed lot can report different results.
Where a legal THC limit applies, the only thing that settles it is a lab test of the harvested plant in that jurisdiction. A seed described as CBD-dominant is a starting point, not compliance evidence.
The method behind the ranges we publish, and the one number we do test per batch, are on the germination guarantee page and in how a seed line is developed.
Cannabis and hemp rules differ by country and often by state or province, and they change. Two points hold almost everywhere: the legal test is applied to the harvested plant material, and the threshold is a THC figure rather than a CBD one. A seed described as CBD-dominant does not carry a legal status with it.
Growers in Europe can start from cannabis seed laws in Europe. In Canada, Health Canada advises buying seeds from a provincial or territorial authorised source and states that knowingly using seeds from an illegal source is against the law. In the United States, rules vary state by state. Check what applies where you live before ordering or growing.
The proportion of the two cannabinoids the plant is bred to express — 20:1 means roughly twenty parts CBD to one part THC. It says nothing about total potency, yield, flowering time, or how the plant grows.
CBD-dominant lines carry very little THC, which is why they are usually described as non-intoxicating, but 'very little' is not 'none', and a balanced 1:1 line certainly is intoxicating. Treat the ratio as chemistry, not as a promise about how you will feel.
Not necessarily. Hemp is a legal classification based on the THC content of the harvested plant in a given jurisdiction, not a property of the seed. Some CBD-dominant lines can be grown under a hemp threshold; whether a specific crop qualifies is settled by testing it there.
No. Light, medium, feed and environment follow the same rules as any other cannabis line. The practical differences are in harvest timing if you are chasing a particular ratio, and in testing if a legal threshold applies to you.
Availability differs by market — each regional store lists what it actually holds. Open the store for your country from the store selector in the header.
Reviewed by the Royal King Genetics team · August 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.