Feminized vs regular

Cost aside, are there any downsides/differences to feminized seeds instead of regular? I noticed on nirvana shop the regular version of a certain strain is best suitable for outdoors and the feminized is said to be better suited growing indoors.

i'm hardly an expert, but i think the climate and the strain would dictate where a seed is best suited for....

it just means that they are gonna be female plants so you get more females for your money! As far as whether they can be grown in doors or outdoors, all strains are suitable for outdoor as long as the climate permits it. Now if u are looking for a strain for indoors definately look for indoor specific strains.

I think the only thing that sucks about feminized seeds is that you can not breed your own but usually people clone the shit out of there best plant anyways. but what I like to do is whenI buy regular seeds, I keep 1 good male colect a little bit of pollen and pollenate 1 branch. you have to paint it on with a paintbrush thats how I do it. Then you have a more pure strain since you inbred to get seeds. but Feminized are good if you don't care about breeding and that all plants will be female so you don't have to worry.

Does the male have to mature to have usable pollen or a young male's pollen is good too? How old does he have to be?

If you'll carefully read the information by seed producers, feminized seeds require optimum stress free growing conditions. Hermie's are common with them, and often germination rates are not what one would like.
I've purchased fem seeds once, and will stick to cloning. It's far more reliable. In my experience, feminized seeds are not cost effective.
There are several articles around various forums using techniques to increase the ratio of female plants per seeds germinated. Most are using cool temps, 14/10 lighting, and higher nitrogen during the first three weeks of plant life. For the past two years, I have a bit over 70% fem ratio using this method.

As far as collecting pollen is concerned: Completely isolate your male plant from fems. When the flower has opened and 'cups' over the flower are developed, pollen will be visible. I cut the flowers off, and let them fall into a baggie, touching nothing else. I double bag the flowers, and save in a cool dark place.

Photo of hermie is from a feminized seed...Brussels

Brussels is right.... I read the truth about feminized seeds in Cannabis Culture and it pretty much said just that... CLONES all the way!