Sexing Cannabis Plants
FEMALE PLANT / MALE PLANT
EARLY SEXING- Cannabis Marijuana seeds Growing Guide
It is possible to tell the sex of a plant early, and thus move male plants out of the main growing area sooner by covering a plant is lower branch for 12 hours a day while it is in a constant light vegetative state. Use a black paper bag or equivalent to allow for air flow while keeping out light. Be sure to set up a regular cycle for these covered branches. If light is allowed to reach them during the dark period, they may not indicate early at all.
Use a magnifying glass to look at the early flowers sex type. A male plant will have a small club (playing card) looking preflower with a small stem under it. A female flower is usually a single or double pistil, white and wispy, emerging from an immature calyx.
Some people like to pre-force plants when they are 8" tall, in order to weed out the males. When growing outdoors, many growers do not wish to devote time, space or energy to male plants. Just put the plants on a 12 hours light cycle for 2 weeks, separate the females from the males, then revert the light cycle back to 18-24 hours to continue vegatative growth for the females. Keep in mind, this is a time consuming process and can put the plants back 2 weeks in growth. Do not pre-force plants unless you have lots of time. Just cover one branch per plant with black paper (light tight, breaths air) 12 hours every day under constant light to force pre-flowers and differentiate early.
Female and Feminized Seed
During the 1960's and 1970's some cannabis breeders took to experimenting with Colchicine. Colchicine, a powerful mutagen for both man and beast, stops cell duplication, while the cellcore duplication continues the same. The end result is a doubling or more of the chromosome set. This treatment can be beneficial to cannabis because it enforces many properties such as higher production of thc and resistance to disease. What also resulted, when gender chromosomes doubled, is that male or female chromosomes appear manifold, called Hermaphrodites. What's the plant to become? It becomes all at once. The result is called feminized or effeminate seed.
Genetically, a cannabis plant is more or less predisposed to become male or female. This is regulated by 2 chromosomes everyone knows as the X and Y chromosomes. A plant with 2 XX chromosomes becomes female. A plant with an X and Y turns into a male. Plants have hormones that regulate it's functioning, of which gender is one of those functions. The hormone balance is genetically determined, and partly influenced by environmental factors. An example is when plant roots get damaged. The roots will produce a substance that in turn slows down leaf growth. The result is male flowers. When discussing hormone balance you get FEMALE SEED: a female is a plant with XX or only female chromosomes.
When you have a seed with just X chromosomes, you are certain this seed will grow into a plant that is genetically female. To achieve the XX only plant: a female plant is forced by a hormone called Gibberellic Acid to produce male flowers, the pollen created contains only X chromosomes, when you offer this pollen to another female plant you can be absolutely certain to get seeds which are 100% XX. Once again this seed is called FEMALE SEED. Gibberellic Acid can be found in online. It takes years for an individual to achieve the proper plant hormone manipulation to get 100% female XX seed. Supplies therefore fluctuate and there are many different strains available worldwide.
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so out of all my plants (9 in total) I might not get any that are female or would that just be bad luck
Originally Posted by Manny
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