A simple guide to check whether you have a Male or Female Cannabis plant
Many new growers are (quite rightly) confused when the beautiful cannabis plant that they have been looking after, watering, and caring for suddenly starts showing sex!..
These new 'parts' all look similar when you're first starting out, so naturally many members panic and want some experienced eyes to check their plant for them.
Quite often we have questions asking "Is my plant a male or female?", "How can you tell a male plant from a female plant?", "Can a female plant turn male?"
With this short and simple guide, hopefully, it will make it a tadge easier and take the guesswork out of it all!
Here are some pointers to look out for ;
- Male plants will generally show sex earlier than female plants.
- Both Male and Female plants will both produce pre-flowers at the same places on the plant, at the nodes where the branches meet the central stalk.
- Male plants tend to be taller, however, this should be factored in with the other observations due to strain and environmental impacts.
- Male pre-flowers will generally be somewhat rounder and be attached by a short stem, usually growing in clusters.
- Female pre-flowers will be more of a tear-drop shape calyx, with wispy 'hairs' called pistils protruding from the center of the calyx
Often growers will mistake a swollen female calyx with a male pollen sac, but the difference between the two can be quite significant, and as you gain experience you will easily spot them.
Male pollen sacs will not have pistils (white whispy hairs) growing from them, here is an image demonstrating this difference ;
Male Pollen Sacs
Female Calyx
As you can see, the main difference is the white/creamy pistils growing out of the calyx on the female.
Here are some more images that may help you identify whether you have a male or female cannabis plant ;
Male cannabis Plant
Female Cannabis plant - (purple strain)
Unfortunately, there are also times where you will have what looks to be a female plant, showing these wispy white/creamy pistils, that starts to throw out male parts in between the female buds, this can happen for various reasons, including stress caused by environmental factors, or even down to the grower who may place direct, physical stress with HST (high-stress training) for example. Sometimes it's also purely genetic and completely out of the growers' control, most times this happens during late flower when the plant in a 'last-ditch effort' to make sure its genetics continue will throw out these 'bananas' (also known as 'nanas'), aptly named as they are yellow and look a little like a banana lol (see image below).
These 'nanas' do not have a pollen 'sac', rather they are the exposed part of the male flower called the stamen, which is why if you've already seen it, you can be sure the pollen has already been released, most growers do not worry if they are close to harvest as the seeds will not have time to grow or mature, however, a good clean out of your growing area will be required before you grow again.
An example of a Hermaphrodite aka 'hermie', 'nanas' (Bananas) ;
Hopefully, this will help anyone struggling to identify the sex of their cannabis plant, however, if you're still unsure then do not hesitate to open a thread asking the experienced members here, who will gladly help!
If you do decide to open a thread, post multiple pictures preferably 'clear and sharp' images in natural light, both close up and of the whole plant will help.
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