Sexing advice

[brokephibroke]

I had some old seeds (buckeye purple x Old Lady) and planted outside. Had two germinate and are now looking pretty healthy and bushy. But every node has leafs and no obvious pre-flowers. I am hopeful that I see no “balls” but can not confirm the sex yet. I am pretty impatient and look for confirmation daily.

Questions: at this point in the season (I’m in Colorado) shouldn’t it be obvious? When does veg switch over to flower outside?

[Boxerfan]

1. Good light & a magnifier help.

Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2020, 11:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Males tend to show first & it sounds like you know what to look for. For girls the 1st pistil can be very small & hard to see.
Look at each side and if it is over a month old there should be something to go by.
A lot of "selfed" seeds are going to be female. They call them femenized IIRC.

[brokephibroke]

2. Exactly what I use

I may have to try to take a pic to share.....

I think I see a stamen, but on the stem side of the node, not where I expect it. But for sure, no balls.

[WheelWalker]

6. Males have stamens. Females have pistils.

[Boxerfan]

8. Yeah I goofed.

Just a old hippy never been commercial grower. But boy howdy do I have some nice sativa's to play with & a small legal crop.

[2naSalit]

3. Last year...

I had to do sexing on 7 acres of crop... several times during the crucial weeks. I found that patience is best but the thing I found most useful was to look in several locations on each plant, the females will have a green (sepal?) flap over the stamen so if you can lift the sepal a bit with your fingers or tweezers or some small implement (a toothpick), it will be easier to see them. Used everything but with that much volume a magnifying glass was a pain and time consuming. Also, some females will pollinate themselves when you aren't paying attention, like the day after you removed all the male plants.

[brokephibroke]

4. I have another issue.

I live behind a farm. He grows about 40 acres of hemp, the hemp field is about 1/2 mile away and I don’t know if the farmer only grows ladies, but I know he plants for CBD extraction. So who knows if I will get some cross pollination from the farm.

This year is an experiment...

[2naSalit]

14. So...

If the farm next door is growing for extraction, they are likely to try and avoid pollination, it's dicey with acreage. Timing and personnel are crucial because it all happens real fast. Extraction requires bud resin.

I don't know a lot about the industry. I would imagine that 40 acres of female only or mostly would only be possible by hyper hybridization, which also means, probably, no viable seeds or not many. Hard to tell with experimental stuff.

If your crop is smaller or has indoor ability, some kind of isolation is advised but strict management will do. With hemp, cross pollination is no issue, and I am beginning to wonder if it even matters if marijuana is adversely affected if it is cross pollinated in the field, as opposed to lab conditions. High grade hemp for CBD extraction is had to differentiate from the other and only by lab testing for the various canabinoids can you clearly identify. The hybrid hemps can run "hot" with THC and cross the line of differentiation.

Lacking the presence of pollinators when it's time, females will sprout pollen pods, like overnight, and it's hard to catch with a large plot. The farm may opt to harvest immediately upon the point where seeds begin to develop, all the properties are present at that point, I think.

And that's what I learned on my summer vacation last year.

[WheelWalker]

7. Males have stamens. Females have pistils.

[2naSalit]

13. THANK YOU!!

Seriously!

I never get that right. I just know what it all looks like and what it does. So if you reverse the terms' definitions, that what happens.

[samnsara]

12. im thinking thats what happened to my girls as I ripped out all the males before they were viable...

...how do they do that? are they hermied? will the seeds be fertile? I tried to pop a few from one of the preg girls as Im harvesting now and want a new crop and they arent popping as I thought they would.

[WheelWalker]

5. My rule of thumb is... unless it declares clearly female, it's male. However,

the exceptions make the rule, as they say. Some strains are slow to declare, and even wait until it's time to flower out. When you've got two of the same strain, one declaring and the other ambiguous, then you have to just hold fast. Especially, as is the case with two of my Northern Lights. Side by side, one clearly female the other ambiguous. The female declared some weeks ago. I've been assuming (per my rule) that the other is male. However, in overall form and structure, it doesn't look at all male; indeed, it looks more female than the other, except no observable pistillate preflowers. Like the midwife, my advice is to be patient and let nature take its course.

[2naSalit]

15. That's what I saw...

out in the field. It was mind bending watching and waiting and then seeing females with buds grow pods. Drove us nuts.

I agree with your advice!

[WheelWalker]

16. It's a rule of thumb born out of many years of observation. If, at the pre-flower

stage, you don't see a pair of pistils with clear certainty, you are undoubtedly looking at a male. Throughout the years, I have often been patient, waiting for a clear sign from those not yet declared female, right into August when flowering gets fully engaged, only to find those individuals that remained ambiguous eventually declare their male gender. The general rule follows from the observed fact.

[womanofthehills]

18. The thing is - males usually identify earlier than females

[WheelWalker]

20. I think you're referring to when the plant moves into full florescence,

In late summer/toward maturity. I'm referring to the very early, pre-flower/sexing stage, at which point a few pistillate flowers become visible at the internodes.. Often you never will see staminate flowers at that stage, and if you don't see pistillate flowers at the internodes at that stage, you've likely got a male plant that will later begin full florescence eventually somewhat earlier than it's female counterparts, as you say.

[Aristus]

9. Okay. This thread wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about...

[brokephibroke]

10. First plant has been identified.

As a male. Can’t tell on the other yet. Going to reconfirm in a couple of days...

[samnsara]

11. i have a bloom box grow box and i had 9 plants ..i checked them 2-3 times a day...

...for males ( because the grow box is accelerated growth). I caught 2 males before any danglies appeared and ripped them out BUT...somehow somewhere something was viable as all the remaining plants are all full of seeds. I dont want to pay 10$ for a feminized seed.
Im usually very good at spotting males before they develop but I think I had so many huge plants in there that I didnt see the offender.

[womanofthehills]

17. Usually veg begins switching to flower middle of July

Even if you planted late, you should know sex by now. Old seeds should not be a problem. You can sex plants before you put them in the ground by cutting their light big time - putting them in a dark closet for about 14 or more hours a night. It takes about a week for them to identify themselves and then back into long light go the females. Even if yours do eventually flower, it's almost too late in the season for them unless you want to make a small greenhouse around them.

[brokephibroke]

19. It's a girl and the flowers are doing fine.

Now I have a brief frost to deal with next week. Understand an indica plant can withstand a frost....

[womanofthehills]

21. It might withstand a light frost above 30 degrees

But lower than that - I would not take a chance. Cover it good. You can get wraps just for that at garden stores or use sheets and a blanket. Low 20’s, you need a small electric heater under the wraps.