Males detect females in flower

[sneak]

This is my first post and my first grow. I have just seen something which I have not read about anywhere else. Not that I am well read or anything. I have two older female plants (midgets - but thats another story) - started outdoors in Sept 03 and put into 12/12 (on their own in a cupboard for dark cycle and outside for light cycle) about 16 days ago. They have started flowering nicely -will try to post some pics later. What is really interesting is that I have started a few seedlings about a month ago (that have not been in 12/12 and have been receiving full sun all day long). Two of these smaller plants (about 18 cm high) have started producing male flowers without being in the 12/12 cycle. The female flowers spend their 12 hours light in the same garden as these new males. Can the males detect the females and start flowering without being put in 12/12? If so this could be an easy way to detect males early on. What do you think?

[Tom]

Welcome to Oz Stoner's sneak.

 

Can the males detect the females and start flowering without being put in 12/12? If so this could be an easy way to detect males early on. What do you think?

Now that's one for Luke to get his teeth into and he will as soon as he sees it.

[sneak]

Tahnks for your reply taz! Whoah my first reply. I have just downloaded some pics from my digital camera to show what I mean. The first picture is that of the Male (I think it's a male from looking at some other fotos around the place)

[sneak]

Next a photo of the female flower....

[sneak]

And now the male and female next to each other. The male is on one pot with two other babies -which aren't flowering. Btw. Is my pot too small for the female - why is she so small? She has a sister which is just as small. Any help appreciated.

[Luke Skywalker]

Gday sneak, welcome to Oz Stoners.

 

Firstly, you should either immediately segregate the females from the males, or destroy the males if your intention is for a sinsemilla crop. When a male is allowed to fertilise a female, (and one flower contains enough pollen to substantially... ahem.... "root" your girls quite efficietly...) then the female plant spends it's time working on producing seeds. The plants are seeded quite early in flowering, as soon as the stigmas, (the little white hairs coming from the flowers on the female) appear on the female, and there is pollen available. As they get pollinated, they'll turn red. Much quicker than they would if they were allowed to remain unfertilised....

 

Anyway, short answer, keep those boys away! And you'll end up with a nice crop if they haven't already opened up and fertilised them.

 

As to your q's.... well, males are somewhat different to female plants, and there is a lot about the plants reactions to environments that we just haven't had the opportunity to really study. Plants are known to hermaphroditise in some stressful situations, even in some which would appear to be perfect, with excellent genes, and it can happen.... And males tend to show a bit quicker than the female plants, although that will vary plant to plant, strain to strain and from one environment to the next...

 

The male plant is also usually a bit taller than the female for it's life cycle, although in the end the female grows for longer and the "stretch" as the female produces it's bud structures is more than capable of helping that. As to your particular plants... well, the female could be stunted somewhat because of all kinds of reasons, ph, not enough aeration in the roots, too hot temps, which tends to shut down growth... and like you've said, too small a pot... Have a potter through the grow faqs and check out the search function, you should be able to find some more information about the potential causes for this in previous threads. In the meantime, check that everything you're doing is within the optimums for the plants preferences, and then through a process of elimination of the causes you should come up with the reason.

 

I'd say give it a repot, gently remove the root mass from the pot, and if it's healthy and white/off white, then just drop on into a larger pot, (about double the width of the present one should do for the moment) and fill in with a well drained mix around the ball. Make it as gentle a procedure as possible, there are a lot of threads here on transplanting too...

 

Good luck mate, I hope you end up with a lovely crop, and even if you don't, you'll have a lesson for the next one. Few and far between are the gardeners who can master a plant within a single season. But we manage with time. Take it easy mate, and once again, welcome to Oz Stoners.

[sneak]

oops Edited January 25, 2004 by sneak

[sneak]

Thanks for the reply Luke. The males have fortunately not opened their flowers yet. They first started flowering about two to three days ago. I've since choked 'em and smoked 'em - so no more risk - hopefully. I must say they were certainly not a bad smoke at all -although nowhere as good as decent bud. I just thought the idea of the females triggering male flowering was an interesting one seeing that more and more research is pointing towards plant-plant communication - especially regarding defence. But considering that females can become hermies under certain conditions -if stressed and deducing from a few other posts sometimes (mostly?) when there are no males around makes me think. Has anyone noticed a higher prevalence of hermies under stressed situations when there are no males in the garden? Or do they occur just as readily when there are males around? (excluding clones from hermies or seeds from hermies).

 

As for the size of my plants I am starting to think that they could be a indica/sativa cross with poss 75% indica? Their leaves seem broader. I got the seeds from a friend whos brother has been breeding for 25 years and uses it for mainly medical purposes. The leaves seem broader than the pictures of the sativas on this site.

 

I have also learnt quite a bit from this incredible site. Especially regarding my mistakes in my first grow. I'm amazed my plants have made it this far. I used Premium potting mixture preloaded with osmocote (enough for the first six months of growth - according to the marketing on the bag - and laced with ezy wetta crystals). I thus never fertilized until recently. The PH was tested today and is around the 7.2 mark. I have now added some sulpher to lower. I have also since been using soluble fertiliser which seems to have improved things in the last week or so. The plants also seems to respond better to filtered light (once again suggesting possible Indica) than full sun. Hopefully my next grow will be better. I'm planning to reveg the ladies once they have completed flowering . I will wait until then to repot as I read somewhere that repotting while flowering is not recommended.

 

 

BTW I have kept the other 3 small plants to see if they do turn out to be all female. I should get a small crop from them in April/May.

 

I have included a photo of the other girl. Does she appear to be an indica?

Once again - great site.

[mtheartist]

how do u tell male from female if u know plz pm me yeah its a newbi question but i gotta know thanks

[sneak]

Hi there mtheartist. Have a look at the pics above. The males have the little balls and the females have the white hairs comming out from the branch intersections. Also do a search on flowers on this site. Hope this helps.