Males And Females

[Guest]

Hello everyone,Just wondering if growing indoors from seed how will i get rid of the males will they show there sex or will i need to switch back to 12/12 and wait for few white pistals or am i better off getting clones if i can as mjoz is doing them and how long/big do you need to grow a plant before ya can take clones from it ?Thanks everyone

[F420]

The only way to tell a male from a female is by 12/12 method, turning them and seeing what flowers grow,

theres 2 way of doing this from a seed grow, either wait untill they are turned and then just remove any males as they show male flowers,

or wait till they are big enough to clone from, make the clone and turn the clone to 12/12 and if the clone is male then so is the one you took the clone from, that way you dont need to stress the plant by making it flower then revegging it and then reflowering it.

 

OR the eaisest way is to buy clones, that way you are 100% safe as long as its not a hermi mother. which Im pretty sure a seedbank wouldnt sell hermi clones or they wouldnt be around long.

 

Theres a bit more to think of than this though.

Like-

Clones

 

Advantages:

>Clones are much faster to veg up and flower than starting from seed, resulting in a quick harvest and a much shorter turnaround time.

 

>Clones can be quickly grown into moms and re-cloned, for an instant vegetative and flowering crop

 

>Clones are genetically identical, but some differences will still be evident in the phenotype. In general, clones will exhibit even growth and growing characteristics.

 

>Rooted clones can be flowered immediately if space or time is a problem.

 

>Clones can quickly provide the grower with a strain’s characteristics (smell, vigor, branching pattern, sativa/indica dominance, rooting quality, etc).

 

Disadvantages:

>Clones can be difficult to find, as opposed to available seed banks. Clones from unrepeatable or unknown sources are of suspect quality and genetics

 

>Growers run a high risk of inheriting problems from the last grower: Root rot, spider mites, powdery mildew, etc. If these problems are not identified, they can quickly infect the entire crop.

 

>Poorly treated clones may die or remain in shock for an extended period

 

>Shipped clones may be in shock and take weeks of TLC to recover. There are many stories of medical clones shipped without any protection and arrived flat!

 

>Clones are more light-sensitive than seeds. Clones take time to become established, and are easily burned by excessive light (and nutrients)

 

>As clones are almost always female, breeding options are limited. Hermies are possible with unstable clone crosses.

 

Seeds:

 

Advantages

 

>Seeds obtain from reputable seed banks are of known lineage and genetics. You should have a reasonable idea of what the strain will do in terms of yield, quality and flowering time.

 

>Breeding and crossing options are possible with male seeds. (Feminized seeds produce a higher % of female seeds, but 100% female is never guaranteed).

 

>Hybrid vigor. Females grown from seed are often higher yielding than clones. Strains can lose their vigor over time; growers will often seek seeds of the same strain to enjoy

 

>Your seeds should produce healthy plants, free of disease and pests.

 

Disadvantages:

 

>Cost. Seeds can be expensive, not only per seed, but in the time they take to produce a flowered crop.

 

>Problems with shipping/customs seizing seed bank deliveries, switched seeds.

 

>Unstable strains (See faqs on strain breeding )

 

>Not all seeds will be viable (germinate) and only 50% of the seeds will be female (feminized seeds may produce up to 90% females). Only female seeds will produce female mothers, from which productive clones can be taken and flowered.

 

>It may take many seed packs to discover an excellent mother.

 

>Seeds take a long time (and there is more labor, money and time involved) before a harvest can occur.

The seeds need to be:

-germinated

-grown into mothers

-clones taken from each mother, labeled, then sexed to tell which mother is female or male

-the best mothers are selected (males may be discarded).

 

-mothers are mass cloned

-clones are vegetatively grown and then flowered

[Luke Skywalker]

I'd agree with just about everything you said there ferenge, except the initial statement.

 

The only way to tell a male from a female is by 12/12 method, turning them and seeing what flowers grow,

 

Most strains should show some preflowers, at the lower nodes on the plant, within 1.5 to 2.5 months of vegetative growth. Males can also flower with little effect from the photoperiod. I just recently had one appear under a 24/0 photoperiod.

 

So you can usually remove the males in a grow fairly early, as they show themselves (usually) a lot earlier than females.

 

Clones can be taken at any age, but realise that the clones are chronologically the same age as the tissue of the motherplant. So if you take a clone from a motherplant which is 3 months old, the clone isn't fresh, it's 3 months old, as far as it's concerned anyway, and thus can be turned into a flowering response quicker. The same applies if clones are taken too early, they will still need to mature sexually, (alternating nodes instead of opposite, usually showing preflowers, but not always) before you can really get the best out of them. They'll still take less time than the seedling, of course, but it's something to keep in mind.

[F420]

Luke preflowers can happen on a hermi plant no?

The only reason I ask that is I currently have some seedlings and ALL of them are showing preflowers, I just assumed it meant they were hermi plants, because whats the chances of 12 of 12 seeds being female?

[Luke Skywalker]

A plant which shows male preflowers, you can be certain, is a male. If you have a batch of seeds, and they're all showing female preflowers, then you cannot be certain they are females. Why?

 

Like you said, they could still be hermaphroditic. These tendencies can show immediately, particularly if bred into the line, (i.e. seeds were directly bred from a monoecious variety) or throughout the entire flowering period, which can happen if it's a stress reaction.

 

Still, there's always the chance that a plant with female preflowers is not totally female. A plant with any male flower must be removed from the garden IMMEDIATELY, unless you're interested in breeding of course, or there are so few appearing, so late in flower, that you can either remove them or they have little hope of pollinating before harvest.

 

As to the odds of getting all females from a batch of seeds, well, it's unlikely, but it does happen. I never saw a male for quite a while when I first got into growing. I knew they were out there, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I got at least one, but the fact remains that I didn't for about 20 or more plants. (can't remember exactly now, but it was a lot of girls...)

 

Keep a very close eye on them mate, as they could be all female, but there is always the chance they will sprout balls everywhere later.

 

There's no reason why they couldn't all be lovely, beautiful girls in the end, it's just a matter of growing them out and seeing.

[Guest]

Very good,Thanks