Near the end of a growing season, an un-pollinated female cannabis plant will sometimes produce pollen sacks in a desperate attempt to pollinate herself. For the most part, the average home grower wants female cannabis plants. The ladies are the ones that produce the fattest, most resinous and most potent flowers — aka buds. Male cannabis plants are only desirable if someone wants to breed cannabis and save seeds which is a whole other topic for another day.
Even then, the grower will want to spot the difference between the male and female plants and separate them early on, unless they want free cross-breeding and pollination between many types of stains.
Not only are the males less desirable, but male cannabis plants interfere with the quality and production of your female plant. Males grow pollen sacks, and produce pollen. When a female cannabis plant becomes pollinated by a nearby male, her energy shifts into producing seeds. Like most things in nature, female cannabis plants have a biological drive to reproduce. After the deed has been done, she will sit back and relax.
While a pollinated female cannabis plant WILL still develop decent size buds, they are usually lower quality and contain less THC and other desirable cannabinoids. She is trying to get as sticky and large as possible to catch pollen in the wind. That sweet sinsemilla — aka unfertilized, seed-free cannabis. Our goal here today is to learn how to tell the difference between male and female cannabis plants early on, so you can get the males away from the females as soon as possible!
Keeping in mind that every strain and grow set-up e. By week 6 , the pre-flowers begin to reveal their gender and you should be able to identify the sex using the tips to follow. Once the plants go into full flower 8 to 10 weeks on average, for a natural outdoor grow the differences between male and female plants will be glaringly obvious.
Until we can tell the sex for sure, we continue to treat the plants equally. We start our seeds in small 4-inch nursery pots. Then, once we can surely tell the difference between the male and female cannabis plants, only the ladies move into their forever home — 15 to 25 gallon grow bags full of recycled organic living soil.
To learn more about our soil recipe and how we maintain it, see this article. Both males and females produce pre-flowers and flowers in the junctions between stems or branches. The very first pre-flowers show up in the crook between the main plant stalk and a fan leaf stem petiole , usually near the top of the plant.
The good news is, the males usually begin to develop and show sooner than females. I guess the idea is that the dudes want to have their pollen ready and waiting for when the ladies join the party? That is the same magnifying tool commonly used to examine trichomes and determine plant readiness for harvest. Then, locate the stipule, which is a leafy pointed flap that protrudes from the junction.
The cannabis sex parts are located just behind the stipule. Behind the pre-flower sex parts, taller growth tips will emerge — future auxiliary branches that produce buds. Very early, the male pre-flower early pollen sacs simply looks like a more round version than the female pre-flower part.
Cannabis male pollen sacks are usually around one-quarter of an inch 6 mm in length, with a green to yellowish color.
These male pollen sacks most often develop near the top of the plant and then gradually develop throughout the rest of the plant. If you do not pull out the cannabis male plants as soon as possible then within 2 — 6 weeks they will pollinate your crop. If male plants are able to pollinate a female crop before the female flowers are mature enough the seed yield will be of a small quantity.
If males are able to fertilize a female this will cause the female flowers to stop producing high levels of THC and begin to start producing a seed. Identifying a male plant can be tricky at first, but once you have seen a few then you will be able to easily discern which plants they are. Several defining characteristics are that cannabis males are taller than female plants.
Male cannabis plants often but not always reveal their gender sooner than female plants. Male pre-flowers tend to be shaped somewhat like a spade. This male plant was only 3 weeks when it made its first preflower. Notice how tiny it is compared to the giant sized thumb! Often it's unclear what the gender is when a pre-flower is this small unless you've got a lot of experience so if you're not sure, it's a good idea to wait and see how it develops, just in case. Just to give you an idea how small these can be when they show up This is the exact same picture as above, but with the pre-flower made bigger so you can see it.
Pretty tiny, isn't it? Another male pre-flower. These male pre-flowers are basically immature pollen sacs. When the plant starts flowering, they will grow and turn into bunches that almost look like grapes. This is what male pollen sacs look like when the plant actually starts flowering.
This is what a male plant looks like at maturity, when it's starting to spill its pollen. Ok, now that you know what male pre-flowers look like, what do female pre-flowers look like? Female Pre-Flowers. Female pre-flowers tend to be longer and narrow, and usually, but not always, have a white hair pistil sticking out from the top.
This pre-flower doesn't have a pistil sticking out at first, but the shape helps tell you it's a female plant. If you're not sure about gender after spotting a pre-flower, it's a good idea to wait and see for a little while, just to see if a white hair appears which means it's definitely a girl. Some of the time the stipules green hair-like growths near where pre-flowers show up will cross each other on female plants. Water until a little water runs off the drainage holes.
Let the first inch of the soil dry before watering again. If your plant is already flowering, make sure to stick to a nutrient schedule for flowering. Is this true? Hello, this is not true. Just get rid of the whole plant if you are not planning on harvesting seeds or pollen. Hello This is my first time growing. I have plants in their second week of flowering, about 8 weeks since germination. I am seeing small balls on several locations.
They are pointy on the top. Just wondering how long I should wait before seeing white hairs? And how long might I have before they would be able to pollinate if they were males or hermie. If they turn out to be male or hermie preflowers, pollen sacs may open and pollinate female plants within a week or two.
Check every day for a week, but no more than that. Where you trying to share one? Hello, I have a plant in flower , week 6. I noticed a cpl of buds are growing seeds. Looks like she may have been pollinated by a plant from the previous harvest.
Will this plant produce pollen and pollinate others in my grow room? Hello James! If your plant is a female plant that has been pollinated by a male or hermie plant it will produce seeds along with the buds. Pollen only comes from pollen sacs, which are found exclusively in male and hermaphrodite plants.
Female plants grow seeds because they receive pollen grains in their female organs, but cannot produce pollen on their own as they lack pollen sacs. I hope this is clarifying. Question: at what point in the growth cycle can the females be pollinated?
I have some males for a seed project so I want to be sure to keep them away from the females but I need to know how long I have with out danger of pollination. Hello Liz!
Be extra careful if you are growing male plants near them, better keep them separated to avoid accidents. Have a great grow and congratulations on your seed project! A friend of mine have me a plant as a present not knowing if it was going to be a male or female.
Hello Barbara! A male plant can pollinate any female plants 5 km more than 3 miles around. Cannabis pollen is disseminated by wind mainly, but you can also carry it in your clothes same for your friends visiting. It also may cause allergies as other types of airborne pollen. I hope you have another chance of growing this wonderful plant at home. I was told years ago that a way to sex your plants early was as follows… Female plants will have their branches alternating off the main stalk.
Male plants will have their branches going directly opposite each other off the stalk. My clone has alternating branches. Every one of my plants from seeds, have their branches directly opposite each other. I am finding it very hard to tell the sex by the ball, and hair method.
Any help would be appreciated. That statement is not true. When plants are early in the veg stage, leaves and branches grow opposite to each other. Those plants growing branches directly opposite to each other are not ready to show, so wait a few more days and start looking for preflowers in the nodes again. A clone taken from a female plant will be female as well.
Thank you Alicia, for your reply. Love your site. Hi Jane. I have a very big plant almost a tree that I think is male. Can I send a picture to [email protected] for an opinion? Hi Dan! Yes, you can! For better assistance, take some close photos of the nodes where the branches meet the stem where you find preflowers. Upload them to the Grow with Jane app.
The seed produced just under an ounce harvest. However, I pinched a bud during curing and it had 4 seeds in it…the flowers are still curing…since then I have done several quality checks LoL and have not ran into any other seeds YET. From what I gather it self pollenated Hermie?!? What are the chances the other two plants that entered WEEKS later into flower also turn out to be hermies?
Both are twice as large as the mystery strain turned out to be. I see no signs of male traits anywhere bananas or pollen sacs.. I have hundreds of photos throughout their stages…. I have been examining the photos and never saw anywhere any male traits.
Hello Kris! Cannabis pollen is transported via wind, airborne Cannabis pollen may travel up to 5 km around just to find a suitable female flower to pollinate.
Now let them dry and keep an eye for new seeds. I did forget to mention that mystery seed went through a lot of stress. Started in a space bucket before the indoor tent setup, it was practically dead after germination. Then came to life. Spent at least 6 weeks in Veg stage in spacebucket.
0コメント