If Growing from Seed, How Soon Can a Top be Cut Off to Be Placed Under 12/12 to Deter

So we know that you can take a clone off a mature plant while it is in veg and throw that clone in a cup of water under 12/12 lighting and after a week or so that clone will show its sex. No need to root the clone it will show sex.

What I'm wondering is how soon this can be done with the top of a seedling??

(I have some seedlings that were three weeks old when I topped them. They were on the fourth node and there was enough room between the third and fourth node for me to top without FIM-ming. I placed those tops in cups of water and they are currently in a cupboard with 12/12 lighting. It's been about three days now. Can I expect these tops to show gender or is the fact that I took them at 3 weeks too soon??)

still to soon

and really this whole process is unnecessary for most cannabis cultivars, most will show preflowers and or sex within the first 4 weeks regardless of photoperiod...you don't really speed that process up by flipping clones to 12/12....old news from people trying to fill pages of books...unless you plan on growing original Haze or maybe some Thai its douptful this tech will be of benifit

Jammal said:

still to soon

and really this whole process is unnecessary for most cannabis cultivars, most will show preflowers and or sex within the first 4 weeks regardless of photoperiod...you don't really speed that process up by flipping clones to 12/12....old news from people trying to fill pages of books...unless you plan on growing original Haze or maybe some Thai its douptful this tech will be of benifit

Click to expand...

A lot will show pre-flowers that early. A lot won't. And some might never show pre-flowers.

Out of the last 7 strains I grew, 1 showed little sacs around week 5, but I kept him around until after flip to be 100%. 2 showed pre-flowers week 7-8. The other 4 didn't show until after the flip. But the clones I kept for mothers now all show pre-flowers. (The 3 I kept are probably 16-17 weeks old from the original seed plant.)

Having said that, it's entirely within the realm of possibility that I am just really bad at determining sex via pre-flowers. But I use a magnifying glass and have been 100% on my predictions per my recollection.

I too, have never had luck with preflowering. To determine sex I top my plants when they get to the 6th node or so, down to the 2nd node, keeping the top as a clone, and it goes directly into the flower chamber. This gives me some time to sex the plants as I manifold the seedlings in veg.

4 weeks from seed or as early as 3

no reason it shouldnt work might take a few days longer to show sex