[dancingroots]

good stuff!

[GoneRooty]

Great thread Pine! It always annoys me when people say, "oh just throw it into flower for like a week or 2 and it will show it's sex" Cannabis doesn't show it's sex until sexual maturity, usually about 4weeks after sprouting. So if you sprout seeds, and then 2 weeks later throw them into flowering, and have to wait 2 weeks for the flowers to show, you're still at the 4 week sexual maturity mark. Just leave your plants in veg until they show preflowers, less stress for the plant from going from veg to flower and back to veg.
Also, if your seedlings aren't at sexual maturity and you throw them into flowering (under HPS with more red spectrum) you stand a chance of getting more males, since light spectrum is one of the variables when trying to get more females than males. Or am I mixed up on the light spectrum thing?

Damn pine......you need to use some hand creme. lol and a manicure.

Nice thread BTW.

V

[habeeb]

not, sure, but I'll say my experience

-pre-flowering shows at the 5 node, this is not dependent on time, just growth/maturity, as a plant can grow faster if you give it optimum environment. I've seen some show on 4th but its rare

-I see it backwards then you guys. the females are spear shaped, the males are alot rounder, also another sure fire is females are smaller and stay closer to the node, while males are bigger, and you should already be able to see a small stem on them, if you look with a loop, and not be as tucked in as the female..

-males are usually the taller plants

-males usually show before females, about a 1-2 days before usually

To me it is strain dependent. I have a Thai that is almost impossible to tell sex for at least 10 weeks.

And then I have some indie dominant strains that indicate sex at 3 to 4 weeks like Pine is doing.

V

[pinecone]

Originally Posted by vonforne

Damn pine......you need to use some hand creme. lol and a manicure.

During the long dry winter we get "ashy".

Originally Posted by habeeb

this is not dependent on time, just growth/maturity

Given normal growth rates time and maturity are related. I've had burned or otherwise poorly treated seedlings that have taken much longer to sex, but I attribute this to grower error. I've also had exceptionally slow growing or mutated plants (blue-thai type crinkle leaf mutations) that did not show in the normal amount of time.

Originally Posted by vonforne

To me it is strain dependent.

I'm not sure about land race sativas because I haven't really grown any, but I have grown a bunch of sativas, and the vast majority show their sex in less than 4 weeks. In fact the plants pictured are SSH, which are pretty sativa influenced.

I've had slow growing IBL indicas that took longer to show (Sensi Hashplant) and one notable sativa dominant cross (Red Congolese) that took more than a month for most to sex. So there are some strain to strain differences, but from my experience I'm not so sure the spit is along indica and sativa lines.

Here few more shots of sativa dominant plants taken on the day they showed their sex. Both plants are Island Sweet Skunk and both showed sex between 3 and 4 weeks.


Pine

I had an ISS that was like that. Real quick. I could put her under 18\6 and she had flowers fast. Nice plant too.

And my hands get like that also.....in winter and from the work I do.

V

[pinecone]

Originally Posted by GoneRooty

Great thread Pine! It always annoys me when people say, "oh just throw it into flower for like a week or 2 and it will show it's sex" Cannabis doesn't show it's sex until sexual maturity, usually about 4weeks after sprouting. So if you sprout seeds, and then 2 weeks later throw them into flowering, and have to wait 2 weeks for the flowers to show, you're still at the 4 week sexual maturity mark.

The bad thing about putting them into flower is that they are going to take nearly just as long to show their sex whilst stretching a bunch more than they otherwise would of under veg lighting.

Also, if your seedlings aren't at sexual maturity and you throw them into flowering (under HPS with more red spectrum) you stand a chance of getting more males, since light spectrum is one of the variables when trying to get more females than males. Or am I mixed up on the light spectrum thing?

I'm not sure on the spectrum thing as I always veg under cool T5 HO's, MH, or CMH lighting. I actually hate the unnatural HPS color of HPS lighting and have a hard time accepting the conventional wisdom that it is even better for flowering than MH or CMH lighting, but that is a different topic.

Pine

[Rednick]

"I like this young man,
Because when he came out,
He came out with the phrase,
He went from Ashy to Classy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDac85FabTk

Going to be trying to implement this in the future, but I still gotta do it cave man style for now, while I test my eye.

[luvtogrow]

Great post Pinecone! I've probably posted about early preflower sexing in veg for years but still seems people don't get the magnifier ( i use 7X eyelupe), and sex early. 12/12 to sex is silly, obviously. My experience is all strains show before, by, or right at 4 weeks from seed popping above ground. 90% by or around week 3. Earliest male for me was 12 days. It is strain dependent, and grow a sick plant and i'm not sure about sexing it. fourth node is the lowest i've seen a preflower and ninth the highest, often only one preflower at the four possible locations per node. Early sexing makes fem seeds less an option, and might be why this subject of early sexing isn't more recognized and public. I've posted about early sexing and had people jump on the thread and tell me no way. Oh yes way! You can after experience tell sex by the initial bump that starts as the preflower. The male preflower will start to be a bit more tattered on top the female more smooth, when you see seperation from the stem to the preflower, it's male, no seperation early on for the female as it appears to be more symmetrical emerging from the stem. So male kind of a stem and a ball or crabclaw, female no stem, smooth and pointy on top, pear shape or kinda like the rubber pick on the back of some toothbrushes. Female preflowers will have little stems later as they get bigger.