Man, I never thought I'd have to get good at sexing all over again, haha. This time, however, it's sexing of my beautiful plants of pot.
This is my second time. The firt time, I was about 5 weeks in and I had to move. The onyl way I could get the plants out of the building I was at is by destroying them. I don't remember being that sad before, aha, but it was crap dirt plants anyway. Just experimenting. This time, I went all out.
I have 3 hydroponic systems going on in a 6x6 closet. I have a 400w HPS light hanging over the Ebb & Flow, Aeroponic, and Drip systems. I have my room totally wrapped in aluminum foil, dull side out, and I have fans blowing both on my plants and an exhaust fan blowing out of the room. Infront of the end of the exhaust duct is a negative ion machine. I am using the Liquid Earth Nutrient system as means of nutes, and I change my water every two weeks. I have 12 plants that are from a bag of seeds from personal stash, and I ordered 11 big bud seeds online (well, actually, I ordered 10 but they sent me 1 extra
. I have been monitoring my plants very closely, almost as if they were my kin, haha.
My problem is the sexing. I am getting very close to the point where just about all of my plants have reached the 12" marker. I went out and bought a timer, and I'm just about to start using my flowering nutes. My issue comes in a two part question:
First, how should I begin the darkening stage? Should I go directly to 12 on/12 off or should I ween it down? Should I begin with 30 hours of darkness, and then begin the 12/12? Second, I know that male plants have the balls and the females have the pistols, but I've looked so close and I'm so paranoid that I'm seeing balls and pistols everywhere. I've seen some pictures, but I'm sure not all of them. I was wondering if you could help me by giving me some guides on how to catch the males as quickly as possible? Maybe some tricks to the trade that you guys used before you cloned to all females. I'm very very picky about what I smoke, and I only like to let my lungs get a taste of the best, so seeds are definitely not my style.
I would really appreciate your help. Thanks and enjoy cloud-9.