Flowering/sexing confusion... (very worried noob)

[OkinKun]

This has been driving me nuts, stressing me out... This post is probably gonna be long and sound really worried, but that's just how I feel right now. (such a novice)

I've been growing 4 plants... and I'm now starting on the 5th day of a flowering light schedule. (12/12) (and these are from bag seeds btw)

I starting seeing signs of pre-flowers before changing the light schedule, but I could never tell for sure which plants were which... And so far... I STILL can't tell.
Maybe it's still too early... But I have zero experience to judge whether it is or not...

My problem is, I see no clear female white hairs yet...None... and even more surprisingly, no clear male pods yet either. (at least not what I would call a pod.)
What I have seen, are these elongated cone/thorn shaped things... and on the other plants, these oddly shaped irregular - almost disk shaped leafy or elongated "pods", if they can even be called that.

No hairs yet... and no clearly shaped pods.(like those I've seen in pictures) I can't stress this enough, to my eyes I see neither. I've seen plenty of pictures of male and female pre-flowers... and what I'm seeing is confusing. What I thought were pods, don't seem solid enough to be called pods, they are almost leafy, sometimes split... with something in-between. But I just can't tell what's what.

Also, I haven't seen any groups of "pods" yet... I haven't seen anymore than 1 in a single spot.

Sadly, I don't have a camera capable of a clear enough and magnified enough macro, to show you all... =/ So i tried my best to draw what I saw, although it's not as accurate as I'd like... close enough I guess.

Any advice to give me? What I should look for?... or am I missing something?

Please see the attached image... What can you tell me from this?

On the Left is what I thought was a male...(sadly most my plants have those.)
And the Right is what I thought would have hairs and be female. So far though, nothing... =/
Problem is, the differences between these 2 different shapes, often blur... so by no means am I seeing just 1 or the other... it almost seems like some plants have both, or just that they look too similar to tell apart.

Note: the left ones RARELY look that regular/symmetrical looking.. And although it looks like a pod in the drawing, it actually seems more leafy, almost 2 parts, than a pod. Sometimes even more flat than round. And sometimes it looks more like the thorn-shaped ones, which is very confusing...
Those other drawings on the sides, are just messy sketches of the variations I see... And sometimes I see everything in-between those sketches...

Maybe what I just need... is some re-assurance from fellow growers... My mind is starting to play tricks on me, making me think maybe I have all males... and that's really depressing... 4 out of 4 males seems unlikely, and would be such a horrible waste of 9 weeks... @_@

[Davy Jones]

Did you see this post? Male on top, female on the bottom. It'll take up to two weeks to discover what you have, I have been growing with bag seed myself & that is the norm.

Click for full-size image


Click for full-size image

[OkinKun]

Originally Posted by Davy Jones

Did you see this post? Male on top, female on the bottom. It'll take up to two weeks to discover what you have, I have been growing with bag seed myself & that is the norm.

Click for full-size image


Click for full-size image

hmm, well thats interesting... those look lik their in a different spot, than the stuff I'm seeing... I don't have anything like that yet... =/

2 weeks... yeah I didn't realize that. I've just been real nervous... I guess it was kindof silly...

Still, I wonder what the parts are, that I'm seeing... that don't look anything like pods... =/

[DaGanjaMonster]

Hey there, I understand how you feel, I always get excited and impatient when I am sexing.

One thing that may make you feel better is the longer they take to show sex the more likely they are female because the males always flower sooner than the fems...

Having said that if it has now been two weeks and you still haven't seen anything, you may want to look for light leaks... make sure they are in complete darkness, even a reflection of some light off of your Mylar (or other reflective material) is enough to trigger photosynthesis.

Don't worry, they show at some point, they have to!

Peace

[OkinKun]

Originally Posted by DaGanjaMonster

Hey there, I understand how you feel, I always get excited and impatient when I am sexing.

One thing that may make you feel better is the longer they take to show sex the more likely they are female because the males always flower sooner than the fems...

Having said that if it has now been two weeks and you still haven't seen anything, you may want to look for light leaks... make sure they are in complete darkness, even a reflection of some light off of your Mylar (or other reflective material) is enough to trigger photosynthesis.

Don't worry, they show at some point, they have to!

Peace

Yeah, it's only been 5 days, and they're in a pretty dark closet... So I think I'm alright...
I just didn't realize the 2 week part, I guess. Had I known it could take that long, I probably wouldn't have been so worried. lol I probably should have guessed as much though.

But thanks all. At least for now, I know to give it more time for sure. Obviously what I was seeing wasn't a pre-flower... Still no idea what it is though... XD

[OkinKun]

Well, I found a male today, multiple pods bunched together all over. =/

I still have a question though... Is the elongated thorn shapped preflower, a precurser to the female hair? Cause it looks nothing like a male pod...

I'm hopping that it is... cause it would be my only true female.

Out of the 4 plants, it seems I have only 1 true female... one Herm, and 2 males... -_-
I guess having such mixed results would explain why I couldn't tell what was what.

[bigbuduk]

my plants been in veg now for over a month 2 weeks n 5days on light timing 20/4 at first then 18/6 the next now im wondering wether to put into flowering at height of 5 inches and width of 5 inches but also seeing new stems growing instead of it showing its sexive been waiting n waiting to find out just what sex it is but still waiting lol anybody got any suggestions to put it into flowering ???or should i wait more time for it to grow taller?and will my plant keep growing taller when its under 12/12??

[notsonuts_1949]

Originally Posted by DaGanjaMonster

Hey there, I understand how you feel, I always get excited and impatient when I am sexing.

One thing that may make you feel better is the longer they take to show sex the more likely they are female because the males always flower sooner than the fems...

Having said that if it has now been two weeks and you still haven't seen anything, you may want to look for light leaks... make sure they are in complete darkness, even a reflection of some light off of your Mylar (or other reflective material) is enough to trigger photosynthesis.

Don't worry, they show at some point, they have to!

Peace

Photosynthesis is the conversion of light energy into chemical energy by living organisms. The raw materials are carbon dioxide and water; the energy source is sunlight; and the end-products are oxygen and (energy rich) carbohydrates, for example sucrose, glucose and starch. This process is arguably the most important biochemical pathway,[1] since nearly all life on Earth either directly or indirectly depends on it. It is a complex process occurring in higher plants, algae, as well as bacteria such as cyanobacteria. Photosynthetic organisms are also referred to as photoautotrophs.

photo.occures in both veg and flowering stages.

[DaGanjaMonster]

Originally Posted by notsonuts_1949

Photosynthesis is the conversion of light energy into chemical energy by living organisms. The raw materials are carbon dioxide and water; the energy source is sunlight; and the end-products are oxygen and (energy rich) carbohydrates, for example sucrose, glucose and starch. This process is arguably the most important biochemical pathway,[1] since nearly all life on Earth either directly or indirectly depends on it. It is a complex process occurring in higher plants, algae, as well as bacteria such as cyanobacteria. Photosynthetic organisms are also referred to as photoautotrophs.

photo.occures in both veg and flowering stages.

Very true, I also studied Science in High School... ha ha just buggin ya bro.
When sexing your plants it is key to make sure your dark period is a true dark period. If light leaks in, yes it triggers photosynthesis (the conversion of light into energy) and the plant will think it is still summer and not begin the flowering process. If you already have a couple of males, then you know you have nothing to worry about with light leaks.
For your next grow try this... when you force flowering turn off the lights for a full 48 hours (not even an interruption to take a little peek!!). This will make them show sex quicker, works for me everytime.Peace
notsonuts, wikkipedia is not a reliable source of info my friend, a lot of that crap is written by people who think they know what they're talking about...hint hint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis

[OkinKun]

So can anyone tell me if the thorn shaped thing on the right part of my drawing mean I have a female? I have no females, my other 3 plants turned out to be male, and they all had pods... This last one is different, it has these thorns, no pods. No hair yet though...

[DaGanjaMonster]

Are ya sure man? there is no way you got that many males..

The males will have clusters of balls not just pods. Those little pod looking things could be a calyx which is where the female pistil will come out of... the calyx is where the females store their seeds and when they are not full of seeds, they get filled with resin (sinsemilla)...

I hope you didn't throw those out already, I thought you were gonna wait the two weeks man? I know its hard to deal with the suspense but its all part of the experience...ha

[OkinKun]

Originally Posted by DaGanjaMonster

Are ya sure man? there is no way you got that many males..

The males will have clusters of balls not just pods. Those little pod looking things could be a calyx which is where the female pistil will come out of... the calyx is where the females store their seeds and when they are not full of seeds, they get filled with resin (sinsemilla)...

I hope you didn't throw those out already, I thought you were gonna wait the two weeks man? I know its hard to deal with the suspense but its all part of the experience...ha

Yeah man I am sure of the males I got. All 3 of them had clusters of the little pods, and they were clearly pods this time.

I've got this 1 female now (I hope), no hairs yet though, just has these single thorn like elongated green things, like on the right, in my first post drawing. Just a little longer sometimes, or fatter at the base... They all generally look the same though. And no clusters either.

My last plant, this 1 female... it's preflowers looked different than all the others. Sortof like the green base part of these flowers. See attached image. The green "thorn shaped" things I'm seeing, look somewhat like the base of these flowers. So I think I'm safe with guessing she's a girl. Right?

[DaGanjaMonster]

okay okay, chalk that one up as bad luck then... 3/4 seeds Male, that is awful, I am sorry about your luck bro, musta had a hermie out those three or something cause its almost impossible to get 3 true males out of 4 seeds.

How were your temps during veg? Do you think they may have been a little high? Heat stress can cause plants to hermie...

I imagine your last one there is a female. That little thorn shaped thing is more than likely a calyx; should be some white hairs comin' out there soon...

keep us posted

[PG10]

Originally Posted by DaGanjaMonster

3/4 seeds Male, that is awful, I am sorry about your luck bro, cause its almost impossible to get 3 true males out of 4 seeds.

Why do you say it is almost impossible to get 3/4 males? It is a 1 in 4 chance... not too likely, not nearly impossible though.