changing the sex of a seed

i know some folks won't agree with this, "BUT" sex isn't determined until after planting. it can go either way. there are things you can do to increase your chances of females. a canadian breeder i know suggested high nitrogen levels and keeping temps low in veg to increase chances of females. there's also something else i read that said if you put your seedlings on 12/12 until they get their first true set of leaves (not the round ones) then put them back on a veg cycle, you'll get 90% females. i've never tried it....

 

Your right, I do disagree, if you want female seeds buy them, make them by polinating with a hermied female or do like the rest of us do and plant twice as many as you plan on growing and if more turn out female then you want, you chop them.

 

You can't change the sex of a seed. It is not determined after planting, it is determined upon pollination if pollinated with an X-chromosome or Y-chromosome pollen spore.

If sex was not determined until after planting, then I must be the luckiest moron on the face of the earth, because every feminized seed I've ever grown out has been a female, and if sex isn't pre-determined then there would be no such thing as true feminized seeds, which means I have beaten the odds about a gazillion to one and should be on the next plane to Vegas.

It is possible that there are techniques that make the seeds of one gender or anohter germinate more quickly or more successfully, which could alter the ratio of grown-out plants and give the appearance that some of the seeds must have changed gender. I don't even believe that is true, but at least it is an idea compatible with basic genetic biology.

 

well put toast.

 

I always thought it was just a 50/50 chance. Well, shut my mouth.

 

when i said seeds, i didn't mean femmed seeds. i mean regular old seeds.
i got this info. at another site;

Seeds grown from healthy, fertilized females can be either/or, but have a *slight* tendency towards being male. Manipulating the environment - keeping temps from getting too high, maximizing air flow around leaves, the introduction of CO2, feeding the plants plenty of nitrogen, minimizing stress - can tip that towards the female.

Feminized seeds are typically harvested from hermaphrodite plants, or grown from healthy females using pollen from the male flowers on hermaphrodite plants, which tend to have only female genetics, so they produce female seeds.

The problem with feminized seeds is the shaky genetics, which is to be expected when you're breeding with hermies.

The only certain way to grow only females with predictable, stable genetics is by keeping a healthy mother and cloning her. It doesn't take much space or light to keep one healthy female plant alive and producing new branches pretty much indefinitely, and your cloens will continue to be just as healthy and have exactly the same genetics.

 

It is theoretically possible that different conditions could favor pollination by x-chromosome or y-chromosome pollen. For example, I don't know if this is true or not but I've always heard that in humans the x-chromosome sperm swim slower and last longer whereas the y-chromosome sperm swim faster but give out more quickly, which could mean that how a man and woman have sex could tip the odds of having a boy or a girl. Potentially same thing could apply to MJ.

Feminized seeds really don't come from hermies in the true sense of the word. Yes, true hermies are screwed up and probably will pass on funky genetic traits. Femmed seeds come from inducing specific budsites on a pure female plant, through stress and/or hormones, to grow outwardly male flowers and therefore feminized pollen. Such a plant is genetically sound and 100% female, and creating one on purpose is tricky to do.

 

that's an informative post, toasty. (post toasty..) even femmed beans aren't gonna give you 100% female beans. close, but not 100% every time. there's always a chance of there being a hermie.