So i was at work doing some critical thinking on clones and sexing new plants. What if someone was to start growing lets say 5 different plants. Lets say its week 3 of veg and you would like to maybe try and weed out the males that way the females have more room to grow and mature. What if you were to take a clone clipping off of each plant and place them into a different area under 12/12 lighting to force flower the 5 clones. It seems that most strains take about 2 weeks to show pre-male/female flowers in this stage. Would these clones 100% represent what their parent was or would the stress from cloning and force flowering cause maybe a mutation. I wouldnt want to pull up a "male" plant when it was truly a female even though i would never know. Any help would be awesome!
I saw a video on youtube called i grow green its in a bunch of different parts. But thats how he tells if either or his seedlings are male of female. He just takes clones waits for them to root and then flowers them.
I just flower my original plants at a young age. Its easy and they double they're size during flowering so it all works out.
well part of the reason i was thinking this was because i would rather have only females going into the flowering so they can grow bigger. I would think that a simple snip of a clone would be less stress than throwing them into veg to start, then flower, then back to veg for a bit then back to flower... And also with the smaller 12/12 area i could use those few buds to grab some seeds for a backup precaution.
In my experiences I have grown my plants faster by the early flowering for sexing as they grow quite fast when flowered small, faster then 24/0 and I don't have to worry about any chemical imbalances such as those that come from using 24/0 for fast growth.
Yes,many growers that start from seed and dont use feminized variety like to take a clone of each as early as you can and throw them into 12-12, as soon as they show sex, mark the females that will be your mother plant/budding plants and continue to grow till desired size. Many even just dispose of clones that are sexed even if they are female since its the mothers that were sought after. Or you can put the sexed female clone back into veg and keep it for a mother, by the time ya need clones again it will have grown out and be stress free.
Your theory on early sexing is quite correct. The only reason it would be wrong is if you stressed the plants in some way that causes the growth of male flowers on a female. Usually triggered by too much/little nutes or too much heat. Couple other chemical imbalances and light sequences can cause it as well but you probably won't come close to any of that stuff. Watch for the males to flower.. they usually go first within the first 3 weeks... then pull the corresponding seedling. (make sure you mark everything correctly or you'll kill the wrong ones ) Good luck
sweet! I was hoping that it wouldn't be enough stress to freak them out. You say males show sex in week 3? Do you mean in flowering or veg? If its in veg then why waste the time to take snips and just look in week 3/4 of veg for males. By that alone i think you were meaning flowering. How long does it normaly take a female to show?
Males show aerly and usually before fems. Males flower in 2-4 weeks after 12/12 begins. The females usually show within 3-4 after 12/12 begins. I find it easier to incorporate a 24 hour dark period before their flowered as it quickens the process by a week or so.
yeah i hear that most people do the 24 hr dark between cycle but no one really ever said why.. Anyone else find that this makes sex show faster?
What Shock? If you are referring to the above posted question, I don't understand how a 24/0 helps with any shock.
So rather than changing the light cycle once and decreasing it by 6 hours, you're going to drop all light for 24 hours before increasing it back to 12/12? Yea, that totally cures "shock". The best lightning cycle starts at 12/12 and increases every day little by little until 18/6, then starts decreasing back down to 12/12 or 10/14. This most closely mimics the sun's seasonal changes.
I have seen shock from flowering back to veg. - I am seeing it right now, I took it up 2 hours a day from 10 hrs (it DID show quicker) to 21 & stopped because there was chlorosis big time on botton leaves. The 24 hour idea is interesting, but seems awful fast...have you actually noted success on several occasions?
I just remembered the paper bag method...d Just get a paper sack... paint it black and then put it over a small side shoot at the bottom of your plant. Don't close the bag... just hang it over the branch so the tip of it stays in the darkest corner of the bag. Keep it on for 12 hours a day. in about 2 weeks you should start to see pre-flowers if it's a male.... Just a bit later and you should see pre-flowers if it's a female. Another week and it will start to bud... (definitely sign of a female) Take the bag off and the branch will return to normal and none of this affects the rest of the plant
I'm still looking for a strain that doesn't show sex before week 4 from seed at a 19/5 light schedule. I'm always amazed when I see threads about cloning to find sex or going 12/12 to find sex. Simply get a magnifying glass (i use an eyelupe 7x), find out where to look and it is always there, at least one preflower is there and illustrating sex before week 4 of veg. Males show earlier (happily) and get deleted from grow space (all but one until all sex is shown), while the probable fems get the garden prime spot. Earliest i've detected is 16 days from planting seed showed male skunk xxx. Some strains show earlier some very slightly later but all within 4 weeks.
tHANKS, your idea seems the most practical for my situation. I also read somewhere about the cloning & flowering, but that is too time-consuming & theb whole time U R wasting space. GREAT IDEA!!