OK...I'm going to start growing really soon. I've been reading up and stuff on here, and hopefully that will help me out. I have plenty of seeds collected from bags of weed, so nothing special. I am going to start the germination tonight, but I was wondering how many seeds I should attempt to germinate?? I don't want to you all of my seeds, but I would like to get something to plant. And once I plant it what are the chances of me getting a female plant? I only want to grow one plant...too risky to grow anymore, plus this is for personal use only. I'd rather not grow multiple plants in the start just to get rid of a perfectly good female because I don't have the room for it. So how many seeds would you guys suggest for me to germinate? and then should I plant all of the ones that work in hopes for a female?? I really hope this works out.
what i would do is germinate 2-3 seeds. May fav way is using damp towels and folding one layer over the seeds. Put it in a small or medium tupperware container and put the lid on(my friends like to crack it a little, but i prefer to close it tight.) or you can use anything and saran wrap the top and close with that. then find a warm dark(i have germinated 100% before in a warm low-lighted environment) place (computer monitor, cable box, anything that generates mild heat is fine) and leave it on top. they should be ready in about 2-4days. sorry for the extra info, but good luck! edit: sorry i forgot a little bit (high). i would start with 3 and then when you feel that you need to transplant; take the best looking one in terms of heighth, girth, color, stem strength, etc... and then pray and do rain dances and hope its a female! hope this helps.
It depends on how much room you have to grow. If you have enough room to grow say, 5 plants then I would germinate 8 or 9 seeds. For example, I just germinated 7 seeds for my current grow and 5 turned out to be female. The bottom line is you should germinate at least 2 or 3 more seeds than you have room to grow to harvest and hope for the best. I would prefer to potentially throw out a couple of the "weaker" looking females then and ensure a full grow room of females then to only germinate the minimum and still have room left in my grow room once I got rid of the males.
A single seed from an unknown source has a 50/50 chance of being male or female. I have heard that stress to the plant can boost the chances of getting a male, though. I know certain types of stress will increase your chances of getting a hermie also.
Not sure why you'd shy away from an extra flowering plant, but, don't know your setup etc. First, it only takes 3-4 weeks from germination to determine sex from preflowers, so if time isn't a factor, you could do 1 seed at a time. I'd never recommend bagseed to grow, even first grow, from my own experience. I'd get good quality seeds and not worry about hermie tendencies, weak potency etc. You can increase chances for female by following DP guides to increase females(at their site), things like more blue light spectrum, higher humidity, higher nitrogen in soil and 5-6 more items. For the situation you describe, i'd germ 3-5 seeds, take the best female and throw the rest away. It's just bagseed!