So I have a 3 by 3 ft. space with about 15 healthy seedlings right now. I obviously can't wait until they flower because there won't be room for all of them, so I want to try to sex them early. When is the earliest I can do this? I know two ways: A. I could take clones from each and sex them, but I don't have a second grow light. I could get a small desk light and another time and do it that way, though? B. I could temporarily switch to 12/12 to see what they are and then veg again? The bad with A is that it will take a long time and the seedlings will already be big by the time the clone has rooted and showed right? The bad with B is that it delays my harvest and stresses the plant? Thoughts on this? What would you do? Next time thinking of buying fem. seeds.
try putting a black paper bag over one lower branch of each plant. secure it around the branch with string loose enough for air flow but tight enough to keep the branch dark. put that branch into 12-12 and see if it is male or female. you do not have to put the entire plant into bud, that should save you some time. let me know how it works for you : )
just veg for 4 to 5 weeks and you will see pre-flowers and you will be able to sex em that way, good luck.
Well what I did, I have two rooms, but I grew them until I was able to take 3-4 clones from each, and I threw them into 12/12. Started showing 1-3 weeks. I discarded the Males and all of those clones. and proceeded to bud the females. Meanwhile, I maintained a 24/0 light regimen for the clones, if you can just get 1-2 6500k cfls, for a week or two on them while you are sexing the others under your current grow light. The light is much more important while flowering imo. As far as how early you can do it, thats a matter of personal opinion, I let the seedlings pre-flower under a 24/0 before i cloned and started to flower them. But, really, as long as when your doing it, your not removing more than 1/3 of the total plant, your fine. So if you can clone and 1/3 or more will still be left, go to work. (fem. seeds arent worth the money in my opinion, the seed companies are usually pretty good, if you dont get 1 fem in say a 10 seed bag, you can tell am and they'll refund you or hook you up next purchase. only good thing with fem seed is a better chance of it being female, It can still turn hermie on you... >.<)
If you can get that to work for you awesome, let me know to, I contemplated this but just wasn't appropriate for my situation. Lol, could make for a long couple weeks taking the bag on and off everyday at the exact same time everyday
my main problem here is not wanting to throw out seedlings that i don't have room for, because they could be healthy females. it's hard, because i just won't have room for them all. i may just decide to switch to 12/12 long enough to see and go back. how early can i do that? how long will it delay my harvest? the bag idea is great, but i won't be able to do it for every seedling and reliably, due to my job. i will keep that in mind for the next time i have fewer plants, though!