I have at least 8 sativa variety plants from female seeds growing outside in the ground. They are now 4-5 ft tall. Here in Sacramento we’re still getting 14 hrs. of sun daily. I was unable determine the sex of any of these plants not realizing that sex is determined 4-6 weeks in. These are way past that of course. This is only my second year growing and last year was no bueno. What can I do to determine the sex of these huge plants. I don’t want to cut them down till I know exactly what the deal is. I looked up online to see what female seeds looked like and planted only those. I hope that is the case. I do not see any seed pods at all. Thanks for anything you can assist me with.
They will begin showing sex in August. The females will have a teardrop shaped calyx and the males will have a spade shaped calyx that eventually turns into clusters of balls. You will have plenty of time to cull the males before they drop pollen. It takes a couple of weeks of ball production before they start releasing pollen. I even have a fully bloomed male in my garden and it won't be moved until mid August. The females will eventually show hairs from the teardrop shaped calyxes bit sometimes the preflowers wont show hairs.
I was able to actually see some of the female parts from picture #3 and put blue paint tape "funny right " around the trunk on about 3 or 4 of them. The new ones in grow bags still not showing signs of anything yet since they went into the ground around fathers day. These get sun just about 13 hrs or more each day. I started these as seeds a week after fathers day and here they are. I have no idea what they will do since the seeds were given to me. Excited to see what they do and turn into.
Good tip to know as well, male preflowers will ALWAYS be ripe/show sex before their female counterparts .. it’s how natural cannabis reproduction works
With all due respect that isn't necessaily true. Depending on the strain, some males wait until well after the females have shown to indicate sex. I have several Chem4 x Skunk #1 plants that showed all the females two weeks before any male flowers showed. And several F1 crosses I have made in the last few years always show male and female flowers simultaneously. The best method for sexing is to wait until balls form or hairs show to make a decision. And once a young pollen ball forms it can take several days before it opens up and drops pollen.
I see what you mean. Thanks for not dropping a disagree. Appreciate the correction brother. Sounds more correct when I think about it. Makes sense too as males need that extra material to really pollenate and ensure plenty of offspring. But I think it would be safe to say most males drop pollen before females reach full ripeness no? Or I think that would be more about variables too, considering a male can drop pollen before a female even gets past a certain maturity or even later like you said— I guess it just comes down to finding that one stud of the pack
That "males show first" stuff is from old High Times articles from the nineties. Since then there have been thousands of generations of crosses bred from that original stock. Now we have so much inbreeding and crossbreeding that you can't rely on old school bylaws. But yes males will usually drop pollen before buds form. It takes 2-3 weeks for either pollen or buds to start showing. I had a super late showing female I thought was a male in April that I out her out with the males and she turned out to be female. She seeded and eventually revegetated and is now a 6' tall monster (I harvested a couple hundred seeds from her but there was at least 5 different males out thereso I'm calling the offspring "gangbang")
Cannabis is a super complex plant. With only more and more hybridization happening.. who knows how this next generations flowers are gonna be.. some many phenotype and genetic variations from the same “strains” .. it’s crazy man. I guess we really can’t go by old law anymore, since nowadays, you never really know, what you are going to get anymore ....
Last year 1st grow outside. I had no idea wthell to do. Got shit tons of seeds now though, lol . I can't wait to actually try something that I grew after a mistake last year. I also have the grow bags which, I have no idea what they will do. To me that is exciting, trying new seeds where the owner of said seed said it came from who knows where. His parents grew in Oregon yrs ago so who knows what it will be. I hope I can do it proud!
I bet there are some real gems in there. Good luck. Yeah, I hate those late season males. "You did WHAT?"
THAT is only one small sample. I have several mason jars still with seed laden buds in them. It a good thing and a bad thing I guess. We'll see how the existing plants from these seeds do, then either be happy or not!
Several female plants have show their sex. Got a loup and was checking and marking them !00% fems. Yee Haa