How long does it take for a male plant to pollenate?

Few weeks I think.

 

Hard to know if you catch them early it might be OK.

 

A Simple but reliable rule of thumb accurate 9 out of 10 times is that you can identify the Males of the pack because they are always the fastest and biggest growers starting at germination......I Hated Ripping out Males once they sexed, because they always looked the most impressive and towered over the Females.....

When I was at my best and Pro Skilled (LOL)....I pulled the plants that were clearly fighting for more light and sun before they ever showed sex simply by instinct on thier "Rapid Growth" over the others.......I was right most of the time....atleast enough to stop pollination and guarentee more light for the shadowed and smaller plants...that were almost always female.....

I read once that Ed Rosenthal stated the same exact tip for pulling males early.....

 

IIRC i read they will turn yellow as they swell then bust.

 

Having just run a little breeding experiment, I can tell you that when males are let go to do their thing, they splooge all over the place. I had a male that didn't get to be more than 12" tall, but the pollen he dumped just caked the planter I had him in. The female I had him with is heavy with seed.

But to answer your question, males seem to show gender (at least to the point where I can easily identify them, other may have better eyesight) between two and three weeks of the flowering cycle, with the first pollen sacks opening a week or two after that. When they open, it's like a tiny flower opening, and if the air is still you will see an obvious blob of yellow pollen on the leaves under it. Once you've seen it and know what you're looking at, it's pretty easy to get to it in time.

I had one female go hermie on me. It was a 5th generation clone and one day it just sprouted a couple of pollen sacks. It wasn't even on 12/12 light, it did this under 18/6.

Funny thing, it only sprouted about three pollen sacks then it seemed to "calm down" and behave like a normal girl plant again. A couple weeks later I cut her up and made her into a bunch of clones, so I'll be watching that batch closely to see any hint of hermie activity.

 

I found that males usually started dropping pollen about 2.5 weeks into 12/12. And yes I have had plants hermie and by removing all the male parts I had no pollenation.