whats the best light cycle to start seedlings for better chance of female?

[tkayone]

I started a grow in a PC case not too long ago and my 2 plants ended up male.
I first gave them 18/6 for a week then 12/12 for like 2-3weeks still they showed some huge balls.

My question is, is there a best light cycle to use when starting seedlings?
Or one to use that will help promote females?
Or maybe help promote tight nodes?
thanks in advance

heres pics of my 2 previous plants that I killed.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

I think that there are other factors at play as well and you could do a search, but that being said, try 14/10 from the 3rd set of leaves (not counting the seed-lobes) to the 5th set and as much blue light and as little red as you can get.

Namaste, mess

 

[smokeymacpot]

light cycle has nothing to do with it. start them on whatever you like, 12/12 18/6 20/4 24/0 and theres no difference.
what does get u females is.. starting 10 seeds and getting 5 girls and 5 boys. as its pretty much always 50/50.

 

[TGT]

I have heard seedlings started in soil with more nitrogen tend to form into females while seedlings in soil void or very low in nutrients turn male. I am sure it is not as black and white as that, but thats one reason that I believe has been proven. Not sure where I read this, but it's got to be some where on the net.

TGT

 

[Pirate138]

light cycle has nothing to do with it. start them on whatever you like, 12/12 18/6 20/4 24/0 and theres no difference.
what does get u females is.. starting 10 seeds and getting 5 girls and 5 boys. as its pretty much always 50/50.

Exactly, the sex of the seed is determined when its made. Nature has its ways to keep plants propagating.

 

[bounty29]

Exactly, the sex of the seed is determined when its made. Nature has its ways to keep plants propagating.

Can you prove that? (Seriously, I'm curious)

There's lots of factors thought to influence M/F ratios. Not all believe them, but I think they've got an effect on the outcome.

Things to help get more females...

Blue light
High N (High for seedlings, don't go killing your seedlings with tons of nutes)
Longer light hours
Cooler temperatures

and there's a few more things that I can't think of off the top of my head, this has been discussed several times here and on other sites, it's not just some crackpot theory, but believe what you want.

and if you don't believe any of those, or are to stubborn to try, order feminized seeds. Either way, I think all those things help plants in veg so why not?

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

As bounty29 said. There are two theories on sexing, a simple X/Y theory stating that sex is purely genetic, and an epigamic sex theory, stating that sex is decided by external influences (environment). Neither really makes sense on its own, so the most plausible explanation is a combination of both, seeds having an initial sex, which can be overridden if certain environmental factors exist. Seeds treated with ethylene get an increased female ratio, a Silver Thiosulfate Solution treatment will change the sex of a female plant, so we know that external influences do play tricks with the Cannabis sexing, including hermies and nanners.

A lot of people claim good results in 24/24, I like to throw in a 6 hour dark period. I've never seen any problems with 24/24 using fluos, but I've seen light stress in some strains vegging 24/24 with HPS light.

 

[tkayone]

thnx, ill definetly try all the above.
im using peat puck to germ and xfer to ffof after it pops.
whats a good way to add some N?
i have some veg/bloom and liquid karma from pbp.
once again thnx for all the replies

 

[Lean Green]

In my experience a light regimen with some dark period nets more females. When I run seeds under 24 hour light it seems I get mostly males. Just my observations.

 

[bounty29]

I run 20/4 for all my non-flowering plants, and use as many female influencing environmental factors as I can, haven't tried the ethylene gas yet but I'm sure that will add even more success. I'd say I've gotten over 75% females, but I've grown out less than 20 plants from seed so it's really not the best sample size.

 

[Sirius]

You should definitely start with more than two seeds. Its always better to have to get rid of a couple weaker females due to space concerns than to wait weeks to find out you only have males.

 

[tkayone]

i didnt want to use all my seeds my first time around incase i messed up big time.
anyways i just planted my last 4 seeds into pucks with the dome on in a warm room.
hope the pop soon so i can take off the dome and put them in a veg chamber
if all 4 pop i hope i get atleast 1 female!

 

[Care Free 1]

I agree with Sirius. I would plop down at lease half a pack or more to ensure you will find a female. I've done many experiments with light timings over the years and haven’t noticed any unusually high female counts from different light cycles.

You want females every time? Learn how to clone for sexing, and use the mother plants over and over again. Guaranteed females every time, and preservation of a good plant if you find one.

 

[smokeymacpot]

i didnt want to use all my seeds my first time around incase i messed up big time.
anyways i just planted my last 4 seeds into pucks with the dome on in a warm room.
hope the pop soon so i can take off the dome and put them in a veg chamber
if all 4 pop i hope i get atleast 1 female!

well it bit you in the ass. you need to start more seeds, you can then clone a female(and you have constant streams of females clones for however long u want) and seed a bud for backup seeds.

 

[bounty29]

I've never started more than 4 seeds at once, and I've never had a problem filling my flowering cabinet with females. If you don't get as many as you were hoping for, veg for a week or two longer, no big deal. You won't have as large a selection, but I think that is a known risk when not planting a ton of seeds.

 

[smokeymacpot]

I've never started more than 4 seeds at once, and I've never had a problem filling my flowering cabinet with females. If you don't get as many as you were hoping for, veg for a week or two longer, no big deal. You won't have as large a selection, but I think that is a known risk when not planting a ton of seeds.

luck. you may try many things to get more females, but i just think its a waste of time messing about and just spending too much time and effort on it and a grower SHOULD NOT be getting worried about not having enough females.
decide how many females you would like, say 10, and plant 25 seeds, veg and then preflower them throw the males (which is always around 50/50) and carry on veging or flower.
it cannot be more simple than that!

 

[bounty29]

25 plants is a bit much, and I would run out of space way before they would all be old enough to show sex. It's worked for me for two years so far, just plan accordingly. Yeah sure, I might get unlucky and get 4 males, but that's a risk I'm taking by only starting 4 seeds. This is why I make all environmental factors in favor of pushing the plants female, and it's worked for me. Yeah, maybe it's luck, but do whatever suits you.

 

[smokeymacpot]

25 plants is a bit much, and I would run out of space way before they would all be old enough to show sex. It's worked for me for two years so far, just plan accordingly. Yeah sure, I might get unlucky and get 4 males, but that's a risk I'm taking by only starting 4 seeds. This is why I make all environmental factors in favor of pushing the plants female, and it's worked for me. Yeah, maybe it's luck, but do whatever suits you.

thats just an example. im not telling you all to start 25 , just start double the number of seeds of the number of females you want to end up with. if you want 1-5 girls, you should really be starting 10 seeds minimum.

and yes at some point im sure you will get 4 males from 4 seeds.

 

[_Dude]

i didnt want to use all my seeds my first time around incase i messed up big time.
anyways i just planted my last 4 seeds into pucks with the dome on in a warm room.
hope the pop soon so i can take off the dome and put them in a veg chamber
if all 4 pop i hope i get atleast 1 female!

Did I miss where you posted your germination methods? If not, then assuming you're not an idiot (no offense meant, I just mean it like I'm saying it), don't worry about it. Given no extreme temps and such, your beans will pop. I got very good rates my first time around. My most recent attempt got me 15/17 with very simple efforts: rockwool starter cubes (soaked in clean water first to PH balance them or whatever) in DIY wick germinators* under a couple 4 foot tubes 24/7. The seeds were in a fridge for a few years, to boot.

*= bottom half of a two liter bottle with holes in bottom, stuck in another bottom half of a two liter bottle without holes, four short lengths of dryer line cord to wick water up into the top half; 3 or 4 rockwool starter cubes in each top half, with seed pushed in about a half inch; some water in the bottom half; a 3 liter bottle with the bottom cut out as a humidity dome (I leave the lids off the 3 liter tops).

Simple! I think temp is the big thing, make sure your room temps are temperate.