Can a stressed seedling recover and be female?

[vaportrail]

New to Hydro here. I have done some indoor growing, but this is my first grow using this bucket system. I have a couple of seedlings that are in sickly condition, I didn't mix the nutes right, started them in jiffy pucks, and then moved them to rockwool.
In my growing experience, I always killed any sick seedlings, and have never tried to nurse one back to health.
I know that stress causes plants to turn out male, and am wondering if I am wasting my time trying to save a couple of sick seedlings.

 

[guineapig]

i guess if you have other viable seedlings you might want to let this one go........

it could take awhile to recover or turn out a runt at any rate.........

-guineapig 2 cents

 

[Sinfuldreams]

Thats kinda young to be so sick....
but if you can spare the room, keep it and learn from it.
it could still be female, but it might runt out on you.
But hell I use these things to learn 1st hand.

Sin

 

[pez]

Last year I had a plant that I nute burned at about the 3/4 node. The plant was always a little "whack" after that, never looked quite right. When it was a little bit older it got hit HARD by aphids( or something similar), everything on it was weird, but it turned out to be a nice 7ft (but disfigured) female.

So I guess it's your choice, if you don't feel like messing with it, but just because it's sick and stressed does not mean it's a guranteed male.

 

[Guest]

Maybe but...

Maybe but...

That seedling looks to have Damped Off and is probably almost dead. They can't transpire moisture properly at that age. Too wet too soon me thinks. Why did you start in Jiffy Plugs if you were going to go Hydro (or at all)? Maybe it was too soon for the bubbler? You should not have used any nutes IMHO at this early stage. Seedlings rarely need any kind of feeding until they have a few sets of true leaves.

 

[vaportrail]

Yeah, those jiffy plugs were a big mistake...I am learning this new equipment, and style of growing.
I have the seedlings in rockwool now.

 

[MynameStitch]

Hey pez what temps was that plant grown in at night

 

[Guest]

Ya the enemy is the clock and you can't afford to lose a day. Also no use growing out duds. If you can get something else going and it's not coming out of shock dump it.

 

[Makavellian]

yeah it can still be female .. there was a thread i read on OG that tells you how to maximize your garden's efficiency at making more females ..
it said that you can do basically anything (wrong lights,cycles,under overwater etc) to your plant before the 3rd week (the 3rd-4th week is the time where most of its sex determination shit is done) and it wont affect its sex.

 

[vaportrail]

That's the answer I was looking for. I have one seedling that is looking great now, but I almost killed it for the first 2 weeks of it's life. As long as it still has a chance at being female, I'll keep my grow space going.

 

[Desiderata]

Before the third week, thankyou guys. I remember that now also.

The other female/male ratio theory was based upon using less light, more Nitrogen, more humidity, lower temps, and less Potassium. That formula turned my almost 90% males/female ratio back to a normal 50/50 ratio.

I was too heavy on the potassium during veg. So now I save my heavy K application for flowering.

My runt also turned out female and is slowly catching up with the rest of the pack.

 

[mariman]

Good, I have had runts turn into great plants and as far as plants turning into males because of stress......I call bullshit. I had a bunch of seedling stress for about a month and they ended up to be half males and half females.

Good luck
M

 

[Desiderata]

Alright, that's good to know on the the seedling stress. When I had that high male/female ratio Is when I found that theory to try and see if it made a difference. I was using 24/7 light, were you also, Mariman?

 

[mariman]

sorry took me a while to respond, been going through the old break up with the girlfriend. Not so easy.

Yes, I was using 24 hour light, flouros and 6 ph water using promix bx with added perlite (about 15-20 percent)

M

 

[gift of gab]

Good, I have had runts turn into great plants and as far as plants turning into males because of stress......I call bullshit. I had a bunch of seedling stress for about a month and they ended up to be half males and half females.

Good luck
M

this is one of those things were there will always be people on both sides of the fence. Ive had the same experience as you. In the end seeds usually get you something close to a 50/50 M/F ratio.

 

[Desiderata]

Thanks Mariman for your reply bro. I tried that more female theory because I always got 50/50 or close to it when I raised differrent Jamaican strains ten years ago. They were Hashplant (Hindu Kush genes), Red, Gold, Postcard, and Purple.

Anyway, I would rather be on your guys side of the fence. This batch I'm talking about was a moved/rescued batch. Hey,..... the feedback is what helps us formulate our plans for existing projects and future ones. Thanks guys!