Early Sexing methods

[TUTIDO]

Since I have a fairly confined grow space (bedroom closet) I've started three times as many seeds as I wish to keep (12 down to 4) and I want to sex them early so I don't waste time and space growing a male, since I have no use for one. I'm already familiar with a couple methods of early sexing, but I want to know if there are others out there. Also, I'm very interested to know how early all these methods can be done because most of what I've read hasn't really given me a clear picture for any method. The two methods I already know of are taking clones and puting them under 12/12, and covering a branch of each plant to give just that part 12/12. I'm also very interested in how succesful people are with each method they've tried.

 

[sproutco]

Since you are starting from seed this is the initial run. I would not worry about presex and just grow males as well (no telling how many). Take clones and remember to number the mother plants and clones so the males can be disposed off. In the future it will be clones of just mother plants which would be all female so you would not have to endure this temporary undesirable situation.

 

[Closet Funk]

The fastest way is probally starting them under a 12/12 photperiod right away. It will take awhile for plants to flower but they usually show within a month or so. Growing them in veg they show pre-flowers between weeks 6-8. Some people take clones at week 4 and put them directly under 12/12 to root and show sex. This will take another 2 weeks. The fastest you can get to show sex on a regular strain is probally about 4 weeks.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

i start to check around the 5th set of leaves on upwards some plants show sex as a preflower some wont untill 12/12 is induced in my gallery are some some pics of female/male preflowers. these are from the old overgrow growfaq

 

[TUTIDO]

Thanks for the quick advice. That means I have 1.5-3 weeks yet (plants started at slightly different times). Unfortunately these are from bag seed, a learning experience. I was also unsure if I was gonna be in this house when I started the plants, and I didn't want to have to tear up any plants I had to pay for. The next grow will be from seed again, but of a known strain. Also, one of the reasons I wanted to start growing was to experience different strains (finding name brand here is impossible unless you know a grower), so growing from seed and sexing will always be a part of the process as I collect mothers of strains I enjoy the most.

 

[Tunefull]

Hi m8

It is suprising how much of a factor diff strains are in how soon they show sex...

I had some AK 48 and cali O growing from seed(started same time,and got treated the same(everything was normal)))

Well the AK's showed sex about 2 weeks before the cali O(This could be due to cali being a sat/inc mix(i guess))

Also used two of the freebie seeds(Magical mystery mix)And whatever they are
They showed Sex early aswell

Looking at the leaves there a indica(Like the AKs)
So i think now(as i am wrighting this)
The Sativa's not only have a longer flowering time,but they take longer to show sex aswell....


Lol tho i could be totally wrong




u say u only have a small space
I would imagine 2ft by 2 foot?

I dont have much bigger(well 3 by 3 ft)
and is not much room at all for wasted plant space(as a male would take up)

2 area's are really handy(but

sounds like u cant go down that route


Anyway have u thought about buying fem seeds?
i have never tried them(as say got two area's so i get by)
But for you with just one area(and smallish at that)

Fem seeds would take away most of your probs of space
Bear in mind u(If use standard seeds)will have to go thru this sexing proccess everytime you try a new strain...



PS
just read your last post
So u do plan on haveing a second area to keep mothers in?

 

[TUTIDO]

The space is larger than that. I would say approx 3x2.5x5 of usable space right now. And yes, I do eventually want a full setup with seperate rooms for flower/veg, but I can't afford to even buy new lighting at the moment, so that's a ways off. Also fem seeds are out of my price range.

 

[Guest]

If you ever use the 12/12 method of sexing a cutting from a vegging plant,try using a 14 dark 10 light photoperiod instead and you'll save a few days in most instances.I've identified sex on day 4 with some pheno's using 14/10 I know its quicker than 12/12.You dont need to root it to get it to show sex

 

[DragonX]

Its been my experiance that you cant really rush them. As far as i know they wont show there sex until they are mature enough. So either start off 12/12 and get rid of the males when they apear. Also take clones as soon as they show that they are female. No sense in taking clones of a plant that turns out to be male.

I personly veg them until they show alternating nodes.(a sign of maturity) then put them in flower. Get rid of males as they show. clone the best female. Now I have the clones and all the females from seed in flower still. There is no lost time imbetween. Unfortunatly theres no way to tell there sex untill they are ready.

good luck
DragonX

PS for clones you dont need a lot of light. A couple of compact or tubed florecents in a rubber maid container would work fine.

 

[TUTIDO]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was going to take a horizontal speaker and basically turn it into a micro cab with cfls. It's not very tall, but I could have gotten about 30 clones in it, and for just sexing, the low height wouldn't matter. My grow partner however wants to go with just throwing the plants under 12/12 (or something similar) and then switch back to veg schedule after sexing. Considering we're hurt for money at the moment, that's what we'll be going with.

 

[Guest]

Thats OK but whewn you get serious in the future taking clones and keeping pheno's around for years you wont want to do that.Always take your cuttings in the veg stage not after 12/12 has started and never go to flower and back to veg.You can keep a pheno going for years and years taking clones of clones but only if you do it with good "veg" cuttings,you dont want cuttings with pistils as thats the beginning of the degrading process.Next thing you know your vegging clones are full of pistils and single and three bladed fans,all undesirable traits.I've taken my cuttings after 12/12 has commenced,its OK if you do it just for that "generation".If you plan on perpetuating a pheno though you'll be so much better off always taking your cuttings in the veg stage starting with the original seedplant.I also grow out a couple "generations" of clones from each female seedplant before making a final decision on phenotype,I'll drop the more undesirable pheno's along the way leaving me with the best pheno.Its best not to make your decision of pheno from a flowered seedplant too,make your decision from the flowered clone and you'll get a much better representation of whats to come structurally and in finishing time.For god sake dont choose a mom in the veg stage because she's female and pretty as hell,makes no sense to do this.The flowered clone is whats important here you'll be making a decision that could last years like in my case with blockhead.I have a dream pheno lol

 

[TUTIDO]

I'm not quite clear on part of that. Are you saying that doing 12/12 to sex and then going back to veg will harm them, or just that I don't want to do that with a serious setup and breeding in mind? Right now a lot of solutions are temporary, money is tight and I'll probably be moving within a year. Wherever I move to though, is where I intend to build a serious setup (Ideally at least one whole room) and begin thinking about things like breeding and such.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

doing 12/12 to sex then revert back to veg takes time, once the plant is in flower mode and sexed it takes approx 1 month to revert back to veg. during this time your plant should mature enough to see it's preflowers, preflowers are a pre indicator of the plants sex they show between 3-6 wks of age on most plants. a female has a pear shape that wneh matures will swell and 2 white hairs protrude, male has a small ball when itmatures it grows a stick with other balls
my girl preflower


preflower pics from overgrow grow faq
girls



boys




look for the preflowers from 4th-5th node on up when a plant matures the nodes alternate

 

[Guest]

If your just going to flower out that plant without taking clones then its OK it just takes time like stated before,if its a pheno you want to keep for successive grows you dont want to do anything funky like that.Its cool for what you're doing butr like I said earlier you can clone the top of a 6 inch plant and put it under 14 dak 10 light and know sex usually in 5 days or so.I'd just grow the plant until I could take a 3 inch cutting from the side then clone for sex rather than reverting the plant back to veg from a 12/12 cycle.The clone does not need to root to show sex and the 14 hours dark 10 light speeds it up considreably compared to the standard 12/12

 

[TUTIDO]

Thanks for clarifying that. If it was up to me, we would be sexing clones, but I have a partner on this (he does most the building, like ballasts, exhaust system, etc. and I'm the one caring for the plants) and so it's not solely my decision...

 

[Neuronaut]

check out caprishios thread on water cloning. He shows a really easy way to sex a plant using water clones.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=10827&highlight=water+cloning