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How early to smoke males?
- Thread starter F2F
- Start date
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
Well I'll be damned. I assume this isn't a reversal or hermie.
I culled 400+ males last year and never once did I notice resin on any.
No, it's a normal male. prolly around 5 weeks of 12/12 when the photo was taken. under 75w cfl light. I also flowered another Taskenti male but it wasn't as frosty and this has been the frostiest male i've had. I have seen proper stalked resin glands on few males before but not this much.
I could even get a taste in the smoke when i smoked some dried tops of that one in a bong! Mild high too, and i smoke weed almost daily and all day, so i do have some tolerance.I'm not a light weight smoker, i mean.
..but i won't smoke males unless i wanna get a glimbse of the effect, and to see if there's any kind of effect at all. If i wouldn't feel anything after smoking 2-4 bowls of dried tops in a bong, i'd toss the male for not being potent enough.
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Usually you need a 10x - 30x magnifying loop to see the globular resin on the sun leaves and stems on males and females, but it's there. You can even see globular resin on the first true leaves on the good seedlings (when you're germinating seeds) with these loops.
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
No, it's a normal male. prolly around 5 weeks of 12/12 when the photo was taken. under 75w cfl light. I also flowered another Taskenti male but it wasn't as frosty and this has been the frostiest males i've had. I have seen proper stalked resin glands on few males before but not this much.
I could even get a taste in the smoke when i smoked some dried tops of that one in a bong! Mild high too, and i smoke weed almost daily and all day, so i do have some tolerance.I'm not a light weight smoker, i mean.
..but i won't smoke males unless i wanna get a glimbse of the effect, and to see if there's any kind of effect at all. If i wouldn't feel anything after smoking 2-4 bowls of dried tops in a bong, i'd toss the male for not being potent enough.
::
Usually you need a 10x - 30x magnifying loop to see the globular resin on the sun leaves and stems on males and females, but it's there. You can even see globular resin on the first true leaves on the good seedlings when you're germinating seeds with these loops.
Selecting a male to breed has always been a "best guess" at best. For the most part it's been on structure. That has worked with my NL dwarf, but that's as far as it goes for getting the results I was looking for.
I breed for effect, not so much for THC content. But if I can get effect, yield and thc, that's the golden ticket for me. You can be sure I'll leave a field with baggies full of pollen and tops to test from now on.
Sunshineinabag
Active member
Smoking dried male tops is a good help when you're selecting males. 100%.
The samples from 10-11 week strains i've smoked had been flowered around 5 - 6 weeks.
Just dry the tops. I remove larger (and most) leaves but i leave few small leaves and softer/thin parts of stems in there, cause there's resin on those too (i'd smoke all the plant matter you can see in the photo i posted); cut it to small bits into a coffee cup: squeeze the bits lightly few times to shake off most of the pollen and then into the bong. 2-4 proper hits from a big bong and then sit down and try to sense/analyze the effect.
It's best to let it be your first smoke of the day to get a better feel of the nuances in the effect, esp. if it's important project for you, because there isn't that much resin to smoke on male plant matter. But i have smoked female flowers earlier the same day and still felt a mild hit from male tops ...sure, mild but noticeable enough to get a little feel of what he might bring into the offspring.
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
I can get a rush looking at bud porn. Super lightweight here, and I'm not really a smoker so I'll know it. 
Thesearch
Active member
They may have been pulled too early to see any develop yet. Of course every plant is different
HAZENACIOUS
Member
I've had good luck smoking males for selection, you need to wake and bake to feel effects,
No earlier than 1 month, the older they are the more potent they will be.
Make sure all leafs sampled are same size, leaf potency varies by leaf size, you want to be comparing apples to apples. 2 inch in diameter works. Take as big a hit as you can, and hold it as long as you can. Right when you wake up. It's best to test only 1 male per day of you can manage it. Make sure leaf is totally dry. It helps if you can abstain for a day or 2 before you sample.
I've heard vaping leaf also works and easier on the lungs but never tried it.
Don't smoke reversed males, the chemicals can give you cancer.
F2F
Well-known member
Thanks for this tip on apples to apples Hazen. I’ve two males I’ll be sampling in the coming days so we shall see how things go!
Peace,
F2F
If you smoke enough males and one is tastier or more potent then the rest it will be easy to identify. If one does not stand out I would say either try more of them or look for the makes with as many similar traits to the desirable females from the same seeds.
HAZENACIOUS
Member
F2F
Well-known member
Hiya Hazen,
Sadly (?) I’ve only two males of purple satellite. This out of 14 regulars planted out this year (across 4 different sat strains). Was hoping for more to do a little chucking.
The tops were cut and stuck in water a few days back and are just starting to drop pollen now. I’m drying a few leaves as we speak.
Edit: other strains are Zacatecas Tribute, Golden Tiger, and an NLD line which is mash up of mex/thai/NL.
Peace
F2F
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