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Odds of getting all males? (8 plants)

W

WheelsOG

Hey guys. I'm new to IC and have been reading lots on the forums. Lots of good info on here.

Anyways, This is my first grow. I started with 10 ambrosia seeds, in soil/perlite. Have them growing in a cabinet under a 150 watt light. One seed didn't germ, and the other one died after a couple weeks. The remaining plants were vegged under 24/0 hours for 45 days, then under 18/6 hours for 6 days.

The lights have been changed to 12/12 hours for 9 days. Right now most of the plants are showing their sex.

My four healthiest plants all appear to be male. All of them have small clusters of balls at some of their nodes. I'm letting them live another day or two hoping that my eyes deceive me :) But it seems pretty obvious they are male.

Two plants weren't as healthy and look like they are in the starting stages of forming balls.

The last two plants were the runts of the litter. Ugly little plants. They don't appear to show any sex yet, but it looks like i can see female pre-flowers.


Just thought i'd vent to you guys. Maybe you have some similiar stories.

Could certain things in your environment encourage the sex of the plant to be male?
 
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JJScorpio

JJScorpio

Thunderstruck
ICMag Donor
Veteran
There are certain things I have read you can do to have better chances at females, but I tried it a couple times and didnt notice a difference. I can not remember them exactly now but they involve certain warmer temps, higher N and things like that.

I would say just keep your temps around 75 and be consisitent with the light and water and you will be ok. Next grow you may end up with all females.
 
S

ScatMan

Member
Tho its not very probable it is possible, and would be extremely unlucky to get all males, keep them growing to see if ne thing turns out female.
 
Stoney

Stoney

Member
Yeah it takes a good bit of time before the pollen sacks will develop to the point that they blow their loads.. I was about to throw a couple of my plants thinking they were male, but it was my noob eye playing tricks.. they both ended up female :D
Give em a lil time, you may be surprised.. If anyone knows some time restrictions, that would be good info.. Good luck and stay safe!!
 
clowntown

clowntown

Active member
Veteran
As JJScorpio mentioned, if the genetics + growing environment given were to produce N% / N% M/F ratio, the odds of getting 100% male would be the exact same as picking all blue marbles through a random pick from bag of N blue marbles and N red marbles. It's a longshot but certainly possible, and of course there are variables on the breeder's end that will change this probability.

It's a slight bit more complicated, but I don't think throwing out a mathematical formula will serve any purpose.

And just as certain growing environments can influence more females, the reverse is also true.
 
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W

WheelsOG

For sure,

This was my first grow, and with it came many problems. Next time around will be alot better.

I probably made every mistake in the book :) From using the wrong ferts, to not PH testing my water, to not ventilating the room. I messed with the light schedule a couple times which probably messed with the plants. I didn't have a timer for the light, So i went from 24/0 to 18/6 for a few days to 24/0 again due to laziness.

I peiced together the parts slowly so now i have everything

Next grow i'll have the ferts, the fan, the PH drops, the timer.

Although i'm not quite giving up on my first grow. If the runts turn out to be female i'll probably finish them :) I was thinking i could maybe even try to reveg them (i need to do some reading on that)
 
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V

Vagabond_Grower

Member
what size container did you use to start the seeds in? i always try to use deep containers for seedlings when im trying to get females, 8" + deep for a good strong root system to support the weight of female plants, this also works the other way around if im trying to make a seedling male for pollen and such i use small containers like 3"-4" deep so when shooting for females make sure you have some good depth in the container your using i have also heard that 24/0 can have an effect on this but i personally have not found this to be true
 
clowntown

clowntown

Active member
Veteran
Although I don't really know much about how much influence the environment has on determining sex, I would think that soil / medium depth is pretty far-fetched and has very little to do with it... far less of an influence than pH / color spectrum / photocycle / etc.

It also seems like a waste of root space and soil to be starting in such large containers for seed germination and seedlings, for such little effect. I would think the #1 influence by far is in the genetics.

What types of results have you had to conclude this and over what sample size? Could it have been simple coincidence?
 
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V

Vagabond_Grower

Member
i have had some testing with this i used it mainly to get males i use 8 fl oz plastic party cups and have had 9-1 9 = male 1 = female with that depth and as far as using a overly large container you dont want to do that for seedlings because it is hard to water correctly, i use water bottle to start seeds cause it has the depth but does not take up a lot of width so it makes keep the soil moist alot easier using these water bottles with depth at about 8 inch i have had about 75% female rate dont know the exact number on those cause i dont try for females much i already have a couple of good mother plants that i am happy with but anyways its all just a thought of something that might help ya out
 
W

WheelsOG

256 to 1, ouch. I'm hoping that my 2 runts are female, but i'm 95% sure my 6 healthy plants are male.

About the pot size: plants were germinated in water then moved to pots that were 4 inches wide, and about 4 inches tall.

After about 3 weeks they were moved to pots that were 6 inches wide and 7 tall. The plants remain in these pots.

Seems like most people just use the plastic party cups to grow their seedlings in. The plastic party cups look like they would be about 4 inches tall, so i'm not sure about that pot size theory. Its interesting though.
 
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CaptJamesTKirk

CaptJamesTKirk

Active member
I start clones and seeds in 8-oz styro coffee cups - then transplant to 16 oz, sometimes get under 50% sometimes over.
I've heard about pot size having an influence- but have not found it to be true.

What ya gotta look at is, it's not the odds involved - it's the pay-off.


Might want to check soil pH, - water pH, see if there are any red flags, but sometimes - it's just dumb luck, or misfortune; depending on your point of view.

I am a definate supporter of the raise more plants school of thought - first to incrase the odds, second to give the grower a couple choices - especially with "runts" and third - in cases like this, where mother nature isn't prone to helping.

Good luck with the last two - girls are usually the last to show.
 
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V

Vagabond_Grower

Member
in any case the best of luck to ya with the 2 runts hopefully there female its a bummer getting all males the first grow i ever did years back i only use one bean and around 3 weeks into flowering after 5 weeks of veg i realized that growing one bean at a time was a mistake for my first grow ever was a male but it worked out for the best for me because it gave me a great deal of expereance and i learned to be more relaxed about it oh and another thing i have often noticed that males seem to grow faster for veg and flower so those runts might just be female(agian this is just my observation not to be qouted as fact same with the depth of the pot you start your seedling out)

any how best of luck Wheels
peace Vagabond
 
G

Guest

Ambrosia?With so many good strains to choose from especially first grow I dont know just never heard of ambrosia who's the breeder?Its all genetics
 
W

WheelsOG

Well its my first grow so i decided to go with the cheapest seeds i could find at a local seed shop. Seed prices at the shop ranged from $55-200 CND for 10.

Ambrosia is a God and Burmese cross, if i recall. And i believe the company is called Jordan of the Island. I had heard good things about God so i tried it out.

I assumed the Ambrosia was cheaper because it came from a local company.
 
W

WheelsOG

Thx for the link endo. That link has a good description of ambrosia. Sounds nice :)
 
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