Seeds not showing signs

[Noonin NorCal]

I have seed plants under 18 hours and using a 600 watt metal halide light, these plants will be grown outdoors. I haven't really seen any hair or balls yet, the plants are also close to being root bound in 2 gallon containers. If i cut the hours back to 16 hours of light will they pre-flower quicker? And would it be safe to do? I don't want them to flower yet, but would be nice to sex them so i can get enough soil when transplanting outside.
Thanks

 

[corky1968]

Don't bother, just plant them outside without pre-flowering them.

Sexing plants naturally outdoors is fun. Once the males show up kill them if you don't want seeds.

 

[DoubleTripleOG]

Advice that has been given to me: Take a few clones, and root them under 12/12 lighting. By the time they root(10-14 days) you should know the sex. Clone from the bottom and you won't lose any future potential baby arms(last sentence is my advice, lol).

 

[J.R.R. Tokein]

Some strains take forever to produce preflowers, so don't bother waiting. Take a clone of each plant and flower the clones. If a clone is male then the plant it came from is male too. The same works for if the clone is female. You could also just put them all outside now and kill off the males as they express their sex one by one as corky suggested.

 

[Imsostonedagain]

I always just take clones at about 6 weeks old then by fliwer the clone as soon as its rooted. If I dont want the males, I throw away the male clones and the corresponding seed plants that they came from as Double tripleOG said.

 

[MJPassion]

Yes,
Reducing the light sched will make them show sex quicker.

I keep my veg room at 16/8 so there's less tendency to flower prematurely when put outdoors in the spring. Sex usually shows within 8 weeks from germ but I've had a few plants, over the years, that haven't shown until they were absolutely ready to flower. One of those plants was a Black Widow male that I couldnt see sex on yet so I took off for 3 days. When I come back I found full blown male flowers opened and spewing pollen around my crop. DOH!