Sexing in Micro grow

[carrotsyo]

Here is the short story:

I have plants in a micro grow that I had to start flowering at 5" tall (they were buried to the first 3 leaf node and topped at the 4th node counting the single serrated leaves.

They do not appear to have any preflowers. I did buy a loop to hunt them but they appear to be sexually immature.

I did 36 hours of dark before I started 12/12 rotation and they have been under that for a few days now.

How long might it be before I can gender the plants? I took clones which appear that they might die off. I need to take more clones quickly if these don't respond by tomorrow, but the new clones would be larger and probably root much better/faster. The clones I took first were too small I think. under an inch in the medium.

Do I just keep on the lookout for preflowers everywhere or should I be looking for hairs to grow? I don't want to fuck up my first grow and get pollen everywhere and have to reset/clean everything.

 

[supermanlives]

be patient grasshopper. they will show. males will show balls then females hairs.if you ever happen to find a male with pollen ready to drop. turn off fans. mist plants heavilly with water and remove male. 2 water will kill pollen

 

[carrotsyo]

Thanks for that. I'm still waiting. haha. They have formations where the preflowers appear to be in the pictures in the sticky but they don't look like those yet. Maybe I need to give them more time? They look like bananas

 

[supermanlives]

patience.

 

[TexMex McDirt]

IME they usually show within about two weeks of getting 12/12 flip if you don't already see pre-flowers.

 

[Warped1]

Just keep an eye on them, you should have plenty of time to get any males out. Good luck with the grow

 

[carrotsyo]

I check them daily, however the little preflowers near all the branches breaking away from the main stalks have little leaf clusters growing out of them. No hairs as pictured in the sticky. Perhaps they will start showing soon. I had 2 little micro buds pop up on the top two branches of two of my plants today. I'm really excited to see progress.

I only have about 4 inches of vertical room left before some LST has to start. I am hoping to gender the plants before things get out of control.

 

[carrotsyo]

Hey guys, do these appear to be males? Can I go ahead an get rid of these two and free up some room?

My girls are almost too tall for the compartment and I need to start some LST quickly.

Also do you think these are developed enough to have some pollen in them? I would like to put a tiny bit on a lower branch to get a few seeds of my own genetics.

Thanks for the guidance.

 

[carrotsyo]

Well I finally let my freak out push me to chop up some plants.

I finally found a plant with 2 hairs on the preflower and it was clear to me that the two above plants, as well as a third was a male. I took everything out of the cabinet, soaked everything with a mist sprayer, cut the plants and put them aside, cleaned the cabinet and misted it and wiped it down again, then put the females back.

I think it's interesting that my males had pods on the top cola's before they had preflowers. After a couple days the preflowers formed and swelled until it was clear they were males.

I still only have 2 hairs on 1 preflower on my remaining plants. Only 2 of them appear to be females. The other is not showing sex yet.

 

[supermanlives]

i am sure the preflowers were there . you just prob didnt see em.

 

[carrotsyo]

Nope. I still don't have preflowers on two plants. I was confused for quite a while because I expected to see preflowers sooner and was thinking the little pointy looking growths next to the preflowers were them, because there were no preflowers. When I finally got preflowers the tops were already swelling up into what looked like buds, but it turned out to be pollen sacks. I gave it a few days and the preflowers swelled from single little ball things (not at all like the photos I see everywhere) into hanging sacks.

I wish I had taken better pictures.

2 plants still are not showing preflowers and I'm using a 40x loop to magnify. 1 has a single preflower with 2 hairs and the other two are behind even that. I believe I stunted their development with nutrient deficiency (phosphorus I believe), repeated pruning to remove dieing leaves and then to remove clones and attempt to open up the canopy a little so it could breath, plus 2 transplants on top of that...

First time grower so I guess some of this stuff will get figured out. They have been on 12/12 for quite a while now. I'm not sure how many days, I would have to look it up.