genedigger
Member
jorge cervantes is a firm believer of this thats where i learned about it, and i cant believe im the only grower on here who has mentioned this trick
Tricks for spotting males when small??
- Thread starter Psyco G
- Start date
genedigger
Member
one of the reasons this swelling happens is to support the weight of a fully flowered plant.a male doesnt put on wieght so the stems dont need the extra strenght
B
BAKED_BEANZ
genedigger , does sound interesting , i for one will definitely be watching for this and observing the results. thanks
genedigger
Member
go look at every girl in your grow and you will find swollen nodes especially the bottom half of the main stem.any dudes in there prob wont have any swollen nodes.i wish i could post pics easily cause id start a thread about it and document what im talkin about.i totaly understand if im not explaining it right.jorge's book from 2007 has info about it.
I heard you and planned to watch it on my next sexing operation ..... coming up in about 3 weeks. Interesting point for sure. When does the swelling typically start to show on a plant? As early as 4 or 5 weeks?
I'm a little confused about using the swollen nodes sign when sexing a plant that's "more than 2 months of age" though ... IME, any vegging plant that goes more than 6 weeks is likely to show pre-flowers.
genedigger
Member
the bottom few branches where they meet the main stem will look swollen or boulbous around where they meet.it can show earlier than 2 months and sometimes later.i used to grow outside and would plant hundreds of plants every year male and female bagseed.i would get lots of males and i examined the shit outta every one.once in a while id see a male plant with the 1st nodes swollen or just one random node swolllen on one side of the main stem,but females will swell on both sides of the stem at least half way up the plant and sometimes further.this helps the lady put on weight.those stems need to be strong to support el buds.
nice one genedigger.. added rep!!
I've heard that advice before, including from living legends like shanti. So I respect the idea, but I've always thought this was for greenhouse or outdoor where you might be vegging for long times.
But it doesn't make sense to me for typical indoor growing w/short veg times .... to let a seedling get big enough to cut a clone, I'm thinking at least 3 weeks for fast growing plants, 4 weeks or more for others. It takes, typically, another 10 days to 2 weeks for that clone to pop the roots that would required before flowering it under 12/12. It then would take at least another week or two to clearly sex that clone ... I'm guessing even more.
So by the time I've cut, rooted, sexed a clone off the original seed plant, it's at a bare minimum 6 weeks, more likely 8 - 10. But by that time, I could have just flowered the seed plant and determined sex within a week or two ... at that point, I'm taking clones for future grow from a known female, it took me less time to determine sex.
So what am I misunderstanding? Seems to me like flowering out the seed plant and cutting a clone when it is a known female is faster and more efficient and much better suited to indoor grows where veg periods are rather short. But, school me if I'm missing something important ...
best
No matter what, by the time the 7th or 8th node is grown I can see the first preflower to determine sex, taking a clone is a waste of time IMO. It's very very rare that the preflower comes out later than the 7th node. No need to change light schedule or flower, they do it in veg.
cloning for sex works fine...you can use the first topping..yeehaw... no swollen nodes on my current females....I can guess about 85% or so my sight aint as good as it was..the males do tend to grow a bit ahead of females in my gear ..but theres always a few sneaky females keeping up..in the end ya got to wait and see...unless ya got a fancy lab to test...
my nuts are swollen haha need to get laid there are many things that effect stems having a high silica content will influence many things from stems to health of plant
there is no other way to shake it Gene you mention swelling and this occurs when ???? 4 - 6 th week when you can naturally see sex so i think and normally sex shows after lateral branching has set in
Some strains show sooner and others later what could be taken as sex could also be a hermie you still do not really know until 12 / 12 is in place to get 100 percent guarntee what you got and that is why many clone and root under 12 /12 and monitor the clones for actual sex traits
Talking about sexing did you know that i can influence different traits in my male plant by either running room hotter bring out the sativa side of the male and or lowering my temps and my male will show more of his indica traits
my next venture is actually producing seeds in both manners and recording if seeds show more indica or sativa traits that i forced the male into prior to pollen chucking
there is no other way to shake it Gene you mention swelling and this occurs when ???? 4 - 6 th week when you can naturally see sex so i think and normally sex shows after lateral branching has set in
Some strains show sooner and others later what could be taken as sex could also be a hermie you still do not really know until 12 / 12 is in place to get 100 percent guarntee what you got and that is why many clone and root under 12 /12 and monitor the clones for actual sex traits
Talking about sexing did you know that i can influence different traits in my male plant by either running room hotter bring out the sativa side of the male and or lowering my temps and my male will show more of his indica traits
my next venture is actually producing seeds in both manners and recording if seeds show more indica or sativa traits that i forced the male into prior to pollen chucking
yes, it works fine but it just takes twice as long and wastes time and resources on male plants ... was the point.
I don't see any reason to prefer it over taking a clone(s) after sexing the seedling.
genedigger
Member
if you are growing indoors running lights 18 to 24 hr then swelling will most likely show before preflowers do,and sometimes you will see it right away other times it happens at the same time as preflower.every strain is different and yes there will be a random female that wont have swollen nodes,but i have only seen this a few times out of hundreds of females ive grown.i will admit dr fever the best way to tell is to wait til 12/12 in case there is a hermie.my trick doesnt work on the herms.
I don't think the swollen nodes is 100% correct.
I have malawi seedlings that im sexing right now and they all have big swollen nodes from the bottom up to where they were topped, both the males and females.
My sour bubble seedlings that i sexed last week were not topped and they don't have any swollen nodes. and they are much bigger plants then the malawi currently.
so perhaps it's to do with topping a plant, or the genetics one is working with.
I have malawi seedlings that im sexing right now and they all have big swollen nodes from the bottom up to where they were topped, both the males and females.
My sour bubble seedlings that i sexed last week were not topped and they don't have any swollen nodes. and they are much bigger plants then the malawi currently.
so perhaps it's to do with topping a plant, or the genetics one is working with.
I can tell for sure the sex of any plant long before it goes into flower. They show preflowers after the 7th node, fist of all on one side, then the branch above will have preflowers on both sides.
genedigger
Member
so i have a 4 week old plant with 6 nodes and none of them are swollen.it just showed its 1st set of balls right at the top node.i was sure it was a male because of the lack of swelling.i have been trying to post pics of it on here and will keep trying.i might have to wait for the lady to get home.shes much smarter with all this computer shit.it sucks i keep taking pics and trying to email therm to my computer and it wont work but it did with my lemon skunk photos in another thread.am i just an idiot or do other folkshave trouble piutting pics on here?i have so much cool shit i could post.i know some of you prob get baffled when someone comes on this site saying they grow but showing no proof of what thery can do.im workin on it.hopefully i get some props.i harvest once a week so i always have sick buds to snap pics of
lets test that. i happen to have a few seedlings here.
on all 3 i do see what appears to be a preflower by the time they have 7 nodes so that part is valid.
but they're just the beginnings of what could be a preflower or just branching. even with a loupe i can't tell the sex. gonna be at least another week before i can tell a sex. and by now they would have shown sex anyway. i'm on week 5-6 from seed.
but what you say has weight.
