First timer cant tell if i have a male

wai till it shows the biggest part and i mean this the absolute most important thing is PATIENCE THE BEST THINGS COME TO THOSE THAT WAIT

okay what do you mean by biggest thing like when it grows some nuts or what?

as said above patience is key, i'v had extremely late females and males, they can sometimes be a unique pheno, or the seedling was jus stunted a bit. :)

okay thanks

Wiz: After you get a grow or two to your name, you'll be able to recognize the flowers very early. But don't worry about it. You will recognize the difference long before the male flowers drop pollen.

It seems to me that most of the time I have plants that bloom slightly later than their brothers and sisters, it turns out to be a female. But to be honest, I don't know if anyone else ever noticed that, or if I imagined it with my thc-saturated brain, for that matter. Whatever, here's to hoping you see some sexy white pistils.

fer sure man thank you i hope so too

ThuhWiz said:

okay what do you mean by biggest thing like when it grows some nuts or what?

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i ment by the biggest most important thing to growing mary trees is patience take the time /wait an extra couple of days until its a definate always patience really and truly is the most important aspect of growing great reefer good luck to you brotha

here are some pics. they go from female to the plant in question.

i actually think thats a male the way its pistil thingy is forming kinda looks like a spade on a shovel but still wait im looking at a pic thats not close enough

fer sure yeah its pic of two plants just incase you didnt get that lol but yeah thats what i thought as well thank you

the 1st def has pistils, the 2nd one the close up is not clear enough to say either way.

like 420king mentioned, one of my fave quotes is "Patience is as much of a virtue as the greenest of thumbs"

If you dont have time tho an esy way to check the unknown is to put it in 12/12 for about 4-5 days (on average, all strains differ) and the sexual parts will show and if it's a gal you can just put it back in veg until your ready to flower.


Misterdirt mentioned that most plants late 2 sho sex are usually female for him, i've found this to be true at least 75%+ of the time and i've popped 1000s of seeds.



A few other things to consider next time......

I find plants sex faster under 5000k (white/blueish) floros/cfls with the bulbs as close as u can get them to the tops. Also, for the future the smaller your starting pots/cups/containers are the faster they sho sex. It follows the same principle as how some strains auto flower when they're rootbound or in too small of a pot.

I use a 120w T5 u-shaped tube setup (but t8s, t12s and a proper cfl setup will work just as well) and i actually start all my seeds (until sexed) in styrofoam egg cartons (w/ drainage wholes obviously, i use the same for cloning) and i can usually sex the seed plants by the 4th-5th node 90%+ of the time. this works the best IMHO in a practical sense, it saves space, soil, time and you are recycling at the same time. if u are afraid/cautious to go that small (only a lil' over 2 tbl spoons of soil per egg cup) then maybe use some of those lil 1"x1"x 2.5ish" deep flimsy black plastic seed starter "pots" they use in nursuries, they take up very lil room aswell, they're just a lil deeper 4 a longer initial tap root. They r also very cheap, so they only last a few grows. i like the egg cartons because i clone in them aswell and i can reuse the same tray for at least a yr or longer, and they're free. even if the plants are stubborn and dont show sex by the 4-5th node there's still enough room/soil to wait till the plants are 10 nodes tall, but they'll sex bfore that, i guarantee it (as long as all other factors are ideal), just remember that you'll have to water/feed more often, especially at or aroud it's time to sex, if u use the lid of the egg carton as a tray (and tape up the 2 holes [packin tape is best] u can just water via the tray and the plants will just suck it up) u can pretty much treat it like hand watered hydro, and leave a bit of water/nutes in the tray, but do make sure, especially at the beginning, to make sure you plants get several good wet/dry cycles, after they r established (2-3 nodes) it's not as vital.

bigger pots aren't always better, trust me, growing/flowering in small pots has sorta become my trademark, it took me a few yrs to figure it out, but i havent looked back since. also square pots are twice as efficient as round pots for root growth and space, my final pots are always square for the last week or 2 of veg and for flower.

sorry for the ramble, but i've been at it full time for almost a decade now and most people who know me know that i tried every growing method/tech (in pic documented side by side comparos) out there bfore settling on my current techs, which i've used for at least 5 years w/ no problems and killer herb. :harvest:

hard to tell from the pics...

any update?

@ beancounter Fer sure man im tryin to be hahaha but thank you for all the info i will deff use this as a reference the next time around.

@Dedust ill will have some more here soon and im pretty sure the one is male it has a small pod already hanging.

Beancounter, you said "square pots are twice as efficient as round pots for root growth and space, " WHY do you say so? I am curious... By the way, I happen to use square buckets.

Bearsfather said:

Beancounter, you said "square pots are twice as efficient as round pots for root growth and space, " WHY do you say so? I am curious... By the way, I happen to use square buckets.

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Hey Bear's Dad

let me guess, yer usin' the big 7ish gallon cat litter containers (the most cmmon and easiest way to find big square buckets), if so, you must grow some TREES.. i've done 8 footers with 50 tops in those with room 2 spare (soilwise).

ok, i wish i could conjur up some old posts/threads but those sites r dead, as I'll probly ramble on a lil' more.

honestly, i think they are probably even more efficient than i said..

i'm sure everyone here has seen a rootbound or slightly rootbound plants in a round pot.. As all will agree it's quite obvious (and natural) that the roots gro down, hit the side of the pot, and grow in a circular pattern around the bottom. now, if you were to rinse/shake all the soil away you would start to see what i'm talking about. you will be left with a ring of roots around the bottom and the soil will come off quite easily, now in an ideal world you want to USE all you soil (have roots thru out all* of you mix), especially considering the expense of some of the soil/peat mixes. most peeps i kno who r stubborn or resistant to change waste tons of premium mix every year when they could reuse 75%+ of it when using round pots, anything you can shake off you can reuse..

with square pots the roots gro down aswell, that's nature, but* when they hit the bottom they may gro around until they hit the first corner but that's where the difference starts, when the roots hit that corner, rather than growing round and round the bottom, they will either terminate (like topping a plant, all the side branches (or feeder roots in our discussion) will take the extra energy and gro into full size roots which then send out some of their own feeder roots and the process starts all over again).

Now, the sharper the angles of the square pot the more efficient they get, with very sharp (almost 90degree angles all around) angled square pots the roots will usually either bounce right back up into your mix as soon as they hit the bottom corner, or terminate imediately, now remember, topping a root is just like topping a plant, you get more feeder roots like you get more branches, and again the cylce just continues..

I hope this makes sense to everyone, but when i pull my well vegged plants out of a square pot, and i try to shake away the soil/medium I usually cant, because the roots are like attoms bouncing around in your soil until all* of your medium is held tight and FULL of roots.. so that's why i say that square pots are WAY more efficient than round, cause i've seen it all unfold 1000s of times in front of my eyes, and so have others.

I've pulled 2.5'-3' bushy, perfectly green, healthy, multi top plants out of 3" or 4" square pots where you can not even see the soil/medium, just a block of white and you'd have to be super strong to rip the rootball in half (you could probly hold the stem and beat someone unconsious with the rootballs, lol), seriously tho, if the same plant was in a round container of the same displacement I could only grow the plant (keeping it 100% healthy) to about 1.5' and it probly wouldn't be as bushy..



Another trick for transplanting rootbound plants that i'm sure some of you know is to literally take an old serrated knife and make 4 (or 2, or 3, depending on how brave you are and it's your 1st time) vertical cuts into the corners/sides of your root ball. this recreates the whole termination method, and believe me it won't even stunt the plant (in my experience) and it'll increase your root mass in your next pot.


Don't be afraid to break/cut roots once a plant is well established, it will not hurt it, only help, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION..

If you have any more specific questions feel free to pm me and ask.


Sorry for hijackin yer thread. I hope yer unknown planty wears panties :)

ThuhWiz said:

here are some pics. they go from female to the plant in question.

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btw Whiz, take that aluminum foil down, white paint (especially flat white) has a reflection efficiency far superior to all but mylar or special dimpled aluminum/steel hps/mh hoods..

Aluminum foil can cause hot spots (because of the the crinkles) that can actually harm your plants..

Stick with white walls until you can get some real mylar sheets (i dont recommend the safety blankets even tho they are mylar because of all the folds, again white paint will be better).

Don't get me wrong, i have used foil too, but that was a lonnng time ago before i used a light meter and tested all the different types of reflective surfaces.. mylar is the best but it gets durty fast, flat white paint overall is the best, easiest to clean, easy to apply (a spray can will do a 4'-5' square plywood grow box), and easy to reapply, and it's by far the cheapest/easiest reflective surface to deal with.

Panda plastic is pretty decent for temporary setups, but it's costly unless u buy a full roll. I like to use it, white side up, on my grow room floor, so it'll reflect light upwards and it'll catch any water/nute spills so it doesn't ruin the floor. u can also make a box with panda plastic, the black side works well to stop light leaks aswell. It's also much easier to clean than mylar.

Just thought i'd mention that when i lookd at yer pics again. :)

Male parts look like little green balls. you see little green balls on either side of the stem at a node, that is a male. Sometimes they look like little bunches of grapes, sometimes it's just one on each side.

looks like a female to me, but could be a herm. Get a magnifying glass and look between the nodes.

Female preflowers look like little spearheads, sometimes little white hairs are present. Male flowers look like little crab or lobster claws and eventually turn into a little ball. Males flower faster than females because they have to be up and above the females and ready to spread their pollen before the females get to far along into flower. From the close up pic I see a little ball at the internode in the center in the pic. I can't tell if its female or male because its blurry. Hope this info helps!