Proofing

[5chord]

I am currently in the beginning of my first DWC grow ever. I decided upon a 6 plant ready to grow ******ponics kit, which uses one 8 gal tote for all six plants. Aside from the horrible lamp, the results are better than expected.

Unfortunately my seed choice (White Widow, NOT feminized) will force me to proof these plants ASAP. as the male roots will be almost impossible to separate from the female roots once they become mature enough to go into flower. If I wait too long and kill the males, the roots will rot in the DWC and it will be a mess. How early can I force these plants into flower via 12/12?

Please don't ask "Why didn't you get feminized seeds??" The reason I didn't is because I wanted the option of creating a seed bank of White Widow (on my second grow if it turn's out good). After all, I just paid $10 per seed, what would 300 of them be worth?

 

[Papageno]

Dude don't stress it. I just went through this myself and yanked a males a few weeks back. Grow them like you would normally. when they sex you can cut the roots of the male at the point they have joined and it wont hurt nothing. Just get some Hygrozyme (all DWC grows should be using this period). Hygrozyme will eat up dead roots and turn them back into usable sugars the plant can absorb. I went so far as to brew my own microbial tea that really helped too but you don't have to get all crazy like that.


The one thing I would say is there are a bunch of things you can do in order to speed up sexing of the plants. I was able to sex mine in about 3 days depending on when you think I started the count. Basically 2 weeks before I wanted to bloom I started them chemically. That is just good to do anyway as it gets them set to bloom fast and gets them almost started blooming before the lights change. i have been able to force flowering in 12 hour lights by using the right chemicals. Also when they change, you will reduce stretch and increase nodal density going faster into flowers if the flowering nutes are already in the plant. Also if you change the lights a little each day like take out 1 hour a day for 6 days to get to your 12 they will be sexed 3 days into your 12 hour days. So maybe that is a week not 3 days but I time it so that I truly start the week of reducing daylight hours while I am still in veg based on my height. If I were to just flip it to 12 I would still do it on the same day. But by changing it a bit each day the plant sees this and starts to react. So I say no more than 3 days.

That will help a bit.

But I wouldn't flip the switch early reducing the quality and yield of the females, just to root out the males for many reasons not the lest of which is it is easy to bounce back from.

 

[5chord]

Thank you so much Village! That really helps me out. The thought of all those dead and dying roots in the water made me think it would create a stinking mess! I will add hygrozyme to my growing list of supplies

I will also set the nutes for bloom 2 weeks prior to flower..

 

[Papageno]

I just realized there is a mistake in my post. I meant to say I have been able to sex plants via chemical changes alone while still on a 24 hour day schedule. I wont use a 24 ON schedule anymore for a few reasons myself. I have an 18 hour day and then when I am a week out I drop an hour a day.

Also be careful not to burn the plants. It doesn't take much as they are not using it yet. I use 3 things. The first 2 for sure make a difference.

1) Mad Farmers MOAB. You can spend more money on AN Big Bud which is the same thing just more expensive.
2) Botanicare Seaplex. This is very thick you will need to dilute it a lot
3) Alaska kelp fertilizer Alaska Pennington 32 oz. Pure Kelp Plant Food-100509476 - The Home Depot This stuff is the bomb...and cheap!


Atlantic Kelp is just good for all plants all stages but really good for flowering. It is the second main ingredient in AN Nirvana. They recommend Nirvana during the bulk of flowering. Ascophyllum nodosum is the main chemical you get out of it which it has many many beneficial impacts found by numerous researchers.

Tread lightly but that should cause a quick change, reduce stretch and increase nodal density. All three of those are good to add 1-2 weeks before flower and 1 week in. Also MOAB is good to add near the end of flower according to the directions. It is really just concentrated fertilizer so if you are on a good nute program you may not want to add it later. It all depends on how big the lights are and how fast your nute uptake is.