How can I tell if my seedling is male or female without flowering it?

[SmokeyMacPot]

The most common method is to force flower a labeled clone to determine the sex, rather than the incorrect method of forcing the seedling and then reverting it to vegetative growth again.

If you are a seedling grower who does not clone, or a grower who has no seperate vegetative and flowering grow spaces, the easiest method is simply to wait for the preflowers (primordia), and sexual maturity to appear while the seedling is still in vegetative growth. In other words, if you wait until they are 6 to 8 weeks old, most plants will show you their gender without any forcing.

Seedling growers who don't clone are really missing out on the full potency potential of their finished crop whenever they force their seedlings before they've become sexually mature.

Author: administrator

[xjackflashx]

if the title is how to tell the sex of the plant without flowering it, why is the first tip to force flower it?? Kinda oxymoronic dontcha think?

[chezfunky]

The tip was not to force flower the plant but to do so with a clone.

[drdankest]

why would you clone anything besides a female? i opened this thread thinking ide get some tips on sex i.d. on seedlings, errrrr hoping

[jaymm420]

i heard from a botanist that you can get a ruff estimate of the sex by the distance between the leaves like a male it would be a longer area between them and a female would be grouped closer together is that true?

[drdankest]

im gonna start watching for that cuz that would be xclnt to be able to sex seedlings

[RooRman]

Originally Posted by jaymm420

i heard from a botanist that you can get a ruff estimate of the sex by the distance between the leaves like a male it would be a longer area between them and a female would be grouped closer together is that true?

Yes, this is true to an extent. Males typically grow taller in order to more efficiently pollinate a larger area.

There is a few innate characteristics that will allow you to make an educated guess as to what may be a possible male or female. Only experience affords you the ability to see those minor differences.

[jaymm420]

Originally Posted by RooRman

Yes, this is true to an extent. Males typically grow taller in order to more efficiently pollinate a larger area.

There is a few innate characteristics that will allow you to make an educated guess as to what may be a possible male or female. Only experience affords you the ability to see those minor differences.

thank you for clearing that up for me i have been growing for years but i would wait till the plants started flowering to know for sure but this will help allot

[Poke Smot]

Originally Posted by drdankest

why would you clone anything besides a female? i opened this thread thinking ide get some tips on sex i.d. on seedlings, errrrr hoping

dude sex the clone it is thhe right thing to do and safest

[luvtogrow]

By inspecting the preflower with a magnifier. 90% of strains will show sex by week 3 from seed germination. The rest before week 4. An eyelupe works best for me.
Start looking around the 6th node or above. There are 4 possible locations per node for the preflower, but in early veg(3 weeks and earlier) you'll only see one or two on the entire plant. There are four stipules (look like small thin pointy grass blade) at each node. The preflower is located behind the stiplule, in front of the new growth branch. It will emerge as a bump and develop fast (like overnight), generally the male emerges rounded and the female more pointy at the end. The early give away besides the round/pointy tip is the male will show a separation between the stem and the emerging preflower as in a stem from a stem with a ball on top, the female shows no discernable separtion and appears continuous from stem up the preflower, usually fatter at the bottom and gradually leading to a pointed tip. Easy, male roundness, female pointyness. Until you know what you are doing, just move the "males" to the outside of the grow and "females" to center or prime light, until you are certain of ID. Really hard to do early without a magnifier! Easy to do once you know how!

[Poke Smot]

thats great

[PitViper]

They need to reach the age to preflower about the 5 node then they will start to show.some strains show faster then other, so it realy depends on the plant.females usualy pre first with white hairs you cant miss them.

[luvtogrow]

Originally Posted by PitViper

They need to reach the age to preflower about the 5 node then they will start to show.some strains show faster then other, so it realy depends on the plant.females usualy pre first with white hairs you cant miss them.

Actually males usually show first (look for crab claw), and females show way, way before they put out the white hairs (look for rounded bottom up to a pointy top, not quite pear shaped). Just finished sexing my current grow and the females still have no hairs.
Agree in general that males will be taller with longer internodal distance. Many 100's of strains later, still can't find one that won't show sex by week 4 from seed pop.

[Poke Smot]

thought i read somthing from goerge once think it said you can tell by the third week in veg never knew how thats crazy. luve2grow do you or can you post some pics up close so we can see your expertise?

[PitViper]

luvtogrow......your not waiting for "preflower" you seem to sex yours before.I have had alot of males keep me waiting but i knew all the ladies first.just got done with a 40 plant garden called everyone in pre np.But it realy doesnt matter 10 days into flower 12/12 you will be sure.they will all show.