How to remove a male in a multi-plant tote?

[Papageno]

So I have a tote DWC with multiple plants in one res. I started from seed as this is my first grow in over 10 years. I have never done Hydro before and now that they have bloomed I found a male. The roots for my one male underneath have grown into another. I don't want to hurt the female by removing the male but I also don't want the roots to decay and rot in the res if I chop down the top. Is there a good way of clearing out the male? maybe trimming it back so it is totally in shock and keep it that way or should I pull it gently out and not worry about the female roots?

 

[businessman]

why not just use fem seeds?

 

[paul keating]

Hmmm, tricky situation.

If the roots aren't tangled that badly, i would just yank it out, or gently cut some roots to remove it. Leaving a few dead roots shouldn't cause a major problem in your res if you do regular maintenance. As long as you have decent air flow in the water. A splash of hydrogen peroxide every now and then will keep any bacteria down, and plants don't mind it. Even if one of your good plants loses some roots, it will recover eventually, and shouldn't do too much damage.
That's just my opinion.

But there is actually a think out there called 'root pruning'.
Where you might prune the leaves or branches of a plant, some people actually prune the roots, if they become root bound or they want to limit the plants growth.

 

[Papageno]

Thanks Paul,

They are significantly intertwined. I try to use a live tea with beneficial bacteria so going H2O2 kinda kills my situation...but I may have to just do it. I am going to have to basically cut it out and loose some from the female and leave a pile from the male. I will dump the res soon and hopefully get the bulk out.

Well it isn't much of a problem as this is just a test run for this type of hydro anyway. I think when I build my new room I will change this out and make an Undercurrent system not an RDWC anyway.

 

[businessman]

Thanks Paul,

They are significantly intertwined. I try to use a live tea with beneficial bacteria so going H2O2 kinda kills my situation...but I may have to just do it. I am going to have to basically cut it out and loose some from the female and leave a pile from the male. I will dump the res soon and hopefully get the bulk out.

Well it isn't much of a problem as this is just a test run for this type of hydro anyway. I think when I build my new room I will change this out and make an Undercurrent system not an RDWC anyway.

I would throw some great white in there when you do. Have you considering using fem seeds?

 

[Papageno]

Yes I have some fem seeds. I am waiting to use those once I have decided on what my new setup will be. Those are high quality strains. In fact I have 2 different types of new seeds from Holland (plus a pile of the freebies you get when you order) that I will try once I get this figured out.

I don't use Great White but I use the Humbolt brand that is similar (White Widow).

I used to grow for about 10 years. I breed crosses. I have many seeds, hundreds of seeds...from like 12 years ago when I quit. Some go back to 1996 and some may be older. I am using these for my testing of different setups before I build my final setup. I am sure the new stuff you can get off the internet is much better but I don't want t to experiment with those. In fact I only ordered those when I was having trouble getting sprouts to take. Old seeds need love. But in the time it took to get here I got a pile to finally take. Half of those did not get very far and died quickly but I got a handful to make it, enough to test out the RDWC I built.

I grew in soil all that time previously. Right now I am testing out a few other growing methods to see if I like them and if it is worth it. A lot has changed since I stopped growing almost 11 years ago. I am using nutes and supplements now that are supposedly way better then what was available or at least what I knew about back then. So I need to do another soil grow just to test it with modern stuff to see if there is a real difference. I used to get monster plants with forearmed sized kolas in 4 ft tall indoor in about the same time as most hydro guys claimed back then. I am curious to see how much all these expensive highly advertised things change the results.

Anyway I am blathering on. I am just testing and I have mostly females and one male and I need to yank it. If I damage the fem it aint that big a deal but if I can minimize it why not ask. I am going to turn it all into butter anyway.