Male or female? Who can tell by looking at the early pre-flowers

I have 4 plants, they are 8 weeks old. 1 is currently untopped, and the other 3 are Quadlined.

I have taken 2 close up pics of areas around the nodes of each plant to try and determine the preflower gender. Because these structures are small and hard to capture, and I feel, that sometimes when taken from a different angle what you previously had thought to be male is now perhaps female?!? It seems to me from previously grows, that there can be a bit of variation of the preflower structures. Of my 4 plants, my guesses on their gender are as follows
1-WW - ?
2-WW - possibly female
3-WWG - ?
4-WWG - possibly female

Plants 1-WW and 3-WWG I am not sure about, as they seem to still exhibit a degree of 'pointyness' and they don't seem to be on a stems like I have seen before with confirmed males but that may simply be because they are at an early stage of development. Unless it is 100% clear that they are males then I don't want to cull them in case I make a mistake, and at the same time I am viewing them thru 'hoping-for-female' tinted glasses!

What gender are these?

1-WW



2-WW


3-WWG


4-WWG


All thoughts or guesses are very welcome!
 
I have 4 plants, they are 8 weeks old. 1 is currently untopped, and the other 3 are Quadlined.

I have taken 2 close up pics of areas around the nodes of each plant to try and determine the preflower gender. Because these structures are small and hard to capture, and I feel, that sometimes when taken from a different angle what you previously had thought to be male is now perhaps female?!? It seems to me from previously grows, that there can be a bit of variation of the preflower structures. Of my 4 plants, my guesses on their gender are as follows
1-WW - ?
2-WW - possibly female
3-WWG - ?
4-WWG - possibly female

Plants 1-WW and 3-WWG I am not sure about, as they seem to still exhibit a degree of 'pointyness' and they don't seem to be on a stems like I have seen before with confirmed males but that may simply be because they are at an early stage of development. Unless it is 100% clear that they are males then I don't want to cull them in case I make a mistake, and at the same time I am viewing them thru 'hoping-for-female' tinted glasses!

What gender are these?

1-WW



2-WW


3-WWG


4-WWG


All thoughts or guesses are very welcome!

Give it a week or so until they show whether or not they have pistils. It looks like you MIGHT have a male or two in there, but it's to early for me to be certain.
 
I am not expecting pistils to show for at least another 7-8 weeks. As with my previous outdoor grows, I haven't seen first pistils until early-mid-late January. But I agree, it doesn't look too flash for 2 of them. I am just putting this out there as it can be handy establishing the gender early, and it is interesting to hear of others grower's take on the closeups of the pre-flowers. Cheers!
 
I feel that all 4 plants have displayed very similar looking gender structures. Hopefully once these are revealed, in future grows I will be able to learn from this and pick up early gender signs more easily (prior to pistils erupting). Last season when I got a male it displayed it's balls pretty early. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that if these two were male they would have shown themselves to be earlier. I am very happy for anyone to chime in with what they guess the resulting gender will be!

The 2 remaining plants with unknown gender are 1-WW and 4-WWG. Here are a couple of closeups of gender structures at their nodes.

1-WW


4-WWG

 
I feel that all 4 plants have displayed very similar looking gender structures. Hopefully once these are revealed, in future grows I will be able to learn from this and pick up early gender signs more easily (prior to pistils erupting). Last season when I got a male it displayed it's balls pretty early. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that if these two were male they would have shown themselves to be earlier. I am very happy for anyone to chime in with what they guess the resulting gender will be!

The 2 remaining plants with unknown gender are 1-WW and 4-WWG. Here are a couple of closeups of gender structures at their nodes.

1-WW


4-WWG


1-ww looks male, 4-ww undetermined
 
1-ww looks male, 4-ww undetermined
I feel the same altho I wish otherwise!

I hope they show clearly what they are soon, as I will then reuse the pots for some Gorilla Glue Auto female seeds that I will kick off.
 
Most days I have been looking quite closely at what the preflowers are doing, to try and determine what the gender of the plants are. They have all been grown from regular seeds. So far, 2-WW & 3-WWG have displayed developing pistils so at least they are female. After looking over and over at node closeups I feel with a lot of certainty that 1-WW & 4-WWG are going to turn out to be male. It is an interesting exercise to look closely at the developing preflowers to try and determine the resulting gender. When looking at the enlarged node pics on the computer screen, depending on the angle, the focus etc, the pic can cause one to think that it is a female calyx that is being viewed when actually it is a male. I just wanted to share some thoughts on how I am viewing such closeup pictures and what is starting to stand out to me. Just my 2 cents, I am happy to be talking a load of bunk as if I am wrong and those 2 suspect plants are actually female then that'll great!

Anyway, the female prefower generally has a swollen base that tapers off to an elegant point.

The male preflower (and it is my self educated guess) can sometimes display a similar appearance to the female preflower, sometimes it appears on a 'stalk' but I have seen some female preflowers that have also appeared to be on a stalk too (probably caused from the viewing/camera angle) but yet later they erupt with pistils confirming them to be female. But there is another feature I have noticed, it is a small difference that to me suggests the gender structure will more likely turn out to be a male. It is to do with the outer protective 'shuck' that covers the male 'ball'. I have observed it to display where that 'shuck' has separated into several petal type shucks, sometimes one petal type shuck overlaps at the end point to appear like a little hook. Some times the petal type shucks will twist and curl around the male ball, sometimes one petal shuck seems to rise up where it's profile alone on a pic can appear similar to the female preflower with a swollen base and tapering point (altho most of the time these appear thinner and longer than a female preflower). In particular it is the separation of the 'shuck' that is suggests to me that it is a male, as from my (limited and amateur) observation the female calyx always remains intact, a swollen base that tapers up to point where eventually pistils erupt from. Also too, I feel the suspected male preflowers have their swelling often more in the middle whereas the female preflowers the swelling is more at the base.

Anyway, I am trying educate myself from my observations so I may be deluding myself, but I will post a few pics of the gender structures of my suspected male plants that illustrate what I am trying to describe above about the protective shuck or petal shuck structures. This may be what people talk about when they mention the appearance of 'crab claws', However when the male flower develops further the male balls 'open up' into 2 half 'cups' which is similar to 2 crab claws to reveal the pollen structure that 'pokes out' to drop/release pollen, so when it comes to crab claws I am not sure at which stage of the male preflower development that is referring to.


 
I would like to kick off an Auto as soon as I am certain I have a male, as then I will give it the chop and germinate an Auto. That will be a new experience as I haven't grown an Auto before. I first need the container that the suspected male is in. So I'd like to be sure first. I have 2 suspected males (1-WW & 4-WWG). Today I noticed on 1-WW a big enlarged preflower, it stands out like a sore thumb compared to the smaller formed preflowers on it's other nodes. I have been waiting to see 'multiple balls' which to me would be final absolute confirmation of the plant being male. But take a look at this preflower, does this confirm it is male 100%, it seems that way to me? The plant itself is going great, lush color, growing strongly but I feel from the following pics, it can or should now be considered male. Altho I want to re-use it's container while there is still time left in this outdoor growing season, I don't want to chop it until I am certain it is a male, but it now looks that way to me. This particular preflower is a round ball shape, clearly sits on a stalk, has a petal shuck curling over the ball end giving a small curved hooked appearance, and it might also be showing another small secondary male preflower ball forming near the stalk. Any thoughts? Does this now seem clear 100% that it is male? Many thanks
:volcano-smiley:



 
I would like to kick off an Auto as soon as I am certain I have a male, as then I will give it the chop and germinate an Auto. That will be a new experience as I haven't grown an Auto before. I first need the container that the suspected male is in. So I'd like to be sure first. I have 2 suspected males (1-WW & 4-WWG). Today I noticed on 1-WW a big enlarged preflower, it stands out like a sore thumb compared to the smaller formed preflowers on it's other nodes. I have been waiting to see 'multiple balls' which to me would be final absolute confirmation of the plant being male. But take a look at this preflower, does this confirm it is male 100%, it seems that way to me? The plant itself is going great, lush color, growing strongly but I feel from the following pics, it can or should now be considered male. Altho I want to re-use it's container while there is still time left in this outdoor growing season, I don't want to chop it until I am certain it is a male, but it now looks that way to me. This particular preflower is a round ball shape, clearly sits on a stalk, has a petal shuck curling over the ball end giving a small curved hooked appearance, and it might also be showing another small secondary male preflower ball forming near the stalk. Any thoughts? Does this now seem clear 100% that it is male? Many thanks
:volcano-smiley:




Sure looks like you've got male.
 
Clearly a male, zero question about it. Cheers friend.

 
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