No seeds!

[CharlieMopps]

I am thinking of planting some seeds in the woods near my home. They are normal bagseed so i have no idea if they'll be male or female. Canna pollen is spread by the wind more than by insects i think. If thats true:
how far apart should i plant seeds to make sure that they have no influence on each other?

 

[Ganjarden]

Re: No seeds!!

Well from what I have read pollen can travel for miles if the wind is right. The best bet is grow them out as close as you want and when the plants start to show sex pull the males as soon as possible. Then no pollen and no seeds!

 

[CharlieMopps]

Re: No seeds!!

good point

 

[TorturedSoul]

Or just take a cutting off of each when they're old enough, take them inside, root them (a glass of water on the windowsill works surprisingly well if you keep the water fresh), then plant and flower them long enough to tell which are which. You wouldn't need much light just to sex them, a couple CFLs would do. Then you could go cull the males from the herd way before they'd naturally show outside and save yourself the trouble of caring for plants that would end up being killed anyway.

 

[CT.Greenskunk]

Taking cuttings & sexing ...... I've been growing outdoors for 20years. this is the first I have heard of this.... how much time could possibly save doing this taking in to account the amount of time it will take to sex them .

 

[RooRman]

Re: No seeds!!

Well from what I have read pollen can travel for miles if the wind is right. The best bet is grow them out as close as you want and when the plants start to show sex pull the males as soon as possible. Then no pollen and no seeds!

Agreed.

Just pull the males when they show. Problem solved.

 

[SoupDizzle]

Taking cuttings & sexing ...... I've been growing outdoors for 20years. this is the first I have heard of this.... how much time could possibly save doing this taking in to account the amount of time it will take to sex them .

I couldn't agree more, that was wacky advice it would take way too long. just sprout them indoors just put them under a normal flourecent light 24 hours until they have atleast 2 sets of leaves, then cut the light to 12/12 for 21 days, then you should be able to tell the sex.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Well, yeah... If he hasn't already planted them outside lol.

 

[CharlieMopps]

No, i want to but i think i started the seeds a few weeks too early. The night temps are still dropping into the 40's. I think i'm gonna start planting my first 3 sprouts outside. I am going to keeps saving my seeds and startingthem and planting them around.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Oh, in that case... I think I would still take clones and stick them in a dark room, closet, or whatever to determine which are which (as opposed to cutting the lights back on the actual plants you intend to stick outside).

My reasoning is that putting plants into flower, waiting on them to show sex, and then putting back under 18 or 24 hours light is going to cost you some growth whereas you can take small cuttings from the plants and cloning is easier than getting hit by a truck when one runs across the freeway during rush hour (and far less painful lol) - and more importantly, the amount of stress to the "mothers" is negligible and they remain in vegetative growth.

So the end result is that the plants you set out are the same size as they would have been had you not taken clones for sexing (minus a rather small lower branch), you've found out which are male and culled them, and hey - you even have the clones that turned out to be female which you can continue flowering indoors for a (small) harvest to tide you over or even set outside (optionally revegging first).

Then all you have to worry about is pollen from someone else's male plants but you would have had that concern either way.

20 years ago I knew someone who grew inside and who took cuttings strictly to sex his plants and then gave them away as that was his only purpose (I would call him kind of dumb). I guess he thought that being so small - and flowering - those clones were worthless. The person that he gave them to didn't think so.