What about the sex?

[NolaGrow]

Well I'm well into 7 weeks of vegetation and I still can't seem to find the dead giveaways everyone talks about far as male or female. I've got the two pointed green pistols everywhere but yet to see the actual sex organs fyar as pollen sacs or the two white hairs. Is it true with some strains that they won't show until put until flowering? Now my second question was if I where to have a seed from a hermaphrodite plant would it automatically produce more herms or do they make normal male or female seeds? I Appreciate the all great help this site provides Hope everybody has a good, safe, stoned forth tomorrow....!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I've got the two pointed green pistols everywhere

Those aren't pistils (or pistols ). Those are called stipules, and will be present on both male and female plants.

but yet to see the actual sex organs fyar as pollen sacs or the two white hairs.

Try using a good magnifying glass so that what you see is considerably more magnified than those pictures are. The first two are useless (IMHO) for this purpose, and the third - while better - is still a bit short of bringing the view close enough. And the lighting in it sucks (again, "IMHO"). Try using something that has a halfway decent spectrum - the flash from your camera, couple CFLs in your room's overhead light fixture, desk lamp, a powerful flashlight, good lantern with reflector... the lit candles from your child's birthday cake, lol - almost anything other than a blurple LED panel.

I have a feeling that picture #3 might be the view you'd want, assuming you changed the light and brought the plant much closer (whilst keeping it in focus).

Is it true with some strains that they won't show until put until flowering?

<SHRUGS> Not really, in my experience. Plant just has to be mature enough that it can enter the flowering phase (nodal development switches from pairs being directly across from each other to them being staggered). Use a cheap jeweler's 10X loupe or something comparable, and start looking from the fourth pair of nodes upward. Look in the "crotch" of the node, between the stipule and where the new branch/leaf will be growing from. They'll often be tiny, and you'll tend to just see one in a given location instead of clusters. Occasionally, a female plant might be tentatively misidentified as a male if the pistils have not emerged from the flower yet. So it can be better to wait, if you are not sure.

Or you can take a cutting, root it, and place the rooted clone where it will receive 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness per day, and wait for flowering to begin in earnest. It doesn't take long, and this does not require strong lighting (neither the rooting nor the flowering) since you'd just be doing it to make it easier for you to determine the parent's sex instead of trying to grow for yield. You could even use a low-wattage CFL bulb or two in one of those aluminum utility light fixtures, controlled by a cheap timer, and placed into an otherwise dark closet or cabinet (if there aren't gaps around the door(s) that would allow light to get in).

Often, male flowers, when viewed under decent magnification, cause me to think of lobster claws. That may (or may not, I suppose) help.

Now my second question was if I where to have a seed from a hermaphrodite plant would it automatically produce more herms or do they make normal male or female seeds?

If it's a true hermaphrodite instead of merely an incidence of stress resulting in the production of opposite-sex flowers, and the seed was produced by the one parental plant through selfing, then, yes, the seed will produce a virtual clone of the parent - and that will include being a hermaphrodite, just like shim was.

 

[TMJmedical]

I'm pretty sure you won't know sex until you begin to flower. You're looking for fine white hair things. I'd you get balls.... You know.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Varies on the Strain and how good your eyes are, some will show in 6 weeks others won't until 10 weeks (or you throw them into Flower). Not always but "usually" the males will show first, so if they being pokey about showing better odds of them being a girl, but again "usually" doesn't always apply .

 

[NolaGrow]

Those aren't pistils (or pistols ). Those are called stipules, and will be present on both male and female plants.



Try using a good magnifying glass so that what you see is considerably more magnified than those pictures are. The first two are useless (IMHO) for this purpose, and the third - while better - is still a bit short of bringing the view close enough. And the lighting in it sucks (again, "IMHO"). Try using something that has a halfway decent spectrum - the flash from your camera, couple CFLs in your room's overhead light fixture, desk lamp, a powerful flashlight, good lantern with reflector... the lit candles from your child's birthday cake, lol - almost anything other than a blurple LED panel.

I have a feeling that picture #3 might be the view you'd want, assuming you changed the light and brought the plant much closer (whilst keeping it in focus).



<SHRUGS> Not really, in my experience. Plant just has to be mature enough that it can enter the flowering phase (nodal development switches from pairs being directly across from each other to them being staggered). Use a cheap jeweler's 10X loupe or something comparable, and start looking from the fourth pair of nodes upward. Look in the "crotch" of the node, between the stipule and where the new branch/leaf will be growing from. They'll often be tiny, and you'll tend to just see one in a given location instead of clusters. Occasionally, a female plant might be tentatively misidentified as a male if the pistils have not emerged from the flower yet. So it can be better to wait, if you are not sure.

Or you can take a cutting, root it, and place the rooted clone where it will receive 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness per day, and wait for flowering to begin in earnest. It doesn't take long, and this does not require strong lighting (neither the rooting nor the flowering) since you'd just be doing it to make it easier for you to determine the parent's sex instead of trying to grow for yield. You could even use a low-wattage CFL bulb or two in one of those aluminum utility light fixtures, controlled by a cheap timer, and placed into an otherwise dark closet or cabinet (if there aren't gaps around the door(s) that would allow light to get in).

Often, male flowers, when viewed under decent magnification, cause me to think of lobster claws. That may (or may not, I suppose) help.



If it's a true hermaphrodite instead of merely an incidence of stress resulting in the production of opposite-sex flowers, and the seed was produced by the one parental plant through selfing, then, yes, the seed will produce a virtual clone of the parent - and that will include being a hermaphrodite, just like shim was.

I appreciate the thorough response. And will take some much better pictures tonight Also.... far as autos go I got one.. possible two going right now , which leads me trying to figure out what this other free mystery seed is. My blueberry auto is at week 3 on node 4( I topped to see how it would do for my future grows) and it has a couple spots where the two white hairs have already shown. Well far as my 'mystery' plant goes I haven't topped and is also at 3 weeks working on its 5th node and I've seen white hairs sense last week. Is this a sign of an auto or is that something feminized seeds do? Please enlighten this Cajun!

 

[TorturedSoul]

A flower or two, here and there under "vegetative growth phase lighting schedule" is normal. If you're seeing more and more, well, that indicates the presence of a pair of autoflower genes.

 

[NolaGrow]

A flower or two, here and there under "vegetative growth phase lighting schedule" is normal. If you're seeing more and more, well, that indicates the presence of a pair of autoflower genes.

Are there any more characteristics that determine whether it's an auto or not ? The plant I'm unsure about has had two white hairs sense week two from sprouting and have continued to get more and more ...