100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#5: How To Recognize Male And Female Marijuana Plants Early In Flowering

I must first apologize for the long pause between posts. All the plants have recovered nicely from topping, and have now been under 12/12 for one week. (For those of you unfamiliar with the trade jargon, “12/12” is short for “12 hours of darkness, 12 of light” – the requisite light conditions to bring maturing marijuana plants into the flowering phase.) It is now time to see if we can determine which plants are male, and which are female. Male plants will be removed and composted in this case, I have enough pollen to last for a long time, and want to focus attention on producing the best possible buds on this low-wattage grow.

If you have been following these posts, you know that two of the plants were our own hybrids; a male “Double Gum” plant crossed with an autoflowering female. The autoflowering trait is recessive, and it turned out that neither plant was autoflowering. They also both turned out to be male, as we will see in a moment.From the five remaining plants in this grow, it turns out that only two are female. I am glad to report that the heavily Indica-influenced Double Gum x Afghan Kush plant (back right) is one of the females. She is going to produce some excellent buds if all goes well. The other DG x AK was male, and both Royal Queen Auto x DG turned out to be male. This may very well be because I topped them despite their autoflowering heritage. I felt that they were not going to auto-flower, so I aimed to keep the height under control by topping. The added stress may have caused them to go male. It is hard to say in retrospect – it is luck of the draw – but I have a feeling that they didn’t care for that. Live and learn!

In any case, we are down to the Dinafem Critical + and the AK x DG Indica Goddess. These two plants will now continue flowering and I’ll continue to provide you with updates on on their progress and report on some grow tips and tricks that occur along the way.

Now, I want to show you some closeups of the plants, taken while I was determining the sex of the plants. This is a difficult step for beginners, so I’ve provided a few photos below. Have a look at each, and try to determine for yourself if they are male or female. Scroll down afterwards for the answers. Remember to look specificaly for the long white calyx “hairs” that give away the female plants. Males tend to produce numerous little green flower “buds” (I use “buds” in the common way of referring to flowers – they are not useful at all in terms of cannabis “bud”, the slang for fully developed female flowers). The male flowers develop more rapidly than the females, and crop up quickly at the top of the plants where leaves join the stems.

Is this plant male or female? Answers below.

Is this plant male or female? Answers below.

Is this plant male or female? Answers below.

Is this plant male or female? Answers below.

Is this plant male or female? Answers below.

Alright girls and boys, pencils down! Let’s see if you have guessed correctly.

The answers are as follows:

Picture 1: Male

Picture 2: Female

Picture 3: Male

Picture 4: Female

Picture 5: Male

If you have any questions, please drop a line via “contact” or just post a reply in the comments section.

Best Regards,

Glenn Panik

[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iBooks here, for the Amazon Kindle or via Smashwords here. You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]