i keep meaning to buy some fem seeds but each time i place an order all the strains i fancy are regs only
kinda annoying lol
depending on how much space you have, how big you want the final plants to be etc
i decide when to take the cuttings based on how quickly i need to get the plants into flower
if i wanted to flower quickly after 2-3 weeks veg from seed the plants are still only tiny 6-8 inch they do have shoots on them, but i feel they are too small to take cuttings from
so i would put them on 12/12 which will give them a growth spurt, they will grow more in the first week of 12/12 than they would do in veg from weeks 3-4
i take cuttings during the first week of flower from the females only, the male plants will show pre flowers and club shaped flowers during this time and can be discarded
any plants that are late to show male preflowers (all males should be gone within 5 days of 12/12) i will take cuttings from, if they later show to be males i will just discard those cuttings
if i have more time to spare, i would veg the plants for at least 5 weeks, this will allow them to get to around 2ft tall
i like growing fewer larger plants anyway
i find that the veg phase does not truly kick in until around weeks 4-5 this is when plants are growing very rapidly
also around this time i will be able to see male preflowers without changing photo period , i remove all the males
and take cuttings from the rest, if they are large enough i will put them on flower
if you are worried , the easiest way is to just take cuttings from all the plants before flower label them
flower your plants, then remove the male plants within the first week, if you are not confident about spotting males early from preflowers
you can let them go a bit longer they will be very obviously showing within 2 weeks they will not be mature enough to produce pollen so its ok to let
them go that long if you want to be sure you are removing males , after some practice you will be killing plants at the first sight of a tiny preflower
when they show, discard the cuttings that were taken from those that show as male
peace