Early detection of male cannabis by scent

Over the last years I've noticed that male plants will tend be discoverable very early, around week 4 from seed simply by their smell. It is hard to explain this smell rather than a bland, spicy smell with a small skunk undertone. Of course,the strains natural smells will come through but that male smell is consistent. Besides the usual thicker and longer branches, I've used this theory many times to successfully find male plants especially in geurilla grows. Females will have more pronounced and fruity(or sour). Try this and see if it helps.

cool tip!

I will remember to try this when I have the opportunity, neat observation! Didn't know about the thicker and longer branch distinction either. Thank you for the info. I'm still trying to wrap my head around male selection for pollen, too...I chose one based on its size, vigor, and delayed sex display, but am unsure as to how to detect potency..hoping to find a way that doesn't involve growing the dude all the way out, very limited space. Any insight? Thanks again!

Peer Review ..?

On The Hunt said:

hoping to find a way that doesn't involve growing the dude all the way out, very limited space. Any insight? Thanks again!

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Use multiple males, i.e. create multiple lines, and test the offspring of each.

The theory from the OP doesn't apply ime nor in theory. Smell is a major factor for me when selecting males but they too contain fruity/sour in addition to skunky dank, and the females include also both fruity/sour and dark skunky. The genes that contribute to smell are of course not all located on the sex chromosomes hence are not all sex-linked. Even if 'it works' it will still vary a lot per strain, especially in hybrids.

"The" male I just used recently has in my notes the description: pine-weird sour. One of the females I pollinated with that male has that "pronounced and fruity" smell so that matches up with the OP comments, but then again I also have plenty of females in the same generation that don't have that pronounced and fruity but smell like the OP's description of male...

I also don't agree with the statement that females have a more pronounced smell per se. I've had plenty of males and females with similar smell but with the males having a far more pronounced and distinct smell (especially pre-preflowers).

Another thing that may lead to a skewed perception is that males tend to mature faster and can therefore stink more compared to females of the same age. Sometimes that's

I could make a similar thread about stipules. Males tend to have longer stipules, but not all plants with long stipules are male. If you however have 10 plants with 5 with long stipules those are often the males. It isn't accurate enough to kill plants based on that. Just as males not being thicker or longer by default. Stuff like that assumes an otherwise stable strain. If you cross a small strain with a tall strain, make an F2, you will have both short and long males and both short and long females.

Not saying there's zero truth in it, but culling a plant before it shows sex seems unwise to me. If it hasn't shown sex yet there's no good reason to kill it other than a lab test.

I do not ever kill any plant until I see the actual flowers but in my experience this does help me separate the ones I think are males until flowers show.

Also the seeds I get are usually very old stable strains so it's easier to smell differences

You could make a killing working at the airport.
Lol jk man

I will try this out next time im running reg beans.
Thanks for the tip

torontoke said:

You could make a killing working at the airport.
Lol jk man

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hahahah

I definitely choose the stinkier males for breeding and have noticed males are skunky well before they are sexed. Choosing males for breeding is a little trickier just because we can't really sample them but it is good to have a range to choose from and be able to pick specific ones, not just use any male that happens to be there. I like growing the males until just before the flowers open in order to see the bud structure from that side of the genetics as well as get an idea for how fast they are and how much they stretch.

On The Hunt said:

I will remember to try this when I have the opportunity, neat observation! Didn't know about the thicker and longer branch distinction either. Thank you for the info. I'm still trying to wrap my head around male selection for pollen, too...I chose one based on its size, vigor, and delayed sex display, but am unsure as to how to detect potency..hoping to find a way that doesn't involve growing the dude all the way out, very limited space. Any insight? Thanks again!

Click to expand...

I use the seed method, using a magnifying glass, you examine the ends of the seed, the male will have 2 pointy ends like a football, the female has one pointy end and the other end has a divit that looks like a baby volcano kinda, it recesses down into the seed like a crator. I read about it years ago when I first started growing and it has proven true over the years, very close to 100% accuracy. Hermie's - (hermaphrodite) can be a little tricky, but I've had lots of success with this method and it's definitely a game changer if you have limited space, and who wants to spend all that time and tlc on a male if you don't need it's pollen and are just gonna kill it.

perdidobandito said:

Over the last years I've noticed that male plants will tend be discoverable very early, around week 4 from seed simply by their smell. It is hard to explain this smell rather than a bland, spicy smell with a small skunk undertone. Of course,the strains natural smells will come through but that male smell is consistent. Besides the usual thicker and longer branches, I've used this theory many times to successfully find male plants especially in geurilla grows. Females will have more pronounced and fruity(or sour). Try this and see if it helps.

Click to expand...

Yea buddy been telling people this for years