Identifying males

Hey all,

I've heard that tall and lanky plants generally turn out to be males. How reliable is this? I have a couple plants that are looking tall and not growing very many leaves while others of the same strain are staying shorter and bushy. Here's some pics. Pay no attention to the names you see. That's just a game my friends and I are playing. These are Girl Scout Cookies plants.

I've found that male are generally the ones that grow taller faster.

xtsho said:

I've found that male are generally the ones that grow taller faster.

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But definitely not a way to know. It seems that way often but there will be females that grow tall fast as well.

Also, the plants in those pictures are nowhere near ready to be sexed yet. You have several weeks to go.

In my experience, you can tell sex a week into flower when balls appear on males.

This plant flowers quick and abundant, if you have to ask what sex it is then your doing somthing wrong

adrenalytic said:

How reliable is this?

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Generally true, but not at all reliable.
I'm into second week of flower and am just now able to sex my plant, be patient

Thanks for the answers all. This is my first grow. This site has been very helpful. I'm growing three different strains. The GSC are the only ones that are not feminized seeds so I want to catch males as early as possible.

Kingrow1 said:

This plant flowers quick and abundant, if you have to ask what sex it is then your doing somthing wrong

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So what exactly are you saying? Can you tell what sex that plant is?

Budley Doright said:

So what exactly are you saying? Can you tell what sex that plant is?

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To wait till hundreds of flowers or pollen sacs turn up at which point you wont need to ask

chuck your seedlings into 12/12 for 4 days, eliminate males and return to veg... saves you a lot of aggravation. Baby male flowers look like a tiny hand giving you the finger.

Very fast germing plants with fast-growing long shoots are indeed prone to being male to enable them to pollinate early and from high.

Pollination on day 14 of flower will give much large, stronger seed than day 20... like twice the size.

ANC said:

Baby male flowers look like a tiny hand giving you the finger.

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HaHaHaHa

ANC said:

chuck your seedlings into 12/12 for 4 days, eliminate males and return to veg... saves you a lot of aggravation. Baby male flowers look like a tiny hand giving you the finger.

Very fast germing plants with fast-growing long shoots are indeed prone to being male to enable them to pollinate early and from high.

Pollination on day 14 of flower will give much large, stronger seed than day 20... like twice the size.

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I didn't know you could just goto 12/12 for 4 days and then back to veg. You do this often with no down side?
At what stage/age of seedling do you do this?

They have to be old enough to do it, so I'd give it a week or 3 before doing it. But this is how the big guys do it.
I grow clones only

ANC said:

They have to be old enough to do it, so I'd give it a week or 3 before doing it. But this is how the big guys do it.
I grow clones only

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Take at least 10/12 days for it to show its sex,to be 100% from seed.But at least your growing from reg's far better in my view for long term use

I don't mess with ones that are ambivalent. Maybe it is because of the short running strains I prefer, maybe it is the big jump from 20/4 to 12/12, but I never need more than 4 or 5 days to see pistols.

ANC said:

I don't mess with ones that are ambivalent. Maybe it is because of the short running strains I prefer, maybe it is the big jump from 20/4 to 12/12, but I never need more than 4 or 5 days to see pistols.

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Some do show early ,But if your new to picking out males females leave a bit longer.you have been doing it while like me ,we see things earlier

For sure, but if they are not showing in 6 days, veg them a bit longer... you don't want them to completely switch over to flowering...
You just want to spot the first preflower pistils.

And this is where fem seed takes all the hassle away, i know some arent keen but if your new and a small tent grower you cant do better

Problem with flowering then revegging is time. It is much, much, much more efficient to just run them as normal and be patient, when you see males take them out. You would have to be blind to not be able to see and know them before they actually started dropping pollen. I am actually sitting around waiting on 3 males to finally start dropping pollen right this second. Checking them every few hours to see if any pods have opened for me to milk.