i'm up to sexing, here's what i think i know.

i'm trying to sex my plants. i have 10 plants. 1 i am about 90% certain is female, 1 i'm about 50% certain is male, and 8 more i don't have a clue.

so, to my understanding, during the veg stage, the branches will grow off the stalk in pairs at the same height. multiple branches can grow from the same joint, but always in pairs..

as plants start to go into a flowering stage, the branches start to alternate. it's on these first alternating branches that i need to be looking for my evidence...

what i'm looking for will be right at the joint of the flowering branch and the stalk. the females will have multiple teeny nubs with 1/4" white fiber looking stuff sticking out.

for a male, at the same place, it looks like a little pile of balls, almost too small to see with the naked, 20/20 eye. i found them on the plant i suspect of being male, between a teeny little leaflet looking thing and the branch/stalk.

also, if you don't see evidence of alternating branches, the plant hasn't started to flower, and it's too early for sexing.. the plant will have around 4 levels of flowering growth before the sex starts to show..

how am i doing? am i way off? looking good?

You're spot on with all of it. This comparison may help you identify their sex. http://tinyurl.com/3yrxvxa

you are kind of on the right track, but taking the hard road, you will see 2 little white hairs if its a girl, and the cluster of balls you will be easily spotted by the naked eye, like EASILY before they are of any harm to ur ladys, as for the alternating nodes etc, you dont really need to watch for those, jsut for the little white hairs and balls.

hm i take it the alternating nodes would be more important for an outside grow.

I dunno bout the whole after approx 4 alternating nodes it starts to to show sex and also they are still in veg mode and will remain so w/o a light cycle change, so i wouldnt call it flowering growth. But yes, youve got it down right on the rest.

i changed to 12/12 a week or 10 days ago. they are in 5gal buckets, 1 plant per, under a 400w HPS in a sealed hood. that's when the change in branching started, so i assumed, and am pretty sure i read somewhere, that they are related... i seem to recall i should be able to sex the plants within a week or 2 of switching to 12/12.

they will start alternating nodes if they are mature in veg too, but yes, alternating nodes is a sign of maturity and that its ready to flower when you are.

well i went through today and found 2 definate females, another that is most likely female, 5 i'm 95% sure were male, and 2 i'm not sure of.. so i pulled the ones i suspect are male, and want to clone off the healthiest female. i have a couple questions on that.

1) do i have to force it back into veg before i cut clones?

2) does anbody have a link to a good, descriptive cloning how-to? i have heavily researched the parts after i cut, such as cutting the stem at an angle, and cutting the stem lengthwise to give the roots more surface area to sprout, and the use of rooting hormone, spraying the leaves and using a humidity dome until the roots sprout. i mean the actual deciding which ones to cut. i have heard you count up from the base a certain count, count down from the top a specific count.. i just need a good, detailed primer on the actual selecting and cutting of the clones.

No, you don't have to force the plant to veg. If you want to grow the clone out you will have to force it to veg though.

Just take cuttings from your lowest branches. Start from the growing tip, count down two nodes and cut it off above just above the third. Take a sharp pair of scissors or razor and cut off a 45*, dip in rooting hormone, and pop it in your humidity dome.

I have read that folks prefer to take the cuttling for clones during veging. 18/6 light to dark. This would mean keeping track of the clones taken. Like from what plant. Then when your plants show sex you then have to go and take out the male clones which would be in a different area then the 12/12 flowering plants.