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How to Sex Marijuana Plants

Marijuana Preflowering

Although generally considered one of the trickiest parts of growing your own marijuana, sexing is quite straightforward and will become easier as you gain more experience. The reason for sexing your plants is so that you can remove male plants before they have a chance to pollinate the females. If this occurs the females will start to develop seeds and this will divert their energy from THC production. Pollinated weed is still smokable, we’ve all had weed with seeds, but the potency will be significantly decreased.

Careful observation of flowering is the only true way to sex your plants, although you may get a clue from their growth patterns. Male plants tend to be leggier than female plants with a longer internodal length. Female plants are squatter with more leaves and a bushier aspect.

Towards the end of the summer, as the hours of daylight decrease, changing light levels will trigger your plants to produce flowers. The appearance of pre-flowers at branch junctions is what you are looking for.

Male pre-flowers should be clearly visible to the eye, although a magnifying glass will make your job easier. Male flowers form at the junctions of the branches and stem and the pollen sacs form little balls.

How to sex marijuana plants

Female pre-flowers will also form at the junction of branches and stem and will normally start to form at the fourth or fifth branches up from the base. They are easily distinguished by the appearance of pairs of tiny white hairs, known as pistils.

Marijuana Preflowering

At this stage your plant is just about to enter the flowering phase of growth and now is the time to remove the males if you wish to.

Flowering

As the plant enters the flowering stage its growth patterns and nutrient requirements will change. The vigorous vegetative growth will slow, stems will elongate and flower formation will begin rapidly at first before slowing. Your plant now needs less nitrogen but more potassium and phosphorous so now is a good time to add some ‘super bloom’ fertilizer. Follow the packet instructions for fruiting or flowering plants.

Flowering

The female flowers will start to form kolas around the branch junctions with a main one at the growing tip of the plants. If you look closely you will see the seed pods and these will swell; either with seeds if your plant has been pollinated or with THC as false pods if you have removed the males.

Kolas

As the flowers become ready for harvest the pistils will darken and the seed pods will be swollen and sticky with resin and THC trichomes.

Ready to harvest

HowtoGrowMarijuana.com has a wealth of information for growers. We hope you now understand how to sex your marijuana plants. It might be worth reading some of the questions and answers made by our visitors below.

 

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How to Grow Marijuana Forum - Growing Marijuana Indoors & Hydroponics

125 thoughts on “How to Sex Marijuana Plants

  1. Vikki Sutherly says:

    happy growing.

  2. Unknowed person says:

    hey listen i got a little plant its growing taller except more leaves its a week or more now so help me out

  3. Elisabeth says:

    Is there a such thing as a plant with both sexes?

  4. gideon says:

    ideal temp is about 75 degrees fareheit

  5. gideon says:

    im going to put this straight in order to see if there male or female they need to be well on there way to flowering
    to start that you need 12 hours of light 12 hours of dark and for you biginers simple plant food is a good place to start when vegetatin which is 18 to 24 hours of light per day
    warning when flowering no fertilizer or your bud will tast like shit

  6. steven says:

    ive got some plants going but i would like to no if mi plant is male or maf i have seeds pods on mi buds but no where eles

  7. new comer says:

    hey, whitch is better to plant straight into the ground or sprout at home

  8. Its420now says:

    hello i live in holland moved here from the statesi have a plant that is 6feet tall.and buds just starting its end sept and my plants just started budding how much longer. before i can cultivate. worried about frost.

  9. joe says:

    thnx man ive been growin regs since may now its september nd i think its starting to bud yeay

  10. Dan says:

    Hi guys … try this… when the plat is still very young ( months before the “balls” appear ) look where the branches intersect the stem. You will see 2 (two) tiny shoots on either side of the stem. On a male plant they will try to cross forming a “X”. If the shoots grow away from each other they are girls. ( I remember this because a girl has to open her legs to become pregnant ) I don’t mean to be crude and I hope I didn’t offend anyone. Good luck. It’s almost the start of the season here so I’ll let you know how I get on.

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