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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.

 

From the forum

How to Grow Marijuana Forum - Growing Marijuana Indoors & Hydroponics

125 thoughts on “How to Sex Marijuana Plants

  1. droskii says:

    you can get some CFL lights for about $16/ea. at lowes,home depot or any hardware store. Get the 65watt bulbs but a 65 watt cfl is like a 300 watts and they energy savers…hopes this helps

  2. John says:

    I never had my buds tast like crap when i used bat shit nor when i used fish did they tast like fish LOL.

  3. Senior weedman says:

    Could bat guano used to help flowering cause bud to taste like crap also? But it is dry and sets 24 hours in a gallon of water. Once a week feedings.

  4. John says:

    So can anyone tell me what the odds of getting a female? I started 12 plant which is my limit in the state I live in, I just hope I don’t get all male’s. by the time they sex it will be so late in the season starting more will be useless.

  5. Gayle says:

    I am trying to grow indoors & can NOT afford grow lights. Do I stand a chance of growing anything or am I wasting my time ? I have one that is at least 6-7″, and I put some seeds outdoors in little plant starters. I could NOT believe how quick they sprouted & afew of them the leaves are HUGE. Help me to take care of them. I live in a HOT town & I am afraid to put them in direct sunlight. And if I put them in DIRECT SUNLIGHT, should I do it early before it gets too HOT? HELP ME PLEASE !!! Thank you BIG TIME!

    • PERK1PERK1 says:

      WATER WATER WATER WATER WATER–SUNLIGHT SUNLIGHT SUNLIGHT–SEXING SEXING SEXING
      GOD OR MOTHER EARTH OR WHOMEVER GAVE US THIS WONDERFULL MEDICATION THAT IS SO SIMPLE THAT IT IS DIFFICULT… I AM SO SORRY THAT YOU ARE HAVING A ROUGH GO AT IT… GO TO http://WWW.ONLINEPOT.COM AND CHECK OUT WHAT OTHERS GOING THRU WHAT YOU ARE GOING THRU ARE DOING. I CAN NOT STRESS ENOUGH ON WATERING BUT NOT OVERWATERING… HOPE THIS HELPS…I WISH YOU A WONDERFULL GROW… AND DO NOT WORRY YOU WILL INDEED HAVE SOME YUMMY BIG FAT WONDERFULL BUDDAGE(I JUST KNOW YOU CAN DO IT…)
      MOST GRATEFULL,
      PERK1
      SORRY ‘BOUT THE “ALL CAPS” I PROMISE I AM NOT YELLING. I AM JUST SO STONED FROM THIS DADGUM *A.S.H.* FROM “MR. NICE SEEDBANK” THAT I AM TO LAZY TO RE-TYPE–PLEASE, KNOW THAT *A.S.H.* DOES THIS TO A FELLA…CERTAINLY NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART…

  6. lonny says:

    So I heard that after a plant gets so big u shoulders pinch the top off is this true and what? Or how much? Do u pinch off?

  7. John says:

    so how many hours of sun is needed to make them sex?

  8. me says:

    GREAT ADVICE GOOD WAY TO REMEMBER AND BEST TO CATCH ‘EM EARLY!!

  9. Bastardo says:

    Cool thanks, actually that almost exactly the ratio I got. I bought Super Bloom from home depot. They seem to be flowering pretty good now. Thanks again.

  10. Badger says:

    Hey Bastardo, you want a nute that is rich in phosphorous. All the hydro nute manufacturers sell them as ‘bloom’ or ‘flower’. If you are buying from a garden shop look at the NPK code on the side. You want a high middle number, something like (very approximately) 10-50-10.

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