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OK... but that's only ONE result. I don't know what anyone else is thinking but personally I never for a minute thought this would produce a 100% accuracy rate. I'm interested in knowing what percentage of the time it proves to be true. I like math… I wanna see the numbers.
Say it only turns out to be accurate 70% of the time.... that could still prove to be useful information. Not so much for a 3 - 6 plant grower like me as I would likely never risk tossing out a seed I paid so much money for . However for people harvesting lots of seeds.... and germinating large numbers (50-99) at a time I could see it being useful. They are probably not so attached to a single seed.
I also imagine if one were to really study this there might be more to it then a simple curl. As another poster said.... perhaps it has to do with length when it begins to curl.... or the type / extent of the curl…. or perhaps the strain itself. What about Indica dominant vs. Sativa dominant.... perhaps one has a higher percentage of this being true then the other????
I'm not trying to prove anything one way or the other... and again... I would never expect this to be a 100% accurate method. They say pregnant women carrying the baby high (location... not stoned) will likely have a boy while women carrying the baby low will more likely have a girl. Is that a 100% guarantee??? Certainly not.... but it's been true for most of my friends who've had babies.... and it's fun for women to sit around and speculate about when a friend is pregnant.
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It is five results and i do have more examples of poker straight tap roots resulting in females. (EDIT: I see you noted that)
I must disagree since this method will only result in the continuance of spreading myths and old-wives tales. I think marijuana growing has enough of those already. If it is not an accurate way of determining females with a statistically significant result - then it is just coincidence and completely useless in predetermining sex. You'd need a lot higher number than 70% - you'd need a number that chance alone can not explain.
Or to look at it another way - if I see pistils coming out of the calyx that is a 100% guaranteed female (granted it may suffer from deleterious hermaphroditism - but it is still a female). So we already have a 100% guaranteed way of determining sex so it is not impossible.
I am not arguing against doing the experiment - but ultimately the tap root will curl around if you plant it upside down. That is what tap roots do - they curl and twist until the embryo is in the right position. The seedling will die if it runs out of food before the root reaches an outside source. A basic botany book describes this in great detail. I don't see how that fact does not negate what is being claimed.
Let the experiment be made - but leave the confirmation bias at the door and report the real results - not what we want the results to be. It's not like i wouldn't want to know if a seed will result in a female or not! I'd love to have that information before planting... who wouldn't?