it's not ethanol, that's just grain alcohol, its ethelyne gas, and ripening fruit produces it, if you pick unripened tomatoes and put them in a bag with a banana in the dark, the gas makes them ripen faster, but i have no idea if this will produce more females. I did read something a while ago that claimed you could tell at germination what they were going to be. If the root came out of the top or bottom, it would be female, and if it came out of the side, it would be male. Some experimenters verified the results, too.
Thank you for the correction (I hate repeating mistakes).
Just a point of experience for me, putting bananas or apples near certain other unripened fruit, such as avocados, pears and unripe bananas or apples, can help those ripen. I do prefer putting avocado in a paper bag in a warmish spot for ripening, it may generate its own ethylene.
The root method is probably better (have seen a seed method and havent been able to verify it).
This is all news to me! And of some interest as I've been "gifted" with what might best be described as an assload of bagseeds. Variety is undetermined (called both indica and sativa, not directly from growing source). So, you can understand why I'm interested in determining variety as well as sex as soon as possible.
I think this is another part of growing that is shrouded in myth. It is alot easier to say XY=male and XX=female and in general cannabis makes more female seed genotypes. In thai strains its almost all XX hermies that pollinate each other, who says you need men? lol
Again, news to me (ignorant, still reading). So, you're saying that, all other variables notwithstanding, there will naturally be a tendency towards a higher female--male ratio, yes? Just based on genotype, but.. ok, I'll ask that question after this...
I would love to see a study test genotypes and their ratios in respect to female/male plants. I would almost bet sex is 99% determined by genotype in most cultivars.
Ok, so you
don't think that sexual expression can be affected as much by outside factors, the way it can with, for instance, temperature for certain species of reptilians, fishes, and I believe even some other invertebrates such as insects. Would that be a correct assessment?
I read in the marijuana med growers bible that nitrogen, blue light, and longer light periods make more females.
Odd.. how would such an expression be rooted in nature..? Plants from the more northerly regions may have evolved to generate females in response to the longer days during growing season, maybe?
This book was horribly written, it seems without an editor so I trust people on this site more for information, and see that book as more of a beginners resource.
On another note it would be great if someone could grow out say 50 seeds that arent exposed to ethelyne and 50 that are. Using a statistical test for significance you could determine if it was worth it or not. I might do this with my outdoor this summer, although I think 90% of my seeds are female as I flowered from start to see phenotype and they all showed hairs (7 of them) before I had to trash them.
Clearly, I have a LOT more reading to do.
This came from heavily seeded bud which I have also heard affects genotype as the plants some how sense that they are being fully seeded and there isn't that great of need for males in the close vicinity. Which is another reason I think fem seeds are a ridicoulous money grabbing idea, when most seeds can be made female regardless of self pollination.
Also... wouldn't this be more effecient if you exposed the seeds before germination and during popping to ethelyne?
That's kind of what I was asking in my previous post--How does one really determine causative effect without first being able to measure ethylene levels accurately, OR at least being able to make sure that there's enough (what is enough?), and then being able go on without test and control groups? I don't see how one can glean anything much better than empirical or anecdotal evidence, which, if the person relaying was really stoned, might be suspect..
