Just into Flowering

OK. I have read ALOT of information on this site, but I don't think I know this answer.

Can you tell sex in the first couple of days of flowering? I've looked closely after each day and I think I can tell balls from pistils. But not really sure.

Do they initially look the same and the females form into a tear drop shape of a "ball" and then an elonged "hair?"

Am I trying too hard and should wait a few more days?

Pleae help this newbie so we can sleep better!

Some strains don't show sex for a few weeks. Be patient grasshopper.

wait a few more days to be sure, nothing worst then to kill a baby girl from the day you start flowering till the day were males get hot pollen bombs are normally about 3 weeks at least

I see very "small" balls but several look elongated, like tear drops ... a couple of them have multiple "balls" ... MALE?

Contributed by: bc-trichome-farmer
Thanks to: FOAF
Submitted: June 11th, 2004

Identifying a true preflower is way to tell sex before 12/12. That way you can take clones from the known females without wasting the time and space on males.

Note:
(Kifit) "do not try to sex a seedling based on the very first preflower you see with a 25x times microscope.....wait and make sure. The time between using a 25x to spot the very first preflower sex and the plant dropping pollen is at least 10+ days away and so it's safe."

"It's best to cull a male only after you are 101% sure - when you see 2 or 3 (or more) immature male flowers bunched together on the internodes or the top growing tip - this is a male, for sure, females preflowers have white " spears " that appear in a vee. ..but "every now and then a sexually indistinguishable flower appears" (Ed Rosenthal)

After a few weeks in veg, plants will begin to show their sex. Usually the males show first. The male preflower is a miniscule ball. It appears that there is a small piece of foliage that covers the ball and protrudes outward when the male preflowers first appear.

The following pics show MALE preflowers the FIRST day they show their future pollen distribution centers.

Many times preflowers will appear at the fourth or fifth node, whereas the plant is on the 7th or 8th node. These preflowers usually don't develop into full flowers, but are only an indicator of the plants sex.





Female on left, male on right. Im only certain about the sex cause I watched them several more days. 25X magnification.

Image credit to: FOAF

Preflowers, as opposed to full blown flowers, generally appear after the fourth week of vegetative growth from seed. Check carefully above the fourth node. Please note that preflowers are very small and and almost impossible to differentiate without magnification. A photographer's 10x loupe is handy indeed when examining preflowers.

As the images below demonstrate, the female preflower is pear shaped and produces a pair of pistils. Frequently, the female preflowers do not show pistils until well after the preflowers have emerged. Thus, don't yank a plant because it has no pistils. Pistillate preflowers are located at the node between the stipule and emerging branch.

Also, some female preflowers never produce pistils. A female preflower without pistils is difficult to distinguish from a male preflower. Thus, hermaphodite issues should not be resolved by the appearance of preflowers, without pistils, on a plant otherwise believed to be a female.

Female (pistillate)



Image courtesy of MrIto

Female (pistillate)


Image courtesy of Uncle Ben

The male preflower may be described as a "ball on a stick." However, its most recognizable feature is its absence of pistils. Sometimes, a male plant will develop mature staminate flowers after prolonged periods of vegetative growth. These appear in clusters around the nodes.

The following image shows a male plant in early flowering. Staminate flowers are located at the node between the stipule and emerging branch.

Male (staminate)
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Image courtesy of PLAYn

Image courtesy of PsycoXul

Thanks for the info ...

Plants showing sex can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks. LOL, I know being patient sucks, but it has to be done. I was doing the same thing on my first grow. "WHAT THE FUCK!! WHAT ARE YOU!!! YOU BETTER NOT BE A MALE AFTER ALL THIS WORK!!" and so on.... Be patient, you will DEFINITELY WITHOUT A DOUBT be able to tell the difference between a male and a female. Good Luck!!