Ways that help me decipher who is a male, or a female even in early seedling stages:
I notice that the males tend to exhibit much more "sturdy" specimens, even from a very early age. I think that it has occured to me that many of my male plants (which are often transplanted directly into their final pots -- so they get nutrients too for awhile, in the off case they're females) tend to be the ones who at first seem to grow the quickest, and are by far the best looking beginners.
It turns out, the "raggety" or runty looking specimens in the very beginning (ones that are super sensitive to the slightest bit of overwatering, and such) turn out to be my most precious, and best flowering females. It is always a good idea when growing a bunch of regular seeds to be able to "estimate" early on which ones are male or female, you can then set them aside into a group, you can see how good your guessing skills are.
Another factor I like to check out is around this stage...I like to gently rub my thumb onto one of the true leaves as if I were getting the flavors out of a mint leaf. The males tend to smell A LOT more than the females do in this early stage, so one that smells like pure marijuana this early on -- could definitely be a male. I've noticed that the females literally only smell like chlorophyll, or cut grass in this early stage of life. Just some general opinions on that topic.
Observations on the KC-45 (autoflowers):
All seedlings are producing at a nice and steady rate, I feel a lot of growing possibly coming on in this next week, especially with the temperatures going back up into the high 70s. I have noticed the formation of what's known as "stipules", these are leaf-like structures that come out at the internodal points. They are photosynthetic pigments, but their main purpose is to aid the very small, tender growth that is actually trying to sprout from the node, so even at this early age I can see signs of hormones being sent to a bit of "branching".
I have read that this particular strain (being it has Russian Ruderalis in it) really does not like a lot of nutrients, it just prefers regular dirt over hydro, and should quite frankly be the perfect strain for a winter grown (at least in my location). We'll see how it goes though ; No promises!
Regular note:
I can't wait to grow more of my regular mystery sativa seeds next year, in combination with more of my precious Hong Kong OG, and the free seeds Northern Lights x Skunk (feminised seed) and Skunk X Kerala (2 reg..) so will see how I can implement all those different things, still get the amount of bud from the strains I want, and keep myself under the limit (grr @ our small limit).
OK enough ranting for now all, just a little entry into the journal. Hope all is well in your gardens and Happy Holidays to ya all!
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