Male and female plants
I will explain the concept of "cloning" and why you should do it. Like people, cannabis is dioecious. That means there are only male organs on one plant, and only female organs on a separate plant, and only the females produce medicine (males produce pollen). Females produce more quantity, and more potent medicine if they are not pollinated by males. Once pollinated, energy goes into producing seeds, instead of buds. There are also monoecious cannabis plants, where both organs exist on the same plant (Like people too, but we won't get into that
). Some plants can become monoecious (aka hermie or hermaphrodite) when under stress, and some are more prone to this than others.
You can see where we're going with this, right? We don't want males or monoecious plants in the grow area! One pollen sac can pollinate several nearby plants easily.
Reasons to clone instead of growing from seed:
1. When cloning from a female mother plant (of course the clone is female too), you don't have to worry about males taking up space and possibly pollinating the females. Yes, you can buy "feminized" seeds, but these are not guaranteed so you still have to watch for males.
2. Some plants are runts, and some are "super" plants. Some grow prettier than others. You might want to take clones from the fastest growing (and nicest growing) plants.
3. Some of those fastest growing females might not produce the fattest or most potent buds. Sometimes at the end of flower, you find a particular plant produced purple leaves, super potent, or whatever... and you wished you could grow that plant again! If you took a clone from it, you can!
4. Some plants seem to be prone to growing male organs and pollinating your crop. Don't clone this one!
After several months of growing, you can be growing the same "super plant" every time.
A "mother plant" is a plant we refer to as a plant we keep in the vegetative growth state (18/6) and we take clones from it, and then flower those once they grow big enough. I don't keep "mother plants". If you've been flowing my journal (in my signature), you will see I grow a plant from clone until it is ready to flower, then I take a clone from that, right before putting it into flower. So I essentially keep growing a clone of a clone, and so on. I started with 5 seeds, and found one of the 5 to grow amazingly fast and has super frosty buds, so I keep growing only that one. The particular strain is Ace of Spades. This plant also shows a Chinensis trait which I think is really cool. It just goes to show this plant is determined to get pollinated.
Now lets say we want to try a new strain by TGA called, "Agent Orange". On a side note, I don't know why we think the government will EVER take us seriously when we keep naming strains like this, but to each his own, I guess. Can you ever imagine going to the pharmacy and saying, "Yes, I would like to get this prescription filled for Zyrtec, and I have another one here for JACK THE RIPPER." Anyway, as I was saying, on yeah, Agent Orange, we planted two seeds, and now we have to wait until we can determine sex of these. NOTE: If you are starting from seed, I don't suggest only starting two seeds. I suggest starting about 10, to weed out males and runts, and then only grow out a few select plants.
So when we start from seed, when / how do we know if we have males or females?
We look for pistols. These are the tentacle looking things the female puts out, looking for pollen. Here's a picture. Note: When you are first looking for these, it is easy to mistake the "stipule" for a pistol. The way to make sure is... the "stipule" is always green and not furry like a pistol. When a pistol first emerges it is slightly green, then turns white quickly. Here are some pistols from a mature plant in vegetative growth.
Here is a picture (taken from breedbay) that shows what male and female pre-flowers look like. When we say, "pre-flower", that means the plant is starting to show it's sex, but won't flower completely until moved to a 12 hour dark cycle. The male staminate is almost round, where the female Calyx is longer, tear drop shaped. Frequently you will see the female Calyx before a pistol comes out of it, and with some experience you will be able to "predict" the sex before actually seeing the pistol.
WHEN will I be able to sex my plant?
Females are much easier to spot than males. In my experience, females usually show after 6-9 weeks in veg from seed. So, in many cases, we can just WAIT until our plants mature and females show their pistols during vegetative growth. If you started 6 plants from seed, and two months later 3 plants have several pistols each, and the other 3 don't have any, most likely, the ones with no pistols are males. But there is another way.
You can take clones from your plants grown from seed (being sure to mark them so you know what parent they came from) and put these clones in a 12/12 light cycle. These clones will root, and usually within 2-3 weeks, they will start to flower. Then, you will know which parents are females. Of course, by this time, your parents may already have started to pre-flower while in veg. It just depends on the strain. Some pre-flower more so than others.
One additional method is to take the entire plant and put it in a 12/12 light cycle, then check it every day until you can sex it (I don't suggest this method). After the 12/12 light cycle, and then back in the 18/6 cycle, the plant gets stressed, confused, and has to revert to a vegetative state, right after it entered a flowering state. This can stunt growth too.
Good luck growing your super females! Below is an example of two plants, started from clone. This is the one plant I chose (the best from the 5 seeds).
If interested, check out my "step by step" cloning method.
I will explain the concept of "cloning" and why you should do it. Like people, cannabis is dioecious. That means there are only male organs on one plant, and only female organs on a separate plant, and only the females produce medicine (males produce pollen). Females produce more quantity, and more potent medicine if they are not pollinated by males. Once pollinated, energy goes into producing seeds, instead of buds. There are also monoecious cannabis plants, where both organs exist on the same plant (Like people too, but we won't get into that
). Some plants can become monoecious (aka hermie or hermaphrodite) when under stress, and some are more prone to this than others.You can see where we're going with this, right? We don't want males or monoecious plants in the grow area! One pollen sac can pollinate several nearby plants easily.
Reasons to clone instead of growing from seed:
1. When cloning from a female mother plant (of course the clone is female too), you don't have to worry about males taking up space and possibly pollinating the females. Yes, you can buy "feminized" seeds, but these are not guaranteed so you still have to watch for males.
2. Some plants are runts, and some are "super" plants. Some grow prettier than others. You might want to take clones from the fastest growing (and nicest growing) plants.
3. Some of those fastest growing females might not produce the fattest or most potent buds. Sometimes at the end of flower, you find a particular plant produced purple leaves, super potent, or whatever... and you wished you could grow that plant again! If you took a clone from it, you can!
4. Some plants seem to be prone to growing male organs and pollinating your crop. Don't clone this one!
After several months of growing, you can be growing the same "super plant" every time.
A "mother plant" is a plant we refer to as a plant we keep in the vegetative growth state (18/6) and we take clones from it, and then flower those once they grow big enough. I don't keep "mother plants". If you've been flowing my journal (in my signature), you will see I grow a plant from clone until it is ready to flower, then I take a clone from that, right before putting it into flower. So I essentially keep growing a clone of a clone, and so on. I started with 5 seeds, and found one of the 5 to grow amazingly fast and has super frosty buds, so I keep growing only that one. The particular strain is Ace of Spades. This plant also shows a Chinensis trait which I think is really cool. It just goes to show this plant is determined to get pollinated.
Now lets say we want to try a new strain by TGA called, "Agent Orange". On a side note, I don't know why we think the government will EVER take us seriously when we keep naming strains like this, but to each his own, I guess. Can you ever imagine going to the pharmacy and saying, "Yes, I would like to get this prescription filled for Zyrtec, and I have another one here for JACK THE RIPPER." Anyway, as I was saying, on yeah, Agent Orange, we planted two seeds, and now we have to wait until we can determine sex of these. NOTE: If you are starting from seed, I don't suggest only starting two seeds. I suggest starting about 10, to weed out males and runts, and then only grow out a few select plants.
So when we start from seed, when / how do we know if we have males or females?
We look for pistols. These are the tentacle looking things the female puts out, looking for pollen. Here's a picture. Note: When you are first looking for these, it is easy to mistake the "stipule" for a pistol. The way to make sure is... the "stipule" is always green and not furry like a pistol. When a pistol first emerges it is slightly green, then turns white quickly. Here are some pistols from a mature plant in vegetative growth.
Here is a picture (taken from breedbay) that shows what male and female pre-flowers look like. When we say, "pre-flower", that means the plant is starting to show it's sex, but won't flower completely until moved to a 12 hour dark cycle. The male staminate is almost round, where the female Calyx is longer, tear drop shaped. Frequently you will see the female Calyx before a pistol comes out of it, and with some experience you will be able to "predict" the sex before actually seeing the pistol.
WHEN will I be able to sex my plant?
Females are much easier to spot than males. In my experience, females usually show after 6-9 weeks in veg from seed. So, in many cases, we can just WAIT until our plants mature and females show their pistols during vegetative growth. If you started 6 plants from seed, and two months later 3 plants have several pistols each, and the other 3 don't have any, most likely, the ones with no pistols are males. But there is another way.
You can take clones from your plants grown from seed (being sure to mark them so you know what parent they came from) and put these clones in a 12/12 light cycle. These clones will root, and usually within 2-3 weeks, they will start to flower. Then, you will know which parents are females. Of course, by this time, your parents may already have started to pre-flower while in veg. It just depends on the strain. Some pre-flower more so than others.
One additional method is to take the entire plant and put it in a 12/12 light cycle, then check it every day until you can sex it (I don't suggest this method). After the 12/12 light cycle, and then back in the 18/6 cycle, the plant gets stressed, confused, and has to revert to a vegetative state, right after it entered a flowering state. This can stunt growth too.
Good luck growing your super females! Below is an example of two plants, started from clone. This is the one plant I chose (the best from the 5 seeds).
If interested, check out my "step by step" cloning method.