Are you worried there may be a male plant in your marijuana crop? Or have you just started a crop using non-feminized seeds and you’re starting to become suspicious of a sneaky male plant ruining your entire crop? Either way, Best Bud Seeds can help you decipher between a male, female, and hermaphrodite plant and how to utilize a male plant if you have one.
Male Plant Identification Table of Contents:
- Identifying Male and Female Plants
- Signs of Male Precolor
- The Difference Between Male & Hermaphrodite Plants
- How to Use Male Cannabis Plant
Identifying Male and Female Plants
Usually, you can determine the sex of the plant as early as 3-6 weeks after germination. The nuance is that not everyone understands where to look in principle. The main features are located on the pre-flowers or calyx. They represent the rudiments of green flowers, covered with fine baby white hairs. By their appearance, it is very possible to determine the gender of plants. But usually pre-flowers mean that it’s a female.
Much like the female plant, the male cannabis plant also has sex organs. Male plants often, reveal their sex a week or two before female plants. Male plants produce pollen sacs, which also grow at the junction between the node and the stalk. When they first form, the male pollen sacs can initially look like the tiny buds that appear on female plants, but they do not have stigmas protruding from them. The male pre-flowers also take on more of a spade-like shape than the tear-drop shape of the young female bud.
There are other major physical differences that distinguish males from females. Male plants tend to frequently grow taller than its female counterpart and has thicker, sturdier stalks to support its weight. Male plants also have fewer leaves than female plants, which tend to be shorter and bushier.
Signs of Male Precolor
Male plants show their affiliation a couple of weeks earlier than female plants: they can be determined as early as 3 weeks of flowering. The cups on the male bushes are shaped like spades (like on playing cards). The pre-blossom is very small. If there are any doubts in your mind about the identification of this plants gender, then it is better to wait a week or two to consider how its gender will develop further.
The difficulty in identifying is that the pollen sacs sometimes look irregular. During flowering, male cups grow and turn into bunches, much like grapes. This is one of the main distinguishing features. Another is the absence of white pistils (a sign of feminine flowers) on such pre-flowers.
The Difference Between Male & Hermaphrodite Plants
Hermaphrodite plants, or “hermies” as they’ve been coined by numerous growers, grow both male and female sex organs. But how is that even possible? Some cannabis strains such as Thai Sativa, are true hermaphrodites with the tendency to express hermaphroditism in their genes. However, hermaphrodite plants generally occur as an outcome of stress, such as a disruption in photoperiod cycles, nutrient deficiencies, or any kind of plant disease. It’s vital to check female plants carefully to ensure the buds are female, and there are no male flowers that could result in the plant fertilizing itself.
Two signs indicate a plant is hermaphroditic. The first and most obvious sign is if the plant grows both male pollen sacs and female buds. The second sign is the appearance of anthers, known colloquially by growers as bananas or “nanners.” Anthers have a curved shape, are typically yellow or lime-green, and appear among buds. Unlike regular male pollen sacs, these anthers can fertilize the female plants as soon as they emerge, so they must be immediately trimmed or removed to protect a female crop. Look out for these nasty guys pictured below so that you don’t accidentally ruin your own crop.
How to Use a Male Cannabis Plant
Although only female marijuana seeds plants are famous for producing large, coveted buds that people dry, cure, and consume, male plants can be utilized too, so don’t toss them right away!
Below is Best Bud Seeds favorite ways of using the male cannabis plant:
- Breeding: If marijuana cultivators don’t want to produce more cannabis plants using clones, they need to consider pollination by male plants. Because male cannabis plants are essential for breeding purposes, you can use the male plant to fertilize the female plants – thus creating your own strains.
- Concentrate production: Male cannabis plants come with less potency than female plants, but male plants also can show psychoactive nature. So, if you’re looking to make hash or wax or any sort of concentrate, use your male plants as they produce a hefty amount of cannabinoids too.
- Hemp fiber: Hemp fiber that comes from the male cannabis plant is softer compared to female plants. And, this soft material is widely used for making household items like clothing, thread, etc. Hemp fiber is incredibly durable and useful to craft with – so use it.
- Terpene Production: When it comes to garden enhancement, cannabis plants have a lot to contribute beyond bud production. ‘Terpenes’ is an aromatic oil that both male and female plants produce. This aromatic oil works great when it’s about disease and pest control. As male plants also can produce terpenes along with the female ones, males are not that useless, right?
- Soil Enhancement: Also, cannabis plants have long taproots that improve soil quality. The taproots break the low-quality soil apart and allow nutrition and moisture to penetrate. Consequently, soil can be in place, and the risk of losing soil to heavy rains reduces.
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