Added by: Bongaloid Last edited by: MedMan Viewed: 259 times Rated by 107 users: 9.34/10 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)


Image courtesy of PLAYn

Image courtesy of PsycoXul

Old post but would like an answer

In another post today babygro said to me watch for the sex of my plants,

Anyway after readin that I went and had a good look at my plants and noticed that almost all my plants are showing these preflowers, there 22 days old though wtf

I havent really payed much notice to them but a few are 1/2 a cm long already and the ones with out hairs are starting to form something where the rest have hairs

So what id like to know is does this mean that the ones with hairs are fems and nows a good time to clone (with in the next week)

Don't clone until you are positive they are female.

These pictures and quotes were donated from a sexing thread about identifying females by their pre-flowers (primordia) which was authored by "Crazy Composer". The pictures alone speak a thousand words...




Note: The plant parts marked with an "X" are called "stipules", they appear on both male and female plants.


This diagram shows the difference (on a slightly more mature plant) between genuine pre-flowers and actual bud sites, which are - in fact different animals altogether.



From a further distance, but quite clear-cut.
I know how it is for some of the newer growers who are eagerly anticipating their first view of an actual marijuana flower. Well, this is what it looks like, play your cards right and you'll have thousands of these hairs clumped tightly together and covered in crystals that will smell so nice. Don't worry, it's coming.

After goin back to look again, 4 out of 8 so far are showing preflowers with out needing Magnification to see them, the rest do have something growing but cant make them out yet, though I think another few days

Thanks mogie

nice mogie, finally figured this now

no really, it is a cool post you made there for the community, thanks mogie

(by the way, i slightly dislike your new avatar, can't figure why)

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man these he girl's can be deceiving..got be vigilante.change your chit in a heartbeat
btw mogie nice pic of the female pistils..looks like the stalk wants to bud as well

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good stuff

awesome dude +rep

This helped me out a lot. I was actually wondering about preflowers and didnt know much about them.

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