sexing

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.

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

how big will these preflowers get before they open and will you be able to see them just by looking at them

This is a favorite site of mine!
Grow Marijuana FAQ, Cannabis cultivation - marijuana growing tips & photos

thanks alot i understand now it was real confusing for me at first thanks