Bagseed Male/Female question

The last couple of seasons of growing from bagseed I've gotten more males than females and I'm wondering if it's because I weed out all but the fastest growing plants. I start with about 3 times more seeds than I need, then keep the 2/3 that sprout first, Then they go into cups for a few weeks and out of those i keep the half that grows the fastest. This has resulted in more males than females twice in a row. Do the fastest growing/tallest plants early on have a better chance of being males or is this just a fluke? Would i have a better ratio if i just threw out a few runts and also threw out most of the fastest of the bunch??? Where I'm growing i can't let them get taller than 5-6 feet anyway, and since I'm starting earlier this year than i usually do i don't need them to grow all that fast anyway.

The speed at which they grow is all about the genetics and seed quality. It has nothing to do with sex, as the plant doesn't determine what sex it will be until later in the veg stage.


Don't throw out any until you can determine sex.

desertflower said:

The speed at which they grow is all about the genetics and seed quality. It has nothing to do with sex, as the plant doesn't determine what sex it will be until later in the veg stage.


Don't throw out any until you can determine sex.

Click to expand...

"the plant doesn't determine what sex it will be until later in the veg stage."

Where did you read that at ? I've read a lot of theories but that is a new one.

How is that a new one?

Your plant shows sex later in it veg period. That's how you know its ready to be flowering. Right from the time you have your first set of true leaves the conditions your plant is growing until will effect what sex it becomes. And those factors become even more important later in the veg stage.

desertflower said:

How is that a new one?

Your plant shows sex later in it veg period. That's how you know its ready to be flowering. Right from the time you have your first set of true leaves the conditions your plant is growing until will effect what sex it becomes. And those factors become even more important later in the veg stage.

Click to expand...

The conditions affect mainly true females. males are always males. u cant turn a male into a female by better condittions, but with females a maleor hermie can happen

desertflower said:

How is that a new one?

Your plant shows sex later in it veg period. That's how you know its ready to be flowering. Right from the time you have your first set of true leaves the conditions your plant is growing until will effect what sex it becomes. And those factors become even more important later in the veg stage.

Click to expand...

It's a new one because you said the plant doesn't decide what sex it is until later in it's life.

It's true it doesn't show it's sex until later on in it's life but I think it's decided genetically before it even starts growing. There have been many discussions about doing this or that might give you more of a chance of it being female but I don't think anyone really knows. If certain growing conditions decided if the plant was going to be female or not I think everyone would be growing that way.

So if you are saying it doesn't show it's sex until later on, that makes sense.

If you are saying certain growing conditions determine it's outcome I'd like to read more about it.

la9 said:

It's a new one because you said the plant doesn't decide what sex it is until later in it's life.

It's true it doesn't show it's sex until later on in it's life but I think it's decided genetically before it even starts growing. There have been many discussions about doing this or that might give you more of a chance of it being female but I don't think anyone really knows. If certain growing conditions decided if the plant was going to be female or not I think everyone would be growing that way.

So if you are saying it doesn't show it's sex until later on, that makes sense.

If you are saying certain growing conditions determine it's outcome I'd like to read more about it.

Click to expand...

i understand what you are saying. i dont think he saying that it shows later rather he is saying that a early plant is male nor female untill pre-flowering. if so i dont agree with it but i could see where he is coming from. as cannbis is a very adaptive plant and hermies or males to protect its species

I think stress plays a big role in determining what sex your plants turn out to be. When I've got things really in tune with my setup and I really coddle my kids they are overwhelmingly female regardless of whether I used high dollar bred seeds or a bag seed out of a killer bud.

la9 said:

If you are saying certain growing conditions determine it's outcome I'd like to read more about it.

Click to expand...

Basically yes. If you're doing these things its still not going to give you 100% females but it greatly increases your chances.

-High nitrogen
-High humidity
-Lower temperature
-Blue light (MH)
-Less daylight (18/6 as opposed to 24/0)

All of those factors will help you get females. In addition to that just not stressing your plants will help get females as well. I'm pretty sure its written in the bible somewhere

Thanks for the input. I should have been more specific, I'm talking about an outdoor grow so i can't do too much to change the environment. I did notice some yellowing before they went into flower though, they still budded well but the overall health could have been better. Sound like i just need to take a little better care of them this time around. Hopefully a better ph tester, a good water filter and some foxfarm instead of cheap chem fert will help.

desertflower said:

Basically yes. If you're doing these things its still not going to give you 100% females but it greatly increases your chances.

-High nitrogen
-High humidity
-Lower temperature
-Blue light (MH)
-Less daylight (18/6 as opposed to 24/0)

All of those factors will help you get females. In addition to that just not stressing your plants will help get females as well. I'm pretty sure its written in the bible somewhere

Click to expand...

Yep, I've read alot about not stressing the plants, and do what I can, I just thought you had some new info I hadn't heard about.