hoping to find a way that doesn't involve growing the dude all the way out, very limited space. Any insight? Thanks again!
Use multiple males, i.e. create multiple lines, and test the offspring of each.
The theory from the OP doesn't apply ime nor in theory. Smell is a major factor for me when selecting males but they too contain fruity/sour in addition to skunky dank, and the females include also both fruity/sour and dark skunky. The genes that contribute to smell are of course not all located on the sex chromosomes hence are not all sex-linked. Even if 'it works' it will still vary a lot per strain, especially in hybrids.
"The" male I just used recently has in my notes the description: pine-weird sour. One of the females I pollinated with that male has that "pronounced and fruity" smell so that matches up with the OP comments, but then again I also have plenty of females in the same generation that don't have that pronounced and fruity but smell like the OP's description of male...
I also don't agree with the statement that females have a more pronounced smell per se. I've had plenty of males and females with similar smell but with the males having a far more pronounced and distinct smell (especially pre-preflowers).
Another thing that may lead to a skewed perception is that males tend to mature faster and can therefore stink more compared to females of the same age. Sometimes that's
I could make a similar thread about stipules. Males tend to have longer stipules, but not all plants with long stipules are male. If you however have 10 plants with 5 with long stipules those are often the males. It isn't accurate enough to kill plants based on that. Just as males not being thicker or longer by default. Stuff like that assumes an otherwise stable strain. If you cross a small strain with a tall strain, make an F2, you will have both short and long males and both short and long females.
Not saying there's zero truth in it, but culling a plant before it shows sex seems unwise to me. If it hasn't shown sex yet there's no good reason to kill it other than a lab test.
