Why kill the males?

I keep hearing "kill the males" but why?
1. Can you harvest/smoke the males?
2. Can you harvest/smoke the females that have seeds?
3. If both are yes, then why not let them grow naturally, harvest the seeds, then the leaves & smoke them both?

(growing Durban poison and white widow)

The male cannabis plant in flower produces sacks with pollen (smokeable but the THC content is equivalent to the leaves, better off make hashish)
When there is a male plant nearby a female plant the pollen interacts with the buds creating seeds in the female plants. The reason why this is unwanted by so many growers is because when the female plant produces seeds, the majority of the plants energy is concentrated on seed production, yes you will still get decent sized buds full of seeds but the THC content of your final product will be much less then if there were no males and therefor no seed production.

Ags said:

The male cannabis plant in flower produces sacks with pollen (smokeable but the THC content is equivalent to the leaves, better off make hashish)
When there is a male plant nearby a female plant the pollen interacts with the buds creating seeds in the female plants. The reason why this is unwanted by so many growers is because when the female plant produces seeds, the majority of the plants energy is concentrated on seed production, yes you will still get decent sized buds full of seeds but the THC content of your final product will be much less then if there were no males and therefor no seed production.

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Yeah what he said ^^^^

so pretty much kill the males is a good idea. becasue they arnt even worth smoking and also a female that getts pollinated wont make as good of bud.

shadeforlife said:

I keep hearing "kill the males" but why?

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Because males give low yields of low-THC flowers that are not pleasant to smoke.

Growing indoors is "expensive" in terms of energy, and labor intensity. You have limited space under the lights, and to use it most efficiently you don't want to waste any on low yield low potency males.

Meanwhile the pollen from the males will get EVERYWHERE, ruining any female plants that you are looking to grow.

1. Can you harvest/smoke the males?

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Yes, you can, and in fact the growing tops of male plants can have a decent amount of cannabinoids in them. But overall yield/quality is FAR less than females, and if you can only grow a few plants, you certainly don't want males.

2. Can you harvest/smoke the females that have seeds?

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Again, yes you can, and historically (ie before the mid 1980s) most pot sold in the USA was seeded. Globally speaking, most of the hash on the planet is made from outdoor grown seeded plants. Quality of seeded pot can actually be excellent.

The problem is that, plants making seeds will give less overall yield than seedless ones, and a seeded final product is simply less desirable both to use (you have to pick out all the seeds before smoking) and to sell (because much of the weight of the final product is seeded).

The seeded stuff may not be bad, but given the choice, you probably want to grow and smoke seedless.

3. If both are yes, then why not let them grow naturally, harvest the seeds, then the leaves & smoke them both?

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See above.

If you are growing outdoors for personal use, in an area where there are no legal consequences to growing, and you have plenty of space, it may be easiest just to plant the seeds, and let things go, and harvest seeded flowers in the fall.

But if you're growing indoors, you don't want to waste space on males.

If you are only allowed a certain small number of plants, or have limited space, again, you don't want to waste it on males.

And if you want to sell your buds commercially, seedless is the stuff that is worth the most, and given the choice, that's what you are going to want to grow.

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ;8067837 said:

so pretty much kill the males is a good idea. becasue they arnt even worth smoking and also a female that getts pollinated wont make as good of bud.

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You got it my friend.

Just to be clear, other than wanting to maximize yield from your limited grow space, the reason you want to kill the males as soon as possible is because male flowers mature quickly and male pollen can stay potent for weeks.

If even only a few male flowers ripen, the pollen they drop may completely contaminate a small indoor grow area to the point where much of the final product is seeded.

Killing the males ASAP reduces the chance that they'll fertilize your desired crop and also frees up space for more desirable females.

Simple if you dont want seeds no males. If you want seeds keep them.

Why not seperate them and collect the pollen? You can pollinate only one bracch on a female if you want. I have never bought seeds but I have seen the prices.

Seems like people would want to make a few hundred seeds for future needs rather than paying for them.

I killed my last male today i just cant take any chances,i got 10 flowering plants and plenty of seeds already

indiapale said:

Why not seperate them and collect the pollen? You can pollinate only one bracch on a female if you want. I have never bought seeds but I have seen the prices.

Seems like people would want to make a few hundred seeds for future needs rather than paying for them.

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A couple of reasons.

First of all, you can only separate them if you have two separate grow areas. . .many growers don't have that luxury.

Even if you did separate them, they have to be in absolute quarantine, because males put out a **LOT** of pollen. This pollen floats through the air for literally miles, can gets stuck on clothes, shoes, skin, linger in grow areas, etc. Trust me, you do NOT want full sized males anywhere near your grow room!

If you did want to keep some pollen to fertilize some of your females, you could simply collect some pollen from your desired male (ie while its still small) and freeze it, and it will stay viable for at least several months. If you want to maintain an actual male plant as a "stud", you'd only need something a few inches tall, ideally in its own grow chamber (negative pressure) away from your main one. There is really NEVER any good reason to maintain full sized male plants, unless you're growing industrial HEMP!

Lastly, while it certainly is possible to create your own seeds, if you're not starting with inbred lines, the offspring of random male/female crosses could be quite a bit different than the parents in terms of traits. Just crossing plants to create seeds might not be as helpful as it sounds, depending on what you're crossing and what you expect to get out of it.

indiapale said:

Why not seperate them and collect the pollen? You can pollinate only one bracch on a female if you want. I have never bought seeds but I have seen the prices.

Seems like people would want to make a few hundred seeds for future needs rather than paying for them.

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If the op has to ask this they arnt ready for breading. You must be clean when in the female room. And that's shower washing hair and putting on new close. It's is why we are saying no