# Early detection of male cannabis by scent



## perdidobandito (Apr 17, 2015)

Over the last years I've noticed that male plants will tend be discoverable very early, around week 4 from seed simply by their smell. It is hard to explain this smell rather than a bland, spicy smell with a small skunk undertone. Of course,the strains natural smells will come through but that male smell is consistent. Besides the usual thicker and longer branches, I've used this theory many times to successfully find male plants especially in geurilla grows. Females will have more pronounced and fruity(or sour). Try this and see if it helps.


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## budman111 (Apr 18, 2015)

cool tip!


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## On The Hunt (Apr 18, 2015)

I will remember to try this when I have the opportunity, neat observation! Didn't know about the thicker and longer branch distinction either. Thank you for the info. I'm still trying to wrap my head around male selection for pollen, too...I chose one based on its size, vigor, and delayed sex display, but am unsure as to how to detect potency..hoping to find a way that doesn't involve growing the dude all the way out, very limited space. Any insight? Thanks again!


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## vostok (Apr 18, 2015)

Peer Review ..?


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## Sativied (Apr 18, 2015)

On The Hunt said:


> 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.


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## perdidobandito (Apr 19, 2015)

I do not ever kill any plant until I see the actual flowers but in my experience this does help me separate the ones I think are males until flowers show.


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## perdidobandito (Apr 19, 2015)

Also the seeds I get are usually very old stable strains so it's easier to smell differences


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## torontoke (Apr 19, 2015)

You could make a killing working at the airport.
Lol jk man

I will try this out next time im running reg beans.
Thanks for the tip


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## perdidobandito (Apr 20, 2015)

torontoke said:


> You could make a killing working at the airport.
> Lol jk man


 hahahah


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## calicocalyx (Apr 22, 2015)

I definitely choose the stinkier males for breeding and have noticed males are skunky well before they are sexed. Choosing males for breeding is a little trickier just because we can't really sample them but it is good to have a range to choose from and be able to pick specific ones, not just use any male that happens to be there. I like growing the males until just before the flowers open in order to see the bud structure from that side of the genetics as well as get an idea for how fast they are and how much they stretch.


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## The Yorkshireman (Apr 24, 2015)

perdidobandito said:


> Over the last years I've noticed that male plants will tend be discoverable very early, around week 4 from seed simply by their smell. It is hard to explain this smell rather than a bland, spicy smell with a small skunk undertone. Of course,the strains natural smells will come through but that male smell is consistent. Besides the usual thicker and longer branches, I've used this theory many times to successfully find male plants especially in geurilla grows. Females will have more pronounced and fruity(or sour). Try this and see if it helps.


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