its hard to tell yet but if you see small white hairs coming out of the tops and corners of the plants its a fem if you see little ball clusters its a male and also i just learned this as well but for future reference never unless its completely dead cut any of the vegitation off your plant. and the stick beside you plant isnt really necessary maybe in the first few weeks of growth but other than that wind and other weather conditions will naturally strengthen your stem and keep it up. if you want to bush your plants out look up fimming and topping i would recommend fimming i tried it for the first time this year and got great results