This is a very strong subject at the moment... and also one I am yet to recieve any satisfactory answers for. Are seeds pre-disposed to be one sex or the other? To my mind, seed pre-disposition means that the seed will have one stronger chromosome than the other. In other words, cannabis will have both chromosomes, but either the male or female chromosome will be dominant, with the other dormant (I believe this is in degrees)
If we don't agree that seeds are pre-disposed, then what does this leave?
This leaves a-sexuality, and hermaphroditism. Hermaphroditism is when both chromosomes are of equal dominance in the plant. It is also presently believed that the hermaphrodite 'gene' is stronger than either just male or female on it's own (this info' came from a breeder, i haven't checked it out). So, for me, this rules out hermaphroditism as a possibility.
We are now left with a-sexuality... my understanding of this is limited. Although, to my mind asexuality, is when a life-form has no sexual organs... Could cannabis actually be born a-sexual? and then decide from the environment what sex it is going to be? I doubt this. I doubt it because over the years we have noticed that, for the most part, male and female plants have different growth patterns. Males tall and thin, fem's short and bushy.
So, I think that seeds are pre-disposed to be one sex or the other... and that if this is the case. For 24/0 to have an effect on male/female ratios would mean the plant would have to do a complete sex reversal. one chromosome would need to go from dormant to dominant, just because of the longer day? I'll have to leave it here, there is more tucked away...
If I could just throw in my two cents here.. I'd say yes and no, as far as seeds being pre-disposed to a certain sex. But not in the way you think.
Some plants are asexual and don't reproduce through sexual reproduction. All of their offspring are in reality clones of the original (which you all know).
Other plants and all flowering ones have both sex organs present in the same plant (but like humans some flowers can be only male and others can be female). They can't reproduce with themselves though only with other plants of the same or very similar species. This is where the concept of pollination comes into play.
Sex and plants is a very complex issue and there are 11 different types of sexual reproduction methods used in plants. Some of these methods require that the plant has both sexual organs, like flowers, others are unisexual, and others have no sexual organs; most of them have
According to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_sexua...
"Specific terms are used to describe the sexual expression of individual plants within a population.
- Androecious - plants producing male flowers only, produce pollen but no seeds, the male plants of a Dioecious species.
- Dioecious - having unisexual reproductive units with male and female plants. (flowers, conifer cones, or functionally equivalent structures) occurring on different individuals; from Greek for "two households". Individual plants are not called dioecious: they are either gynoecious or androecious.
- Gynoecious - plants producing female flowers only, produces seeds but no pollen, the female of a Dioecious species. In some plant species or populations all individuals are gynoecious with non sexual reproduction used to produce the next generation.
- Hermaphrodite - A plant that has only bisexual reproductive units (flowers, conifer cones, or functionally equivalent structures). In angiosperm terminology a synonym is monoclinous from the Greek "one bed".
- Monoecious - having unisexual reproductive units (flowers, conifer cones, or functionally equivalent structures) of both sexes appearing on the same plant; from Greek for "one household". Individuals bearing flowers of both sexes at the same time are called simultaneously or synchronously monoecious. Individuals that bear only flowers of a single sex at one time are called consecutively monoecious; protoandrous describes individuals that function first as males and then change to females; protogynous describes individuals that function first as females and then change to males.
- Subdioecious, a tendency in some dioecious species to produce monoecious plants. The population produces normally male or female plants but some are hermaphroditic, with female plants producing some male or hermaphroditic flowers or vise versa. The condition is thought to represent a transition between hermaphroditism and dioecy.
- Gynomonoecious - has both hermaphrodite and female structures.
- Andromonoecious - has both hermaphrodite and male structures.
- Subandroecious - plant has mostly male flowers, with a few female or hermaphrodite flowers.
- Subgynoecious - plant has mostly female flowers, with a few male or hermaphrodite flowers.
- Trimonoecious (polygamous) - male, female, and hermaphrodite structures all appear on the same plant.
- Diclinous ("two beds"), an angiosperm term, includes all species with unisexual flowers, although particularly those with only unisexual flowers, i.e. the monoecious and dioecious species."
There's not really much of a debate on the issue that some plants may have more males than females, since most plants are rooted they don't handle sex like animals do.
