Supersoil: how do i determine the sex of plants before the transplant?

I'm sure this has been covered before, but i could not find the answer with my searches. Methods I have heard about reading forums:

1. transplant from the 1gal starter pots to an intermediary 3 gal pot to allow the plant to show it's sex organs before the final transplant to 7 gal pot.

2. use clones (not really an option for me ATM)

3. use feminized seeds (could do this but in my first grow; i don't want to spend a lot more money, and i tend to be skeptical of feminized seeds)

4. switch to 12/12 for a lil bit to force the pre-flowers out then re-veg(could be too much stress and cause hermaphroditism)

5. take cuttings from your vegging plants and induce flowering on the cuttings as soon as they have some roots

Anyone have any other techniques they would like to share? so far im leaning towards #5 but i'm worried my plants would become root bound in the interrum and that's something i'm looking to avoid.

your flowering style/setup will dictate which method is best. any of those methods will get the job done, i prefer method 1. with clones i start i 1 gal pot and step up to 7 gal once they have a solid root system. when starting from seed i veg in a 2 gallon pot till the show sex. in my experience most males begin to show sex about 30 days into veg. if a plant hits day 45 of veg and still no preflowers, its a fairly safe bet its a girl. this works out well for me as my veg times average 60 days. i have no experience with forcing a'plant to flower and reveging. flowering clones will give you 100% acurate information but if ypu take into account the time it takes to grow a'plant large'enough to take clones from, root cuts, and begin to flower i betcha your not saving any time vs just letting it all happen on its'own like i do. hope that info helps a'little.

kane

grownbykane said:

your flowering style/setup will dictate which method is best. any of those methods will get the job done, i prefer method 1. with clones i start i 1 gal pot and step up to 7 gal once they have a solid root system. when starting from seed i veg in a 2 gallon pot till the show sex. in my experience most males begin to show sex about 30 days into veg. if a plant hits day 45 of veg and still no preflowers, its a fairly safe bet its a girl. this works out well for me as my veg times average 60 days. i have no experience with forcing a'plant to flower and reveging. flowering clones will give you 100% acurate information but if ypu take into account the time it takes to grow a'plant large'enough to take clones from, root cuts, and begin to flower i betcha your not saving any time vs just letting it all happen on its'own like i do. hope that info helps a'little.

kane

Click to expand...

thanks for the reply kane, i just might do #1 as you suggest. should i perhaps fertilize the plants in the 2 gallon pots at all or will the roots organic do a decent job with the plants just starting out?

fill the pots with about 4 inches of roots, then put 1 or 2 handfulls of super soil in there and mix it in a bit and fill the rest with roots. that works fine for me to veg till sex is shown. that picture'was taken moments ago, those plants are 30 to 35 day old, and the 5 jillybean seeds i put down are starting to show me their naughty parts (the males are anyways...). there is one plant in there that is fried... i would rather not discuss how my dumbass acomplished that haha (was my first time'running a non-aircooled reflector...)

ps the other plants you see there are bcs dom plushberry and pandoras box.

i wish i knew how to +rep you brotha new to this whole forum thing

edit: figured it out

Asked that same question about a month ago. I decided I'll start my seeds in 4" pots with Light Warrior soil, then transplant to a 2 gal Smart Pot of ROots soil for veg until they show sex. I'll give them a feeding or two of Earth Juice if needed. They'll spend their first 30 days or so under a 4 foot 6 bulb HO T5 in the newly built veg area, then move under the 600 watt HPS in the flowering area (once the white widows finish up). As soon as the females show themselves, they'll go into 7 gal pots with Super Soil.

Should work like a charm. Popping the seeds into soil this evening.

Wow! My bad.... Triple posted for some reason...

try to spot preflowers in veg, if you think your plants will be about 1.5ft tall or 4-5 weeks in veg before re potting
spotting male preflowers is not so easy they are very tiny you have to get right in among the plants and look very closely
if you want to do it at the earliest possible time

it can be easier to spot the preflowers/ male flowers around day 3-4 of the 12/12 photo period,
this is still early enough in the flower period to take cuttings from all the plants that do not show any male preflowers

peace

thank you for the rep my friend. for spotting the males i recommend a $12 micro scope from radio shack (the 60x-100x). it works great for checking preflowers as well as trichs for harvest time. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2179604 that is the one, hope the link works!

kane