There are things to learn when you are getting into growing marijuana at home for your personal use. It’s a great thing to do for any marijuana enthusiast with any interest in growing plants. Growers Choice Seeds has high-quality seeds for the best marijuana strains out there, and marijuana is an easier plant to grow than most. However, even if you use marijuana, you might not know much about the plant. For example, did you know that there are male marijuana plants and female marijuana plants? It’s true. Also, there are hermaphroditic plants, but those are rare and less relevant. When growing marijuana at home you need to know about male and female plants, and also be able to identify the early signs of male plant characteristics. Why does the difference between male plants and female plants matter? And what are the early signs of male plants in the world of marijuana? Here’s what to work for when you are getting better at being an at-home cannabis grower.
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Why do I need to care about the early signs of male plant life?
OK, so there are male marijuana plants and female marijuana plants. So what? Why does it matter? Well, if you are growing marijuana at home, it actually matters quite a bit. There are fundamental differences between male and female marijuana plants. The biggest one is that only female plants have buds. Now, if you know marijuana at all, you know the importance of buds to the marijuana experience. It’s the buds that contain almost all of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC, which is why marijuana makes you high. Male marijuana plants have basically no THC on them. You aren’t getting stoned with male weed plants. Now, male marijuana plants are still vital to the world of marijuana. Male plants are the ones with pollen sacs. The pollen sacs are what pollinate the female plants, which is how marijuana proliferates as a species. For marijuana breeders, male plants are vital. For people who are just growing a few plants at home for personal use, female plants are all you need, and male plants are just kind of a bummer. Thus, being able to recognize the early signs of a male plant is vital.
What are the early signs of male plant samples?
When you are talking about “early signs,” we are talking about pre-flowering marijuana plants. Once a plant starts to flower, it can be a little easier to identify male versus female marijuana plants. So what are the early signs of male plants on the marijuana front? Well, perhaps the best thing to do is look for what the plant doesn’t have. In the pre-flowering phrase, female marijuana plants will start growing fine, white hairs. These hairs are called stigmas. They will be growing from small, rudimentary buds, and are located where the branches meet the central stalk. Stigmas start to appear on female plants about four to six weeks after germination, which is when the seed sprouts. An early sign of a male plant is the fact you won’t see any of these stigmas on them. Male marijuana plants never grow stigmas. If your marijuana plants don’t have fine, white hairs after six weeks, that’s an early sign of a male plant. Now, is there anything you can see and identify as an early sign of a male plant? Well, you need to look for the early signs of pollen sacs. The pollen sacs also grow at the crux where branches meet stalks. These early pollen sacs won’t have stigmas, though, and they are also shaped more like spades, while the budlike features stigmas grow from are more shaped like teardrops. Notably, male plants start to show these signs a week or two before female plants start to identify themselves.
Are there other signs beyond these early signs of male plant life?
Beyond looking for stigmas and early signs of pollen sacs, there are other signs of male plants forming. You may even be able to identify these things as early signs of male plants as well. Male plants tend to grow taller than female players. If you see a plant shooting up early, it may be a male plant. Now, that’s trickier as an early sign of a male plant. What may be easier is recognizing a male versus a female plant by the stalk. Male marijuana plants have thicker, sturdier stalks. Additionally, female weed plants have more leaves. Male plants are often sparse on the leaf front. If you are noticing a lot of leaves, it’s likely a female plant. Then, in time, pollen sacs and buds will show up, in case you miss anything.