February through March is a good time to sprout seeds of your favorite strains. Outdoor growers who are not using feminized seeds need the time prior to planting to sex their plants by sprouting some potential mother plants. Indoor growers also find that spring-cleaning means cleaning out old genetics that have been stressed from a long winter.
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| The transition from seed to seedling |
Sprouting seeds is simple, and most of us learn how to do so in kindergarten. Simply place your seeds in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel, and in a few days the seeds will crack and a small root will extend out from them. Plant those seeds in your preferred grow medium, or dirt, and water. Be sure to keep sprouts in at least 18 hours of light per day, which means you cannot just leave your sprouts on the windowsill. A small fluorescent light on a timer is enough to grow seedlings, especially if they are getting some natural sunlight. While in an 18-hour-on light cycle, a plant will stay in the vegetative stage and continue to grow without producing flowers (female buds or male pollen sacs).
When your seedling grows big enough (3-5 weeks, depending on the strain), you can take a cutting (aka a clone) of each of your young plants to determine the sex of your plant. Marijuana plants will show their sex after approximately two weeks of growth in a 12-hour-on/12-hour-off light cycle. This light cycle will transition the plants into sexual maturity. Make sure to carefully mark each plant and clone with a unique label so that you know which plant each cutting came from.
Female cannabis plants show small white hairs (early pistils called calyxes) in between the nodes, whereas males have balls (small unbloomed flowers called staminate primordia) that grow in between the nodes. These male plant balls are pollen-bearing sacs that when mature will pollinate your buds and cause them to be loaded with seeds. Most growers destroy all male plants, keeping the females only. That is the technique that produces what we call sinsemilla, which simply means no seeds.
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Using preflowers for sexing is for advanced growers. |
“Preflowers” are little versions of adult flowers that appear on your marijuana plants relatively early in the vegetative stage. When I first started growing weed, I learned (incorrectly) that there is no way to determine a cannabis plant’s sex until the flowering stage. But I’ve since learned that preflowers can reveal the plant’s sex while it’s still in the vegetative stage! Cannabis plants grow preflowers as young as 3-4 weeks from germination for male plants, and 4-6 weeks from germination for female plants. Advanced growers who really know what they are looking for can use this technique. Remember, it only takes one male to pollinate your whole crop, which is not good unless you are looking to produce seeds. Advanced growers frown on clones due to issues with contamination, disease, and a weaker taproot. I find these issues arise more often after second-generation clones and from lack of sanitation in one’s grow room.
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I let them veg till May to grow monster outdoor plants. |
If you start this process in the beginning of February, you can produce healthy mothers of clones that can be ready to plant in your outdoor grow in late April, and you will know that those plants will be potent and seedless. Personally, I let them veg inside till May to grow monster outdoor plants and avoid late frost. Mother plants can produce many clones for both indoor and outdoor grows. One good rule of thumb: It’s OK to take clones from your indoor plants but not your outdoor ones. Nobody wants to bring bugs and contaminants into a freshly cleaned grow room. Be sure to disinfect your grow space routinely. I like to start out the spring fresh, airing everything out, a fully cleaned room with some new mothers started from seeds every year.
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