Make sure you are 100% confident that the plant in question is either male or female, prior to discarding from your garden. Male pollen sacs will not be encouraged to open until weeks 3-4 of 12/12, so take the time to be totally sure of your decision making ability.
The conversion rate of female to male plants will be usually around 60/40, so the more seeds you plant then the greater chance you have of finding the elite keeper male or female plants.
Use a magnifying glass or high-powered lens, to get up close and personal with your plants. This will make life much easier considering the flowers can be almost invisible to the naked eye at first.
Take at least one cutting off each plant if you have the space and time. Make sure that you label and number the clones accordingly to the same numbers from the original plants. Taking clones now will save you from reverting the plants back into a vegetative state once they have been harvested.
3 Advantages of Feminized Seeds
Using regular seeds have their own unique advantages, however it is also good to consider the benefits associated with female seeds.
- 100% of your growing space will be used, without the concern of having to remove 40% of the pots once you have sexed the plants. The same applies to the amount of wasted growing medium, nutrients, and light used when sexing regular seeds from a grow room.
- There is a much greater variety of feminized seeds comparison to regular sexed varieties. Over 90% of the commercial marketplace accommodates for the production of all female seeds.
- It is also possible to buy feminized autoflowering and CBD rich varieties. Both of these types of Cannabis plants have a huge following and allow a grower to adapt to their environment and needs much better.