Male or Female Cannabis? Some Tips You Should Know

Cannabis plants have evolved enormously over the past couple of decades, mainly thanks to human kind. We’ve spent years combining different species from all over the planet. Every strain has its own specific characteristics, such as structure, type of buds, flavor and effects. When you combine male and female weed plants that are different strains, the new creation takes on characteristics from both, allowing us to create totally new plants.

One of the biggest evolutions has been the appearance of feminized plants; after years and years of work, cannabis plants can be created to have a 99% chance to be female. You need to know how to tell male from female plants when growing regular seeds, as you’ll only get actual psychoactive weed from the female flowers. Male plants pollinate female plants, which fills their flowers up with seeds so if you’re looking to make the most of your plants you’ll want to keep them away from each other. Hopefully we can help you to tell the difference between male and female weed plants by the end of this article; it’s not that hard, but if it’s not explained correctly it can be a bit confusing.

When do marijuana plants reveal their gender?

Cannabis plants go through two stages of life, the “vegetative” stage and the “flowering stage.”

They first go through the vegetative life stage, which you can sort of consider its “childhood” since the plant is only focusing on growing bigger and taller, and gender doesn’t matter. At the beginning of this stage you usually can’t tell what the plant’s gender is.

However, once the plant is about 6 weeks old, it will usually show signs of “pre-flowers” which will alert you to the gender before the beginning of the flowering stage.

What’s the difference between male and female weed plants?

How to identify a male weed plant?

The male cannabis plants can be recognized by their round spheres in the leaf axils. These are larger than those of the female plants. The armpits can be found at the top of the branch where the branch grows from the trunk. Moreover, the globules of a male plant doesn’t have any hairs (which the female plant doe have). Finally, male plants often look thin and unhealthy. In most cases a male cannabis plant has fewer leaves and grows less high.

How to identify a female weed plant?

Female cannabis plants also have a ball at the armpit (just like the male plants). However, with female plants a hair is growing out of the bulb. In addition, the globules are smaller compared to male marijuana plants. A female cannabis plant also looks healthier. The plant has more branching and is often larger than the male plant.

Hermaphrodite Cannabis

Hermaphrodites are a type of plant that contains both male and female flowers, so they will produce buds but they will also pollinate those buds and the rest of your plants. Plants may naturally become hermaphrodites or be turned into one due to stress. Both female and male plants can turn. Thai strains are more genetically inclined to become hermaphrodites, although any strain can turn when stressed enough. There are many factors that can stress out your plants and end up turning them, such as extra light when they’re supposed to be in the night cycle, too much or not enough water, certain insects or pathogens, watering with cold water, or even a badly done transplant. Hermaphrodites aren’t the best type of plants to keep around, as they can produce buds but it’s definitely a risk because they might pollinate the rest of your plants. We recommend getting rid of them; it’s not worth it just for a little bit more weed.

There are two types of hermaphrodite plants:

A plant that develops both buds and pollen sacs
A plant that produces anthers, commonly referred to as “bananas” due to their appearance
While both result in pollen production, true hermaphrodites produce sacs that need to rupture, while anthers are exposed, pollen-producing stamen.

Because this occurs when cannabis is under stress, it’s important to monitor plants after they have been exposed to stressors. Indoors, high temperatures, or light leaks are often the cause. Outdoors, a snapped branch might be repaired and then turn into a hermaphrodite.

Would you like starting grow cannabis at home? Why not buy a grow package which contains inline fan, carbon filter, indoor grow tents and cannabis grow lights? The weed grow package can save your time for choosing grow system, it is also in lowest price. Have a happy growing!