Weed plants have evolved thanks to humans, who have been gathering different strains from all over the world. Every of these varieties feature their own characteristics such as their structure, types of flowers, flavors, or effects. When getting a male and a female plant from different species together, the resulting individual inherits characteristics from both parents, obtaining a completely different new plant.
Thanks to the development of feminized seeds, we can be 99% sure that our seed will become a female plant. However, for regular plants, we’ll have to learn how to differentiate them because only females produces the buds. On the other hand, as the males’ role is to pollinate the females to obtain the seeds, they could ruin our crops if we don’t keep them away from females.
How to Differentiate Between Male and Female Weed Plants?
Right below, we’ll explain you how to differentiate between male and female plants in an easy way to become a total pro grower:
Male Weed Plants
A male plant is in charge of producing the pollen for the plant’s reproduction, which means that they are only needed for producing seeds. However, if we are looking for producing buds, we must put them aside.
We won’t be able to identify our plant until it starts the flowering stage and becomes sexually mature. Thus, in a period no longer than three weeks, male weed plants develop some ‘small balls’ (which are the pollen sacs).
If these sacs open up, it would be too late for our females. To prevent pollination, we must cut the pollen sacs as soon as we identify them (we will know that they’ve released the pollen if they look like a small bunch of bananas). Also, unlike in females, these ‘small balls’ don’t have fuzz, being the main factor to determine their gender.
Female Weed Plants
On the other hand, female plants are the most wanted as they are the ones that produce the buds, which are the part of the plant with higher THC concentration.
In case our male and female plants are placed in the same growing area, the smallest speck of pollen is enough for our buds to end up completely full of seeds, so they wouldn’t be unsuitable for their consumption.
Females can be identified by their flowers, which instead of being closed, are much more open and do have the characteristic fuzz mentioned above (the pistils). While males have more rounded and small fruits, females produce bigger buds with thin and long ‘fuzz hairs.’
Hermaphrodite Weed Plants
Hermaphrodite plants have the peculiarity of producing both male and female flowers, which means that they not only produce buds, but they can pollinate our females too. Either male or female weed plants can become hermaphrodite for natural reasons or due to stress. Oddly, Thai genetics are more likely to become hermaphrodite, however, this can happen to any strain.
There are many stressors that can produce hermaphroditism: light exposure during the night period, an excess or lack of water and nutrients, plagues and diseases, watering with very cold water, etc. Likewise, they can also get stressed by simply transplanting plants into a new pot.
As you can imagine, this type of plants are not optimal for growing because although it can produce buds as female plants, we take the risk of ruining or crops with lots of seeds. That’s why, just like males, it’s not worth it to have them, so we recommended removing them.
All of this information may seem quite chaotic, but identifying male and female weed plants is not that hard. Growing feminized cannabis seeds or regular has its own advantages and disadvantages. Thus, with feminized we can get enormous yields, since all of these seeds only grow female plants.
However, we must remember that feminized seeds haven’t gone through a 100% natural process because they’ve been modified to grow female, which can affect quality. That’s why many people prefer growing regular seeds to make the most of the natural flavors and potency of their plants, despite getting a lower production.
