How long do you have to grow seedlings before you can switch to 12/12 to sex them?

BUCKET said:

thanks for your help! im growing in my backyard in town so its a bit sketchy as i dont have a vehicle to find a good spot out in the mountains somewhere. im hoping that the street lights, and peoples lights in their backyard dont mess things up come flowering time. i guess only time will tell. who knows it might have even been that, that caused my last year plants to flower so late. then again they were a sativa dom, so im hoping that was the issue. Good luck to you too this year! happy growing

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Yes, the neighborhood lights will bother her. If they're bright enough to light your yard then she will see it. What makes it worse is that a lot of people use hps lights for those night lights.

Very true...good point! I live out on the sticks..ooops..I mean woods..lol I dont have those kind of problems but trust me...I still have my fair share of other problems!

hmm. if i had a place with acreage i would just put the male far away from the fems, but i dont have that luxury. if i do grow the males outside does he drop the pollen slowly or is it a one time deal that it drops it all at once? is it obvious when he will drop the pollen so i can catch it as soon as it happens collect some and apply some to the female i want to breed and then cull them?
yeah im a little worried about that happening. the yard lights arent too bad. they dont light up my backyard but you can see the lights. the closest street light is directly in front of my house and the house blocks it from where im planning on putting them. is the only issue with light during night time hermie issues or is there other problems that can happen as well?

thanks for all the help

out in the sticks you gotta worry about more animal issues i would assume eh? our yard is fully enclosed we get the odd rat and mouse but the cats usually keep them away, slugs are everywhere too but i didnt have an issue at all with them last year so im hoping for the same luck this year. we had a bear in the yard last year knocked over some of the other plants we had growing but nothing was too damaged. other than that my only issue is the nosy neighbours and the lights.

Well to be honest Bucket...I really cant tell you what kind of impact that street light will have on the plants during the night. Its just something I have never had to deal with...sorry I know that indoors it would definitly have an effect on the plants....im talking about light leaks during the dark cycle. I knew of one guy who kept complaining that his girls had been on 12/12 for weeks and they were just refusing to start flowering...I went over to check out his grow and he had light leaks everywhere...Dark means exactly that,

Your male...no he will not release his pollen all at once....it starts gradually...and continues for weeks if he is left that long. Thats why I say...if your girls start to flower and he is dropping pollen...you will see the little sacs opening up and pollen on the leafs....just get some pollen on some of the flowers that are starting and then get rid of him....you will have seed and the plant will continue to flower

I have done it many times....just slightly pollenate a couple of plants and then get rid of the male. Whatever pistils on the female that caught pollen will produce seed and the rest of the flower will be seed free. The other nice thing about pollenating the females early is that the seed will have time to fully develope...by the time you harvest your plants, those seeds will be big, fat and dark in most cases.... If you do it this way you dont have to worry about having him indoors.....that can be a pain if you dont have a space prepared already....the other thing you might try is to set yourself a indoor grow room...that eliminates some of those variables we have been discussing about outdoor growing

ok, ill put them on the opposite side of the yard of the females and i should be good. thanks. i do have a 400 watt hps, 4x4 tent, booster fan and scrubber but havent had a chance to use it. im only allowed to grow in the shed out back but im pretty nervous about doing that as the neighbours will see me entering all the time possibly see the light and probably hear the fan. i was hoping to use it in my house but the rest of the household is worried about fires so i have to respect that. the shed has power built in so thats a plus but its a small shed, cant really fit anything in the shed other than the tent and my lawn mower so i wouldnt really have an excuse to be going out there every day. my neighbours are always outside so i dunno what to do. any suggestions?

Hmmmm...well I see your points. Again..I guess I am spoiled because i really dont have to deal with those issues. You can make those plants grow into shorter bushes with proper topping and tying them down and training them. That would make them less obvious in the back yard. I would grow them all together, males and females...your going to be visiting those plants daily...you wont be able to help yourself because your just gonna want to see them and what they are doing...besides that..you should check on them often...thats how you catch problems that could occure. You seem to be concerned with those males over pollenating your females...I'm telling you...relax....you will see whats happening with the males and females...you will catch them in time.

Get those books and read them from cover to cover....again and again. You will see that as your going along you will go back to those books over and over again....great refrences put together by some of the worlds leading experts on Cannabis.

i wish i could just grow in my house but right now i cant. yeah im planning on doing some lst and topping. last year my plants were the perfect size, had tons of tops and were really short and bushy. hopefully i can replicate that this year and they dont get too big. i think starting end of april will do fine. about the males. yeah maybe im worrying about it too much. even if there are a couple seeds throughout the bud it wont be that big of a deal. but i probably wont even have to worry about it. thanks for all your help!

yeah ill for sure take your advice and get the books next time i have a little extra cash.

No worries....Peace