Delayed and Staggered Flowering

Hello all. Long time reader first time poster. I am a newbie (outdoor) grower with one success season. I have a question about sexing and maturation.

I have four in the ground grown from random seeds I collected (sloppy and noncommittal, I know). Three of the four are almost six feet tall. One is at three feet, stunted due to drought, but she is flowering. The problem: two are not showing the same rate of maturation. I am concerned that these two plants that (very?) late to show sex are male or hermaphroditic. I take a magnified look at the branch-stem joint of these mystery plants. When I do, I see what might be the darkening hairs of beginning female pistils, but the lateness of the development concerns me.

My questions:
Could males take this long to show pollen sacks?
Could I be missing sure signs of male plants?
Would hermaphrodites appear sex neutral and then secretly throw pollen in the air when I skip a weekly visit?
Is mid-August in the midwest too early to be expecting fuller maturity?

The main question:
Should I yank these two late bloomers out of caution or keep playing wait and see?

Two notes on the seeds:

1. I had expected half the crop to be males (2 of 4) by the law of statistical average. I have found no males (0 of 4). I fear I am not seeing the male pollen sacks during inspection. I can only visit the site once a week at most, so I cannot monitor as much as I would like. Could the seeds be second generation genetically feminized . . . to explain the all female crop?

2. Is it possible that the different mix of plant strands is causing the frustrating staggering of showing sex?

Apologies for being a sloppy grower,
Kinch

1. Yes they can delay showing anysex for 6 months.. my 2 heshe whores did that
2. look toward the tops for small sacs looks like small green eggs clustered or just 1-2
3 hermies wil show when you dont expect it like 6 months after taking care o them and just like a lady turns on ya. do not allow it to sac up on you kill it!
4. I have 10 - 6 flowering 2 full veg 2 just happy to be a pot plant and (they are clones no signs of flowers really)


dont yank it till ya know...
I had the same statisically thing happen.. outta 12 --2 were not fem

your only a sloppy grower if you DONT ask or seek this info out...

Sativa strains take longer to do everything. Tall plants probably have heavy sativa genetics. The high is worth the wait! As to visits - I'll take kickass weed with seeds before I go without. Yes sensimilla is our goal. But smoking since the 60's I have probably smoked enough bricked Mexican to equal a dairy haystack.

Different strains means different genetics= different flowering times. Like HotRod said, Sativa's usually take longer to enter the flowering cycle. Try and post some pics if possible. Would be a huge help!

hotrodharley said:

Sativa strains take longer to do everything. Tall plants probably have heavy sativa genetics. The high is worth the wait! As to visits - I'll take kickass weed with seeds before I go without. Yes sensimilla is our goal. But smoking since the 60's I have probably smoked enough bricked Mexican to equal a dairy haystack.

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Yeah I am generally negative towards those outdoor growers allowing their stuff to go to seed when they are clueless to the possibilities of their crap pollinating anyone's stuff within a mile radius.. I love the hell outta free seeds.. I have 2 strains which each year give me 4-5 seeds Orange Crush and Bubba Kush. I dont allow my plants to go hermie for long nor do males stick around.

I am not sure but I head once that Nature will find a way ... (j.p 3 ref) and it's true.. ever watch Life without people?

IF you are lucky you can get seeds and I dont know if it's other growers near me that I got a few grains of pollen from or nature finding a way to survive like it does in nature.

gotta love free :WEED ANYTHING: be it seeds -clones etc

gioua said:

Yeah I am generally negative towards those outdoor growers allowing their stuff to go to seed when they are clueless to the possibilities of their crap pollinating anyone's stuff within a mile radius.. I love the hell outta free seeds.. I have 2 strains which each year give me 4-5 seeds Orange Crush and Bubba Kush. I dont allow my plants to go hermie for long nor do males stick around.

I am not sure but I head once that Nature will find a way ... (j.p 3 ref) and it's true.. ever watch Life without people?

IF you are lucky you can get seeds and I dont know if it's other growers near me that I got a few grains of pollen from or nature finding a way to survive like it does in nature.

gotta love free :WEED ANYTHING: be it seeds -clones etc

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I had decent success with grow sens down there. But one bad wind storm when the males were bustin' nuts and count on a sloppy grower (or honest mistake by tossing seeds to discard) knocking your girls up. Then, like with your girl dog, all you can do is hope the father is something decent or even better.

OP, I think you are just getting worried. You have to realize that different strains take longer to flower than others. If you see pistils, then good, its probably a female. In my experience, males always show at least a month before the females, but thats in my location. Even if you have a hermie plant, it will still produce some very smokeable bud, so you should quarantine it and continue to grow it out and harvest it. The seeds from it will be viable, but there is a good chance they will produce hermie plants as well... keep those or throw em away its ur choice.

Male's can take longer than females to flower ime.

FresnoFarmer said:

Male's can take longer than females to flower ime.

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just like males in human kind.

FresnoFarmer said:

Male's can take longer than females to flower ime.

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True, but I have NEVER had a male show after the females.. usually for me they are about a month or so in advance, which is good cuz I can quarantine them or trash em before the ladies get their period and turn fertile.

Kaendar said:

True, but I have NEVER had a male show after the females.. usually for me they are about a month or so in advance, which is good cuz I can quarantine them or trash em before the ladies get their period and turn fertile.

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I have only experienced one male plant.....he was the first plant to show sex. Maybe next time my females will show first who knows?........better yet......who even gives a fuck?

FresnoFarmer said:

I have only experienced one male plant.....he was the first plant to show sex. Maybe next time my females will show first who knows?........better yet......who even gives a fuck?

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Yea, fuck males lol. Thats why I hardly ever grow from seed. I hate waiting for them to grow, plus theres the whole male factor.

Thanks for all the comments. I take it that I am being overly cautious, but I will still need to keep an eye on the late bloomers. Males likely would have showed some sack by now. What I do see I would wager is ladyparts. The drought could be stunting development too. I fear I am seeing what I want to when I I.D. the hairs.

Regardless, smart point on letting field plants go to weed. Messes with everyone's crop, doesn't it? Good thing I'm not that sloppy.

Growing from seed is rewarding, but trying to spot and yank males is tedious. Seedbank for the feminized next year.

I'll see what I can do about pics.

Kinch

I have almost the same set up you have going. 3 plants in the ground *bag seeds and 1 from a past indoor grow*. The bigger of the 3 is almost 6 feet tall *5'5* and it is a week or more behind in flowering.It just only started to really show it was female the last 2-3 days.Funny thing is that it looks 100% indica,and the other 2 are a LOT more sativa looking.Yet they started flowering a week before it.I am thinking it is due to either light *there getting more shade* or there height *small plants = flower sooner??* This is my 1st outdoor grow and really i'm just happy that all 3 turned out to be female.It sure does have me a little puzzled tho.

I wouldn't pull your plants till your 100% sure its a male.Wait another week and keep a close eye on them.Post some pics if you can and we might be able to give you a heads up if its looking more male or female...though do you really care if you get a FEW seeds anyway.Its not like your taking the bud to have it judged,you just want some good smoke. (and this might just be me, but if I have only 3-4 plants and one turned out to be a hermy. I would go out every day (that I could) and pick off its pollen sacks,just to minimize seed count in the crop.If its a really nice big plant,your still looking at a lot of good bud.)....but that's just what I would do. Its hard for me to kill a plant that would still give me a fair amount of bud.

Kinch said:

Thanks for all the comments. I take it that I am being overly cautious, but I will still need to keep an eye on the late bloomers. Males likely would have showed some sack by now. What I do see I would wager is ladyparts. The drought could be stunting development too. I fear I am seeing what I want to when I I.D. the hairs.

Regardless, smart point on letting field plants go to weed. Messes with everyone's crop, doesn't it? Good thing I'm not that sloppy.

Growing from seed is rewarding, but trying to spot and yank males is tedious. Seedbank for the feminized next year.

I'll see what I can do about pics.

Kinch

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You should definitely grow from clone next year. U can avoid the whole male hassle

Kaendar -

I know nothing of cloning and find it rather intimidating . . . I don't really have a base of operations and wouldn't even know how to either maintain a cutting until next year (without grow room) or find a plant next May to take a cutting. I'll have to examine some of the info on RIU. So goes the grow of a man reliant on nature's whims.

Kinch said:

Kaendar -

I know nothing of cloning and find it rather intimidating . . . I don't really have a base of operations and wouldn't even know how to either maintain a cutting until next year (without grow room) or find a plant next May to take a cutting. I'll have to examine some of the info on RIU. So goes the grow of a man reliant on nature's whims.

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Damn, we really do have it good here in Cali!!

Yeah i'm in the boat. It's not worth it (for me) to make clones and veg them over winter (even tho I know how to do it). Also I don't have/know anyone I could get clones from. So I will just roll the dice and hope it comes up female. This year I hit the jackpot..3/3 females.

KINCH, Cloning is so easy don't be intimidated by it. I did my first cloning this year and my first try I got a little impatient and thought I had cloned to early off my mother plant ( only 5 or 6 weeks old) also I was doing it all outside. But the second time I tried and the one after that they all worked fine. Just have to be patient. All I used was a razor, cloning liquid, the sun, and a humidity dome with Jiffy cubes. Works great it's too easy man. Keep the leaves misted once a day for the first 5 days and you'll be good to go in 10 to 17 days guaranteed brotha.

Just to follow up, all 4 turned out female. As a poster mentioned, they appeared to be two indiica dominant and two sativa. This explains the flowering period difference and other characteristics. Don't know if the all fem crop was luck or just the result of feminized seeds being out on the market for so long. Very good harvest in two stages about two weeks apart.

Thanks to all for the assistance. Good luck this season, outdoorsman (and women).

Kinch