# Need help cloning/sexing



## Themug (Feb 9, 2016)

Hey all, my first post on here but I'm hoping someone might shed some light on what I'm doing wrong/not doing.  I started some seeds about 10 weeks ago, mystery seeds that I got from a friend, and it turns out that I have 2 different varieties.  I'm growing them both out because why not??  In the past I have taken my vegging plants and cut the light back to 12/12 for about 3 days and then returned them to 18 hours on.  That always worked for me for determining sex but I have also had plants that didn't want to go back to veg after that and were hard to clone.  Many years later I now realize that that is not the best approach so I took some cuttings, put them in water and put them under 10 hours of light and 14 complete darkness.  After 2 weeks I still couldn't determine the sex of them and they eventually fizzled out.  I will admit that I've never been very good at determining sex but after 2 weeks and checking them closely with a good magnifying glass I still couldn't tell so I went to plan B.  Took some more cuttings, dipped them in some good quality, fresh cloning gel and put them in rock wool cubes thinking that maybe if they rooted first I would have better luck.  After 10 days curiosity got the best of me and I split open a couple of cubes and the clones still look good but no roots in sight.  I haven't given up yet but what should I be doing to determine the sex of my mothers???  It's a small closet grow under a 400W HPS.  Temps drop slightly at night, upper 60's at most but it generally is very consistent with temps 73-75.  Humidity is also very consistant at 50-55% but I do keep my cuttings under a humidity dome and mist the inside of the dome to keep the rh up.  I also keep the cuttings on a shelf above the light so  they get light but not direct light.  Again, even above the light temps stay pretty steady at 73-75.  The mothers look great, robust, healthy and growing fast.  I've been feeding them a good well balanced diet with an emphasis on nitrogen because I intend to use them as mothers.  Could that have anything to do with it???  Also, the plants are about 10 weeks old now and the first cuttings I took were when the plant was somewhere around 7 weeks old.  Too young for cutting maybe????  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!!


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 10, 2016)

If you are seriously asking why not grow out mystery seeds given to you by a friend, I can give you at least a dozen reasons....If on the other hand it is a rhetorical question and you are going to grow these out regardless, then patience is your answer.  Most plants are going to take longer than 2 weeks to show sex, especially if you take cuttings from immature plants and just stick them into 10/14.  Plants sex at their own rate of speed and you can only speed it up so much.  Also 10 days is far too soon to give up on cuttings.  If I have roots in 10 days, I consider myself lucky.  Most take 2 weeks or longer.

Plants 7-10 weeks old though should be showing some kind of preflowers.  Excess N will keep a plant from flowering properly.  So when you say that you are feed them a balanced diet with an emphasis on N, what exactly does that mean?  What exactly are you feeding them, how much and how often?  What kind of soil are they in?  Are you vegging with HPS?  Do you know how to identify preflowers?  Can we get some pictures?

Do you have a space to keep moms?  A lot of us simply take clones from clones and do not keep mothers.  Also, why designate something a mother when you have absolutely no idea what you are going to get and whether you are even going to like the high?


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## MeNtAlPaTiEnT (Feb 21, 2016)

White hairs... in my past experience show up at at least 3-6 weeks of veg. They are unmistakable, you'll know them for what they are when you see them. Altho apparently now, im doing a 100% indica strain and at 1.5 month old not a single white hair... attribute it to stress, attribute it to strain/genetics... not sure what to say.

I'd say you can take a cutting whenever you see a decent branch... it needs to be a certain length, not too short - definately. Short clones you dont want, the bigger the better. I've heard cutting the edges/tips of the leaves of the clones helps with speed of rooting.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 22, 2016)

I can absolutely say that in decades of growing that I have never had a plant show in 3 weeks.  Even 4 weeks is quite early.  Plan on 6-8 weeks for most plants to show sex.


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## Rosebud (Feb 22, 2016)

Seems to take 8 weeks at my house for most plants to show.. seems like forever, but that is it.. Why are you cloning if you don't know the sex?  


Oh dear, excuse  my manners, welcome to MP!  Happy you are here..  Read  all the info you can. Let us know what we can do for you.. If your using bag seed that comes with some problems..


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## Themug (Feb 25, 2016)

Thanks for the replies!  Yes, I know it's never a good idea to use bag seed but I haven't grown indoors in ages and I'm doing this as kind of a trial run for now so I can get a good feel for the new grow room.  I took one cutting off of each plant and put it under 14 hours of darkness just to see if that might be a faster way to sex my plants.  That didn't help me out because I think the donor plants probably weren't mature enough.  If a plant is too young for pre flowers will a clone of that plant be able to flower???  Anyway, I just wasn't patient enough and since then my babies have developed their pre flowers and I have culled out the males and now have a couple of nice females.  Thanks again for the replies!!


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## MeNtAlPaTiEnT (Feb 25, 2016)

Nice! Good work so far .


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 26, 2016)

Themug said:


> Thanks for the replies!  Yes, I know it's never a good idea to use bag seed but I haven't grown indoors in ages and I'm doing this as kind of a trial run for now so I can get a good feel for the new grow room.  I took one cutting off of each plant and put it under 14 hours of darkness just to see if that might be a faster way to sex my plants.  That didn't help me out because I think the donor plants probably weren't mature enough.  If a plant is too young for pre flowers will a clone of that plant be able to flower???  Anyway, I just wasn't patient enough and since then my babies have developed their pre flowers and I have culled out the males and now have a couple of nice females.  Thanks again for the replies!!



Plants will flower when they are sexually mature.  If you take a cut from a plant that is not sexually mature it will not flower.  If the cut is from a plant that is sexually mature, it will flower.

Even if you are just doing a trial run, I could never understand spending 4 months on something that will give you unknown results.  Growing is an endeavor that takes time, money, effort, and energy--why not spend $50 (or less) on good quality known genetics rather than gamble on whether mystery seeds are going to produce anything of quality or hermy?


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