Cannabis: Male, Female or Something Completely Different?

If you are interested in growing cannabis, you will quickly come across everything to do with sex determination and the problems that arise if you are not familiar with it. Even when buying cannabis seeds, you inevitably stumble across "feminized" and "regular" seeds. We at HIZEN believe that you should have a complete overview and have therefore set out to clarify all ambiguities in the following blog post, broaden your view of things a little and maybe even save your grow. So let's start with the distinction between Cannabis: Male or Female?

Biological principles for distinguishing male and female cannabis plants

We start at the very beginning - namely where the fox and the hare say goodnight, the bees visit the flowers and both male and female cannabis plants have their origins: in nature. Nature is a fantastic mechanism based on an intelligence that we cannot really grasp with our human minds. Over millions of years, different species develop, developing defense, reproduction and survival strategies that could have come straight out of futuristic novels. For example, the swordfish, which got its name from the long, pointed saber on its nose. We still don't know what it has that for. What we do know, however, is that Miss Evolution does not like coincidences. Everything has its right to exist and a fixed place in creation. This also applies to the sexual characteristics of cannabis plants. Cannabis is one of the most robust plants there is and can take root in pretty much any conditions. For example, there is evidence that cannabis did not previously produce clearly male or female cannabis plants, but was rather gender-fluid - depending on what the environmental conditions allowed. And even today there are still monoecious cannabis plants (variants that carry both female and male genes), although dioecious cannabis strains are more widespread. The clear advantage of dioeciousness: the separation of roles. While male specimens concentrate entirely on the production and distribution of pollen, the female ones develop magnificent flowers that are excellently suited to being pollinated. But even today - depending on environmental factors - hermaphroditism can occur in cannabis, i.e. a plant that develops both male and female sexual characteristics. Why? We'll get to that later. Now we'll take a closer look at the characteristics of male and female cannabis trees and how you can recognize them. 

Determining the gender of cannabis: male or female?

A grow can be so easy. Buy seeds, put them in the soil, and hey presto, the seedling is there and growing like a weed. And then the big disappointment: Even after several months, the flowers are puny or suddenly full of seeds. The clear separation of the sexes leads to the following phenomenon: Only the female cannabis plants are the ones that produce really large, THC-filled flowers and only if they have not been pollinated. The danger and horror that many a grower has had to experience: A male specimen has sneaked in and pollinated the female grow tent roommates. Instead of concentrating on producing THC, they have now developed seeds. To ensure that this does not happen in the future or does not happen again, you should definitely learn how to distinguish female from male cannabis plants! And here's how:

Male cannabis specimens…

... begin to develop their first sexual characteristics in weeks 3-4 of the grow. However, this also depends on the variety and growing conditions; so don't let the time information distract you. You can recognize the first signs of male cannabis plants in the nodes of the plant. Small, round lumps form here, which later become the pollen sacs. If you discover something like this on your young cannabis plant, take precautions: If you have started your grow to have your own (smokable) cannabis, then this plant must be removed from the grow tent so that it cannot pollinate your female plants. Either you put it in a separate grow tent or you destroy it. In any case, make sure that it is not near your female cannabis plants and cannot pollinate them with a breath of air.

Female cannabis plants…

... develop their first sexual characteristics on average a little later than their male counterpart, namely from week 4-6. Look at the nodes of the plant here too: instead of male pollen sacs or small bumps, you will find small, light "hairs" here - these are the first pistils. A very clearly female sexual characteristic! As the flowering phase approaches, these hairs become more and more numerous and finally you will be able to see the first, compact flower structures. The pre-flowers and surrounding leaves then start to produce sticky resin and the plant forms further branches to increase flower production. Male plants do not do this, by the way! The development of pollinated flowers differs in a few ways: instead of light pistils that develop into flowers, the pistils first turn orange-brown and dry out - and the calyxes that develop in these places do not really want to grow and instead remain small and only swell a little. Seeds form inside.

We have compiled the most important features for you in a table here:

Hermaphroditism or hermaphroditism in cannabis

We have already mentioned that even modern cannabis does not always produce clearly male or female characteristics. Why should it? After all, equality goes in all directions and every cannabis plant should be allowed to express itself freely. But what exactly leads to hermaphroditism and how can you recognize cannabis hermaphrodites? There are various factors that promote hermaphroditism. These include:

• environmental stress,

• Genetic,

• and hormonal problems

Genetics can also have an influence; there are varieties that are more susceptible to hermaphroditism than others. Usually, however, hermaphroditism can be traced back to light stress, the wrong supply of nutrients or mechanical stress such as incorrect training techniques. Unfortunately, once the process has started and the cannabis plant has started to develop both male and female characteristics, it cannot be reversed. The only thing that helps here is to remove the plant and protect the rest of the grow.

And this is how you recognize hermaphrodites

We have already described the characteristics of male and female cannabis. It is actually quite easy to identify hermaphrodites: They simply develop both pollen sacs and pistils. If the plant is left alone and simply observed, you can then observe the development of hermaphrodite flowers from around week 5: small flowers that are not particularly dense, but do develop seeds. Regardless of the fact that you should separate the plant from other female cannabis plants, you can keep it and take good care of it until the end of the grow. The flowers will never be as THC-rich and heavy as female plants, but they could still be suitable for mild weed - and of course you can also grow new plants with the seeds you then have.

This is what it looks like in different stages:

Breeding with male and female hemp plants

Most growers will throw up their hands in despair when they discover male plants or hermaphrodites in their grow tent. After all, the goal is usually to grow good weed from homegrownAnd even if you have bought feminized seeds, there can be an outlier. However, if you want to breed deliberately, you can use regular seeds anyway, then simply place male and female cannabis plants in separate tents and experiment a bit with crossing varieties: Simply use a brush to brush the pollen from the male cannabis plants over the female flowers and see what happens! You can combine varieties that have never been combined before, simply cross your favorite strains and who knows - maybe even create the next new trend variety. So there are not only disadvantages to having male plants in the tent. But note that you also do not know whether the resulting seeds will produce male or female cannabis specimens - so pay attention to the sexual characteristics early on and, as soon as you know, separate male from female cannabis plants. Now you know what to look out for!

Everything is not so bad

As a beginner you will make many mistakes. So if you are just starting out in your tent female and male or hermaphrodite cannabis plants If you have discovered something, don't be so hard on yourself. And even professionals often get results that they didn't want. Some of these "mistakes" have even resulted in world-famous strains. For example, there are stories about Diesel and Skunk varieties that suggest that these varieties were only developed by chance. What happy coincidences! What we can take away from this is that not every mistake is a bad thing. And even if you don't get a random, bomb-like result, a learning experience still offers unbeatable value.

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