In the second week of flowering, you may spot the first white pistils growing on your female cannabis plants. These fine and wispy white hairs will develop at those locations where the big fan leaves meet the main stem. It is these fine hairs that will later become buds. If your cannabis plant happens to be a male, it won’t grow these “hairs,” but will instead grow small pollen sacs. Should you grow regular, non-feminized plants where you don’t know their gender, now is the time when you should “sex” your plants so you can separate the males from the females. The males won’t grow buds and will also pollinate your females, causing them to grow seeds. This is something you do not want to happen.
Give your plant a nice pruning!
If you haven’t done any pruning, now is a good time! Look for big leaves that are turning yellow, have spots or look unhealthy. The growth at the bottom of your plant can be removed. With the big nodes all at the top of the plant, soaking up all of the light, the undergrowth really lags behind in both size and ripeness. Lollipopping removes all of the undergrowth, allowing the plant’s energy to be focused on the main flowers and not the small ‘popcorn’ flowers. You will be left with a plant that looks like a lollipop stem with tons of growth above. Your cannopy should be approx 30 - 40 cm or just over 1 foot deep.
Male vs Female
If you are growing a regular cannabis seed, now is the time to determine if you have a male or a female. To accurately determine the sex of your plant, look at the nodes (Where the leaves and stems connect to the main stem). Male plants will have flowers that resemble a small round pollen sac that eventually opens with a small yellow or white flower. Females will not have these flowers, instead showing furry, white pistils. With the great selection of feminized seeds available to growers these days, it often makes sense to start knowing you have a female and avoiding having to start again after 7 weeks of growth!
Pollination
So male cannabis plants have flowers which release pollen into the air. Female cannabis plants have pistils that extend into the air to catch floating pollen. If they do, they begin forming seeds in all of the buds that have caught some pollen. Growers don’t want seeds in their buds and eliminate males upon discovery. Cannabis bud that is without seeds is called Sinsemilla.
Get ready for your next grow!
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