5 life-saving tips to recognize female cannabis plants

to recognize female cbd cannabis plants

Modified on: 26/10/2023

How to recognize female marijuana.

To recognize female cannabis plants and distinguish it from the male ones is important. Feminized seeds are genetically modified so that 99.9% of female plants are obtained, cannabis plants born from regular seeds have 50 and 50 chances of developing male or female plants. Making a distinction between the two is crucial as female plants generate cannabinoid-rich marijuana flowers (especially CBD, in the case of CBD cannabis). Male plants instead have no flowers but pockets of pollen.

Therefore, they can fertilize the shoots of female plants, which will produce seeds and not inflorescences. So, if your goal is to produce cannabis flowers rich in CBD, then you should only leave the female plants and eradicate the male ones.

Do you want to know how to recognize the female cannabis plant? Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when looking at your plantation.

1) Analyze your cannabis seedlings every week to understand every change.

sex of legal cannabis

If you are wondering how to recognize a male or female seed, we will reply immediately: it is not possible. They are all identical, and it is not possible to feminize the seeds after their birth. Unless you buy seeds born from a feminized plant, the chances are always 50/50.

Usually, the sexual characteristics of a marijuana plant begin to show through the sixth week after germination. However, our advice is to observe the seedlings at every stage of their development, preferably every week, or even more. Some cultivation methods could in fact anticipate or delay the manifestation of these peculiarities.

2) Hemp plant: male or female? Observe the intersection points between the stem and the leaves.

The point of intersection between the stem of a plant and a leaf (or the sprig which then generates the leaf) is called the axilla. In these areas, female cannabis plants produce pistils, from which the first white lint is born.

In male plants, you do not find these small white hairs. By observing the armpits in the stem, it is possible to see small balls grouped and hung by a thread. Those balls are specifically pollen pockets (stamens). Once mature, they hatch and can pollinate female plants ready for fertilization.

When you see these groupings of balls, you can be sure that you don’t have a female cannabis plant in front of you but a male. If you want to prevent it from pollinating other plants, you should eradicate it without delay.

Read also: Hashish Charas: when hashish can be CBD without losing in quality.

3) Male and female hemp: the difference in foliage.

cbd Hemp male and female

With the legal male hemp plant (but also in the one with a high THC content) the leaves are sparse, while the female legal hemp plant has dense foliage.

The female plant is therefore rich in leaves, which are concentrated mainly in the apical part of the stem. If you have also noticed the pistils with white lint, then there is no doubt: you have a female marijuana plant in front of you.

If instead the leaves are sparse and in the armpits of the plant you find groups of balls, then (if you want to avoid pollination) you should eliminate the seedling.

4) How to recognize female marijuana from looking at the stem of the plant.

Even the type of stem of the cannabis plant can provide you with valuable information about its genus. Female plants have a lower and less robust stem than male ones.

Male cannabis plants grow much higher, much more than female ones, so they also need a more robust stem. Otherwise, poor things, they could not support themselves.

But once you find them, your little hand can come to eradicate them! Right?

Read also: CBD cannabis: can we bring legal weed on the plane?

5) Be careful to distinguish female cannabis plants from hermaphrodite ones.

Cannabis plants can be male, female, but also hermaphrodite.

A hermaphrodite plant has both male and female sexual characteristics and could ruin your harvest of CBD flowers in the same way as a male plant. So, if you notice that some of your plants have both pockets of pollen and pistils with white lint, know that they could be hermaphrodites.

Consequently, it is necessary to eliminate them as soon as possible, before the bags reach maturity by fertilizing the buds of the females.

Summary: all the characteristics of a female marijuana plant

Here is a mirror for you of the features of a female cannabis plant, so that you can distinguish it from a male plant and also from a hermaphrodite plant:

  • Pistils with white lint translucent between the armpits of the plant.
  • Stem not very robust and not too high.
  • Dense foliage, mainly concentrated in the apical part of the stem.

The female plant (if not fertilized) arrives at the flowering stage, developing numerous inflorescences starting from the pistils. The flowers, more abundant in the apical tops, are composed of thousands of small strings and a sticky resin (the principal ingredient of hashish) rich in cannabinoids.

If, on the other hand, female plants are fertilized by pollen from male plants … they will develop seeds, which are not usually the goal of the grower.