Farmer Freeman

7 out of 9 were dudes. — That was the result of my "guesswork"—aka not using mail-in-sex tests. I planned for 9 ladies. I ended up with 2. — Look, it's not hard to sex a cannabis plant... ...once it's in flower. It'll show pistils, or pollen sacks ("balls"). Former is female, latter is male. — But, if you wait until flipping, you could end up—like I did—with a male majority. And that sucks. For a few reasons: 1. You now have less female plants, which will impact your yields. 2. You've spent weeks in veg with these plants to end up killing them 3. You've wasted your time, labor, and supplies on plants that won't pay you back — Unless you're working on a preservation project for seeds and plan to let nature do her thing, males are costly. And waiting 5-6 weeks minimum for the gender reveal is unnecessary when you can test seedlings. — If, like me, you're also cloning these plants in hopes of finding a keeper, you're adding more costs and time to the mix. Keeping clones around of unsexed plants makes no sense. — 5 Reasons I Sex Test My Seedlings As Early As Possible 1. Saves Time: Time spent waiting to find out, but also time spent in the grow, caring for plants I'm going to eventually cull. In my experience, I've received results within 1 week of mailing samples in. ~~~ 2. Saves Money: Nutrients, water, energy for lights, substrates, cloning hormones, and other supplies all cost money. Using them on plants with no ROI who will only get killed is wasteful. ~~~ 3. Saves Space: In the grow and in the cloning process; knowing which plants are males lets you quickly remove those plants. This frees up physical space as well as space in cloners and trays by removing the need to clone unnecessarily. ~~~ 4. Saves Plant Count: #1 rule of growing is we don't talk about plant count, right? But, at the end of the day, it's a factor in many people's home grows. And keeping males around only cuts into that plant count; knowing early frees up space for more ladies. ~~~ 5. Removes Guesswork: Even the most experienced growers I know have been fooled by at least one male plant in their grow; the eye is only so powerful. And while you can typically judge a plant's sex by eye, it's usually only after weeks of guessing about its gender that you find out if you're right. Testing eliminates guesswork. — As a home grower who grows as a hobby, space, time, and resources are finite. $10-15 for a result within a week is worth every penny. — What's your take on Mail-In Tests? Do you use them? Leave a reply letting me know why. — That's a wrap! For more content like this, smash that follow button. If you learned something, please like and reshare with your audience!