Pre-flowers are solitary flowers that develop at the nodes of a maturing cannabis plant, usually behind the stipules, before the plant switches to full flowering. They appear because the plant has reached sexual maturity, not because of a change in day length, so photoperiod plants show them in veg.
In practice
On photoperiod seedlings, pre-flowers usually show about 4-6 weeks from germination, around the fourth to sixth node. Use a 10-30x loupe:
- Female: a small teardrop bract, soon with one or two white stigmas.
- Male: a small round bud on a short stalk, no stigmas, often in a little cluster.
Wait for stigmas before calling a female. A male pre-flower can look like an unformed female for a few days.
Clones carry the sex of their mother; there is no need to sex them. Autoflowers simply show pre-flowers and roll into flowering a few weeks from germination.
Don't confuse with
- Stipule: a small pointed leaf-like spur at the node, present on both sexes.
- Axillary bud: a shoot bud, not a flower.
- Flowering stage: full inflorescence formation, triggered by photoperiod or age.
The daily length of light versus dark; photoperiod cannabis flowers when nights grow long enough, rather than at a fixed age.A seedling is a young cannabis plant from emergence of the cotyledons until it has several sets of true leaves, typically the first 2-3 weeks.Germination is the stage where a viable seed absorbs water, splits its shell and pushes out a root (radicle), usually within 1-7 days at 20-30 °C.In cannabis, the small leaf-like sheath (perigonal bract) that wraps each female flower's ovary and carries the densest capitate-stalked trichomes.The sticky, hair-like tip of the female pistil that catches pollen; each cannabis female flower has two, white when fresh and darkening with age.A day-neutral cannabis plant that starts flowering by age, usually a few weeks after germination, regardless of light schedule; the trait is mainly recessive.A dormant shoot bud in the angle (axil) between a leaf and the stem at each node, able to grow into a branch or a flower cluster.The reproductive phase of the cannabis life cycle, from the switch to flowering until harvest, during which the plant stretches, builds buds and ripens resin.The point on a stem where a leaf (petiole) and its axillary bud attach; branches, flowers and clone roots all originate at nodes.A female flower with a pistil but no functional stamens; in cannabis, a bract-wrapped ovary topped by two stigmas.A male flower that carries stamens (anthers on filaments) and no functional pistil; in cannabis, five drooping sepals around five pollen-shedding anthers.Having male and female flowers on separate individual plants; drug-type cannabis is naturally dioecious with an XY sex-chromosome system.
