If you are thinking about growing cannabis, one of the first tips you will get from ‘experts’ is to get rid of male stems. They are less potent than females, and if you grow hemp due to CBD extraction, you need to breed only ladies. According to Cheef Botanicals, female plants give a lot more resins enriched with cannabinoids.

Over time, you will expand your knowledge of hemp breeding, and realize how useful male specimens actually are. It is always desirable to have a few stalks between the ladies. Except for pollination, these ‘guys’ play a significant role as pest repellents.

Still, you should not allow men to rule your garden. It means that, right after spotting male specimens of this plant, you should move them to a safe distance. Only controlled cultivation of a few stalks can bring positive effects. Too many male plants can be counterproductive to your cannabis ladies.

How to Recognize a ‘Guy’

The ‘sex’ of the plant is formed while it’s still in the seed stage. Many farmers do additional seedling tests to determine the sex before the plant begins to develop. These are genetic tests that cost a lot and are acceptable only to those breeders who do commercial cannabis breeding.

If you are growing hemp for personal use or a small production of CBD products, DNA analysis can be a huge expense. A cheaper way to find out the sex of a plant is to learn to recognize it while your plant is still in a toddler stage. On stems not older than six weeks, look for sacks in the crux of branches. These are male sex organs full of pollen particles.

Why Male Hemp Has a Bad Reputation

Besides all the benefits that hemp males have (find out more on this page), there is one bad thing about them. By the nature of things, ‘guys’ are responsible for the fertilization of females. It’s a natural process by which seeds are created. And seeds are necessary for further reproduction.

In hemp breeding, seeds are undesirable. They give rather odd taste to buds while smoking or vaping. What growers need are flowers, i.e., seed-free buds. These parts of the hemp plant are used to obtain CBD oil. Flowers also contain a certain THC dose, which has beneficial medical effects. In controlled breeding, that percentage is about 0.3 percent.

If pollen from male hemp reaches the female resins, seeds will form in them. A female plant will focus the energy on developing seeds, instead of creating more cannabinoid-rich resins. Buds containing seeds are practically unusable.

Controlled Cultivation is the Solution

If the natural pollination process of hemp is brought under control, you can get the most of it. One male stem can produce enough pollen to fertilize several hundred females. From this process, a pile of seeds develops. But that’s not what you need.

The solution is to rarefy the gentlemen’s population. You can do that by transplanting the selected members to a safe distance from the ladies. In indoor hemp cultivation, it is easier to perform fertilization control. There’s no wind to transport pollen.

On the following source, check for new knowledge of pollen spreading:

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/pollen.htm.

Collecting Pollen

If, on the other hand, your plantation is outdoors, you have to put extra efforts to keep the pollen spreading of the ladies under control. Besides a safe distance from females, you can take additional measures to prevent hemp ‘stud’ from fertilizing all lady stems.

For example, around a male plant, you can grow some sunflowers or any other specie growing tall and dense. They will collect excess pollen and stop these particles from reaching the ladies.

When the pollen matures, you should collect it in the required amount, and fertilize female plants. It is advisable to do this because it has been proven that inserting male chromosomes into females creates even more potent plants. Besides, by crossing chromosomes, some new hemp species can be obtained.

Hemp males are not always undesirable in your garden. If you know how to use these guys wisely, they can improve the potency of your plants. For those willing to experiment, males can be great collaborators in getting a new, crossover hemp type.