Myth or matter of fact?

In conversation with an experienced guerilla grower he mentioned to me a method of overcoming the mystery of sexing plants. He suggested i sew 4 seeds in a 3"pot at the 4 points of the clock. Cull the weakest two. Allow to grow to 3" in height and transplant to a 6" pot. From then on the tallest plant will be male, or 2 fairly equal in height female plants. His methodology was described in the context of conversation between plants and their attempt to reproduce. He made sense. What i gather, is from what he’s trying to tell me is the plants will exchange chemical mssgs by their roots intermingling and make sure 1 is female and 1 is male, for breeding purposes. He said; “if they grow up thinking theyre the only two on earth, theyll adjust to reproduce.by the time theyre at least 6 inches tall one will be noticeably taller, thats the male.” He said it works 80% of the time. Is this guy pulling my leg?

This is a myth! Every time I try to judge a plants sex by the size, or vigor; I get it wrong. The only way to sex a plant is too induce flower, and wait until the plant shows you the sex.

Ok. I have a cooler set up as a clone factory. Two 2 ’ floro tubes screwed to the inside of the lid. Works great.
Question. If i take a clone from the plant, once its established in 14 days or so. Whats the smallest light i can use to induce flowering in a clone thats only 2 weeks old while its parents are still vegging?.
Ideally i would take another cooler and make another of the same set ups, what kind of light will be strong enough, but gentle enough to be inches close, that will induce flowering? And please dont say a $$LED$$ set up. Can another floro tube flower clones, a red spectrum one?

Yes another tube fluorescent can work. If using one off the shelf for normal house lighting, use a 5000, 5500, 6000, or 6500 K color rated bulb. 5000K-6500K is the color of natural sunlight at high noon, the color rating changes depending on overcast and/or other factors. So a bulb with this rating can be used for both veg and flower in most cases.

If you are using fluorescent lights specifically made for plants, not made for a human’s eye, then a color rating of 2200-4000K is often used, somewhere between 2500-3000 often being most common, for flowering that may have specific wavelengths not normally found in other 2200-3000K household “warm” lights. This color rating in a light made for the human eye may not include all of these spectra but still would also likely work just fine for flowering but certainly not very well for tight inter-nodes during veg. Some fluorescent lights made specifically for certain periods of veg through to flowering and finishing can get quite complicated in the different color ratings recommended at different times, these may include spectra that is not visible to the human eye, like various UV spectra which might contribute to glandular trichome resinous swelling. Overall however, all the extra effort seems not produce much better results. Just increasing the amount or intensity of light, time and time again regardless of quality of spectrum provides the biggest results in increased vegetative growth or increased harvest weights. And so especially for flowering a cutting just for identifying sex, and often you can get it to show flowers even before new roots appear, all the extra concern over precise spectra to induce flowering is not that important. The 12/12 schedule will work just fine regardless of exact spectra or type of light.

Oh, and the fastest tallest height thing has some truth to it, but as Latewood said, it is not at all reliable. Yes males often grow taller faster than the females of the same parents, however this is not always the case and by following that advice, you may have just cut out your most healthy, super vigorously growing female.

Ill use that info to find a bulb for my new project. With that, and the addition of a 600W light, ill have the makings of a perpetual harvest :+)