Let's say you've got a small grow space and can only flower two plants. So you plant 3 seedlings instead of 2 hoping to increase your chances of having 2 females. Common sense, right?

But by how much exactly did you increase your chances?

If you only have 2 seedlings, assuming you don't have feminized seeds and ignoring environmental factors which might affect sex, you've only got a 1-in-4 chance (25%) that both are female. But there's also a 1-in-4 chance that both are males. There's a 50% chance one is female and the other male. So 75% of the time, you won't have two females:
MM
MF
FM
FF

However, if you have 3 seedlings instead of 2, you've got a 50% chance that at least two are female, a 37.5% chance that only 1 is female, and a 12.5% chance that all 3 will be male:
MMM
MMF
MFM
MFF
FMM
FMF
FFM
FFF

So, by adding one more seedling, you've doubled the odds of having at least 2 females (from 25% to 50%), and cut in half the chance of having no females (from 25% to 12.5%).

In fact, each seedling you add will cut in half the chance of having no females. So having 4 seedlings, even though you've only got room for two to flower, your chance of having all males is only 6.25%, and your chance of having at least 2 females is now 68.75%.

I knew Sesame Street would come in handy one day!
SecondNut Reviewed by SecondNut on . decrease the chance of having all males using math Let's say you've got a small grow space and can only flower two plants. So you plant 3 seedlings instead of 2 hoping to increase your chances of having 2 females. Common sense, right? But by how much exactly did you increase your chances? If you only have 2 seedlings, assuming you don't have feminized seeds and ignoring environmental factors which might affect sex, you've only got a 1-in-4 chance (25%) that both are female. But there's also a 1-in-4 chance that both are males. There's a Rating: 5