New plants, hoping to take them all the way this year

[justanotherbozo]

Well, I've lurked for quite a while, but I finally felt I needed to ask some Q's. I know there's faqs and it's probably just me, but they don't answer exactly what I need.

I've tried ( and failed ) a few years in a row with growing ( I have to do it outside, though I have a greenhouse. ) What usually happens is the plants get big, but do nothing. Possibly due to them being male, but I'm never certain on the plant gender, despite looking at a bunch of pics here, I'm still never sure.

So anyway, this year I'm giving it another go, I have 6 plants, they look healthy and are around 3/4 feet in height. Now just a few questions:

your plants do indeed look nice and healthy!

1) Are they male or female, I kinda understand what I'm looking for, but they need to start flowering before you can really tell right? ( I'll get some pics sometime. ) But that leads me onto Q2.

while your pics look nice, i can't tell the gender of the plants.

2) The faq say they need 12 hours of darkness to start blooming properly ( How do they manage in the wild!!?!? ) but with them outside this is pretty difficult, any tips on how to provide the darkness? ( I read black bin bags suggested somewhere. ) I have nowhere inside that's really dark enough. Also they'll need constant 12/12 cycles right? So even if I did find space inside, I'd need to bring them out every day for some sun?

with outdoor plants, you just leave them outdoors and the alignment of the
planet and the sun will take care of the rest. (if you'll remember, the days shorten
toward the fall, lol)

btw, what you could do, i'd even strongly suggest it, is to take a couple of
cuttings from each of your plants and get them rooted. ...then, once rooted,
you flip one to 12\12 to determine the sex and you save the other for a mother,
assuming it's a female of course.

the advantage is that you can then keep the female alive over the coming winter
and next year, you will know, in advance that all your plants were gurls!
because they would all be sisters to the mother!

3) I have hopes for these plants, since they came from some tasty bud I obtained, since they came down the line from a grower, is the chance that they are female somewhat higher?

not really, but it does increase the odds that the resulting bud will be good.

4+) Reserved for more Q's

Any help and answers appreciated, thanks!



edit: Added some pics I had, but wasn't happy with. Not sure if they're any use, and the pixel size is huge lol, but hopefully they'll help me get some answers

here are a couple of pics to illustrate what to look for, the first is female,
the second is male.