Female Flowering

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

Female cannabis is prized for heavy, potent resin production and weighty flower yield. Ideal female plants grow squat and bushy with branches close together on the stem and dense foliage and branches. In most strains, the first signs of female flowers appear one to three weeks after inducing flowering with the 12-hour photoperiod. Female flowers initially appear near the top of the terminal bud and gradually develop on lower branches starting at the tips and moving downward.

Flowers have two small one quarter to half inch fuzzy, white hairs, called pistils that form a “V”. The set of pistils is attached at the base an ovule, which is contained in a light green pod, called calyx. Pistil-packed calyxes form dense clusters or buds along stems. A cluster of buds is often called a top or cola. The masses of calyxes develop rapidly for the first four or five weeks, after which they grow at a slower rate. Buds put on much of their weight as they swell during the last two or three weeks of growth. Pure sativas, including Thai varieties, can flower for four months or longer! Once the ovule has been fertilized by male pollen, rapid calyx formation and resin production slow, and seed growth starts.

When females’ flowering is at their zenith, pistils swell and swell. Soon they change in color, most often from white to amber and, eventually, to reddish brown.