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Cannabinoid levels of male plants?

RhythmSpring

RhythmSpring

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Jun 19, 2008
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I know male cannabis plants contain no/close to no THC...
Do they contain any other cannabinoids, though?
Do male plants contain CBD?
 
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Never really thought of this but since it has never been mentioned anywhere, I would doubt it.

On the other hand, it could make some sense, since female plants that develop more THC, contain less CBD and vice versa. So maybe male plants with no THC could have high CBD contents, theoretically.

There are companies however investigating the psychoactive properties of Cannabis for medical purposes. CBD is more usable medically, I believe. I'd doubt they didn't check the male plants for psychoactive contents, but who knows :)

Let's wait for someone more knowledgable, though !
 
Good Question, I dont know the answer but I did change the title of this thread so people have an idea of what your question is. Most people ignore threads with such broad titles like "a question". Its better to give some reference to what the question will be.
 
Generally the cannabinoid profile of the males is similar to to the females'. It's just the potency is less, although of course this is a rule of thumb. If you can separate parts of the male flowers containing the highest concentration of trichomes and resin you can get something worth smoking. In fact if you do this for some males the potency can be even higher than bud from some female plants, depending on the genetics.

This is how you breed a good strain. Part of the process is selecting potent males, not just females. Once you've got a good, potent male breeding plant you have the start of a really good strain especially if it has a good general combining ability. Good males are prized and protected by breeders more than females - they will swap females but protect their beloved males since they are so important. Part of the skill of a good breeder is learning how to select males by using indirect clues as to their breeding viability, such as the scent left on your fingers after you've rubbed the stem for example.
 
Artificial Emotion said:
It's just the potency is less, although of course this is a rule of thumb. If you can separate parts of the male flowers containing the highest concentration of trichomes and resin you can get something worth smoking. In fact if you do this for some males the potency can be even higher than bud from some female plants, depending on the genetics.
Click to expand...



Do any specific strains come to mind, AE? Granted, I'm not likely to try it but I love learning this horviculture stuff from you.
 
Sorry I made a mistake with my wording. I meant to say the males from one strain can be more potent than the females from another strain quite easily. But I've never personally heard of the males being stronger than the females of the same strain. I know you can get some really strong breeding males from DJ Shorts Blueberry.
 
Hmmm, I'm failing to draw a clear answer from this thread.

So, some male plants may have both CBD and THC?

Maleness of a cannabis plant does not insure a higher CBD:THC ratio?
 
This thread searches well in google...
Here is a link to a report that answers your question in a scientific approach.
Male Cannabis CBD vs. Female Cannabis CBD
hope this helps..
Click the look inside to see the first pages of the report.
They want to charge you for the complete report.

Hemp On!
 
The cannabinoid profile of males and females should not be significantly different outside of different phenotypes of the same strain. Males however have a lower resin count and potency compared to females.

So if for example you have a 50/50 CBD/THC trait amongst females you will have the same trait with the males.
 
I am unsure of CBD ratios but people use the kief from males to assess strength in crosses.

If your male is outside though, Id cut it down. Someone on my block must have had a male last season because my Sour Diesel didnt hermie but it was full of seeds. You dont want the wind carrying your males pollen around the neighborhood, youll just be fucking everyone else shit up.
 
I don't know why people always talk about smoking... this seems like stone(d) age...

Regarding the male plants, people usually says "...throw them away..."

There is many reasons to why people will use cannabis. I think that the smookers is ordinary people... - nowadays educated... people is more and more after the benefits of cannabis, not for "effects", but genuine change, they want it for improwing health conditions - not go the other way.

If we want to improve healt conditions, maybe cancer, then we look for high CBD level, not THC.

THC and CBD is one thing... but i guess that if we take the old cannabis oils (Rick Simpson) they had much lower levels (~0.2-0.4?) of CBD compared to both male and female plants we use more today. But I dont really know, I'm just use Google... (have never smoked)

In a laboratory test from 1969 (Sweden), we can see that the male plant (flowers) in strain from Lebanon hade more than twice level of CBD, 0.7 in male and 0.3 in female.

A strain from Caucasus hade also dubble level of CBD in the male plants flowers.

If we take an turkish strain, the numbers was:

Flowers: Male: 0.7 / female: 0.8 of CBD

Upper leaves: 0.7 / 0.5

Big leaves: 0.5 / 0.7

Stem: 0.04 / 0.03


So what I want to say (with my poor english...) is, why should we not save the males... when we also today have strains with much higher levels of CBD compared to older "medical marijuana oils". If we today grow strains with 10-20 higher levels of CBD, then we get much much better oil, even if we do the oil from male plants - or prefare other ways to ingest, instead of making oil.
 
The reason males are thrown away is because allowing them to fully bloom would significantly decrease the potency of the females plants.
 
Folley said:
The reason males are thrown away is because allowing them to fully bloom would significantly decrease the potency of the females plants.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean the level of THC and/or CBD? Could you be more precise, what you mean with "potency"? :\

The THC precentage is maybe falling, but are you sure that CDB is decreasing?


And you say it's decreasing in the flower, but the flower is only one part of the plant.

Does the the female plants total amount of CBD decrease after it has been pollinated?


As my example above showed, male plants could have, what it's seems to... more CBD then females.

If I buy ten seeds and it become five female and five male plants - how is the mathematic... if we want to have the most benefit outcome for making medical cannabis oil, with more CDB procentage (and maybe with THC in ratio around 1:1) than for example the Rick Simpsons oil.

Should i throw five plants away, with all that weight and mass, when tehy COULD have almost (or higher) procentage of CDB than females. Why don't throw away the females instead?


I want to know, have a source for that... if the female plant loses it's CDB when it's pollinated. Is there a question about that THC degrading to CDB...??? I have no idea.

I read:

"Does the pollination of the female hemp flower lower the percentage and/or amount of CBD in that flower? Am I correct in assuming that a part of what could have been flower material with high CBD content is transformed into seeds with very low CBD content? And so in pollinated flowers the total amount of CBD is lower as opposed to unpollinated?"

One person answer:

"Yes, it will lower the yield per acre because unseeded hemp produces large amounts of new flowers (aka sinsemilla) thereby increasing the harvest yield and total CBD. Although, the amount resin per gram flowers may remain the same; it's not so clear and lacks solid data."

I'm confused.

Here is the link:

Dutch pilot experiment: LEGALLY growing organic female hemp flowers high in CBD
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=281632
 
About the effects of plant sex:

What we know:
If the males (or male flowers on female plants) enter full bloom they will release polen which will fertilize the female flowers. (obvious, eh?)

What I think I know, from my experiences:
- A big pollinated cola might contain for example 5 grams of smokable bud and 30 grams of seeds at full ripeness of the seeds.
- The same cola, if it had been left totally unpollinated (not always totally possible), would have yielded way more than 35 grams of smokable bud, and 0 seeds, not even immature ones.
- Full ripeness of the seeds is a few weeks later than optimum ripeness of the buds. The longer you wait for the plant to ripen (be it for smokable bud or seeds), the lower the THC/CBD ratio will be. The bud from the pollinated ones had a more stonier effect than the unpollinated ones. Why? Because it was a few weeks older at harvest time. Make sense?



There's a US grower of big fame (the berries guy...?) who reportedly likes smoking bud from seeded plants, plants that have had hot love with other plants. Says it has a fuller cannabinoid profile, or something.



For those wondering: what will happen if big time pollination occurs, but you harvest before the seeds are fully developed (before full ripeness of the seeds), and after optimum ripeness of the buds?
Your bud (the smokable part) will have (probably) a lower THC/CBD ratio. But the bud will be full of unfinished seeds, very hard to separate from the smokable bud because they are crumbly. It ruins smoking the bud.



What I noticed regarding potency (unpollinated vs pollinated):
The pollinated plants have overall smaller buds and are definitely less resinous looking on the outside (comparing clones from same strain). Lots of people know this.

My hypothesis for explaining all this is:
- unpollinated female plants put all their energy into producing more calixes, more flowers and coat themselves more with cannabinoid-rich resin, to maximize their chances of keeping healthy and one day (hopefully) getting banged.
- pollinated plants, once they've been knocked up, direct their energy mostly to seed production. Not as much energy is directed into resin or overall size of the flowers. Most of the effects come from cannabinoids in the resin (although there are also cannabs. inside the flower itself), so potency suffers.



What I think I know about the potency of males:
- It's much less than the potency of the female of the same strain. At least on average.
- I've read something saying there's more variation in potency from male to male plant, than from female to female plant. Think it was Ed Rosenthal.

Forgetting potency, males always have smaller flowers, the flowers aren't coated with resin, and as far as my eyes see there are no trichomes anywhere.
Less or no resin, also means less potency (cannabinoid content).

Yeah the males are trashed. Unless someone's waiting on their good genes.



Do female plants start producing more CBD (or upping the CBD/THC ratio) once they're pollinated, as a consequence of it?
My answer would be maybe.

But I'm sure that the ratio of THC/CBD lowers as they mature, when left unpollinated.


When I write "potency" I think of it in terms of total cannabinoid % that can be absorbed, not in terms of THC/CBD ratio.
The THC/CBD ratio and the interaction with other cannabinoids creates different ranges of effects, also different from people to people.
Some people like to be high, others like to be stoned, others (me) like both.

^Fuck, nobody will read all that^
Much less make sense of it.
 
@kronblom

Picking up your idea of researching male and female plants for CBD content...

If you want a plant with a higher CBD content, or higher CBD/THC ratio, the end product you are researching/searching for is only possible through breeding.
Breeding involves plants of both sexes, or... some flowers of the opposite sex are artificially created for the occasion of knocking up plants.

Even if you were to find a Super male of some strain that had a very high CBD content, and produced huge flowers full of CBD:
- the female of the same strain might have the same CBD or less CBD, but the flowers of the female will always* be much bigger than the ones on that male. OK?
- you can't keep cloning that male forever, nor is it the fastest way of making the medicine available. That male will need to be crossed.

*because it happens on EVERY strain. Females always have bigger flowers (like breasts in humans). And flowers are where the good stuff is.



About the breeding itself:

Let's say you find a super strain where the males produce 20% CBD dry weight, and the females produce 2% dry weight CBD. (averages)
And, contrary to normal, each male plant gives you 500g of flowers, and each female gives you 50g.
Is there a reason not to kill the females? YES! There are tons of reasons.
You know that the males are 10x times better than the females both in flower yield and in CBD content (desirable genetic traits).
But you don't know where it's coming from! Those desirable genetic traits may come from the female side.
Just because the male plants are on average more CBD producing than the female ones, does NOT mean that the trait is inprinted on the males' genetics to be passed further on. In fact it could very well be inprinted just on the females.
Besides, any breeding has to be done for several traits and it involves selecting good genetic stock first, regardless of gender.
 
Jibult said:
Do any specific strains come to mind, AE? Granted, I'm not likely to try it but I love learning this horviculture stuff from you.
Click to expand...

I think that mainly depends on the smell of the male.
 
Pre-flowering male tips [ veg stage ] can be quite potent - sometimes astonishingly so ....

i try to sample each male [ tips ] and use the best for pollinating later on . Such male tip harvesting can give one a good idea of their potency / breeding potential , but must be done while the plant is in the fast-grow stage , for ime , curiously , the male potency declines as flowering approaches .

I am not very savvy at understanding plant genetics , but have wound up with a great Sativa dominant outdoor variety by sampling both males and females for breeding purposes . I also feel that introducing new genetics from other worthwhile strains occasionally helps keep the strain vibrant , rather than inbreeding and back-crossing , although to be truthful I have not done such complex steps .
Nevertheless , my seed stock produces plants with differences between individuals - which I like , and may or may not select for breeding .
 
Mudshark said:
Pre-flowering male tips [ veg stage ] can be quite potent - sometimes astonishingly so ....

i try to sample each male [ tips ] and use the best for pollinating later on . Such male tip harvesting can give one a good idea of their potency / breeding potential , but must be done while the plant is in the fast-grow stage , for ime , curiously , the male potency declines as flowering approaches .

I am not very savvy at understanding plant genetics , but have wound up with a great Sativa dominant outdoor variety by sampling both males and females for breeding purposes . I also feel that introducing new genetics from other worthwhile strains occasionally helps keep the strain vibrant , rather than inbreeding and back-crossing , although to be truthful I have not done such complex steps .
Nevertheless , my seed stock produces plants with differences between individuals - which I like , and may or may not select for breeding .
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you consume the veg tips of male plants to test their potency?
 
freehugs said:
Are you saying that you consume the veg tips of male plants to test their potency?
Click to expand...

Yes - to test for potency ; [ as well as for some smoke if I have none - to avoid paying for it or attacking the girls during growth which both reduces and delays the final cut ...]

By sampling individual plants I find that some are clearly better than others for potency , but also take other factors into account when selecting breeding females - e.g size and branching characteristics , bouquet , yield , etc ,

One generalization / hypothesis arising from such sampling is " the smaller the leaf , the better the smoke " [ i.e a plant with overall smaller leaves may be more potent than another with larger leaves - but this is speculation only , atm ]

Finally , if the crop is in the ground where the males cannot be moved away from the females ; once I have selected pollen donors I hack them back to a foot or so high and collect the pollen in paper bags - this way it is easy to avoid unwanted pollination of the upper heads . Pollinating a few of the lower shaded buds with a small soft paintbrush will produce more than enough seeds for next year .
 
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