Sensimilla is the term used to describe seedless flower buds of the marijuana plant. Sensimilla buds are the strongest and most desirable part of the plant. Sexing the pot plants before allowing them to grow large is one way that a grower can get more sensimilla from each crop. Sexing is the term used for determining if the plant is a male or a female plant. The male plants are destroyed (sometimes one is kept for fertilization) and only the female plants are allowed to mature.
To determine the sex of marijuana plants, you start the plants in small pots under flourescent lights or grow lights. Give the plants 20 hours of light a day until they have 3 sets of leaves. Then turn the lights off completely for 3 days, keeping the plants as dark as possible. This will force the plants to begin creating flower buds. A small bud will sprout at each node where a set of leaves branches off the main stem. If the bud looks like a bunch of grapes or a broccoli cluster, the plant is a male and will not create sensimilla. If the bud looks like a small seed case, and two feathery hairs can be seen, the plant is a female. It should be noted however, that occasionally a plant will be hermaphrodite, both male and female. This can usually be avoided by growing one male plant away from the females and pollinating one flower bud on each female plant with pollen from the male plant. This is easily accomplished using a film container to shake the pollen into, and a small paintbrush for the actual pollination. By keeping and maturing only the female plants, you can maximize your sensimilla production.