Dear Cheri,

I have a male volunteer in my garden. what can I do with it? Friends have said it would be good for baking. It should have good genetics since this is where I have emptied my cleanings for years.  Is this a good idea?  Are there any practical uses for male marijuana plants?

Male marijuana plants.   Ugggh.  I know from how experience how heartbreaking it is to have a beautiful vibrant plant, only to discover it is a male.  But if you want your other plants to be potent, that guy has GOT TO GO and RIGHT AWAY!  

When it comes to male plants in the garden, you want to act like an over protective father with a beautiful teenage daughter!

Definitely yank him out as soon as you discover a male in your garden and keep him away from your beautiful girls.  If you wait and those girls get fertilized they will all go to seed.  If  that happens, the energy the plant would have put into producing beautiful potent flowers goes into producing seeds instead and you are left with weak cannabis.

So what can you use the male marijuana plant for?

I personally would not use a male plant for baking as it will not be potent and if I am going to eat baked goods that taste of weed, there had better be a good reason for me to do so.   You can make an infusion or grind it up and bake with it if you choose, but I think it is a waste.  

If I were to make an infusion, I would probably use it for topicals, but the potency is low, so I probably would not even even bother with that.

Male marijuana plants are nutritious, however.  In fact, according to Dr William Courtney, who has done pioneering work in cannabis as nutrition, raw plants provide the world's best source of healthy antioxidants and phytonutrients.

Likewise one of my favorite uses for a male plant is to make juice shots.  For this you you will need a wheat grass type juicer or extractor as sticky cannabis plants will gum up a regular juicer.  

You can drink the juice straight just like you would a wheat grass shot.

You can keep extra juice in the freezer, I like to freeze it in ice cube trays so I can take out a little at a time.  

My favorite way to use raw cannabis juice is to put a frozen cube or two in when making smoothies.  Smoothies will be a lot more palatable for most people than drinking a juice shot straight, although I personally do not mind the slightly peppery flavor of raw cannabis juice.  

You can also opt to put a few leaves into a smoothie mix without making juice first, much like you would with spinach or kale.

Another use for male marijuana plants is to chop up the leaves and toss into salads or use in stir frys, pestos, chimichurri sauce, or other dishes where the flavor will more or less get lost.

There is no need to decarboxylate when cooking with male plants as we are not going for potency anyway.  But when it comes to nutrition, think of your male marijuana plants as a super healthy dietary supplement to add to your culinary arsenal.