When cannabis is grown for its medicinal or psychoactive properties, male plants are routinely separated from females to prevent pollination, as non-pollinated female plants produce the most potent and prized flowering tops, known as "sinsemilla" (from the Spanish ""sin semilla"", meaning "without seed"). To produce "sinsemilla", the sexes must be separated before pollination occurs. On August 7, 1765, Washington wrote in his diary "Began to separate the Male from the Female hemp at Do.– rather too late." While this has been taken as evidence that Washington was growing cannabis for its psychoactive or medicinal properties, "The Straight Dope" points out that later entries in Washington's diary suggest that "he divided the plants because the males made stronger fiber while the female plants produced the seed needed for the next year's crop." Two days after he wrote the aforementioned entry in his diary, Washington wrote that he had "put some Hemp in the Rivr. to Rot," a technique called water retting used for producing hemp, not psychoactive cannabis. The following month he wrote that he "Began to Pull the Seed Hemp but it was not sufficiently ripe," and three weeks later that the "Hempseed seems to be in good order for getting – that is of a proper ripeness."