Well, this grow of BD in the big tent has had its share of problems, flooding early on, gnats and thrips which I knew was going to affect yield if not quality. This morning checking the girls over, this grow has gone into SNAFU mode and verging on the brink of FUBAR which is quite normal in my grows but usually because I am not able to tend them properly lol
For the past few days, checking the girls and enjoying the developing smells, I only open the one door to the tent and just scan the tops, but something about some of the bud development was making my brain itch but I kept ignoring it. It was only here and there and I passed it off as different phenos.
Problem was, something in the back of my mind kept poking me telling me I saw seed. I kept saying, not possible, they are all from fem seed and I have never had any develop sacs before unless I was trying to stress them checking for hermaphroditic traits.
I had expected to see maybe the odd seed near the end I generally open as I had pollinated 2 lower bud with some PC pollen to check it’s viability after the disappointing PC seed run. The bud pollinated was low down in one corner next to the corner away from the main airflow so didn’t expect any pollen to travel farther than maybe adjoining plants.
As it turns out, I should not ignore that annoying little bastard in my head, it was telling me the truth. In the other end of the tent, the 2 plants in the corners, and where the greatest airflow is, were true hermaphrodites.
I say “true” to differentiate between plants that produce proper pollen sacs as opposed to plants left growing too long which can develop “nanners”. Development of nanners is a survival trait that any female cannabis plant can do if nearing the end of its life without being pollinated. True hermaphrodites will develop pollen sac early on in the flowering cycle.
This was more than likely my own fault as I stressed these girls at just about the right time when they are determining sex. Weeks 3 and 4 are the most critical for being stress free. During this 2 week stretch, you can actually swing the odds of female plants in your favour even with regular seed.
I have posted this article (below) elsewhere but thought it fitting to add it to my journal as I have done just what they say NOT to do during this crucial stage of development.
OK so now that I have royalty F‘d up this grow and will not be able to give a good judge of efficiency (in terms of power usage vs yield) not all is lost, nor will I chop the offenders.
Why would I not chop those couple plants you ask? Well being a true hermaphrodite, they grew single pollen sacs at the crotch of the first few nodes and bud above that. All the sacs I found have already died, some having spewed their loads, some dead without having ever opened And I am not seeing any new ones so the damage is done. As the saying goes “the damage is done, shutting the barn door now will not fix the problem”
There is some amazing bud in there that doesn’t appear to have any seed so I will finish these girls off and watch for any other nuts developing. As I am not a commercial grower depending on great yields, this doesn’t really bother me much. Past experience tells me that even seeded bud makes for great and potent hash and as I prefer hash most of the time, I am really out nothing but a bit of yield and having to admit, I FU’d lol which in all reality, doesn’t bother me, else I wouldn’t bother telling you guys
I have always been one to admit my mistakes, take whatever punishment was due me, learn from it and move on, nothing new here
