I grow only outside. I’ve been growing since 2018 from clones and seeds. I’ve never had a plant hermie but I have found a couple of stray seeds here and there in a couple of plants, in the trim after trimming. How are these created? Are they even hermie seeds or is it more likely that some stray pollen got on my plants from a neighboring grow in my area?
Hermie seeds? How are they created?
- Thread starter jokerlola
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There is always the possibility that some stray pollen blew in from someone in the area who had a male plant.
More likely is that one or more of your female plants started to grow a few male flowers and one of those produced some viable pollen. So far I believe that there are two types of female plants that could produce these male flowers.
There are the female plants that will start to show male flowers about 3 to 3 1/2 weeks after the first stigma/pistils start appearing. They start at the bottom of the plant and as the flowering stage gets older they appear further and further up. TI see two choices, either try to save the harvest from having a lot of seeds by cutting off or pinching the male flowers as soon as they are seen. This includes cutting off any small sucker stems. Then check weekly but more often than not the male flowers will start to show up again after about 3 weeks These plants will produce the largest amount of seeds when I have grown them till harvest. And, naturally, any clones that were taken from them will follow the same pattern. As far as I can figure this is a genetic tendency inherent in the plant that will also be passed on through the seeds.
The other type is when a female plant starts to show a few, many times very few, male flowers around 8, 9 or 10 weeks after flowering starts. Again, they often start to appear near the bottom but I am no longer surprised to see them show up near the top in the larger buds. The theory is that this is the result of the plant attempting to self-pollinate as a way to produce seeds to allow for another generation. Most of the time I notice that this has happened when I am trimming buds at harvest. There seem to be few seeds and they often are small and do not look ripe.
There is even a name given to the process in the 2nd example. It is Rodelization. When I looked it up I found out it is not a real word, just what some growers decided to call it when they noticed it had happened. While Rodelization might not be the real word the botany scientists do have one since there are female trees and shrubs that will produce some male flowers as a way for a specie to survive until enough male plants survive to maturity.
More likely is that one or more of your female plants started to grow a few male flowers and one of those produced some viable pollen. So far I believe that there are two types of female plants that could produce these male flowers.
There are the female plants that will start to show male flowers about 3 to 3 1/2 weeks after the first stigma/pistils start appearing. They start at the bottom of the plant and as the flowering stage gets older they appear further and further up. TI see two choices, either try to save the harvest from having a lot of seeds by cutting off or pinching the male flowers as soon as they are seen. This includes cutting off any small sucker stems. Then check weekly but more often than not the male flowers will start to show up again after about 3 weeks These plants will produce the largest amount of seeds when I have grown them till harvest. And, naturally, any clones that were taken from them will follow the same pattern. As far as I can figure this is a genetic tendency inherent in the plant that will also be passed on through the seeds.
The other type is when a female plant starts to show a few, many times very few, male flowers around 8, 9 or 10 weeks after flowering starts. Again, they often start to appear near the bottom but I am no longer surprised to see them show up near the top in the larger buds. The theory is that this is the result of the plant attempting to self-pollinate as a way to produce seeds to allow for another generation. Most of the time I notice that this has happened when I am trimming buds at harvest. There seem to be few seeds and they often are small and do not look ripe.
There is even a name given to the process in the 2nd example. It is Rodelization. When I looked it up I found out it is not a real word, just what some growers decided to call it when they noticed it had happened. While Rodelization might not be the real word the botany scientists do have one since there are female trees and shrubs that will produce some male flowers as a way for a specie to survive until enough male plants survive to maturity.
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- #3
Ok. I figured that there has to be some kind of pollination happening whether it’s self or from a male plant in the area. There may be more seeds in the buds that I never found but the amount of seeds I have found have been very few and as far as I can tell, only on a couple of plants in the several plants I’ve grown since 18. I try to stay legal and only grow 6 plants but sometimes more but since 2018 I’ve only found seeds in the trim of 2 plants. A Super Lemon Haze plant and a Harlequin plant, both grown from clones. In the trim from the SLH plant I found about 4 seeds. In the H plant, I found about 6 seeds. I planted one of the Harlequin seeds I found the next year and it grew a plant completely different than the Harlequin plant it came from. The H plant it came from was very Indica like (short and bushy with wide leaves). The plant the seed grew was tall and lanky with thin leaves and long spaced buds. It smelled completely different as well. So I suspect it got pollinated from a neighboring male plant somewhere near. I tried planting a couple of the Super Lemon Haze seeds I found and one turned out to be a male and the other grew exactly like a SLH plant with the same look and heavy lemon smell. So that may have been self pollinated.
If it’s not some stray pollen my guess would be that the plant rodelized and self pollinated. Just as some.female fish and amphibians will change sex in the absence of males, so will some female marijuana plants, in an attempt to perpetuate their genes they’ll throw some “nanners”. Seeds produced in this manner are usually female but not terribly stable. Plants that do that are not really hermies in the strictest definition.
Hunan hermaphrodites will either show both female and male sex organs at birth or shortly after the person starts to become physically sexually mature in their early teens when the other sex organs start to develop. This would not be much different than when the female plant starts to develop the male flowers that are showing up in the first 3 weeks after the change from a vegetative to a flowering growth.
If the female plant starts to show male flowers later, as in around the 7, 8 or 9 week mark then it is closer to what the occasional fish or amphibian would do. The way I see it that change is a lot less of a case of being a hermaphrodite and more that the plant is attempting to completely change from female to male as a way to provide the pollen for the other female plants and not to self-pollinate. Something in the reproductive segments of the DNA code that is left over from the early stages of evolution when the female & male aspects of reproduction were still being developed.
If you got male plants from any of the seeds it's almost certain you caught some stray pollen.
I get some seeds on my outdoor plants every year. Usually just a few, 6 to 10 per plant.
My neighbours who grow get the same. There's a guy from Jamaica nearby who grows a Carribean landrace and he sticks his males outside to collect pollen.
We only found our about him this year, and he doesn't seem to understand why he's not too popular right now.
I've only seen hermies or females come from hermie seeds.
I get some seeds on my outdoor plants every year. Usually just a few, 6 to 10 per plant.
My neighbours who grow get the same. There's a guy from Jamaica nearby who grows a Carribean landrace and he sticks his males outside to collect pollen.
We only found our about him this year, and he doesn't seem to understand why he's not too popular right now.
I've only seen hermies or females come from hermie seeds.
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- #7
I’ve suspected that few seeds I find might come from some neighboring male plant being grown outside.
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