Using bananas to feminize your seeds

Smokin Moose

Smokin Moose

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex Moderator
From a cannabis growers point of view, an easy way to feminise your seeds before you germinate is to use a commercial feminiser like sensa soak which contains 'Ethylene'.

But, here is a cheap, very effective method a gardner like me would use, which I am sure some members will be familiar with. An organic feminising method using ripening bananas.

Before you germinate your seeds, place your seeds in a sealed plastic bag containing banana peels for 14 days. Wrap the banana skins in tissue to absorb any moisture they give off. Keep the bag in a warm place & air the seeds regularly, replacing the skins as they ripen. Ethylene, a naturally occuring gas given off by the ripening bananas causes feminisation.

Peel 2 bananas and seperate the strips. i.e you should have about 4 seperated skins from each banana.

Wrap each skin in 'one' layer of tissue & lay them inside a carrier bag, then lay one piece of tissue over all the skins & place the seeds on top & seal the bag & leave it in a warm place (room temp is fine).

You then need to open the bag once daily for about 20 minutes to release excess moisture, much the same as when your curing your buds.

You then need to change the skins for fresh ones every three days as they will turn brown & rotten after that.

You leave the seeds for about two weeks so youll need to change the skins 5 or 6 times.

I myself have never bothered with germinating my seeds in tissue or leaving them in water etc. I just plant them straight in to pots of moist compost.

:
 
From Mago's stolen notes:
"Treatment of hempseed with ethylene gas will increase the resulting number of female plants by about 50%. Ethylene is produced by certain plants (i.e., bananas, cucumbers and melons), and these can be used to treat hempseed in a simple manner. About two weeks before you plan to sprout the seeds, place them in a paper bag or envelope and put that in a plastic bag with the peels of a ripening banana or cucumber. Replace the peels after a couple of days, and change the bags to prevent mold.

Hempseed can be feminized while they are forming on the plant. Fruit peels are spread around the area for two weeks before the plants enter the flowering phase. Remove the skins when the plants begin to flower. Otherwise, treatment with Etephon will accomplish the same effect. "
 
So, if the seed was a male, you'll be making hermies?

I've used sensa-soak maybe twenty years ago, or so. It definitely helped in hermie production.
 
Any plan or product that increases the chance of herms is not for me.
I rather find a male and pull it out than deal with hermies.
A very fertile herm can destroy a crop with out you noticing unless you like seeded bud.
The key word people seem to forget is feminized meaning not all are comepletely female. Feminize seeds have always been plagued with herms and make for very poor mother plants if cloning is also in growing arsenal.

If you decide on femming seeds make sure your grow area doesn't get too hot and you light regiment is very strict when growing the seeds too fruitation. Of course you should do this on all grows but especially with fems. Heat, high humidity, light cycling are stress triggers for hermies.
 
Of course, the silver nitrate/ thiosulfate method will never produce 'hermie' seeds from a true female plant.

As far as the banana method goes, I think you'd be better off putting the seeds inside a folded piece of screen in a big paper bag of apples, as far as ethylene production goes.
 
Funny you should say that, as I was just reading:
USDA: Hemp, Day Length And Flowering 1947

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pubdate: 1947
Source: The Yearbook of Agriculture; 1943-1947, United States Department of Agriculture
Author: H.A. Borthwick, USDA Senior Botanist in the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering
Pages: 282-283

DAY LENGTH AND FLOWERING - HEMP

New practices that can be used in breeding hemp have resulted from recent photoperiodic studies. Hemp is a short-day plant. It flowers promptly when day lengths are less than 14 hours and very slowly or not at all when day lengths are greater than 14 hours. Under average field conditions about half of the plants are female and half are male. Under some circumstances, however, female plants, each of which may produce a very large number of female flowers, will also produce a few typical male flowers. The opposite condition occurs in the males; that is, a male plant will form an occasional female flower in addition to a great number of male flowers. This tendency for hemp plants to produce these extra flowers of the opposite sex is increased by subjecting them to photoperiods of 14 hours or less and to cool nights when flowers are being formed.

Most rapid progress in breeding plants can be made with those that can be self-pollinated. Hemp, obviously, can be self-pollinated only when it produces these occasional additional flowers of the opposite sex. The advantage of being able to increase their tendency to form these flowers is apparent.

Dr. Hugh C. McPhee of the Department made use of this behavior of hemp several years ago. He used the pollen of the male flowers that were produced in small numbers on certain of the female plants to self-pollinate those plants. When he grew the resulting seeds he made the important discovery that all of the plants were female. We have recently produced several thousand seeds in this way and have not obtained a single male plant, thus thoroughly confirming Dr. McPhee's observations.
----------

The Hemp Files: Various Hemp Related Historical Documents
 
420grower said:
see there we put our pot heads together and bang we get results,hey,damagoman,due u get to cleveland ever,we seem to be in the same state,u are a buckeye no?
Click to expand...

I think it's more about a lot of the info on growing is very old and marked with the word Hemp and you really don't know what(genes) they used.
Hemp or Marijuana ???

I look at like this,
even if it is/was just a cousin,
it probally still works the same way or pretty damn close.
Modern growers are in the process of writtting the New ways with New strains, the Old ways are dismissed and a lot of knowledge is lost this way.
Basics argued when It's all a matter of some many variables ,
Ya' just gota' see what works best for You and Whatcha' Got :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
Smokin Moose said:
From a cannabis growers point of view, an easy way to feminise your seeds before you germinate is to use a commercial feminiser like sensa soak which contains 'Ethylene'.

But, here is a cheap, very effective method a gardner like me would use, which I am sure some members will be familiar with. An organic feminising method using ripening bananas.

Before you germinate your seeds, place your seeds in a sealed plastic bag containing banana peels for 14 days. Wrap the banana skins in tissue to absorb any moisture they give off. Keep the bag in a warm place & air the seeds regularly, replacing the skins as they ripen. Ethylene, a naturally occuring gas given off by the ripening bananas causes feminisation.

Peel 2 bananas and seperate the strips. i.e you should have about 4 seperated skins from each banana.

Wrap each skin in 'one' layer of tissue & lay them inside a carrier bag, then lay one piece of tissue over all the skins & place the seeds on top & seal the bag & leave it in a warm place (room temp is fine).

You then need to open the bag once daily for about 20 minutes to release excess moisture, much the same as when your curing your buds.

You then need to change the skins for fresh ones every three days as they will turn brown & rotten after that.

You leave the seeds for about two weeks so youll need to change the skins 5 or 6 times.

I myself have never bothered with germinating my seeds in tissue or leaving them in water etc. I just plant them straight in to pots of moist compost.

:
Click to expand...
I have a few seeds kicking around and I am forsure going to try this technique !
 
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