View Full Version : Is this a hermie and should I cut its balls off?
Bobdylan420
07-30-2013, 01:00 AM
Been in flower for 1 week or so.... I was wondering if these are a normal part of the bud or if it is male glands? If it is a hermie, then would I be able to just cut them off and keep cutting them off the plant as it flowers to maximize yield? Thanks. It's just the one plant.
I really hope it's not a hermie.
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Shovelhandle
07-30-2013, 01:22 AM
Yes, it's a hermie, not good this early. you sure can try and control it but I have my doubts that you will succeed. Best of luck.
Esteban1
07-30-2013, 01:38 AM
Been there, done that..... Start over!
:wtf:
Bobdylan420
07-30-2013, 01:52 AM
I successfully created 9 clones from this plant before I flowered it. What are the chances they will also turn out to be hermies? The mother plant had been sitting in Nitrogen rich (toxic) soil its entire growth, but I've put these clones into less fertile soil, so there shouldn't be the nitrate rich issues. I heard that stress may cause hermaphrodites. but if these clones grow in more friendly soil will they not become hermies? Thanks.
Bobdylan420
07-30-2013, 03:23 AM
I inspected the plant and found that all but the uppermost 3 tops had balls on them somewhere. The top 3 branches are entirely female. On all of the affected branches I found the balls to be a node down from the top of the branch or lower, but the (ends) tops of the hermie branches were entirely female.
Well, what I have gone ahead and done is cut off every hermie branch, except two of them. On the remaining two I surgically removed every node below the main top of the branches that had male parts. Now I have a total of 3 completely female tops and two trimmed up hermie branches. I left two major fan leaves for light gathering. This will be an experiment to see what happens since I've got nothing else to do. This plant is in a separate room from the clones I cultivated. The plant has been in flower for more like 2 weeks, not 1 like I said earlier.
Pic1= The groomed flowering plant. 5 Tops total. Top 3 were female and no testicles were seen. The lower 2 branches had the nodes with male parts on them. The nodes were removed as well as the adjoining leaf. Below the hermie branches I left 2 fan leaves.
Pic2= This branch was a hermie that had a female top. A female node below it. And then a male node below that. You can see the female node in the pic and the male node below has been sliced off.
Pic3= This is the all female top from the hermie branch mentioned in pic 2.
Pic4= This is the other hermie branch that had the hermie nodes removed. You can see where the node was removed.
Pic5= These are the 3 main tops that showed no signs of maleness. At the very top of the plant.
Pic6= These are the 9 clones taken from the hermie plant before it was put into flower. They are in milder soil with less nitrogen than the mother plant.
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lipps
07-30-2013, 07:02 AM
Like Estaban say.........start over save you a lot of grief later on. All it takes is for a couple of balls to go undetected and you will have a seeded mess.
Dabs4all
07-30-2013, 11:21 AM
It's just the one plant.
If you only have the one plant go for it, or if it's the only one affected and there are other females around I agree with Shov, Estaban, and lipps kill it. I just had a plant 40 days into flower that hermed with male flowers and single bananas in the buds in which I found a few more during the trim that I couldn't have seen any other way. Since I had a younger Super Skunk female in the tent with it and babies almost ready to rotate in I killed it. You can see it on my grow log if you like. Best of luck. :thumbsup:
Dabs4all
07-30-2013, 12:19 PM
I successfully created 9 clones from this plant before I flowered it. What are the chances they will also turn out to be hermies? The mother plant had been sitting in Nitrogen rich (toxic) soil its entire growth, but I've put these clones into less fertile soil, so there shouldn't be the nitrate rich issues. I heard that stress may cause hermaphrodites. but if these clones grow in more friendly soil will they not become hermies? Thanks.
If the herm was the result of a genetic trait or if the clones were cut after the stress that caused the herm I think there is a good chance of passing the trait along to the clones. I web searched and found this info on herms and genetics from Reserva Privada.
1) Sometimes, a hermaphrodite plant ends up seeding a negligent grower??s garden, and in order to recoup their losses in flower harvest, they try to sell the seeds instead of the flowers. The hermaphroditic trait will be passed along to all progeny, and even if it doesn??t show in the phenotype, they are all still carriers of the hermaphroditic gene.
2) In order to get a normally stable female to produce pollen, a grower stresses the plant via changes in light cycle or nutrient regimen to the point that its natural survival instincts kick in and it attempts to self-pollinate. This is a natural defense mechanism inherent to the plant. One must understand just how vigorous this plant really is. It has evolved and survived through some of the harshest conditions our Earth can offer with astounding success, growing on every continent, in some of the harshest climates, and by its highly adaptive nature, it has obtained the ability to self-propagate when the plant thinks there is no other chance of keeping its genetic code going in plant form, so it reverts to trying to basically reincarnate via self-pollinated seeds. This is evolution and adaptation at its finest. This reaction to stress shows just how well this plant has adapted to being able to survive and propagate in even the worst of conditions it can encounter. It is a ??weed? after all, and has come up with ways to continue on regardless of what nature (or man) throws at it. The pollen then impregnates other plants from a plant stressed out point will have already undergone a change to its genetic code in order to enable this pollen producing response to an otherwise normal female. This will be carried along to the progeny as well, again as a survival method to ensure the genetic code keeps getting passed down, and continued.
I??ve heard that there can be issues with cloning a feminized strain, is this true?
This can be true, but again under improper breeding methods from which we have steered well clear. Plants that have been stressed to the point of trying to self-pollinate will pass on their mutated hermaphroditic gene, but it often doesn??t surface during the first growing out of the progeny. The hermaphroditic gene may not be activated until the true genetic age of the plant reaches a certain point, and it will show up in subsequent generations of clones. This has led some to believe that all feminized strains are not good for cloning. We have run several strains obtain from feminized seeds done in the same manner we have created them for the Confidential Collection, and literally cloned thousands of plants from over multiple mother generations without issue. When feminization is done properly, there is no problem cloning from a feminized strain.
I hope this helps you.
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