Hermie questions

I have a problem. I'm at 2 weeks into budding on 7 girls. I thought some preflowers on my girls looked rather large today so I plucked one and dissected it, sure enough there was a tiny green baby seed inside it :mad::mad::mad:

I got 3 different strains going.. and every single preflower on every plant carrying seeds! This is not good. I think I located the plant that was going hermie but whats wierd is i saw no balls busted open, only suspicious looking growth ontop of the cola. I culled the whole plant, quick dried and smoked the 3 joints and I'm amazingly high right now..

But I have no idea where this pollen came from.

Is there just gonna be seeds growing in the preflower bracts or is the entire harvest gonna be full of seeds? If I did take out the 'pollen source' should I be ok on the main buds? Will the plant waste all of its energy seeding and leave me with a pathetic harvest?

The plant that went wierd (I think, I did have 7 plants I just narrowed it down to suspicious looking) was a northern lights from nirvana. There are 2 other NL that look like I'll have to keep an eye on them also

I am thinking about taking NL completely out of my next grow after this (only kept 2 phenotypes alive by cloning so I'm watching those 2 most carefully)

the ONLY kinda good thing is I'll be able to atleast sprout some Hindu Kush/ Northern Lights crosses that I wanted to try to do (not intending to do it this way though!) They'll either hermie or be females. Save em for backups incase I run out of purchased seeds.

I decided just incase I need to shut down this round, I'm sprouting the rest of my white rhinos. If I tear down my flowering cab I'll just throw the MH Conversion bulb in and grow these for awhile if things get too seedy in here.

You're probably experiencing what happens when a plant gets stressed. Did you buy feminised seeds? If so, they have a strong tendency to hermie if conditions provided are less than optimal.

From what you described, I'd say it was a stress issue not a pollen issue. Your yields shouldn't suffer greatly either. You'll just have seeds to pick out once harvested.

So if plants are stressed they automatically seed up with no pollen involved?? I never heard this, I always thought that the stress made pollen sacs form on females or else it can be a genetic hermie.

I can't think of anyway that I stressed the plants they have ideal conditions and always grew good. Never stunted or anything.

They were standard Nirvana Northern Lights seeds. I have clones and 27 seeds left of the strain, but I'm weary about letting them grow next run since this happened.

I'm keeping a close eye on my largest, big producing NL (pic 1) because I have 3 excellent clones from it.

Here are pics of some of the plants

1- NL
2- White Rhino
3- Hindu Kush (which is so dank I've cloned 3 x already)

By the way this was mostly a SOG type grow, except the largest NL got 1 1/2 weeks veg (lone survivor out of bad seeds Nirvana sent me. They made up for it by re-sending my entire $150.00 order so they've been good to me)

I read somewhere else that someone had tremendous problems SOG'ing Northern lights and they all went hermie. This person concluded that maybe NL gets very confused when not given any veg time and the chance of hermie plants are greater? Interesting theory.

no, if stressed, plants do not "automatically seed up without pollen" ... if stressed, a plant may alter it's sex, to include male flowers, that create pollen, and pollinate itself, as well as the other plants in your garden ... plants do this to protect themselves, as the male plant is hardier, and able to absorb more abuse, and still survive ... the only way to get a seed, is from male pollen and female flower ... and no, they didn't hermie just because they are Northern Lights ... NL is normally an extremely stable strain, BUT, you didn't buy from a breeder known for his quality genetics, either ... good stuff for the price, though ... :smokin:

Its just wierd cause I did not locate one single male flower that's bursted open in the whole garden. Frustrating. This strain seemed so nice until these problems came up.

Next run I'm considering taking a break from NL. Just planted 6 Rhinos today, I want a heavy indica phenotype- the only one I've got growing now looks like white widow more than anything. Slender leaves.

My Rhino is far behind the rest when it comes to budding, its not started yet and its supposed to finish up quicker than the other 2. I think SOG'ing plants does confuse some, and leads to slower bud growth just because they aren't that well established.

This is the first time I've tried SOG, and honestly I don't think I'll do it next time because maybe plants do get more confused when there is no veg time.