JUST FOR ENTERTAINMENT: Boys to girls???

Ok, so I'm not too sure on all this, but I did start a little experiment I want to continue next grow. I put bananas and peaches around the base of the plants at the start of flower for the ethylene gas. I continued for a couple boys even after they showed CLEAR balls all over. Then I got tired of it all with everything else in life, chopped one boy down and moved the other to the opposite side of the closet to wait for a flower to mature for the pollen. Once it was ready to open, I put the boy in my bathroom for a day while it opened, took the pollen and got a small amount of one girl's side branch pollenated and put the guy outside with my other potted flowers on the back porch and forgot about him for awhile.

2 weeks later or some such (today, basically), I go back and check on him. He had gotten eaten by bugs quite a bit the first night outside, and the other sacs had dried up and died within a couple days of being outdoors, but today he's got LOTS of pollen sacs. I took some pictures since the sacs were turning purple (just thought it was kinda neat), but noticed a FEMALE flower on this boy! Then, after another look and some better close-ups, I found two more!


1) How often does this happen? What seems to be the biological reason for boys to throw female flowers generally? What stimulates it to happen?

2) Did my fruiting trick likely play any part in this matter? I know genetics have a lot to do with it (pre-disposition basically), but did I influence it to go that way?


Just looking for thoughts.
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I WILL be trying my experiments again in the future (for fun and to see the ratios of males that throw female flowers with this treatment, and later throw without), although it's not really trying to turn males fully female for better production. Heck, if it LEADS that way in the future (this sort of thing on my small-scale operation that will be grow-as-needed will lead to a decades-long observation to find out what would do the trick for regular growing use IF it leads that way) I'm all for it - not likely, and not planning on it. I'm just curious as you can influence (by stress) a girl to go partially or totally male. It's also possible that that's what happened here - it's a girl that was stressed into being a boy but throws occasional girl parts. If so, how much work would it be to undo the stress on the girl to make her act like a girl again instead of a boy? So many questions. :D

Just know that any female can put out pollen due to stress, or whatever reason, but a true genetic male will never put out pistils (female hairs). Any plant that is pollinated from a female/hermaphrodite will always be either female, or hermaphrodite, but no true males can ever become of them.
In my experience if you are getting hermies like this you are likely to have problems with the next generation. Male parts can pop up even late in the game after buds have formed. I personally prefer strains with a good strong male backbone, and never any flukey females for that reason. I also concentrate on the males more than the females when choosing candidates for propagating a strain.
In short, hermies can be a pain in the ass.

I agree, scrumby.
I also have read here recently some suggestions for people to breed with hermies, and runt females. What possible good would this accomplish after all the bother of raising what could be expected to be a crap hybrid? I also feel strongly that people's homemade pollen chucking rarely produce anywhere near the quality product of the reliable breeders (it would be like hitting the lottery). But I know from experience that you can't tell them that, they think their projects are outstanding...classic placebo effect.

Scrumby & Shovel, I somewhat both agree & disagree with you guys. Ethylene gas can & does influence plant sex. Not just pot, but also holly & several other plants with seperate sexes. The trick is to introduce them to higher than normal amts BEFORE the photo period induces them to flower (while they're immature). I do this with ripening fruit 3X before flowering, & usually end u having to borrow someone else's pollen. Also as my final project in hort at Uof Delaware in the 70's with holly. I aced it. So I know it works. Is it cost/time efficient on a large scale? Oh hell no! Add to the fact that it sucks up time, it draws BUGS! White fly, various fruit flies, & piss ants. But then you come across that rare person with the analytical mind who wants to know how things work, will this work? Why that DIDN'T work? What would happen if I took this apart & changed things around? This kind of person gets the same kind of thrill (adrenaline rush) running an experiment as most do watching an auto race or riding a rollercoaster. I saw this in Buggy & mentioned the ethylene gas to her while discussing plant sex. Her plants had already declared, & she wanted to play with it & see if she could get one to 'turn'. It was just an experiment for FUN. We'd have missed out on a lot of the things we now have today if not for the people who like to experiment. She has a natural green thumb & is getting things down pretty darned good, & if you've noticed the times I sign off with 'girls just want to have fun', we've usually been discussing theories & experiments. So when you see us swapping off the wall things, just roll your eyes & say, 'Oh god! They're playing again!' After all, we are 'The Great WHAT IF'ERS'! I know you two are old enough to know by now that when us girls get together we just leave you guys scratching your heads, going WTF just happened?!?! Buggy & I just go about that differently than most gals! Roll with it!.....LMAO!!!! ~~~~PEACE!~~~~

Hey Buggy! Nice pics!! Are you going to let those hairs get pollinated just to see the outcome? That might be fun to play with. I have to use my Nikon to get shots that tight, my cell phone won't do that. :( Oh yeah guys. I saw that post from Wezzard where he suggested someone put their female runt in with 'the boys'. Don't forget some of us are very interested in breeding smaller plants for various reasons. It's not everybody's cup of tea. & hermies are used in the production of fem seeds. To each his own. We're not always all after the same thing, even though most of us still grow a normal crop the normal way in addition to our 'play'. ~~~PEACE!~~~

Hey Buggy! What's up? You haven't posted for a while. Going tomorrow for my grow supplies! So happy I could shit, I mean split!!!! LOL! :) ~~~ PEACE! ~~~