Quote Originally Posted by Deejay2163
I have never done any breeding or even very much research into it, and I've always removed and destroyed any plant that showed it was a hermaphrodite because I was under the assumption that it was simply an inferior plant with bad or damaged genetics(apparently wrongfully so).Is it a confirmed fact that seeds from a hermaphrodite will most always be female? The main reason for this and my last thread was because I have to start from seeds every year as the summertime heat prevents me from keeping a clone mother, a situation that hopefully will be resolved soon.With most seed companies that offer fem seeds ,they are twice the price of regular seeds which ,if you get the normal ratio of male to female plants would mean that you'd basically get the same results if you grew twice as many using regular seeds. Given that ,I am curious to know from the more experienced growers: given my current situation , simply put , is it better for me to buy fem seeds to start with each year as clones are not a problem ,or simply just buy fem seeds?
Bad genetics could be a possibility of hermies, but not always likely. It's really strain dependent. Sometimes you can have a strain that you TRY to give light stress too and it doesn't want to herm. Then sometimes (in my grows with bagseed "X") it can stress if you even breathe on them wrong.

If you have good genetics then most, if not all, should be females. There may be that occasional bad egg, but probably would be rare.

Your saying you don't have the means to keep a mother plant, so you have to start over every time. With that being said, fem seeds would take most of the guess work out. That way, you can then concentrate on JUST females.

You can even catch some of the hermie pollen (freeze it, if not used within 24-36 hours) to pollinate only certain parts of your other plant(s). That way you will still get fem seeds, but you didn't have to ruin the whole crop. You can just seed the lower sites that don't get as much light. Nice way to come off a hundred seeds in a few weeks.