Is this a hermie and should I cut its balls off?

[Dabs4all]

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 growerâ??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 doesnâ??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 â??weedâ?� 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.



Iâ??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 doesnâ??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.