Hermie management -- or perhaps monoecious display

Hey Folks!

Just got my first hermie and have some questions for growers who've dealt with this. Plant is a God's Gift from seed. Since GG is clone-only, this seed was from a selfed plant. I also have a female Pennywise going right next to it in a tent.

Plant was odd as a seedling. It stayed about an inch and a half high with one set of leaves for about three weeks. Then it took off like gangbusters and has been vigorous and healthy since. But it might have been under a lot of stress those first three weeks. I flipped three weeks ago. It showed female at about 10 days, and the bud sites are developing very nicely.

This morning I tended the res as usual (it's a hydro grow under 400W HPS) and suddenly saw clusters of balls beneath the bud sites. Typical cluster formation of about three. They're not on the top bud sites, just around the middle of the plant. I plucked them off. One or two broke while I was doing this.

While I don't like the idea of seeds, I do only grow for myself so it's really not that big a deal. That said, I would prefer sinsemilla 'cuz it aesthetically pleasing.

So here are my questions:

1) Do the pollen sacs have to reach a maturity to be "active" and pollinate a female? Did my plucking them a day after they appeared mean I have a good chance at controlling whether or not my true Pennywise female will stay unseeded?

2) Will new sacs pop out at the same sites I've already plucked them from? Or just at other sites?

3) Is it typical that the sacs are in the middle third of the plant and not up top? Or am I just not seeing the ones up top since the female calyxes are closer to where the sacs are and might be obscuring the sacs?

4) I've read that pollen is viable only for about 18 months under the best of circumstances (kept in the freezer). If I get pollination on this grow and I clean the tent thoroughly (several go-throughs with a bleach-based cleaner) and then store the tent for about a year, will the ambient pollen die before the next time I use the tent?

5) Is there anything I can do right now, besides plucking as many of these sacs as possible, to prevent seeding, or is it just a question of whether I get them all or not? Odds are I won't get ALL of them. But I'm hoping missing just one or two means just a little seeding instead of a ton of it.

6) Are selfed plants naturally going to be hermaphrodites?

Thanks in advance for any info.

KG

Just saw another post this weekend, and a reply from Sativied: Cannabis is a dioecious species, meaning it has male and female flowers on separate plants, but with "monoecious" tendencies. And the latter, that's what you are describing, male flowers and female flowers on the same plant (opposed to male and female parts within the same flower).

I think this is it -- not a true hermaphrodite but male and female flowers on the same plant.

But most of my questions still apply!

Sativied, if you're around I'd love some input since you obviously know something about this.

Had a hermy show up on me this grow.The pollen sacs that were on mine seemed to grow at the very bottom of the bud under the canopy, almost inside the bud really so they were hard to spot for me were there long enough to mature and produce pollen. When I pulled off pollen sacs there was pollen in them, was there any in the ones you removed? Also I had some browning pistils with in the next day or so, evidence that some of my precious girls had been violated. I was told that water kills pollen so I took my other plants out of the room and rinsed them off thoroughly. I removed the hermy immediately and continued with my grow. I just harvested the first plant and it does have a few seeds. not much but some. I am saving them being I primarily grow for me and my family and will eventually try to grow them out, but the reading I did on the subject and seems that they have a real good chance of carrying the hermy trait.

^^^No, there didn't seem to be pollen inside yet. I pulled them off with tweezers and wiped the tweezers off on a damp paper towel to capture any thing that might fly out. They were tiny…just tiny balls about the size if you've flipped to 12/12 and eight days in you see small little clusters. They were not bigger and flowery.

Tip: when you want to summon a member, use the @ like so @kryptoniteglo

1. Yes, yes. In particular, the balls develop first, with the bananas developing inside them, in which the pollen is developed. All need to reach a certain level of maturity sort of speak. See my post from today: rollitup.org/t/good-herm-example.835517/

2. Possibly both.

3. I get the impression the location depends (also) on what and when caused it. I got a plant with male bananas at the moment of which only top part of buds that were affected by messing with light and buds on the side of a light leak have 1 or 2 nanners.

4. No need to worry about pollen surviving that long. Just spray it down, or raise the humidity to 80+ or so. Vegging in the same space (higher humidity) will kill it.

5. Missing just 1 can lead to most buds getting pollinated, especially if you have circulation fans, but also the circulation from the exhaust will spread it.

6. They will all be female. They will turn hermie more or less as likely as their parent. Some a little more, some a little less. Basically you pass on low stress resistance to its children.

@Sativied, Thank you for your input! I will keep plucking.

I've never had to deal with this before. I only grow two plants a year, so I don't want to throw out this plant at this stage. And it's been fascinating to watch the plant do its thing, despite what it means.

One other question: At some point, will the plant stop putting out balls and just coast as is? Or will it keep putting out balls all the way to the end?

Thanks!

kryptoniteglo said:

One other question: At some point, will the plant stop putting out balls and just coast as is? Or will it keep putting out balls all the way to the end?

Click to expand...

Don't know. If it stressed into spawning male parts and the stress factor is removed, it may end. If it's genetically very hermie prone it may get worse.

kryptoniteglo said:

And it's been fascinating to watch the plant do its thing, despite what it means.

Click to expand...

Congrats on being immune to hermaphobia Many people tend to overreact when they see bananas or even hear the word hermi. Sure it's risky and if you have a whole bunch of plants, and one hermies, and you want to sell the yield of the rest, it's usually wise to remove the entire plant asap. In your case, with only two plants per year, I'd make an attempt to keep it around as well. At some point it it gets far worse and you don't want or can't inspect it daily you may have to reconsider. I currently got one I'm keeping around - for now - because it's a cross I made and I want to taste it (this particular pheno). It's a calculated risk, one you can best determine for yourself whether it's worth taking.

And to add to the previous post, if one popped (releases pollen that is) pretty much all the pistils around it will turn brown (die because they did their job, catch pollen) within 24-48 hours. So you'll notice if you are too late. Although inspecting the buds thoroughly requires me to lean over another plant and touch the buds which also causes damage on the pistils.

For example, mostly damaged pistils (on top), some at the right for example look pollinated (from a bud I pollinated with male pollen next to it likely).

Nice…thanks!

No, I'm not hermaphobic. Used to smoke in the 70s and then didn't again until a couple of years ago. Sinsemilla? What's that, I wondered???? Ha! Now, of course I like sinsemilla because I don't have to work at deseeding. But it's not the end of the world if I have to seed, and I'd rather seed than lose the plant. That would be the real waste.

I'll just keep on top of this as best I can and not worry about it. It's fucking cool when you think about it…prehistoric even.

Thanks for the input.

as others have mentioned, your probably good at the moment, you were quick
it may keep throwing up more, it may not
it can be a chore, you will have to track it every day
i found carefully looking from beneath, i.e. on your back looking up, will spot ones hidden from other views
S1 seeds can be very good, also bad, i've been running S1's for a while now, they have a lot of variety

I do the same thing, lay on my back and look up. This does work great to see those spots that are impossible to see from other angle..

growone said:

as others have mentioned, your probably good at the moment, you were quick
it may keep throwing up more, it may not
it can be a chore, you will have to track it every day
i found carefully looking from beneath, i.e. on your back looking up, will spot ones hidden from other views
S1 seeds can be very good, also bad, i've been running S1's for a while now, they have a lot of variety

Click to expand...

I've been watching the sites where I plucked from, and there hasn't been any new growth there. And I've been watching the other sites closely and am not seeing anything. They were all around the third and fourth nodes, but that's it. And just on the one plant.

Thanks for your input about the S1s!

kryptoniteglo said:

I've been watching the sites where I plucked from, and there hasn't been any new growth there. And I've been watching the other sites closely and am not seeing anything. They were all around the third and fourth nodes, but that's it. And just on the one plant.

Thanks for your input about the S1s!

Click to expand...

I saw how it was mentioned that when it gets pollinated the pistils will turn brown I know I don't have a hem but I ve been in flower about 2 weeks and noticed a few spots where pistils have got a bit of color can this be caused by a fan blowing dust on them or nuet burn