what triggers hermaphrodites?

Let's say I harvested and then re-vegged a plant for a couple months and then re-flowered it. In the last week or two it's gotten the tiny yellow flowers and pollen spillage. This is pretty late in the bloom stage, I can't say exactly, but at least 4 weeks.

I'm not too worried about this crop as long as I get something out of it (by the way - how many seeds should I expect?), but how can I avoid this in the future? Is it due to stress on the plant, because I re-vegged, or is it unavoidable?

Stress-related sex problems might produce hermaphrodite plants. The stress of what's sometimes called early flowering triggers the plant into a situation where it thinks its chances of reproduction are slim to none. That situation induces a condition or act of self-pollination, in which the plant produces both male and female flowers on the same plant. The male flowers then pollinate the female flowers, which eventually produce seeds.
The reason for this is that the plant notices that the photoperiod is irregular* and should no longer be in the vegetative growth stage but in flowering. This shocks the plant into a last ditch effort to receive pollen because it feels that it's missed its chance to receive pollen already. In the wild, males release their pollen just around the time that females begin to flower.
This is what hermaphrodites look like. Notice that bolh male pollen pods and female pistils are present on the plant. Picture by Rasta Linus.
Hermies cause problems because they may carry the hermaphrodite trait with their offspring. Genetically the hermie condition is near impossible to reverse once started. Sometimes even plants from the hermaphrodite's offspring that did not display the hermaphrodite condition can still carry the hermie trait to future offspring. If you ever see all-female seeds advertised by seed banks you have the right to know whether or not these seeds come from female plants that were stressed into producing male flowers. In general, growers try to avoid hermie plants because they spoil sinsemilla crops and breeding projects.

Abnormal bud growth is a side effect of the hermaphrodite condition. Because the plant produces male pollen sacks with female flowers you may notice that the bud looks different. Also, the quantity of female bud produced is decreased because of pollination.

When I harvest, is there an easy way to determine which buds have seeds and which do not?

Will water curing the buds ruin the seeds?

Wow moogie thats great response, question for you thogh, if I did stress my female and trying to get fem seeds wont I get fem seeds? I am still a little unclear bout that...

If you ever see all-female seeds advertised by seed banks you have the right to know whether or not these seeds come from female plants that were stressed into producing male flowers. In general, growers try to avoid hermie plants because they spoil sinsemilla crops and breeding projects.

Contributed by Mr.XX and TheSiliconMagician:

This is the strategy of Mr. XX, a Dutch breeder, for creating all female seedlines from slight hermaphroditic pollen. What he does is put the lights on 12/12 for 10 days. Then turns the lights on 24 hours, then 12/12 again for a few days, then back to 24 hours for a day, then 12/12 again for a few weeks.

If he does this and no hermaphrodites come up. He has found a 100% XX female that cannot go hermaprhoditic naturally. He says that your chances of finding a 100% XX female is vastly increased when using Indica genetics. He told me that the more Afghanni or Nepalese genetics the plant has, the better the chances of finding a natural XX female. His
exact words were "Where did mother nature give weed a home at originally?"

I tried to get him to narrow it down to a ratio, but he never specified just how many plants per are XX females his exact words are "plenty of XX girls for everybody" and that is all he will say on the subject. Only that it takes alot of time and alot of plants to find that one female.

He then uses Gibrellic acid. 30 centiliters of water with 0.02 grams of Gibrellic acid and 2 drops of Natruim Hydroxide to liquify the Gibrellic. Then applies as normal and creates the male flowers. He has gotten down to the 4th Generation with NO loss of vigor, NO genetic deficiencies and NO hermaphrodites. He claims that the plants are EXACT GENETIC CLONES of one another. Complete sisters. Basically it's clone from seed instead of from normal cloning methods.

Thank you, even though you are a bearer of bad news for me, in my ignorance I thought that the seeds from stressed female turned hermie are all fem, was gona be my outdoor crop for summer 08, now hmmm , I dont know, what do you think my chanses are?

i grew 4 girls they went hermie.due to bad liting schedule.its like karma man

hermies are due to bad genes or because your thumb just isn't green.

ecto said:

hermies are due to bad genes or because your thumb just isn't green.

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I would tend to disagree with this statement considering I've seen some of the best strains produce hermies.

See above response about stress and last ditch efforts, it's far more to do with stress and poor conditions, or "survival instict" than anything.

And as for the seed question, expect alot and it will be obvious where most of the seeds are. Some may scatter throughout a bud or so, but you should see large clusters of "pregnated" flower stipule.

BCENVY said:

I would tend to disagree with this statement considering I've seen some of the best strains produce hermies.

See above response about stress and last ditch efforts, it's far more to do with stress and poor conditions, or "survival instict" than anything.

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i'm more or less talking about stress (lacking a greenthumb) and bagseed/ditchweed (bad genes). i'm not saying good genetics will never give hermies i'm simply saying bad genes are more likely to.

ecto said:

i'm more or less talking about stress (lacking a greenthumb) and bagseed/ditchweed (bad genes). i'm not saying good genetics will never give hermies i'm simply saying bad genes are more likely to.

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ahhh...ok I get it now...sorry bout that

Yeah to avoid that problem I just keep with brand names like Tommy Jeans for my plants LOL J/P