Bad experience with commercial seeds doing the hermie

[rocks911]

I have been buying seeds at ILGM for a few years now but the last seeds I purchased were very disappointing. I Just had 2 ILGM White Widows that were supposed to be Autos f*ck up an entire tent of girls. Got a bumper crop of seeds.
The White Widow's were supposed to be Autos but were Photos. I decided what the hell and grew them out with a couple Grand Daddy Purples and a couple Obama Kush and now Ive got a shit ton of lousy herb with a bumper crop of seeds cause one of the WW's hermied.
My vision is not great and obviously I missed it until it was too late. Its a tremendous dissapointment.

Is there a rock solid genetics source that ships US?

 

[FirstCavApache64]

DC Seed Exchange has a ton of reliable breeders to choose from. For autos I really like Magic, Gnome Automatics and Ronin Gardens. Photo period there are a ton of reliable breeders, it's a question of what you like to grow. I lean towards heavy medical strains and like Strayfox, Useful Seeds, Guamanian Gardens and a couple others. You're never 100% sure you won't have a intersex issue but good breeders help. There's enough threads on these guys work to figure out which strains are hermi prone so you can avoid them or just watch for them in flower really close. Anytime I have an auto that doesn't flower under 20 hour light the way it's supposed to I toss it. It's either bad genetics or the wrong seeds, either way it's not what I wanted to grow. Just my experience. Hope you get some good beans.

 

[rocks911]

Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.
I suspect that in the race to cash in on cannabis seeds the quality is deteriorating. I know of a guy that had exactly the same problem a month ago with the same seed co. and the same strain. He caught it in time.
I have had success with WW from ILGM in the past, which is to say I cant explain how several grows went fine while this one shit the bed. The only thing that has changed is new beans. I mean how long has WW been with us? It should be one of the most stable beans out there.

Thanks again, Ill check out your suggestions

 

[FirstCavApache64]

Yeah, ilgm from what I've heard isn't exactly a reliable bank. It's good you had some success before though. Paul with DC Seed Exchange is a great guy and offers a discount for military veterans as well as super fast shipping times. I usually get my orders shipped the day he gets payment and receive them in 2-3 days.

 

[jasonryan00]

I have been buying seeds at ILGM for a few years now but the last seeds I purchased were very disappointing. I Just had 2 ILGM White Widows that were supposed to be Autos f*ck up an entire tent of girls. Got a bumper crop of seeds.
The White Widow's were supposed to be Autos but were Photos. I decided what the hell and grew them out with a couple Grand Daddy Purples and a couple Obama Kush and now Ive got a shit ton of lousy herb with a bumper crop of seeds cause one of the WW's hermied.
My vision is not great and obviously I missed it until it was too late. Its a tremendous dissapointment.

Is there a rock solid genetics source that ships US?

Are you positive that the environment you used had nothing to do with the hermie problem you had?
You can not always just rush to blame the seed stock when you have a herm problem.
Many different types of abiotic stress can cause the plant to suffer from a herm issue
Light leaks being the most common cause. Do you use a green light source to enter you garden when the lights are out? That many times can lead to the herm issue because the green has a small sliver of white light showing and boom

If your solution is to just order more seeds than whats to stop that new crop from suffering from the herm issue if you didn't take the time to make sure you weren't causing it without realizing it

 

[Aheadatime]

If you have bad vision or mobility, I'd either have a friend come take a detailed look around the garden once a week, or only use a limited amount of your grow space for pheno hunting and use the rest for trusted clones. The reality is that you will encounter herms when seed hunting, regardless of breeder, even if your environment is dialed in. Some breeders have a much higher herm rate than others, but it's hard to clarify or quantify this, as breeders are always using new mothers/genetics. So if you found a bunch of herms in "apple fritter x gsc" by "dank genetics", it doesn't mean that "SFV OG x sour diesel" by "dank genetics" will have a high herm rate.

It's just the pheno hunter's duty to be on the continual lookout for the sacks and bananas. In my experience, the late-flower bananas are not threatening since it's usually too late to pollinate the buds at that point, but the 2-week to 5-weekish ball sacks will ruin a crop completely. Check for ball sacks at the bottom of where nugs develop, and at the plant's internodal shoots (wherever there is a "V" in the plant's stems/branches). This has allowed me to catch and cull 95+% of herms when pheno hunting. It is very rare that a banana nested deep in a nug results in a ruined crop. It has happened, to be sure, but for every time this has happened, I've had 10 other encounters with bananas that didn't result in any seeds, either because the bananas were sterile or they appeared too late in flower to pollinate anything.

Anecdotally, I've never had a herm from either HSO seeds (found at most vendors) or Ocean Grown genetics (lumberjackseedsource is the website name). But again, this doesn't mean you won't get herms from them, or that you will get herms from the other companies I've run (tiki, exotic, in-house, too many to list).

 

[rocks911]

Are you positive that the environment you used had nothing to do with the hermie problem you had?
You can not always just rush to blame the seed stock when you have a herm problem.
Many different types of abiotic stress can cause the plant to suffer from a herm issue
Light leaks being the most common cause. Do you use a green light source to enter you garden when the lights are out? That many times can lead to the herm issue because the green has a small sliver of white light showing and boom

If your solution is to just order more seeds than whats to stop that new crop from suffering from the herm issue if you didn't take the time to make sure you weren't causing it without realizing it

I base my judgement on the fact that I had grown with exactly the same setup a few times before. In fact most of the seeds Ive purchased were from ILGM. This was just one instance but Ive read of others lately. Anecdotal to be sure but if I cant rely on White Widow to not be squirrely I think I'll move on.

 

[rocks911]

If you have bad vision or mobility, I'd either have a friend come take a detailed look around the garden once a week, or only use a limited amount of your grow space for pheno hunting and use the rest for trusted clones. The reality is that you will encounter herms when seed hunting, regardless of breeder, even if your environment is dialed in. Some breeders have a much higher herm rate than others, but it's hard to clarify or quantify this, as breeders are always using new mothers/genetics. So if you found a bunch of herms in "apple fritter x gsc" by "dank genetics", it doesn't mean that "SFV OG x sour diesel" by "dank genetics" will have a high herm rate.

It's just the pheno hunter's duty to be on the continual lookout for the sacks and bananas. In my experience, the late-flower bananas are not threatening since it's usually too late to pollinate the buds at that point, but the 2-week to 5-weekish ball sacks will ruin a crop completely. Check for ball sacks at the bottom of where nugs develop, and at the plant's internodal shoots (wherever there is a "V" in the plant's stems/branches). This has allowed me to catch and cull 95+% of herms when pheno hunting. It is very rare that a banana nested deep in a nug results in a ruined crop. It has happened, to be sure, but for every time this has happened, I've had 10 other encounters with bananas that didn't result in any seeds, either because the bananas were sterile or they appeared too late in flower to pollinate anything.

Anecdotally, I've never had a herm from either HSO seeds (found at most vendors) or Ocean Grown genetics (lumberjackseedsource is the website name). But again, this doesn't mean you won't get herms from them, or that you will get herms from the other companies I've run (tiki, exotic, in-house, too many to list).

To be sure Ive got to get better at checking!

 

[Livingblacksoil]

JBC seeds: Bodhi

 

[FirstCavApache64]

To be sure Ive got to get better at checking!

I'm disabled and have a hard time checking them down low when they are tightly packed in and late in flower. I've found using strains that have a good track record and lollipopping them to get rid of the crap down low that doesn't get optimum light helps get rid of the balls down low in weeks 2-3. I hated trimming all the little popcorn buds anyway so keeping the lowers stripped just makes sense to me. Checking for environmental issues is always a good idea when you get hermi problems but it's not always the cause. Over feeding, genetics and other things can cause it but you sound like you're on the right track.

 

[Kgrim]

There are plenty of other seed banks in the US, that IMO are way better than ILGM. Hembra, quickest ship time I've ever had, 3 days west coast to east coast. D.C. Seed Exchange, discount for Veterans, and fast shipping, with a lot of "freebies". JBC, Great Lakes Genetics, great ship time, nice freebies. ILGM maybe many moons ago, not in the last few years. A co-worker swore by them, and the last 2 outdoor seasons, I've had to supplement his harvest because of issues, Autos not being autos, herms, and piss poor plants overall. Plenty of good breeders available thru much better seed banks IMO. Hell, I even bought some inexpensive seeds from Homegrown Cannibas Co. for last years grow, and they blew away everything that my co-worker grew at twice the price.
ILGM isn't what they used to be IMO.

 

[madininagyal]

There are plenty of other seed banks in the US, that IMO are way better than ILGM. Hembra, quickest ship time I've ever had, 3 days west coast to east coast. D.C. Seed Exchange, discount for Veterans, and fast shipping, with a lot of "freebies". JBC, Great Lakes Genetics, great ship time, nice freebies. ILGM maybe many moons ago, not in the last few years. A co-worker swore by them, and the last 2 outdoor seasons, I've had to supplement his harvest because of issues, Autos not being autos, herms, and piss poor plants overall. Plenty of good breeders available thru much better seed banks IMO. Hell, I even bought some inexpensive seeds from Homegrown Cannibas Co. for last years grow, and they blew away everything that my co-worker grew at twice the price.
ILGM isn't what they used to be IMO.

i used to order on seedheaven seedbank , pretty cheap but the quality is top notch

 

[Hempwickwizard]

DM the breeder you want to buy from on IG. A lot of the time you can order directly from them and they'll hook you up. kendogsmoke_kds_seeds on IG has been slinging 50 dollar packs of og heat for decades. Price wise and pound for pound he's the man. Sent my roommate a free care package of 6 full packs for free