Two qestions for the pros to answer:

[noxiously]

First question: If you let a hermie seed out, do all those seeds turn hermie, high chance of male, higher chance of female, or are they femanized? (The femanized theory is something I've heard alot but sounds a little fishy to me)

Second question: When turning your lights from 18/6 to 12/12 do you do it 18 on one day then the next it's all the way down to 12, or do you do it gradually like the season changes from summer to fall? What I was wondering is with changing from 18/6 to 12/12 in one days time would it stress the plant into turning male? I've seen an excellent set up, good nutes, good light, no light leaks, not too hot, not too cold, basically it was a ideal grow situation but 90% turned male and 10% turned hermie. Or could it just be from bad seeds/genes/supplier?



Edit: If you do the gradual, how slow do you turn the timer back? Would you do it on a daily basis, set up to turn off 1-2 minutes sooner than the previous day? Or would you have it turn off 30 minutes sooner each day until you get down to the 12/12 cycle?

 

[growone]

First question: If you let a hermie seed out, do all those seeds turn hermie, high chance of male, higher chance of female, or are they femanized? (The femanized theory is something I've heard alot but sounds a little fishy to me)
...

the seeds of hermie pollen are feminized, that is legit
most will tell you if the plant hermied easily, it will have a high chance of making seeds that hermie easy
so i had that happen, a plant hermied over itself, bunch of seeds, tried one seed because they are feminizied
so 6 1/2 weeks of flower, no balls, just a nice female

 

[noxiously]

Thats kind of nice to hear, especially when you have 9 out of ten turn male and 1 turn hermie. Lots of time, effort, and hope went right down the drain. It was the first DWC grow, and they took off like a bat out of hell, grew tall, and bushy in no time. They looked so nice, but choppin em down felt horrible...I had to turn my head......

 

[Cali chronic]

f you do the gradual, how slow do you turn the timer back? Would you do it on a daily basis, set up to turn off 1-2 minutes sooner than the previous day? Or would you have it turn off 30 minutes sooner each day until you get down to the 12/12 cycle?


Go 12/12 immediately no reason for gradual

 

[growone]

Thats kind of nice to hear, especially when you have 9 out of ten turn male and 1 turn hermie. Lots of time, effort, and hope went right down the drain. It was the first DWC grow, and they took off like a bat out of hell, grew tall, and bushy in no time. They looked so nice, but choppin em down felt horrible...I had to turn my head......

that is a rough deal, really, you have my sympathy
the genetics of this wonderful but sometimes frustrating plant have their twists and turns
i have seen other results like yours with tons of males, but the odds of this happening with a 50% chance of male/female should be tiny
when something like this happens, there has to have been some condition that favored the male expression of the genes

 

[Nocturn3]

With regards to slowly adjusting the time down to 12/12, there's really no need. They will flower when the darkness reaches a critical length, and making that happen in one day is not stressful. If they hermie from this, they will hermie anyway. The majority of hermies are down to weak genetics.

 

[noxiously]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I always wondered about flipping the lights gradually but I haven't heard of anyone doing it. Also, thanks growone for the good info you provided. It was very useful for future reference.

 

[Plebscrubber]

Hermies have a good chance of generating hermies

You can stress a fem to go hermi, then use it to pollenate a pure fem - the result seeds are mostly female, but prone to turning hermie cause their dad was a sicko hermafrodite, its in there genetics

a truely femenized seed has been treated with collodial silver or similar - and will give about 98% females, theres always some fail/male


you can snap them right to 12/12 from veg lighting, no worries

 

[noxiously]

I heard about that collodial silver stuff you're talking about Pleb. I just couldn't remember the name. Where can you find that stuff?

 

[tpsmc]

First question: If you let a hermie seed out, do all those seeds turn hermie, high chance of male, higher chance of female, or are they femanized? (The femanized theory is something I've heard alot but sounds a little fishy to me)

Second question: When turning your lights from 18/6 to 12/12 do you do it 18 on one day then the next it's all the way down to 12, or do you do it gradually like the season changes from summer to fall? What I was wondering is with changing from 18/6 to 12/12 in one days time would it stress the plant into turning male? I've seen an excellent set up, good nutes, good light, no light leaks, not too hot, not too cold, basically it was a ideal grow situation but 90% turned male and 10% turned hermie. Or could it just be from bad seeds/genes/supplier?



Edit: If you do the gradual, how slow do you turn the timer back? Would you do it on a daily basis, set up to turn off 1-2 minutes sooner than the previous day? Or would you have it turn off 30 minutes sooner each day until you get down to the 12/12 cycle?

Im not a pro but I have read a lot and the hermi thing is this... to make feminized seeds some growers will take a good female and stress her out till she herms then they will let it self pollinate. This will lead to a genetic match of the mother think of it as a cloned seed. So just because it turns to a hermie doesn't mean it will produce feminized seeds. (it more likley means it came from feminized seeds).

I have also read about the debate over going 12 12 or gradually dialing it back. While gradually dialing it back has less stress on the plant it results in longer flowering times. IMHO I would only suggest dialing it back if you are growing feminized seeds which are genetically prone to turning herm at signs of stress.

As for your friend who had 90% males there are 5 factors know to cause a seedling to become male or female:

1. Level of nitrogen and potassium of the seedbed: A heightening of the standard level of nitrogen makes for more female cannabis plants originating from seeds. A lowering of the nitrogen level shows more male cannabis plants. A heightening of the level of potassium tends to show more male marijuana plants, while a lowering of the potassium level shows more female marijuana plants. A combination of a higher nitrogen level for the period of a week or two and a lowering of the potassium level is recommended.
2. Humidity and moistness of the seedbed: a higher humidity makes for an increase in the number of female cannabis plants from the seed, a lowering for an increase in male cannabis plants. The same is valid for the moistness of the seedbed.
3. Level of temperatures: lower temperatures make for a larger number of female marijuana plants, higher temperatures for more male marijuana plants.
4. Color of light: more blue light makes for female cannabis plants from seed, more red light makes for more male cannabis plants.
5. Hours of daylight: few hours of daylight (e.g. 14 hours) makes for more female individuals, a long day (e.g. 18 hours) makes for more male cannabis plants.

Additional If I were to dial it back I would dial it back and hour each day till at 12 12.