Causes for Hermies?

Short Question:
What are the environmental situations which can cause a plant to hermie?

The most common ones I've heard are poor genetics and light leaks. In general, I've heard it can happen when plant is "stressed", so I'm wondering what other forms of stress typically can induce this.

Why I'm asking...

I bought one too many clones. I have a rack that I usually use to start clones when I take my own (bottom shelf under CFLs) and veg young teens (upper shelf under an LED light). The rack happened to be empty and I had one extra plant, so I put it in there while I figured out what to do with it. Couldn't find anyone to give it to, so I ended out just keeping it going.

The rack is just a metal shelf unit that I've wrapped an old canvas painters tarp around. I use it lights on during the day, so the 6 hours of vegging dark would coincide with when I'm sleeping, and light leaks/poor light management have never been an issue with the young ones. This is the first time I'm attempting to flower there. Since light leaks are one of the more talked about causes of hermies (hermying?), I'm hoping to eliminate any other probable causes, to give this plant the bast chance possible to finish as a female.

Any thoughts? Does temperature have an impact? Does trimming it intensely have impact? Nute balance...? I'm just guessing here...

From what I hear hermies are caused strictly by genetics.

This is a great reader:

https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/

Cervantes says high humidity increases females, low medium moisture increases males (you don't want this anyways), more blue light increases females, fewers hours of daylight increases females.
He also says to give plants 36 hours of total darkness during the transition to flowering, which gives them a signal to flower sooner. But I think that's bullshit, plants never do that in nature, all it would do is slow growth unnecessarily.

DesertGrow89 said:

From what I hear hermies are caused strictly by genetics.

This is a great reader:

https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/

Cervantes says high humidity increases females, low medium moisture increases males (you don't want this anyways), more blue light increases females, fewers hours of daylight increases females.
He also says to give plants 36 hours of total darkness during the transition to flowering, which gives them a signal to flower sooner. But I think that's bullshit, plants never do that in nature, all it would do is slow growth unnecessarily.

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Whadaya mean? There's that one really lonnnnnnnng day in May. Its kinda like that.

I had autos Hermie one time. I had a heat problem. Maybe genetic maybe heat? I am growing Blue Dream from seed and it will be done in 3 weeks. I have read about hermies on this particular breeder. So far it looks great. I keep my temps low.

DesertGrow89 said:

From what I hear hermies are caused strictly by genetics.

This is a great reader:

https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/

Cervantes says high humidity increases females, low medium moisture increases males (you don't want this anyways), more blue light increases females, fewers hours of daylight increases females.
He also says to give plants 36 hours of total darkness during the transition to flowering, which gives them a signal to flower sooner. But I think that's bullshit, plants never do that in nature, all it would do is slow growth unnecessarily.

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I didnt read the link but theres more to it than just genetics. So im gonna have to disagree. Ive made a plant herm accidentally after i took 15 clones from all around the plant and then put into flower. Like butchered it and then literally threw it onto a flower table. BAM. Balls everywhere in a couple weeks.
Also plants will pop bananas when theyre pollinated. Dont belive it? Throw some pollen in your room and watch what happens. Nanners.

That is interesting alienwidow, I'll keep it in mind. Anyone who doesn't know pollination creates seeds shouldn't be trying to grow a plant lol.

dandyrandy said:

I had autos Hermie one time. I had a heat problem. Maybe genetic maybe heat? I am growing Blue Dream from seed and it will be done in 3 weeks. I have read about hermies on this particular breeder. So far it looks great. I keep my temps low.

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Never grown that strain but I think as long as you don't mutilate the plant hermaphrodites are a result of genetics.

Poor breeding, horrible genetic selection.


FYI jorge doesn't know half of what he's talking about. He has given out a lot misinformation over the years. I read his book back in the day. I went by it too. Later found out it was mostly wrong via trial and error.

hermies are natural in all strains of cannabis. Just some are more prone to expressing such trait than others. some will do it easy because they are progeny of hermaphroditic event or stress!!

not just light leaks. toward fall, cold air, cold water, cold wind, damage to roots can all cause a plant to instinctually self itself to procreate.

water indoor plant s with cold water, stakes in root zone, can all cause hermies. reduce your mistakes and hermies become less

stress. light leaks, staking roots, cold water, heat etc

stress. light leaks, staking roots, cold water, heat etc

stress. light leaks, staking roots, cold water, heat etc

Never had a hermaphrodite, ever, not in 10 years of growing. They have always been either male or female. I don't do autos, but have done a far share of female only seeds....some have ended up being male for whatever reason, but I've never had a "confused" plant.

TBO, I don't even know how people promote that sort of genetic behavior. It is within all plants to do so though, but it takes the right kind of triggers (poor lights on off, heavy stress, stuff like that).

In all my 10 years I have never had a hermaphrodite plant. I do know that all plants have the potential if the right triggers happen, but I guess its a mystery I'd rather not know.

I've had feminized seeds go male, but never confused about the sex they were.

I guess one thing is I never flower plants "until" they show sex, so maybe that is something to do with it. I've never put immature plants into flower, and they have always been either one or the other I guess because of that??

Good question though.

The plant is a GG#4, I think the genetics are decent?

I've only hermied one plant, and it was a crazy hot summer grow and I was messing with lights and I switched them several times during the grow from COBs to burple lights, added and removed auxiliary lights. Long story, bad planning, heat issues, ended with balls and seeds.

I'm trying to keep everything as consistent and healthy as I can with this one, maybe that's all I can do.

smegpot said:

Never had a hermaphrodite, ever, not in 10 years of growing. They have always been either male or female. I don't do autos, but have done a far share of female only seeds....some have ended up being male for whatever reason, but I've never had a "confused" plant.

TBO, I don't even know how people promote that sort of genetic behavior. It is within all plants to do so though, but it takes the right kind of triggers (poor lights on off, heavy stress, stuff like that).

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That's really kind of incredible... You've NEVER had a female plant pop nanners at some point...ever, in 10 years??????
And never found an unexpected seed or 3 in a bud on a lower branch?

Had a couple of plants inside a few years back. Family member was unwell and we had to travel interstate for a week. I moved the girls outside and came back to hideous fox tails full of bananas all over the crowns. Was not a happy camper. My fault entirely though. I had to pretty much move them outside, set the watering timers and jump on a plane.

Not sure how bad the stress has to be, but in my case it was obviously enough

Stress (over-pruning, over topping, plant injury) frequent light cycle disruptions/phase switching. Then again some strains I'm sure are such dainty growers that they go hermie if you don't tell them how pretty they look.

I don't know about cold water though... I sez to myself, does rain fall room temperature? Maybe I'm missing something, in case anyone wants to learn me on that one... I know you want warm roots, but wouldn't the soil temp go pretty much right back to normal minutes after a cold drink?

tangerinegreen555 said:

That's really kind of incredible... You've NEVER had a female plant pop nanners at some point...ever, in 10 years??????
And never found an unexpected seed or 3 in a bud on a lower branch?

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Nope. I guess i'm lucky if thats the norm. To be fair, I only clone 1-2 generations out...maybe 3. Like I said before, it sort of mystifies me how it happens to other people.

Not saying im anything special, just never had it happen.

I probably had 100 grows or more in my lifetime. Shit! My plants got washed out with strong winds and rain, insect infested, over nutes, sprayed with soap and whatver that kills insects, molds and all the shit you can think of. Hermied less than 10 plants. It wasnt really that bad since the smoke is still astonishingly wonderful and only a handful of seeds/grew. I really didnt notice it hermied on me until i was nippin the buds. And i got some free seedsthat i worked on whjle on the learning curve that i grew and smoke. I even had my deadhead run that i pollnated seeds were still intact on the plant but because of bad rain outdoors they all popped while still attached to the plant

I’m gonna have to chalk it up to genetics. I grew from seed, had everything in order from tent, to intake/exhaust, oscillating and stationary fans, hygrometer for both temp and humidity, FF Nutes, good soil, Ph water, ph meters, u name it I had it. I’m home all day, so there’s no way things had a chance to get out of line. My darn meter even has an alarm on it if things get out of wack, and I’m right there to correct it if it did, and it only happened twice, not even a big deal. Damn thing still hermied on me. So with stress out of the way as a potential contributor, I only have 1 thing to lean on, GENETICS!!!

Dontjudgeme said:

I’m gonna have to chalk it up to genetics. I grew from seed, had everything in order from tent, to intake/exhaust, oscillating and stationary fans, hygrometer for both temp and humidity, FF Nutes, good soil, Ph water, ph meters, u name it I had it. I’m home all day, so there’s no way things had a chance to get out of line. My darn meter even has an alarm on it if things get out of wack, and I’m right there to correct it if it did, and it only happened twice, not even a big deal. Damn thing still hermied on me. So with stress out of the way as a potential contributor, I only have 1 thing to lean on, GENETICS!!!

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You realize this thread is 5 years old?

I saw the post on goggle and responded in the event someone else ran across it. No point in starting a whole new thread if one already exist. 5 min, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, 5 years, it don’t matter to me.

Herb & Suds said:

You realize this thread is 5 years old?

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What a strange trip down memory lane... I started this thread in 2015 when I had my first hermie... I've had them off and on since, and recently had more plants hermie than not. I think it's the city water, that's the only variable I haven't fully controlled, everything else I do is out of the bag common products, and methods that are all mainstream and normal. Most of the male parts are limited and late in the cycle and don't ruin the crop, but it does make me wonder.

If u dont mind me asking, where did your seeds come from? From a reputable bank or just seeds you’ve found along the way? My seeds were from batches of weed I bought my wife from a shop over a period of time. Probably 5 seeds out of 40 canisters Ivepurchased, an eighth a canister so not a lot. Typically females don’t produce seeds, so either a couple of the batches I bought were hermied plants that the seller did a good job of cleaning prior to selling, and a seed or 2 snuck in the bag, or the genetics were just terrible and a hermie offspring was the inevitable. I’m sure it wasn’t my doing that caused the hermie.

Dontjudgeme said:

If u dont mind me asking, where did your seeds come from? From a reputable bank or just seeds you’ve found along the way? My seeds were from batches of weed I bought my wife from a shop over a period of time. Probably 5 seeds out of 40 canisters Ivepurchased, an eighth a canister so not a lot. Typically females don’t produce seeds, so either a couple of the batches I bought were hermied plants that the seller did a good job of cleaning prior to selling, and a seed or 2 snuck in the bag, or the genetics were just terrible and a hermie offspring was the inevitable. I’m sure it wasn’t my doing that caused the hermie.

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Chances are if you find seeds in store bought bud, the plant hermied and was therefor unstable genetics. I have never had anything good happen when growing from seeds produced from a hermied plant.

Off the top of my head, I've gotten hermies from: Greenpoint Seeds (The Deputy, Dream Catcher), Oregon Green Seeds (Forgetful Cindy, Willamette Valley Pineapple), Hermetic Genetics (LSD)... whether or not those seed producers are "reputable" is debatable, I'm pretty sure the first two openly sell F1 seeds and the more serious breeders would say that is not an acceptable practice.

But that said, in this last grow I had a few random male flowers appear six weeks into flower on clones I got from a local dispensary, so while there could be a systemic lowering of quality of cannabis genetics in general, the more obvious assumption would be that there's something wrong with my environment. Otherwise everyone would be reporting similar issues.

Well you sound like you know what you’re talking about, so I assume your environment is equipped with the right equipment to prevent a hermie anywhere in the grow stage. I honestly think it was genetics. I’ve heard quite a few hermie stories whether from seed or clone. I think some strains are just genetically predisposed to hermie. And that was a quite a few banks you mentioned. I think I’m done going the seeds the route. Even feminized seeds come from hermies, so genetically you are already at a disadvantage.