female clone turning male?

ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
So I supposedly got some female clones from a friend. I am now three weeks into my flowering and I am finding male pollen sacks. Some of the pollen sacks are more mature than others. It is only a small (5 plants) closet grow. I started to notice these sacks about a week ago and to this point I have been plucking them off as I see them. Maybe one per plant per day. So its definitely not "infested"... yet. Before today there were only signs of these male pollen sacks on the lower area of my plants, so I wasnt as worried about it spreading too bad. Unfortunately, today I noticed a couple on my top buds too. These are deeper in the bud itself and harder to spot. I plucked them also.

With that being said, I would like to ask the readers if they have run into this problem and what you did to resolve your problem? Or if anyone has any constructive advise, that would be appreciated also. I do not want to have to start over from scratch, but I also dont want buds full of seeds. If there is one here or there, I can deal with that.
 
phyzix

phyzix

Well-Known Member
Research hermaphroditism, it's when stress causes a female plant to go male. Usually light/temperature related, also sometimes just bad genetics.
 
TalonToker

TalonToker

Well-Known Member
I have been fortunate enough that I have not had to deal with a hermie even once (knocking on wood). I do, however, spend several hours almost every day reading and reading at this forum and other places in the hopes of being ready for the unexpected. One of the things that I have read about hermies is that if you pluck those pollen sacks, the plant will replace each one with several more, meaning you can expect this problem to get progressively worse. Sorry about the info, don't kill the messanger.-P
 
IrieMartin

IrieMartin

Well-Known Member
If your dealing with the unknown i usually take 5 clones of 5 plants, try not to stress them and kill all males asap. should wind up with about 15 fems.
 
ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
TalonToker said:
I have been fortunate enough that I have not had to deal with a hermie even once (knocking on wood). I do, however, spend several hours almost every day reading and reading at this forum and other places in the hopes of being ready for the unexpected. One of the things that I have read about hermies is that if you pluck those pollen sacks, the plant will replace each one with several more, meaning you can expect this problem to get progressively worse. Sorry about the info, don't kill the messanger.-P
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Do you have any links to what you may have read? Especially about plucking them and coming back many times more? Thanks.
 
TalonToker

TalonToker

Well-Known Member
After looking for 25 minutes I have not found anything yet. I will keep looking for you, but I wanted to mention I remember reading that hermies are usually caused by stress (it can also be genetic) and pulling pollen sacks causes more stress, which increases the factor that caused the plant to hermie in the first place. I realize since I have no personal experience with hermies that this is all heresay, so I'll keep on looking until I find a link for you. Hopefully an expert or someone with experience on hermies at this forum has something to add.
 
TheBone1234

TheBone1234

Member
Hermies can be caused by over nutrient rich soil/water. And also by not keeping a completely dark period in your environment. Make sure that when you are in your room with the light off you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Since you are in a closet I hope you can stand in there with the lights on in your room to see how much light leaks into your plants environment. If thats not the issue, go to your friend and ask him about his grow habits.

You would be surprised how man people don't believe that cloning the from your plants over and over again will degrade the genetics. This will happen, you may not notice something the first time, but there are subtle changes to the plant, most likely in minute chemical pathways and relationships within the plant. Hope some of this helps
 
TalonToker

TalonToker

Well-Known Member
Well Obijwon, after looking for an hour, I have not been able to locate where I read directly that plucking a hermie pollen sack will result in it being replaced by several more, although I think it does make sense. That said, I did a search for "removing hermie pollen sacks" and there were many links that came up and they all advised that if your plant was in its last 3 weeks or so of flowering, then you should remove the sacks. They all also advised that if your plant is still early in flowering, you should either remove the plant part (I don't know if I agree with that), or remove the plant all together to protect your other plants and your next grow. As I mentioned, I don't have personal experience with hermies, so I really can't help out any more. I feel your pain, bro. May the force be with you.-P
 
M

mikegolfer

Active Member
Hermie expert here, keep plucking. You're chances of plucking ALL of them is very close to zero. Some will hide in the flowers until it is too late. Smoke will still be OK, a few seeds to practice with too. Not really all as bad as everyone says. If it's a stressed hermie, use that pollen to fertilize another pure female and you'll have feminized seeds. I stressed a female, pollinated another female with THAT pollen and the seeds so far have produced all females except one male, and one hermie. Out of about 40 seeds, 38 females is a good ratio for me. It was bagseed, sativa, and it's some of the best smoke around.
 
ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
TalonToker said:
Well Obijwon, after looking for an hour, I have not been able to locate where I read directly that plucking a hermie pollen sack will result in it being replaced by several more, although I think it does make sense. That said, I did a search for "removing hermie pollen sacks" and there were many links that came up and they all advised that if your plant was in its last 3 weeks or so of flowering, then you should remove the sacks. They all also advised that if your plant is still early in flowering, you should either remove the plant part (I don't know if I agree with that), or remove the plant all together to protect your other plants and your next grow. As I mentioned, I don't have personal experience with hermies, so I really can't help out any more. I feel your pain, bro. May the force be with you.-P
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Thanks for all your help with researching this and your opinions. I will do some research of my own also. I HOPE they will be ok. Sure dont want all that good smoke to go to waste. Thanks again Talon.
 
ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
TheBone1234 said:
Hermies can be caused by over nutrient rich soil/water. And also by not keeping a completely dark period in your environment. Make sure that when you are in your room with the light off you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Since you are in a closet I hope you can stand in there with the lights on in your room to see how much light leaks into your plants environment. If thats not the issue, go to your friend and ask him about his grow habits.

You would be surprised how man people don't believe that cloning the from your plants over and over again will degrade the genetics. This will happen, you may not notice something the first time, but there are subtle changes to the plant, most likely in minute chemical pathways and relationships within the plant. Hope some of this helps
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Thank you for your input Bone. PH of soil and water is on mark. I did get inside my closet yesterday with all the lights on in the room and did what I would normally do during lights out period and sure as shit, there were light leaks. I took care of that (I think). Should have been something that I should have looked at in the first place. Thanks again. Go Sharks!
 
ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
TheBone1234 said:
Hermies can be caused by over nutrient rich soil/water. And also by not keeping a completely dark period in your environment. Make sure that when you are in your room with the light off you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Since you are in a closet I hope you can stand in there with the lights on in your room to see how much light leaks into your plants environment. If thats not the issue, go to your friend and ask him about his grow habits.

You would be surprised how man people don't believe that cloning the from your plants over and over again will degrade the genetics. This will happen, you may not notice something the first time, but there are subtle changes to the plant, most likely in minute chemical pathways and relationships within the plant. Hope some of this helps
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Oh... and its TheBone107.7
 
ObiJwon

ObiJwon

Well-Known Member
mikegolfer said:
Hermie expert here, keep plucking. You're chances of plucking ALL of them is very close to zero. Some will hide in the flowers until it is too late. Smoke will still be OK, a few seeds to practice with too. Not really all as bad as everyone says. If it's a stressed hermie, use that pollen to fertilize another pure female and you'll have feminized seeds. I stressed a female, pollinated another female with THAT pollen and the seeds so far have produced all females except one male, and one hermie. Out of about 40 seeds, 38 females is a good ratio for me. It was bagseed, sativa, and it's some of the best smoke around.
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Thank you Mike. I was hoping to get someone on this question that has had some first hand experinece. I agree with what you are saying. I may have to try what you are talking about with using the pollen. I usually catch them before they are mature and pollenating. Your ratio for females is awesome though. Thanks man.
 
Rayzor

Rayzor

Member
Hi, I have a question. I took a cutting off the flowering female, then noticed weeks later that the flowering female seemed to change to a male. I had moved the plant to a new spot, so probably made it hermi. So, will the clone be a female still? I was hoping to salvage a female clone/monster. Thanks.
 
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