Hey ya'll! I'm currently growing a hermie, and I did some searching and asked some questions around the "Absolute Beginners" section of the forum and found out that if you search your Hermie fairly often and cut all of the "bananas" off, the buds will grow just fine and wont get pollinated. Of course, you have to be careful in removing the "bananas" as to not knock any pollen off while cutting. Luckily (or un-luckily, however you want to think about it), before I'd gotten any responses I'd started a plan to cut off the "bananas," I mean, it makes sense right? Soo.. Through trial and error, error being cutting at the wrong angle, different types of surfaces to try and catch the pollen and "bananas" in, how to efficiently search for "bananas," ect... I came up with this: First off, you'll want to be on the look-out for "bananas." It's a pretty easy process in which I think that DierWolf does a great job in explaining with good pictures showing what a Hermie looks like. You can find it Here. What I like to do is get at an angle to my plans that I can see the under-sides of the leaves. Then I'll get a flashlight and shine it up at the bottoms of ALL of the buds. Be sure to check both sides! The sooner you catch the "bananas" the easier and safer they are to remove. If you catch them young enough, they wont have produced any pollen yet, or not much at all which means less pollen flying all over the place when you're trying to cut them off. The longer they have to develop before you cut them off, the more pollen they will produce and that crap gets EVERYWHERE! I caught the second one of my first grow a bit too late, and when I cut it the pollen puffed out of the "bananas." Luckily almost all of it landed on my tray, but about a week or so later I noticed that a few seeds are starting to develop.. As for the cutting, What I do is I have a little plastic thing with edges around it (I'm currently using one of the little plastic domes that come with the Aerogarden), small enough to be able to fit in-between my branches. **Thanks to pnut420 for suggesting to add a little water to the bottom of your tray to help control the spread of pollen. When the "bananas" hit the try, they tend to drop some pollen and if you're not careful it could get on your plants. The water makes it so when the "bananas" hit the tray (or water in the tray), the pollen that would normally "poof" into the air now would get stuck in the water. Then I have a pair of small cosmetic scissors (I got them at walmart in the cosmetics section.) The blade-area is slightly curved which makes it ideal for the angle you want to get on the "stem" of the "bananas." I just reach up and one quick snip and the "bananas" fall into the tray. You'll want the have your tray directly under the "bananas," pretty much so that the edge of the tray touches the branch directly below the "bananas." Also, you need to be weary of the temperature. I haven't been running my fan, but I keep my house around 65 degrees (I have to pay for gas, and it's effin' expensive!! -- It's winter right now) so it seems to keep the plants around the right temp. I also had to raise my lights a little bit, but the plants seem to be doing just fine. Anyways, I thought I'd try and help some people out, if they wanted to try and keep growing a Hermie and still get good bud without (or as few as possible) seeds. This probably is something somebody would want to do if they were running a larger scale grow op.. But for us personal growers, I think it's worth the effort. Plus, I love spending time with my plants. (Could be just me..?) Let me know if anybody has any questions! I'm happy to try and answer them. And if I don't have an answer, I'm willing to do some research! Haha! P.S. Sorry I don't have any pictures... I have a webcam, but all of the ones I tried taking turned out really crappy and you can't really tell whats going on.. I'm hoping to get a good camera soon..
good post man. Never come across this problem yet so its nice to know. I would think that if you added a little water to your catch tray it would stop the pollen from further spreading. If the banana falls to hard and hits the bottom of the tray it could open, wereas, if you had water in it, it would not allow the pollen to fly around your room. good tip though.
Nice! Hermies worry me. Especially on my small grow where 1 hermie could be 1/3 of my yield. I don't mind a little seed though. They're easy enough to pull out before smoking. So it's good to know I could tolerate a hermie if I encounter one. I'd probably isolate it, but it would still be nice to not have that plant be a total loss. Do you think it would be possible to use a small piece if tubing going to a jar or something. That way you put it around the bananas, like a condom sort of, and anything that comes off them (and the banana itself) fall into the jar minimizing dealing with the powder? Or are they too small to make that work? + rep.
warning: Dutch Masters has a product called "Reverse". They claim it chemically stops all male groth in it's tracks. If you search it, you'll find a handful of posts on a few forums all saying the stuff is amazing and saved their crop, yadda yadda These have to be "planted" posts,.....the shit sucks, doesn't work. Waste of money
If thats the only plant you got cool. But if I have other know nice females in the same room that GUY/GAL has to GO ASAP. Have you been running irregular light cycles? Peace
That's brilliant!!! I'll add it to my post! (I'll be sure to give you credit!!) I did notice that the pollen does kind of poof out a little when it hits the tray.. No, my light cycles have been pretty much the standard.. During Veg, I had them on 18-6 and for flowering I've done straight 12-12.. I had one other make it, though my max growing capacity is 3 plants. One turned out to be female, and the other a Hermie.. I figured since I only had 2, I might as well try and salvage what I can. I'm glad I did though, the Hermie's buds are turning out to be about twice the size of the other plant and I think I've only found a total of 5 seeds developing so far. (from my mistake in cutting the bananas off. Also, this is mainly for a SMALL grow op.. It's all personal smoke. When you can only grow a max of 3 plants at a time and one turns out to be a Hermie, that 1/3 of your crop! I'd heard about that! At the time I didn't have enough spare money to be spending on it. I'm glad you said that though, because I was debating about getting some just to have it.. Thanks! That's a good idea! I've never tried it, though it might be difficult to be holding scissors, a tray and the tubing at the same time.. pnut420 gave a great suggestion in putting a little water in the bottom of the tray to help hinder the pollen from spreading. IF you figure out a good way to work that tube thing though, you should let me know! I'll add it to my thread and definitely give you credit!
I understand with just two remaining plants taking out the Hermie would cut your yield by approx half. Happy growing to you Bro Peace
LBH.. i remember a video posted of your setup that you put on GC a couple months ago, where you explaining your nutes/plant solutions, and said something along the lines of (in reference to your Reverse jug) "bout to throw this in garbage in the garbage". and i felt kinda bad because on an AK48 thread, i definitely remember recommending Reverse to you. What exactly was the the scenario where your opinion on Reverse came from? my common sense tells me that it did next to nothing for you, and im sorry for that dude. but all i was basing my Reverse review on was my personal use, which has been amazing.
mind you,. i notice alot of people wo use the reverse solution dont use it as stated, and aparently it has some other penetrator shite that comes with it.a drop or two of soap should be just as good a wetting agent as the stuff. ive heard its better as a preventative than a cure for alreadyy maturing seeds. there is also a point of no return which some people dont consider when thinking this will be a miracle solution to the hermie problems. well, thats what mums says so.. lol
I have 6 plants, small 16 sq ft tent. 3weeks into flower. One plant looked funny but I thought it was because I topped her late. The branches looked weird but had pre-flowers all over. Should have paid more attention. All of these seeds were feminized, mazar, lsd, vio kush, etc. Checked the plants this evening and from 6ft distance, plant looked funny so I pulled her out and to my horror! Big balls hanging! The plant has many flowers all over but these almost seemed to come out overnight. I am sure it's from me not checking close enough. I inspect daily, looking for any insect (previous Thrips infestation cured with Spinosad) and any type of nute burn (never had). My eyes were not looking for hermies. Anyway, pulled the plant and it had many male seeds pods around the beautiful flowers. The pods upon close examination all appeared to be fully formed, green and enclosed. They seemed not to have opened yet. Does anyone think I got it in time? I have seeds from my first 2 grows, just a few and the smoke was good. I never noticed any hermies but there had to be some to make these seeds. Would like to hear from anyone who has hermie experience like mine. 3rd grow, I am making fewer mistakes but still not perfect.
I've got a hermie growing now by itself. I'm keeping the balls cut off and won't let them pollinate the female. Must do this daily and look closely but I want to see what kind of smoke I get out of the buds. I'll post when I find out how good the smoke is.
i hella agree .. its my first grow and i have my first hermie. 1/3 plants so im definatly keeping he-she alive. put it outside and have it on 11/13, in the 5th week of flower and ive only seen and cut 4 sacs. buds look dank n stank.
If im planting bagseed i dont get mad about hermies its inevitable. Cutting the bananas out and letting the seeds grow would give you the same potency as far as i understand. Sensi bud doesnt form sweeds so the calyxes swell up with resin rather than a seed. Unless a new calyx pops up where the old one was and doesnt for a seed than what difference did you make other than putting yourself out of a seed? I find a seed every 2 grams or so i go through with my hermies. I might try to grow the seeds out and see if one doesnt hermie on me. Your hermied seeds will be female but they will also have that hermie trait in its genetics. If i could pick a few naners off and they stopped forming all together it would be worth it but if you pick them off and their still growing in other places i honestly dont see the point.
Looks like I'll be doing some castration when I get home.. fingers crossed Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk