How to tell whether your plants a male female or a hermi Alright guys so some of you may be new to growing and are wandering whether your plants male female or possibly a Hermaphrodite commonly known as a hermi, which is a male and a female that pollinates it's self, but we will get to that in a second. First of this is a female, if you see these it doesn't mean your plants actually flowering but pre flowering, which is just basically telling you it's a female. What you see here are pistols and for indoor growers it's time to switch to 12/12. This is a male when your looking for a male look for small ball clusters like these. If your whole crop is male well all is not lost once fully grown you can make some hash out of them, they contain THC just very small amounts. Now this is a Hermaphrodite male and a female that pollinates itself as a survival strategy, there are a number of things that can cause a hermie light leaks broken stem genetics stress And also not always but sometimes switching to 12/12 without pre flowering can cause a hermie this is what a hermie looks like and is still very much smoke able, it will just contain seeds. Now this is a perfect example of a hermie during the late flowering stage, do not mistake these balls for swollen calaxys, they will be full of liquid calaxys will often be hollow and soft to the touch You will have to keep a close eye out for herme's they will pollinate your whole crop, Note when removing a male or a hermie put a bin bag over it tie it at the bottom of the stem and remove it, you don't want any pollen sacks bursting. Also here is a helpful image, this is what a male cannabis plant looks like when it has pollinated your crop, this applies for herme's as well. Hope this helps some people and feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
SPDT!!!! Nice job Skunky! this has the best photo's I have seen of a male/female thread! should be perfect for any noob
They can become pollinated so grow seeds but i have never heard of a male feminized plant although they hermi allot more than normal seeds do
Thanks =] though news is not the most pleasant to hear... btw, is there a significant difference in high/taste when smoking hermies? Are they worth flowering?
Well you will only know it's a hermi when it's flowering, it will pollinate your whole crop so if you move it somewhere yeh it will taste fine just will have seeds, it wont be as potent because it wont be "sensamilia" but still worth it.
Also something you might need to know. Flowering times. Sativa dominant strains can flower for up to 11 weeks. Indica dominant strains can flower up to 9 weeks. So if your starting a bit late in the season or just want quicker bud then Indica dominants your best bet.
have already ordered some Tangerine Dream seeds which is mostly sativa and has 70day flowering period but thanks for the info anyway Is season an issue if growing indoors? Did I get it right that flowering can be started at any desired time to limit plants growth? And also how much bigger/taller do plants get during flowering? sorry for offtop questions :S
Right well that will be a problem BUT what you are going to do is LST it keeps your plants to a minumum of a foot also i recommend topping them aswell and LST'ing the new branches you get from topping. Well you should wait until pre flowering shows or else you run the risk of them hermi'ing on you.
Thanks again, you are being very helpful! Shall for sure be waiting till pre flowering as I am in the group of hermie risk with fem seeds... I will definitely attempt LST method but I am not sure about topping as I doubt I will be able to do it correctly. My grow box is not that small but still not the biggest one. Its 80Wx40Dx90H (cm) with residual height of about 50-60cm so probably I will be fine with just LST.
You really cant mess topping up man it's nearly impossible you just cut the new growth at the top off, here's a sticky about it. http://forum.grasscity.com/plant-training/122559-how-fimming-topping-made-easy.html
mm thanks, I was just worried that cutting may slow the growth of that part or stress it and make it become a hermie...
It wont stress it but it will slow growth that's the point it gives you like 4 more branches coming out the top that you can strap down.