Even experienced gardeners may encounter hermie plants from time to time. This occurs when cannabis plants develop male sex organs and cross-pollinate female buds with male pollen, resulting in an overly-seedy and less potency crop.
Growers looking to avoid hermaphrodites should inspect their crops regularly for early signs of hermies – the most prominent among which are yellow banana-shaped hermie pollen sacs forming around bud sites.
1. Male Pollen Sacs
One of the first telltale signs that a plant is hermie is when you notice male pollen sacs growing around its flowers, like tiny banana or teardrop-shaped bags dotted throughout its stalk. Spotting early hermie plants allows you to take steps against the pollination of other flowering female plants that could pollinate and compromise your crop.
Hermie plants can become a severe menace to your growth if left alone for too long, as they will self-pollinate and change your entire harvest into low-quality buds full of seeds. Hermie plants also produce lower potency weed, producing less yield per plant than usual.
To detect hermie plants, the best method is to inspect them for any sign of male genitalia closely. If any are present, remove the plant immediately using pruning shears or scissors, taking extra care not to touch other parts or shake the hermie plant itself in any way.
Once you have removed a hermie plant, keep an eye out on all your remaining plants to ensure that none have become hermies. This is particularly important if you are growing multiple species within a grow tent; any time hermie plants appear, it is essential to take swift action and sterilize the area immediately to avoid cross-pollination and cross-contamination.
Hermie plants can develop at any point during their cultivation process, but they will most likely appear when flowers bloom. One potential trigger of hermie formation for photoperiod plants is when too much light enters during their dark hours (known as “light leakage”) and overfeeding, stress factors in the grow room, or nutrient deficiencies. To reduce their likelihood, it is vital to create an environment that supports proper sleep for your photoperiod plants by keeping consistent schedules and providing them with a restful environment that offers ample restore time before flowering starts.
2. Bananas or Nanners
Hermie plants produce male parts known as bananas or “manners.” These elongated growths resembling bananas typically form groups on top of buds and can efficiently pollinate other flowers on your plant and within your grow room. Therefore, hermie plants must be identified early and taken swift action quickly to stop pollination and seed production.
Environmental conditions can cause hermies, but stress is the primary factor. Stressful triggers include temperature changes, improper nutrition levels, overfeeding, and light leaks interrupting their dark period.
Hermaphrodite cannabis plants can be difficult for novice growers to distinguish. While you might be able to spot female flower buds from male parts by their distinct white color and hairs that form around them, distinguishing female from male parts becomes increasingly challenging as plants begin to flower and the flowers get larger.
At this stage, it is easy to identify hermie plants by searching for male parts referred to as bananas or manners that grow between female flower buds. As new growers can easily overlook these parts, closer examination of your plant or consulting an experienced cultivator might be required to detect these male parts that look like female flower buds.
Identification of hermaphrodite cannabis plants may be difficult, but knowing the early warning signs is crucial to stopping their pollen spread and seed production. Maintaining a stable growing environment and avoiding extreme temperatures will help prevent one of the primary triggers for hermaphroditism. Harvest on time to avoid any nutrient stresses. Ensure your lights are set on a consistent schedule and that there are no light leaks during the dark period to reduce hermies. Also, use high-quality genetics to know your plants are receiving adequate nutrition and won’t become hermies.
3. Single Pistil Hairs
Hermie plants, often called hermies, produce both male and female flowers simultaneously. If left alone, they pollinate themselves and produce seeds that pollinate themselves, further resulting in poor-quality flowers and crop failure.
First-time growers of cannabis plants may become alarmed when they notice white stigmas appear on the buds of their cannabis plants. While this does not indicate hermies, it could suggest that harvest will not happen soon enough.
Maintain a stable growing environment to avoid hermies, such as by limiting heat stress caused by too much direct sunlight or equipment in the grow room and providing your plant with enough nutrients to produce healthy buds.
If a hermie develops, it must be removed immediately from the growing space. Pollen from its presence could pollinate other crops and ruin any hope for an abundant harvest. Furthermore, hermie plants don’t possess as high cannabinoid and terpene content as different cannabis strains.
Hermies usually appear due to inadequate plant care or environmental conditions. This could include overfertilizing cannabis plants or nutritional deficiencies. Hermaphroditic genes inherited from its mother may also contribute.
If a hermie plant emerges, it must be removed from your grow room as soon as possible to prevent pollination from other cannabis plants and compromising your yield. Furthermore, eliminating them from your space could prevent more from emerging later and spoiling the entire crop – while this approach won’t ensure quality products.
4. Seeds
After months of nurturing cannabis plants, watching them bloom into flowers can be thrilling. Unfortunately, a hermie plant could spell doom for your entire crop as its male and female flowers will pollinate each other and produce seeds instead of sinsemilla buds – although these hermie plants could still be harvested and harvested with minimal potency due to being filled with seeds instead.
Growing hermaphrodite cannabis plants may initially be easy for growers to spot during early bloom stages due to Pistils that grow around female calyxes. This hair distinguishes them from regular cannabis varieties. But as time goes on, it becomes harder and harder for growers to identify hermaphrodite plants due to male flowers overshadowing these hairs and making identification increasingly challenging.
Hermie plants can develop due to environmental stressors that induce them to change gender to defend against dangers such as heat stress, irregular light cycles, or insect attacks – often co-occurring – causing blooming stages to turn hermie.
Growers must act immediately when they detect hermies to stop the spread of pollen that could jeopardize harvest. Hermie pollen can quickly spread throughout a room and compromise it altogether.
Growers must closely watch their plants during the bloom period to look out for signs of hermaphroditism and take precautionary steps to create an ideal growing environment to lower the risks of hermaphroditism.
Hermies can be a source of great stress for growers as they can ruin the final product’s yield and potency. If not identified early enough, it can become challenging to save them; by being vigilant and following these tips, growers can avoid a hermie catastrophe altogether and enjoy an abundant, high-quality harvest from sinsemilla plants.
