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Blazed Hippie

Hermaphrodites: A Common Misconception

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Blazed Hippie
, 04-28-2010 at 08:55 AM (8920 Views)
There seems to be a large amount of disagreement on this site as to what causes hermaphrodites. I will attempt to dispell rumors, using my experiences and research. Recently on this forum someone told me the ONLY way to get hermaphrodites was from light leakage. I told him that is completely false and asked for proof. Needless to say the thread died there. This leads me to ask, where is everyone getting this misinformation? My answer, old publications. Alot of people will read books on growing from the 70's and 80's. I have read a lot of books and some of these type. Almost everything in the old books have been proven wrong or proven to be insufficient, this is normal as science will always progress. Its like if you were learning science from a book that is 40-50 years old, its outdated. The reason I know for sure this person was wrong is because of my experience. I had a girl turn hermie recently in my ghetto grow. One thing I did do with that grow is make sure there were NO light leaks what so ever. EVERYTHING else was terribly set up. I got this herm on the only plant that I had LSTed. I figured this was the reason it happened. I know I had to do lst on this plant because of its size. I tied the plant to 2 stakes to make it trellis up like you would with grapes. It kept raising and I kept pushing it down. This is how I believe the hermie started. There were 2 other females that budded fine in this grow. So what causes hermies? I am no plant genious, but in my research I have found the answer to be all types of stress. Now lets take into account what my dad always used to say. Too much of anything can kill you. This is what I mean about all types of stress. Plants can undergo small amounts of stress with seemingly no problems at all. However, I have learned that when you over do it than you get hermies. This is why I think hermies are also connected to over thinking. This is all about evolution, all living creatures have evolved to survive and propagate their species. Humans love sex, why do you think it feels so good? If a female plant is left in flowering too long she will grow male pre-flowers (referenced from my feminised seed article by soma). This is to help keep the species going by pollinating the females at the last minute. That is the last resort for your plant. If your plant thinks its going to die soon, than it will become a hermie. Light leaks cause hermies because your plant is fooled into thinking the season is almost over, and they need to propagate soon. Almost all things people say cause hermies do cause them in large amounts. Be gentle, be patient and be efficient. Your plants will probably not herm out. I am interested to talk to people who have had hermies under regular conditions. I have heard that some plants are prone to it. I want to note that yes, under normal conditions it is possible depending on strain. Thank for reading, I haven't decided what I will blog about tomorrow

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Updated 04-28-2010 at 09:02 AM by Blazed Hippie

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  1. CFornell's Avatar
    Nice article, i would totally have to agree with! I was also wondering, for instance my buddy gave me four small plants, and i grew them out, turns out they were cloned from a hermie...every plant was filled with seeds, the buds were small and airy but nevertheless still good smoke. So to my question: Are those seeds any good????
  2. Blazed Hippie's Avatar
    ya they should be fine, some think those seeds are feminized. this isn't true take a look at the article I posted on feminizing yesterday. Those seeds should produce the normal 50 50 ratio male to female. They may be susceptible to herming like I said in the article. If they herm under perfect conditions again, throw the strain out as it is unstable.
  3. Pipe Dream's Avatar
    Well an interesting point I learned the other day is that a digital timer won't completely shut off the CFLs because their is always a small charge. If you have that kind of setup and your flowering with CFLs gotta get a standard timer. I personally saw that my lights basically just dimmed instead of turning off. Many things can cause your plants to hermi because yes they need to survive and if harsh conditions exist, more males are needed because it only takes one male to pollinate many females. Genetics do play a huge role too and could be hermaphrodite no matter the growing conditions. So yeah it's not light leaks exclusively but is a common cause of it.
  4. reeferMaster's Avatar
    i bet it was from underwatering, that plant must have been growing faster then the others obviously since it grew bigger, just a thought, my hermie plants i will tear the soil apart and realize that alot of the dirt is really dry on the inside and the roots didnt thrive, for instance a plant gets bigger, more roots, its gunna want 2 drink more becuase water is food 2 plants like food is 2 people, if u have a big man(plant) it wants alot of water, little boy(clone) will drink up less water, they can only drink as much as u give them but if u givem 2 much water u will drownd them, plants only grow if conditions are right, many different kinds of stress will eventually cause hemies, unless u have a pure bred female
  5. Blazed Hippie's Avatar
    That is really interesting pipe dream. I noticed this as well but not for as long.
  6. reeferMaster's Avatar
    ha ha ghetto grow room = ghetto plants
  7. Geneticfreak's Avatar
    If a plant stresses from let's say light leaks or nute stress and shows signs of herm. Can the problem be fixed allowing the plant to halt the hermie process by relieving the stress?
  8. LIVE2GRO's Avatar
    id like to know if i had a plant of Mindbender from KC Brains.. reg seeds.. everything looked good.. so i cloned it . got like 80 clones off it threw about 10 into flower.. noticed like 3 weeks in.. that ti was sprouting.. balls .. just a couple sacks hanging on the bottom branches only.. .. deff a hermi.. well anyways.. it happened to 2 of the 10 .. so i chopped all 10.. wat im wondering is.. was this a hermi geneticly.. and it was just early and the rest would of showed the same traits.. making any of the seeds that were made from this mindbender useless??? or wat.. because i have some amazing strains.. that are now a couple seeds here and there and want to know if its worth keeping the seeds or just throwing them out.. i wish there was a way to tell if its geneticly a hermi . or wat.. because i had a terrible male to female ratio on kc brains stuff.. but it looks like the couple i got were worth the amount paid for the ten pack.. like will the seeds be fem with a hermi prone genetic base.. or are these seeds just male mindbender x female ?