I think I have a case of the Hermies. I have never seen a good definition of what a hermi is but I am guessing that is what I have. I started with 16 plants on seeds 11-1-06 and have been in veg up until 2 weeks ago (Week 10), I switched to 12/12 just for 1 week to sex them. I switched back to 16/8 and I think I may have stressed 3 of my girls to go herm. I have never had a herm before and this is my 3rd grow. I would submit pics but my digital cam is busted so I will describe the best I can. I sexed all of the plants and found 2 males 8 girls and 6 are small retards that I was not able to sex them last week, however 2 of them did turn male. I removed all 4 males ASAP. The other 8 looked great, strong female flowers with lots of white pistils and the starts of some nice buds with no nuts. Than about 4 days ago I started seeing nuts on 3 of my girls, I was in denial and I left them alone to see if they really were nuts. Today I noticed a couple of the nuts busted and dropped white pollen so I went and cut all the nuts off of my 3 girls. My question is do I have hermies and if so can I still grow them now that I cut off their nuts? Most importantly can I smoke the buds they are growing? Was the possible cause of getting hermies because of me switching light times to sex them?
Some basic info on my grow:
Age of my plants are 12 weeks and are Sativa about 5ft tall
They are currently in veg 16/8 (I think I'm short 2 hours)
I'm using miracle-grow with a pH of ~5.5 with 6 month fert in it
Tap water is soft with a pH of ~6.8 and I water every 2 days or so using the finger test so I don’t over water.
Room temp is about 68-70 F with ceiling fan on slow
I have 1 250w heat lamp 1 100w bulb and 1 120w flood, both "Natural light", lights are about 2 ft away
Grow room is 15'X10’

dude I busted up when I read your topic. I swear it said I have herpies. omg my side hurts

__________________

Spreading Happiness One Bud at a Time

Hey man,

Here's a couple of things;

1.) Your plants like to be on a regular routine, switching the light to 12/12, then back to 16/8 two weeks later is not good. That is probably why you got hermies. Next time you grow, keep your plants on a consistant schedule. Once you start to flower, dont change back to 16/8, just let them finish.

2.) You said your plants are 5' tall. Once you start to flower, i.e. put them on a 12/12 schedule, your plants will double even triple in size. So if you put them into flowering now, they could wind up being 20' tall. Especially since you said they were sativa. That requires a lot of space and light, and big pots.

3.) Yes you can smoke hermie buds, but chances are, if you flower them long enough to get good buds your whole crop will be seeded <----defeats the purpose of growing yourself. Also are you growing bagseed, as they have the ability to be hermies just from the genetics. When in your dark period, make sure there is no light leaking into your growroom, as that also has been known to create hermies.

4.) Ride this grow out, if it's possible. I would love to see twenty foot tall plants, i'm sure along with the rest of you. Not only will you have a huge harvest, granted all things work out, but you will have gained invaluble knowledge for your next.

5.) Ask questions about anyhing you don't know. And could you please get some pics as I am anxious to see how big your true females will get.

This is just a couple of pointers for you, If you have anymore questions, please PM me or someone for help.

Take care man,

Thanks for the info I am going to continue the grow and I am going to stay on the look out for nut to be neutered. Sadly I know some pollen got loose but with any luck the damage won’t be too bad. I will post pics, my camera should be out of the shop soon. I did start with bag seed for my first grow but my second grow was from seeds from the first and my third grow was from seeds from the second. I have light leaks but it is dark when the lights go on and off. I hope I get at least 10 foot out of these girls but your right I do need bigger pots; didn’t know they could double or triple in size. Thanks for the heads up and all the help I wouldn’t know 90% of what I do know if it weren’t for site like this and people willing to help

Hmmm seeds from your previous grows?? Wouldn't that mean you already had some hermies??

ROFL....herpies

I hate to disagree with anyone here, especially when everyone here is trying so hard to help. However I believe the info given here is wrong, while marijuana plants do like a routine, in fact they insist on it.
I dont think sending them into flowering for a week to sex them caused this. That is a common practice, something else you did caused it. Some other form of stress. I do have serious doubts as to your lighting. Why are you using 16/8?
Many experienced growers I know purposefully pollinate some of a plant's lower branches to stave off hermie tendencies. Hermieism (except true genetic hermies) is brought on by the plant's "realization" that it may die without becoming pollinated and therefore not produce seeds...a biochemical feedback system basically says "screw it, I'll pollinate myself". The "realization" is brought on by environmental stress such as light during the dark cycle (light poisoning), drought, excessive pruning, and a host of other things. I personally believe that all female MJ plants have the capability to go hermie, it's a matter of avoiding the stresses that trigger it.
If you do get some seeds from this grow, you should use them as they are now feminized seeds. They just shouldn't be used for breeding projects.

Yeah, I've got strains that I've grown many times previously that will suddenly pop a pollen sack. Usually late in flowering, and I've read that they seldom drop pollen. But if they do, there isn't time for seeds to develop anyway.

And that feminized seed thing, I guess it may be true IFF the pollen made a seed on the same plant it came from. So if you have seeds on multiple plants, then you can't consider them feminized unless you know the source of the pollen.

HTH

__________________
Problems on the forum? Contact me here!

I think id just cut them down as if they showed balls they will show many more and if they popped they are done for.Also if you are using the lights in your gallerty pictures your wastin time from the get go.The picture show your plants at 5 feet with tooth pick stalks they should be at least finger thick at this size.There is definatly not enough light to bud them.Your basically growing a fine that is weak and sickly.Just spend the 20 bucks on a dub sack and save yaself wating 8 more weeks for the same amount.

Here is a good look at some female and male hermies posted by other members
Hermies in action