Day 53, hermie begins...

Hey folks, have a Purple Urkle at day 53 of flower. It's looking pretty good, although relatively low yield. Noticed this morning that there are definitely hermie flowers (yellow bananas) beginning from the main cola. They are extremely tiny and paper thin, but I have begun to clip them anyway.

I have always heard about these things, and have personally never seen one. I'm not in a panic or anything, and just have been clipping here and there. I'm not too worried about this plant due to it being day 53 and will harvest soon, but I have several other plants at all stages, from week 2 to week 7. Should I isolate this plant now, or just say on top of the clipping?

I would also like to hear from people that would suggest harvesting the plant. I'd rather not do that (<2% amber trichomes), but if it's appropriate, then that's the way it goes. Any input greatly appreciated and considered.

Greensome said:

Hey folks, have a Purple Urkle at day 53 of flower. It's looking pretty good, although relatively low yield.

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It yielded great for me, it was just not that strong.

Greensome said:

Noticed this morning that there are definitely hermie flowers (yellow bananas) beginning from the main cola. They are extremely tiny and paper thin, but I have begun to clip them anyway.

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Those are not "hermie flowers" they are the result of stress, or letting your plant go too long. Probably stress.

Greensome said:

I have always heard about these things, and have personally never seen one. I'm not in a panic or anything, and just have been clipping here and there. I'm not too worried about this plant due to it being day 53 and will harvest soon, but I have several other plants at all stages, from week 2 to week 7. Should I isolate this plant now, or just say on top of the clipping?

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Pull the nanners out with tweezers. It takes them a bit to open.

Greensome said:

I would also like to hear from people that would suggest harvesting the plant. I'd rather not do that (<2% amber trichomes), but if it's appropriate, then that's the way it goes. Any input greatly appreciated and considered.

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I pulled my purple erkle at 51 days and could have pulled it a few days sooner.
Amber trichomes means the thc has degraded into CBN, which no one wants.
DJ Short suggests harvesting when trichomes are swollen and clear, not even cloudy.

No offense, but purple erkle to me was like pouring 12 ounces of water into 12 ounces of light beer.
It looks killer, smells great and does not get me very lifted.
I got a very respectable yield.

ahhhhh Hermie Hermie on the wall should I clip nanners or let her fall.

I would say it all depends on how far away you are from harvesting. Me - being a hermie expert (experience wise), with 2% ambers - I'd cut the nanners and finish her out as I have had some nanners pop up near the end and produce no more. I've also had others that just kept producing them no matter how many you picked (usually week 5 starters). If you are within 10 days to 14 days from harvest - finish her out. If more than that - pick the nanners and see how it goes - you can cut at anytime. Additionally, on 90% of my late hermies (week 6,7,, the nanners never opened and were deep within the bud.

In any event, I would isolate that one from the others just to be safe. better safe than sorry.

Ok, the problem is more serious...

Clipping around (these things are ultra tiny btw) I did find an almost mature, but still green seed in the top cola. It was right by the naner. I'm about to go through the entire grow because this had to have started before I saw the hermie flowers, they're too small.

Now I am leaning towards cutting it down.

Oh yeah I know about urkel, was a free clone, won't grow it again.

And now, I see my Sensi Seeds hash plant has a huge bulge on the side of the flower. But no seeds.


edit; no other flowers or seeds on any other plant. I went ahead and harvested the offender. Isn't my main strain or what I'm trying to grow so I'll take what I can get. Gonna guess around an ounce, will report later. This all makes sense as this girl was rather stunted while the rest were passing her up.

Thanks for the insight guys. If there's anything else please post here. I value and respect your opinions.

Trousers said:

Amber trichomes means the thc has degraded into CBN, which no one wants.

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That is not necessarily true. Many people want amber trichomes

Going by this, you realize I'd only have to flower my plants for 4 weeks? Every single one of my plants has mostly cloudy trichomes at 4 weeks. Just sayin...

If you meant to say that the weed would be just fine without amber trichomes, that I would consider.

Here is the harvest;





edit;
Ok after this has had some time to begin drying, many of the hermie flowers are starting to become more visible. Most of these were embedded in the flower and were not visible even at 120x. Some were embedded, open, and right next to them, there was a green seed (3 seeds total, trashed).

Here's the kicker... I have another one of these. Identical age, identical environment, and, it's from the same mother. All of my plants get pretty consistent and much of the time, automated treatment for certain things. This plant, along with the one still in flower, were right next to each other in the same type of soil, nutes, everything. I thoroughly checked the other plant and couldn't see anything, but given that this was covered with them and almost impossible to see, I may chop that one this morning as well. Day 54 and it's supposed to be an 8 week strain. I really think this issue is largely genetic in nature. I can't see how my plants are stressed when everything else is tip top. I move >2000cfm, temps around 76 all the time, etc etc. This hermie is the ONLY problem I have at this point in my grow.

No matter. I saved only the very best parts for smoking, and got a ton of trim for hash, about 3 oz dry my guess and most of it bud material from the lower branches. It will work..

I did however shake one of my trimmed branches and I could see a very tiny amount of pollen. How much pollen this thing released in the grow room, I don't know. But, I'm thinking worst case scenario I'll have a seed here or there. These flowers were tiny, most were not open, and the open ones were deep in the flower. I'm hoping that since this plant only had 3 immature seeds that most of the rest of the grow will be good.

On these particular plants, I do have a 600w hps only 12" away. The tops are at 76F, as I have climate control going. Today, I notice one of my hash plants is extremely swollen and kind of too big for 4 weeks in. Perhaps my light is too close. Plants are NOT heat stressed in any way.

Update;

Took some small popcorn nugs that were still kind of moist. Torched them with a butane lighter really good in a small bowl. Got about 4 mediocre sized hits. Taste was good (hints of unknown sweet fruit with a touch of licorice), but harsh. Black ash (no cure remember, and I just started the flush when I pulled her).
Very soaring high, very good potency. By comparison, I usually smoke connoisseur grade Sour D, usually ~1gram in a session with another light weight smoker. This got me just as high in the 4 hits so I'm happy with that.

Even though it was my first smoke of the day, my tolerance is stupid high and for anything to get me close to where I want to be in 4 hits is great in my book. Still, I pulled up the clones I had made of these to ensure that I'm not growing this strain. What a hassle! Everything else in the grow looks good. Next up will be a Sensi Seeds Hash Plant that is 2 weeks younger than the Urkel was, and probably has twice the yield.

I'm going to let this thread die, unless there are any questions, answers, or other reflections on the situation. In summary, I will say that while things didn't go as planned, there's a happy ending