male plant making seeds

I planned a grow that was just for seed production. Purchased regular landrace seeds from very reputable source. (The exact strain is unknown.) Everything went as planned. I managed to sprout a female and make two clones who would serve as the seed-mamas. I recognized the male early by his structure, but decided to test it. Put it on a 12/12 cycle for a couple days. The tell-tale crab claws at the nodes were enough. I put him back into 24 to keep growing until “everyone” was ready. He made several flowers and pollinated all over himself a few times. Then, one day I noticed some odd growth at the canopy and what looked like pistils! I used a paintbrush and pollinated the pistils. The bugger has about 15 fat seeds growing in between his male flowers now. I have proceeded with my seed production and all is going as planned with the females.

Q: Am I wasting time and resources on a project that’s going to give me hermie seeds?

Q: Could the female parts have emerged because I stressed him with the 12/12 light trick?

Any experience or knowledge about what to expect would be greatly appreciated.

Male cannabis plants don't ever have female reproductive parts. Only female plants are capable of producing male traits. EDIT: After further research, it seems that it is technically possible for male plants to produce buds. It just doesn't happen naturally.

As for why plants become hermaphrodites, it may be triggered by almost any kind of environmental stress. I had a plant turn because the pot was too small.

I highly recommend destroying the hermaphrodites that weren't intentionally encouraged to change. The children of the plant may be more likely to express hermaphroditism than those of other plants.

It's not uncommon to get hermaphroditic plants when growing landraces. It happens naturally in the wild. Those tendencies have been bred out of today's cannabis strains but they do show up.

This is an interesting study on hermaphroditism in cannabis. It was a study done on female plants that developed male inflorescences in flower. I don't know of any study done on males that develop female inflorescences.

"Seedlings from hermaphroditic seeds, and anther tissues, showed a female genetic composition while seedlings derived from cross-fertilized seeds showed a 1:1 male:female sex expression ratio. Uniquely, hermaphroditic inflorescences produced seeds which gave rise only to genetically female plants."



Here's a landrace that was male and then grew nanners and then pistils that I grew a few years back. I pollinated the pistils with its own pollen and got seeds as well. I haven't grown any though.

This is what alerted me that something was up. There is scarce info on this, perhaps because males are usually trashed before they get mature.

Male plant in bloom, showing one of 15 large, 2 week old seeds in development.

xtsho said:

It's not uncommon to get hermaphroditic plants when growing landraces. It happens naturally in the wild. Those tendencies have been bred out of today's cannabis strains but they do show up.

This is an interesting study on hermaphroditism in cannabis. It was a study done on female plants that developed male inflorescences in flower. I don't know of any study done on males that develop female inflorescences.

"Seedlings from hermaphroditic seeds, and anther tissues, showed a female genetic composition while seedlings derived from cross-fertilized seeds showed a 1:1 male:female sex expression ratio. Uniquely, hermaphroditic inflorescences produced seeds which gave rise only to genetically female plants."

Frontiers | Hermaphroditism in Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) Inflorescences – Impact on Floral Morphology, Seed Formation, Progeny Sex Ratios, and Genetic Variation

Cannabis sativa L. (hemp, marijuana) produces male and female inflorescences on different plants (dioecious) and therefore the plants are obligatory out-cros...

www.frontiersin.org

Here's a landrace that was male and then grew nanners and then pistils that I grew a few years back. I pollinated the pistils with its own pollen and got seeds as well. I haven't grown any though.

Click to expand...

Do you think you will ever sprout one and see what it does? I have limited space, so I’m not sure what I will do with them. Certainly curious to find out, though.

MinniePerlite said:

Do you think you will ever sprout one and see what it does? I have limited space, so I’m not sure what I will do with them. Certainly curious to find out, though.

Click to expand...

I really don't have any reason to grow any from that plant. I just saved them because I could. I'm tempted to grow some just to see what they do.

If you have limited space then you probably shouldn't be using it to experiment with hermie seeds. Grow something you know you can get a decent harvest from.