Polyploids typically express whorled phyllotaxy, but plants with whorled phyllotaxy are usually not polyploids. Polyploidy is a rare occurance (unless induced) where the plant has more than the regular two sets of chromosomes. This can have additive effects even in cannabinoid contents. It think that theory made it more attractive than it perhaps is. They can be hard to reproduce, sterile even, and polyploid simply doesn't always equate to "better" in many plant species. It would certainly be interesting.
My whorlers start to whorl usually after the 4th node (some late whorlers much later) seemingly around the time it produces enough auxins to establish apical dominance. Topping them before they whorl, removing the main source of auxin production, the apex, causes the branches to become dominant terminals, producing auxins, and express wp. Point is, the whorled phyllotaxy trait in my whorlers is caused by auxin related or affected genes.
Your plant is a polycot. 3 cots, so it's a tricot. Because of the socalled Hofmeister rule (for more details and pics search this thread for hofmeister), a tricot will always become a tri whorler. Simply put, looking from above, a new leaf will be created in between two leaves of the previous set, so successive nodes don't overlap, giving you 6 non-overlapping leaves instead of the regular 4. Point is, they don't need the wp genes my plants have to become whorled.
They may need them to stay whorled. Or mine may need polycot genes to start whorling sooner.
DMT, a breeder who worked on his polycot (tri and tetra) variety BruisedNuts for years. One of his efforts was selecting plants that express wp throughout the entire plant. So appearantly whorled phyllotaxy as a result from being a polycot does not necessarily restrict wp to just the main stem.
Great info in this doc:
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1915/9/09_chapter2.pdf
Last page list several mutants. In arabidopsis mutant pinoid a protein is created that negativelly regulates auxin signals resulting in polycots.
With an auto whorler it is even more important that it starts whorling asap, and no whorler starts whorling faster than a polycot.
So there are three (at least, surely more actually) genetic reasons that can make a plant express whorled phyllotay.
- wp genes
- polycot genes
- entire set(s) of extra chromosomes with genes
The first two could both be very similar auxin regulation affecting genes.
I don't think every polycot is genetically a polycot though, i.e. does not necessarily have different genes than a regular sibling that can be inherited.
Take a look at the development of a dicot embryo:
E.g.
Something could have gone wrong during the heartshape stage. There are thousands of genes that affect embryogenesis, which in turn can be heavily influenced by external factors. That would mean they are often flukes of nature and would partly explain why they are uncommon. If it often was an inheritable trait I think it would have been more common.
Since all the triwhorlers I came across in my garden were from Dinafem and also had some runts I'm thinking it's a mutation from feminising process the breeder uses. I'm sure you're could have an explanation as I doubt it's a real polyploid.
I think it's unlikely a result of feminising, but... there are too many unknowns to exclude it from being a possibility. Treating it with silver sort of masks part of the dna code, reducing female flower hormone production. That same part needs to be read when creating the gametes for reproduction. With my limited knowledge I could hypothesize feminising does result in dna alterations in the seed, including increasing the tendency to produce hermies. If that is true, I would recommend using the pollen produced long after the treatment. As you can read in the doc I linked to above, there are "hormone mutants". So, plenty of correlation, but to my limited knowledge no proven causation.
Older post on the subject with some more research:
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/breeding-for-whorls.63887/page-37#post-1596236
