What’s your experience plucking balls from hermies during early flower?

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Dothraki

Dothraki

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2 weeks into flower (from 12/12 flip) today. Flowers are forming and past couple days I’ve also been plucking little balls off some branches. It’s a genetic Hermie. In your experience, how successful can plucking be? Did they just keep growing back throughout flowering until harvest?

Also, in your experience...how many seeds did you end up with? Hundreds or thousands per plant? Just 5-10 per bud? No seeds? How successful was plucking?

Heres what I’ve been plucking. Most buds have pistils but probably found about 10 of these on the whole plant.
A1ADC7A1-2A1B-4CD9-BCE7-4E40E72FBD57.jpeg
 
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Neuro

Neuro

If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind.
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Luck of the draw IMHO. My last grow had some bad genetic herming. Outdoors and indoors from the same strain and I live in a dark sky location. Plucked the outdoors ones and they seemed to produce about as many seeds as one of two I had indoors. The other indoor one that pollinated it before I caught it was nothing but seeds. Hundreds. None of it was particularly good. I made hash and butter. If I was in the first few weeks of flower and caught it I'd rip them out and start again. Just me.
 
Jakecan

Jakecan

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Agreed! Great learning experience forsure. If you really wanted to be "ballsy" (no pun intended) You could let one grow out a little bit longer and before its bursts open you can pluck it, take it to a different room and dissect it to see if that single pod has an abundance of pollen or not. Some times hermies do shoot blanks but sometimes even one ball in the very back corner of your tent that you missed can bust a nut and completely ruin your females producing thousands of seeds. Personally I don't mess around with hermies and i forsure don't grow the seeds produced by hermies.
 
growboy420

growboy420

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2 weeks into flower (from 12/12 flip) today. Flowers are forming and past couple days I’ve also been plucking little balls off some branches. It’s a genetic Hermie. In your experience, how successful can plucking be? Did they just keep growing back throughout flowering until harvest?

Also, in your experience...how many seeds did you end up with? Hundreds or thousands per plant? Just 5-10 per bud? No seeds? How successful was plucking?

Heres what I’ve been plucking. Most buds have pistils but probably found about 10 of these on the whole plant
Agreed! Great learning experience forsure. If you really wanted to be "ballsy" (no pun intended) You could let one grow out a little bit longer and before its bursts open you can pluck it, take it to a different room and dissect it to see if that single pod has an abundance of pollen or not. Some times hermies do shoot blanks but sometimes even one ball in the very back corner of your tent that you missed can bust a nut and completely ruin your females producing thousands of seeds. Personally I don't mess around with hermies and i forsure don't grow the seeds produced by hermies.
I had one female pop balls in second week of flowering at the tie down site where I bent the stalk over during vegetative stage..I may have been too agressive and not bent it slowly enough. I removed the balls and took the plant from the room and used some feminized pollen on her on two nodes near the site..after a few hours I wet her down to eliminate the extra pollen..those nodes showed signs of the seeding taking..she stopped popping balls and rest of flowers are looking healthy. I wouldn't call her a Hermie...since I really must have stressed her to get that to happen..I loosened off a few other tiedowns and the other plants all look like they are going to be seedless! I learned this trick from an old hippie. You should be ok doing that..just keep checking..any light leaks or timer issues?
2 weeks into flower (from 12/12 flip) today. Flowers are forming and past couple days I’ve also been plucking little balls off some branches. It’s a genetic Hermie. In your experience, how successful can plucking be? Did they just keep growing back throughout flowering until harvest?

Also, in your experience...how many seeds did you end up with? Hundreds or thousands per plant? Just 5-10 per bud? No seeds? How successful was plucking?

Heres what I’ve been plucking. Most buds have pistils but probably found about 10 of these on the whole plant.
View attachment 1203598
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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Agreed! Great learning experience forsure. If you really wanted to be "ballsy" (no pun intended) You could let one grow out a little bit longer and before its bursts open you can pluck it, take it to a different room and dissect it to see if that single pod has an abundance of pollen or not. Some times hermies do shoot blanks but sometimes even one ball in the very back corner of your tent that you missed can bust a nut and completely ruin your females producing thousands of seeds. Personally I don't mess around with hermies and i forsure don't grow the seeds produced by hermies.
Interesting...so its based on how much pollen is in each sac?
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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I was very thorough but its real easy to miss one. I shouldn’t risk it...but as soon as I chop it I’ll be thinking “but maybe it wouldn’t have produced that many seeds”

Man I need some Hermies Anonymous counceling. Like I’m in denial 😔
 
Jakecan

Jakecan

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Interesting...so its based on how much pollen is in each sac?
Yea each sac can contain millions of little pollen spores. Thats why its so detrimental if you fail to remove them. Buuut on the other hand sometimes you do get pollen sacs that shoot blanks. Like most people though, I wouldn't risk it. Chalk it up as a learning experience!
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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Yea each sac can contain millions of little pollen spores. Thats why its so detrimental if you fail to remove them. Buuut on the other hand sometimes you do get pollen sacs that shoot blanks. Like most people though, I wouldn't risk it. Chalk it up as a learning experience!
So, I’m wondering...what would cause them to shoot blanks, and I wonder if it’s more common in certain scenarios. Like...if they form in this manner, or at this time, usually are sterile. I’ve read a lot about them but these answers are hard to find. Probably because not much has been done as far as research yet. As soon as it’s legal federally that’s when the big money corporations get involved...which can be bad in a lot of ways, but also large scale research thats published would be real good.

Im guessing not too many people keep and flower herms...was hoping some of them would pop out of the woodwork.
 
growboy420

growboy420

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IMG 20211231 180553
IMG 20211225 103139

So, I’m wondering...what would cause them to shoot blanks, and I wonder if it’s more common in certain scenarios. Like...if they form in this manner, or at this time, usually are sterile. I’ve read a lot about them but these answers are hard to find. Probably because not much has been done as far as research yet. As soon as it’s legal federally that’s when the big money corporations get involved...which can be bad in a lot of ways, but also large scale research thats published would be real good.

Im guessing not too many people keep and flower herms...was hoping some of them would pop out of the woodwork.
"Hermie" is a term that gets way too overused. I've reproduced feminized plants down to S4 breeding levels...and they basically all look the same when they are side by side..and even when trying to genderbend one of them by spraying them with colloidal silver solution (I make my own of course and lots of it when need be) they still take a full 28 days to start popping balls..this is btw how all commercial feminized seed is made..the other options are rhodalization which is an old method of "stressing a plant" via temperature, light bleeds or allowing the plant to continue well past the normal harvest time..all cannabis has "the Hermie gene" in it ...all of them..especially The auto flower hybrid plants..since they are all crossed and bread with the greatest "hermaphroditic plant" in the cannabis family.."Ruderalis". Due to its ability to grow in extreme northern hemispheres the Rudy capitalized on the "photoperiod gene" and in its short seasonal grow time it starts flowering as soon as the seed goes in the ground..all..ALL AUTO FLOWERING hybrids have some Rudy genes in them..it's the last ditch trick that all cannabis has to ensure that if it can't find a mate..(ie pollen on the wind from a male plant)..by the end of its life it will pump out a few male pollen sacs to self pollinate. The self pollen action of course also means those seeds are "feminized" and likely if those females get stressed or can't find a mate by late flowering..they will repeat the cycle. Now the true Hermes..the ones like old Rudy growing in the ditch..will Hermie at the dropping of a leaf or as soon as the light changes or conditions change ...and of course we don't want our special expensive seed grown bitches to do this and ruin our crop..but let's keep it in perspective..a plant that pops balls even though it came from a decent source and you paid a lot of money for..likely did that because of something we as grower/farmers did..and not because of a hermaphroditic trait close to its surface..dont kill all the Hermies..rather try to ensure that your grow environment is fullproof and your skills are as perfect as the tools..I'm betting there won't be quite as many reports of Hermies if we all try to up our skills through learning. Also as a foot note..I find that even a plant that is overly sensitive to an environment will after a few cross breedings become stabilized for that environment..move the same genetics to a different grow room and the genetic game starts all over again. Plants are designed to grow in dirt by nature..everything else we do to them ...is on us!
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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View attachment 1203605View attachment 1203606

"Hermie" is a term that gets way too overused. I've reproduced feminized plants down to S4 breeding levels...and they basically all look the same when they are side by side..and even when trying to genderbend one of them by spraying them with colloidal silver solution (I make my own of course and lots of it when need be) they still take a full 28 days to start popping balls..this is btw how all commercial feminized seed is made..the other options are rhodalization which is an old method of "stressing a plant" via temperature, light bleeds or allowing the plant to continue well past the normal harvest time..all cannabis has "the Hermie gene" in it ...all of them..especially The auto flower hybrid plants..since they are all crossed and bread with the greatest "hermaphroditic plant" in the cannabis family.."Ruderalis". Due to its ability to grow in extreme northern hemispheres the Rudy capitalized on the "photoperiod gene" and in its short seasonal grow time it starts flowering as soon as the seed goes in the ground..all..ALL AUTO FLOWERING hybrids have some Rudy genes in them..it's the last ditch trick that all cannabis has to ensure that if it can't find a mate..(ie pollen on the wind from a male plant)..by the end of its life it will pump out a few male pollen sacs to self pollinate. The self pollen action of course also means those seeds are "feminized" and likely if those females get stressed or can't find a mate by late flowering..they will repeat the cycle. Now the true Hermes..the ones like old Rudy growing in the ditch..will Hermie at the dropping of a leaf or as soon as the light changes or conditions change ...and of course we don't want our special expensive seed grown bitches to do this and ruin our crop..but let's keep it in perspective..a plant that pops balls even though it came from a decent source and you paid a lot of money for..likely did that because of something we as grower/farmers did..and not because of a hermaphroditic trait close to its surface..dont kill all the Hermies..rather try to ensure that your grow environment is fullproof and your skills are as perfect as the tools..I'm betting there won't be quite as many reports of Hermies if we all try to up our skills through learning. Also as a foot note..I find that even a plant that is overly sensitive to an environment will after a few cross breedings become stabilized for that environment..move the same genetics to a different grow room and the genetic game starts all over again. Plants are designed to grow in dirt by nature..everything else we do to them ...is on us!
Yeah it appears this strain is very known to Herm...along with others from this breeder. Maybe it’s not the case if grown outdoors in Humboldt county. I’m also looking at other grow diaries from the same breeder and seems a lot of Hermies coming from them. Maybe their breeding program is not ideal, or maybe the stuff is so fire they don’t care. This strain was bred from Trainwreck and from what I’ve read it’s prone to herm. According to the breeder reducing light hours gradually to 12/12 should help. Like 15min -30min per day. I’ll try it if I grow it out again, which I will because Its supposedly a fantastic strain.
 
tobh

tobh

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the OP pic looks like an outright male. I don't see a single pistil in that pic. If you're not lookin to chuck some pollen either isolate and collect the pollen or get it out of your grow area entirely.
 
elduderito

elduderito

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the OP pic looks like an outright male. I don't see a single pistil in that pic. If you're not lookin to chuck some pollen either isolate and collect the pollen or get it out of your grow area entirely.
ya i was thinking the same thing - are there any signs of female pre-flowers anywhere else on the plant?
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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the OP pic looks like an outright male. I don't see a single pistil in that pic. If you're not lookin to chuck some pollen either isolate and collect the pollen or get it out of your grow area entirely.
ya i was thinking the same thing - are there any signs of female pre-flowers anywhere else on the plant?
yeah it’s full of female flowers and big beautiful whispy white pistils...that’s why it’s so hard to chop down when these little fuckers show up.
 
Dothraki

Dothraki

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If you have male flowers on a plant only 2 weeks into flower, get rid of it.

Picking off balls, late in flower, is one thing. Picking off balls during the entire flower period is insane, and you'll likely end up with seeded plants.
I hear it’s possible they won’t grow back...in your experience is that possible? Im guessing most don’t wait that long to find out though lol. Cause the smartest thing is obviously to chop it, but really want to know the rough percentages of odds.
 

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