Are hermies more present?

[CodyPomeray]

I been out of the scene for 6 years or so now, but back when I used to pop packs and testers, id get maybe 1 hermie ever few packs. Been going through a fair amount of gear recently, and been seeing alot more hermies than I ever have before. New room setup, but theres no damn light leaks, ive spent 40 min in darkness in there, theres nothing. All my power strips are covered etc, no lights, zero. Environment is 73f-85f so theres a bit high of a temp differential I need to work out.

In my thinking, it may not be me, but it always could be. One thing I do know is the cash grab race for seed sales and the lack of thorough testing that has gone on. Are multiple hermies just an accepted thing nowadays when working with some strains and their derivatives?

Not so much complaining, I dont mind culling out the plants that are not strong for production, just trying to see if my experience is an outlier or not. Thanks for any insights.

 

[Vash]

IMO, the increase in hermies is from the lack of testing, especially with the fem seeds. It's become a goddamn money grab by a bunch of greedy "pollen chuckers"(so-called breeders).
I've never seen so many folks selling seeds, with fem seeds being the most popular. Stick around, and you'll discover that hermies abound.

 

[CodyPomeray]

So far I have found hermies on mostly cookies crosses or derivatives. I just am scratching my head over here because while it "could" be light leaks or some other stress, I just dont see it. We had a timer malfunction and missed lights off by 4 minutes before, that is it and it was a singular event.

Even for timers, back in the day id screw up by 45 min and not hermie a room. I just am a bit confused, I know it comes with working with all these damn polyhybrids, but jeez, theres been a near 30%+ hermie rate on a few packs now.

 

[tetragrammaton]

Well Vash pretty much said exactly what I was going to say. Yes hermies are more present and it's mainly due to the fact that most breeding done these days is not real true breeding. it's selfed clones crossed with other self clones, which is what feminized seeds are. The majority of seed companies sell mainly feminized seeds, or at least feminized seeds are their most in demand seeds.

Contrary to popular belief natural hermies should not be common, especially under very mild stress, but that is the result of poor breeding techniques and the hermies not being culled. You won't find a hermie in a real Skunk #1 regular seed that is a female for example unless you purposely force it to hermie via chemicals or extreme intentional stress.

Remember back when everyone thought feminized seeds were a threat and most seed companies were against them? Well things changed, and now they are the most in demand type of seed that virtually every large well established and even new but global seed company sell exclusively feminized seeds, or their feminized seeds are their most popular product. Everyone sold out. And feminized seeds ARE convenient for the grower, to ensure a female.

I've had real hermies, but never from a feminized seed, I guess I've been lucky, so I'm not saying that feminized seeds are all hermies by any means, most remain female, but yeah that's why there's a lot of hermies out there, and I also know for a fact that many dutch seed companies are selling feminized seeds labeled as regular seeds as well. The growers think they got lucky with all females, win win for both parties and usually no questions asked, unless we're talking a breeding project on a large scale, in which case it would be obvious that it was pure feminized stock. But what do commercial growers do? Grow feminized seed and/or clones. What do actual breeders do? Use actual males and actual females.

Peace,
Tetra

 

[tetragrammaton]

So far I have found hermies on mostly cookies crosses or derivatives.

Because real GSC is OG Kush x Durban Poison and was clone only, all the seeds made are from S1s usually backcrossed to OG which is known to be prone to hermie. That's why careful largescale breeding needs to be done on crosses using OG to eliminate the hermies, and be polinated by an actual male. Also, most OGs these days aren't the real OG Kush clone, but S1s, which makes it even more prone to hermie.

Another reason that OG Kush and it's crosses especially with Cookies is offered by virtually every established seed company and is all prone to hermie. Even if it's just one or two nanners with non viable pollen, but that's usually best case scenerio.

 

[CodyPomeray]

Could it somehow be me? Hell Ive ran outdoors within vicinity of streetlights and not had issues like this.

These are some testers from inhouse, along with packs i bought from inhouse and seedjunky. Most are animal cookies or candyland crosses as I like those strains from back when I had access to them. The testers are garlic sherbert which I assume is GMOxsherb and Platinum x PKM (pure kush mints? who knows). Had to cull id say around 20-40% of each batch from hermies, which is just unreal to me.

I have some other strains in the same room not tossing herms so it makes me think its just a genetic shit show. But its had to tell. Always that self doubt.

 

[tetragrammaton]

Bro, it's the genetics. You are messing with genetics that are known to hermie and known to be clone only strains that were selfed. Even the real OG Kush was an S1 that was prone to hermie. That's why it was used in so many crosses, but then GSC was made which also has OG in it and everyone backcrosses it, and it's the same genepool with no diversity and all super prone to hermie.

I guarantee you won't have these issues if you stay away from anything OG or Cookies related.

EDIT: I am not against OG Kush or it's progeny, nor am I against GSC and it's progeny. They don't all hermie, but extreme extreme care must be taken. Perfect conditions. Anything less than perfect conditions you stand a huge chance for best case scenerio a few nanners and maybe a few seeds per plant. Worse case scenerio, your plant and everything around it gets pollinated and fully seeded. But I am not your master, nor does what you grow affect me, I'm just saying, it's not you, it's the gene pool you're using.

If you are keen on growing said strains, I'd suggest sourcing the original clones. Not anything from a seed company when it comes to anything OG or GSC related unless they did actually large scale breeding to ensure that hermies were culled.

 

[CodyPomeray]

Haha thanks, I feel that, I just was sitting here head scratching. Its a shame man, I went threw a few units in 09 or 2010 of animal cookies and candyland, and I revere that as some of the best hybrid Ive ever smoked, just wanted a shot at something close.

While I understand I am not running 20 packs of seeds anymore as funds are tight, I just had assumed there would be some level of like, nullification of undesired traits over the last decade. oh well.

 

[tetragrammaton]

There definitely are companies out there that have good crosses, but my experience is not the next growers experience and vice versa. There are many seed companies that I refuse to purchase and grow, because of my bad experience time after time, but I know other growers who have great results, so I can't point you in the right direction unfortunately.

My only suggestion if you are unable to source the real clones yourself, would be trying (and labeling and cloning) a variety of companies offering a desirable OG or Cookies strain to you.

I know that's kind of a hassle, and I'm with you on that you would think that in the last decade things would have improved, but unfortunately no. Everyones fears and concerns came true and everyone sold out and hopped on board.

I have smoked some legit non-hermie Cookies and OG crosses from Spanish and American seed companies, but have not grown them myself, but I know they exist. But aside from my personal experience with certain companies and my refusal to grow them, yet they work fine for other people (which has nothing to do with OG or Cookies), it's the same with other growers. Someone might say "Oh definitely go with (Insert Seed Company). It's legit. I had 0 hermies.", but another grower might have the exact opposite experience, so really I'd just say experiment.

Perhaps grow 4-6 different strains from 4-6 different companies, and take cuttings. If they all hermie, or none of them are good enough for your preference, start another small scale run, until you eventually find what you like, and keep it.

Best of luck!

 

[Mr D]

IMO, the increase in hermies is from the lack of testing, especially with the fem seeds. It's become a goddamn money grab by a bunch of greedy "pollen chuckers"(so-called breeders).
I've never seen so many folks selling seeds, with fem seeds being the most popular. Stick around, and you'll discover that hermies abound.

I thought the seed business was 'seedy' back in late 90's. Stopped growing early 2000's and after a 15 year break I came back. Now it's just insane.

Looking back I wonder how much the internet facilitated the problem of pollen tossers being able to peddle genetic crap. Today an Instagram account, a little skillful photography and a lot of hype makes you a breeder. If you can manage to satisfy enough growers you are a 'top' breeder.

As far as hermies I felt it was a given when I returned a few years ago and started looking at what strains were being sold. Right before I returned I tried Gorilla Glue #4 from a cali grower and local medical dispensary. Great smell and bag appeal but IMO an unimpressive buzz considering all the hype. I've come to learn it's prone to hermie. Take a look at how many 'breeders' not only breed with it but wear it as a badge of quality.

It's also pretty clear many of these 'breeders' have no real goal when creating a strain. Many of them use the same male to pollinate every strain in there stable. That always tells me those strains were not tested. Minimal work was done to select parental stock and no testing. Pics posted on instagram by 4 growers willing to kiss your ass for free seeds does not equal testing a strain you plan to sell as a 'breeder'.

 

[tetragrammaton]

^BINGO

 

[TheBlaze]

I've noticed more hermies these days as well, but I just accept it. It is the name of the game now. Everyone wants that new new.

 

[Vash]

Agree on all your points, tet. Like you said, CP, it's a "genetic shit show". I don't know how many threads I've run across stating the frequency of hermies in cookie crosses. Damn....I sure didn't want to hear that because I'm putting 3 Wedding Cake and 2 Dosi-Cake into flower. You best believe the first male flower I see, I'm letting the community know about it and where it came from. Back when I started growing(see join date), I used nothing but regular seeds. NEVER had a hermi. I'm going back to that.

 

[Capra ibex]

There is a market for 'hyped' stuff and markets for actual stable genetics.... people only make this unstable stuff because it sells.

The only ones that should be frowned upon should be the bullsh*t artists.... if you are honest and open about your practices it's all good to me.

It is funny to watch the ego tripping and utter cluelessness of some 'players' though.
Some of which even seem to have fanboys

 

[Ready4]

Many strains that show some "hermie" are not throwaways. I have a Bodhi Golden Triangle that likes to throw a few seeds - but is a incredibly great strain. I found out that by trimming all those crappy lower branches, the seeds were eliminated. Many of these type of plants will throw no seeds when grown outdoors. Those crappy lower & little branches do not yield much anyhow = trim them all off.

 

[NEED 4 SEED]

I see some minor herm tendencies in Cookies but not in every grow cycle and not every plant and if so only a few early ones in the lower parts, maybe two or three nanners. And their offspring had absolutely none. Other plants/strains didn't do it for me at all lately. So I don't see more hermies in general.

 

[@hempy]

In the last 20 years we went from seeing regular f1s in the seed market to most breeders only offering fem versions not regular seed of the same given lines.
Then we saw a huge increase in auto flowering strains so a huge increase of rudaralis being used in the gean pool.
Then we went from natural cannabis that has high thc low cbd being medical cannabis to non drug strains of cannabis being called medical cannabis and that is now also polluting what cannabis is left around the world now.



I never saw heirloom / land race sativa genetics ever hermaphrodite after sexing if a plant sexed as a female it stayed female i never saw her produce a male flower half way or late in flower.


What are the main building blocks of the Dutch cannabis gean pool Afghan / Skunk / Haze / NL and 2 of the 4 can hermi.

 

[hellfire]

Because people think their purple gorilla og cherrycookies bluelato runtzdream is good breeding stock when it's actually incest.

Gonna start a new feminised seed company, it's called Bottlenecker Genetics

 

[siftedunity]

why does this question keep getting asked over and over?!