Cause of bud hermies

[Barn Owl]

Does anyone ever get a plant that produces deformed hermie flowers in the buds? Had one this year and two last. I just pick these off because they are never fertile. I am wondering about the cause. I am thinking it is a reaction to too much N. This one plant got a bit too much N and was still a dark green a 5 and a half weeks in flower. I ended up flushing the N out and it seemd to stop the problem. They are sneaky. They look like light green bananas in the buds.

Anywa ,I would be interested in opinions to the cause of these.

Thanks

 

[Brownpants]

Some strains are prone to bananas in the buds, especially when stressed or flowered too long.

I would suggest changing the strain.

 

[Barn Owl]

I really like the strain. It's California Orange by Hemcy. Always yields good and is potent and since the bud hermies are never fertile, it's not a big worry. The hermies would be my fault as this plant got overfed. What do you mean by flowered too long?

Just curious of the cause. I remember the last time it happened, there was a bit of overfert as well and it was a different strain.

 

[Flaca]

Hermies can be causes by a number of things. Some strains are just prone to hermie traits such as Thai strains. Light leaks can be another reason. Is your flowering room completley dark during lights off?

 

[MynameStitch]

Yup, I agree with everyone here, one thing that was not mentioned yet was, if you are growing out feminized seeds, you have to have a near good to perfect environment, small amounts of stress can cause them to hermie. That is how they got fem's seeds, they breed the plant until it was stable, but got seeds that was from a plant that pollinated itself.

So hermie traits are all over fem seeds and not only that, but any strain can hermie, it all depends on the stress, stability of the strain, and environmental stress due to growers error.

 

[bhuda-master]

i always get those imature yellow bananas on my dutch passion fem seeds, if they get stressed in any way they start to appear, i lst and this always seems to show the nanas!
ive grown them alongside other non fem beans same conditions and they haven't shown, think its the fems as said by stitch above.
bhuda-master

 

[stinkyattic]

Causes of hermaphrodite flowers include:
-Genetic propensity to them. In rare cases, fully monoecious local populations may be found in the wild.
-Light leaks
-Irregular photoperiod.
-Photoperiod inappropriate for life stage. The plant is genetically programmed to sexually reproduce, and if you make it think that the season is far advanced, it will try to set seed before the end of the growing season, even if that means popping a few nanners to do so. This is why I would NEVER start a seed at 12/12 from germ.
-Stress from a poor chemical environment (pH or nutrition out of balance)
-Heat. This is an important one. If your plant goes herm on ya, I'll bet you find more nanners on buds closer to the light...
-Overripeness. See 'irregular photoperiod'. This is another response... the plant is sitting there finished, and forst hasn't killed it... it says, 'damn what a nice spot I have found to continue my species, I will now proceed to reproduce' (forgive the baltant anthropomorphism... hahaha)

 

[Barn Owl]

Thanks all. A lot of good info here.

No light leaks.
To be even more specific, I am wondering if anyone has any comments on the difference between hermies that only form in the buds as opposed to the more standard, under the leaf hermies. I say this because I have been doing these indoor grows for some years now. As you all know, shit happens. This year was a bad one for us. We had health issues with a family member and had to neglect our grow for a bit. We were lucky that only one plant had this problem. I have only seen these wierd hermies confined the the bud three times. The first time I completely missed them. None ever opened do to their deformed nature and there were no seeds. The other two times I just picked them off with tweezers. Each time this has happened, the plant did not yield very much as it seems like pistal production was dramatically slowed, yet none of these plants were dangerous to the grow.

I guess what I am trying to say here, that there is a type of hermie that grows in the bud (which I think is a reaction by a strain to over nitrogen) that is deformed and elongated. It does not make for a high yielding plant. I'm not saying you should not isolate that plant, but so far, those plants have not been a danger to other plants by seeding them. Those bud hermies have always been duds.

 

[MynameStitch]

Over nitrogen, also called nitrogen toxicity can cause it to hermie, but not the sole cause, any amount of stress can trigger it, sometimes it needs a lot more sometimes not.

Careful when you pinch off a full blow hermie pollen sack, they can rupture and you get pollen in the area.....
I would take a piece of seran wrap just big enough to cover your finger and thumb and when you take it off the wrap helps protect any loose pollen that gets in the air.

When did the ones you had before, when they start to hermie?
The balls early in flowering are the ones you have to worry about the most; the ones late into flowering; which are also called nanners, those normally don't produce mature pollen sacks, but they are sacks and can some times have pollen in them and it ends up producing a immature seed.