SpaceJunkOG
Member
[dear mods: please excuse if this post is in the wrong category, this seemed like the place to get the most knowledge from people with experience about my question]:
I am somewhat new to growing "pure" landraces; currently growing a few different African varieties. Thus far, all have herm'ed, at least to some degree - some much more severely than others.
From my reading, I'm lead to believe that most landrace sativas from all over the world tend towards hermaphroditism, and this expression can be even more pronounced indoors. which brings me to my question:
Has anybody found that these landrace sativas respond negatively towards *certain types* of stress more than others, that causes them to herm more frequently or drastically? Aside from the unnatural on-off indoor light cycle (i'm doing 11.5/12.5).
Have people found that topping, supercropping, LST'ing, or any of the other stress / yield-increasing techniques contribute to hermaphroditism in these landraces?
These things grow to insane heights indoors and require tying-down around the 2nd week of flower to keep them compact and manageable. I always top them 1 week before I put them into flower. I have plenty of horizontal space so I supercrop them thoroughly so that the canopy is as level as possible. And of course the branches get big and thick, with "knuckles" all over them, and require absolutely no support at any time because of all the bending and breaking I put them through, even though these african buds are hooooooj footlongs.
Now, I do this to all my plants (abuse the hell out of them for their own good), but the rest of them are stable hybrids, and they don't herm. The landraces herm, and I'm just trying to figure out if it could be from all this supercropping i'm doing?? Or is it just the unnatural indoor light (HPS1000w). The room is pitch black at lights-off, no light leaks, no LED's, no power strip lights, it's all covered.
I really don't care that there's seeds in these wild strains, it seems to be the way they are in nature. . . . . . the problem is that they do lightly pollinate whatever else I have in the room at the time, and I'm not into accidental pollinations right now, and don't particularly like seeds in the rest of my head stash that wouldn't normally have seeds in it.
Any advice would be much appreciated on what I might be doing that could increase hermaphroditism in these landrace strains, or if it's just a wildcard with these things and a matter of popping 100 seeds until you find one that's a straight female.
There are no visible pollen sacs on any of the main branches or internodes, just "bananas" i find within the buds that are pollinating whatever is in close proximity (usually itself). And they aren't forming / popping until about half way through the flower cycle. I haven't found evidence of a single opened male flower petal or pollen sack, all I find is the big yellow nanners (yes I know technically the nanners are part of the male flower, but I'm saying I don't see ANY other parts of the male flower, like the petals or anything), they seem to be emerging from calyxes in the buds, but no opened male flower petals in sight, ya know, the little umbrella that hangs down after it pops - none of that. I have seen plenty of other plants herm before of course, but I always find pollen sacs and opened male flowers (and of course the bananas hanging from them). With these guy/gals, there's none of that, just some spent bananas, and the knowledge that some pollen came out of there and flew who-knows-where. This makes it impossible to *prevent* as well, when you can't see them forming. Even though it would be a futile game of whack-a-mole (or whack-a-herm, ha).
As of right now I'm already re-planning my schedule / timing so that I have a "landrace bloom room" and a regular bloom room, but it's a logistics nightmare. I'd just like to be able to grow them with all my pure females without cross pollination.
Any advice much appreciated!!! Or feel free to direct me somewhere else if this has already been covered. thanks.
I am somewhat new to growing "pure" landraces; currently growing a few different African varieties. Thus far, all have herm'ed, at least to some degree - some much more severely than others.
From my reading, I'm lead to believe that most landrace sativas from all over the world tend towards hermaphroditism, and this expression can be even more pronounced indoors. which brings me to my question:
Has anybody found that these landrace sativas respond negatively towards *certain types* of stress more than others, that causes them to herm more frequently or drastically? Aside from the unnatural on-off indoor light cycle (i'm doing 11.5/12.5).
Have people found that topping, supercropping, LST'ing, or any of the other stress / yield-increasing techniques contribute to hermaphroditism in these landraces?
These things grow to insane heights indoors and require tying-down around the 2nd week of flower to keep them compact and manageable. I always top them 1 week before I put them into flower. I have plenty of horizontal space so I supercrop them thoroughly so that the canopy is as level as possible. And of course the branches get big and thick, with "knuckles" all over them, and require absolutely no support at any time because of all the bending and breaking I put them through, even though these african buds are hooooooj footlongs.
Now, I do this to all my plants (abuse the hell out of them for their own good), but the rest of them are stable hybrids, and they don't herm. The landraces herm, and I'm just trying to figure out if it could be from all this supercropping i'm doing?? Or is it just the unnatural indoor light (HPS1000w). The room is pitch black at lights-off, no light leaks, no LED's, no power strip lights, it's all covered.
I really don't care that there's seeds in these wild strains, it seems to be the way they are in nature. . . . . . the problem is that they do lightly pollinate whatever else I have in the room at the time, and I'm not into accidental pollinations right now, and don't particularly like seeds in the rest of my head stash that wouldn't normally have seeds in it.
Any advice would be much appreciated on what I might be doing that could increase hermaphroditism in these landrace strains, or if it's just a wildcard with these things and a matter of popping 100 seeds until you find one that's a straight female.
There are no visible pollen sacs on any of the main branches or internodes, just "bananas" i find within the buds that are pollinating whatever is in close proximity (usually itself). And they aren't forming / popping until about half way through the flower cycle. I haven't found evidence of a single opened male flower petal or pollen sack, all I find is the big yellow nanners (yes I know technically the nanners are part of the male flower, but I'm saying I don't see ANY other parts of the male flower, like the petals or anything), they seem to be emerging from calyxes in the buds, but no opened male flower petals in sight, ya know, the little umbrella that hangs down after it pops - none of that. I have seen plenty of other plants herm before of course, but I always find pollen sacs and opened male flowers (and of course the bananas hanging from them). With these guy/gals, there's none of that, just some spent bananas, and the knowledge that some pollen came out of there and flew who-knows-where. This makes it impossible to *prevent* as well, when you can't see them forming. Even though it would be a futile game of whack-a-mole (or whack-a-herm, ha).
As of right now I'm already re-planning my schedule / timing so that I have a "landrace bloom room" and a regular bloom room, but it's a logistics nightmare. I'd just like to be able to grow them with all my pure females without cross pollination.
Any advice much appreciated!!! Or feel free to direct me somewhere else if this has already been covered. thanks.
