Pistiless female plants...WTF

[little-soldier]

Hello fellow ICMAGERS,
After growing for many years and hundreds of strains this is the first time i have ever seen this. 4 plants out of 18 regular seeds from humboldt All Gas OG have no pistils coming from their preflowers. First i thought nothing then started flowering them and plants are over 3 weeks into flower. I thought they had to be male so i chopped 3 down today. As i was about to chop the last one, i noticed 1 plant that was starting to show pistils out of its buds. Has anyone ever seen this before? Here’s a picture of the one i chopped

 

[Hammerhead]

I have seen female plants with few pistils but never none. I can't see much in that pic. Look for the preflower calyxes.. Pistils do not need to be present to be female. Males won't have any on them unless its a herm.

 

[zif]

I've seen pics of a few stima-less plants over the years. Or, at least, plants where they weren't visible.

They could be very short, so that they don't actually peek out of the bract. There is a lot variability hair length, so that might be the odds-on favorite.

The plants could also be sterile - lacking some or all of the normal reproductive anatomy. If they can't make seeds... a lot of people might consider that a pretty valuable trait. It's not extremely common, but some plants do make extra hairs for every flower. Maybe if a mutation can add a pair of stigmas, another could take away the normal pair?

Split open a few bracts and (maybe) break out the jeweler's loop for an easy way to see if they're just very small.

How many plants are normal females? 4/18 seems like very good odds of finding that type - at least one of the pic's I've seen came from someone growing a lot of different hemp varieties from seed in large numbers, so the plant may have been the only one in hundreds or thousands of normal ones. But maybe half of your females are stigma free? That's very neat.

At three weeks, on the other hand, some intersex plants can look very odd. Hopefully that's not what you're seeing.

 

[troutman]

Probably a feminist plant.

 

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

That's nice and resinous for 3 weeks in. Interesting mutation.

 

[windmills]

I have observed Indica strains that by all appearances did not have pistils coming out of the bracts. They may be there, but may not be observable other than with a loop. Some of the Indica I have seen grown did not appear to have much, if any, but the plants developed flowers anyway. Unless I see male sacks, I do not disturb or kill a plant. Unless your space is overcrowded, perhaps let them be until they show you what they are. Smoke, after all, is smoke.

 

[little-soldier]

Thx guys, i just wish i knew this was possible so i wouldn’t have culled the other 3. I did cut open some of the preflowers and did not see anything inside. Luckily i kept one to see what it looks like in the end. The one i have kept have very small/minuscule pistils maybe 1mm or less coming out of the calix. I took clones so i might run them again if the strain is worth it

 

[Hammerhead]

Another thing to keep in mind is if pollinated pistils will shrivel up and die. It takes about 2 weeks. Plants pollinated do not have any pistils at harvest.

Male Preflower

Female Preflower.

 

[TheDarkStorm]

Wats the lineage of the actual plant little soldier ?.....I have seen some plants do odd things....such as have pistols that kind of grow back into the bud (curl back in)......or only have a couple of pistols ....but most of the times ones like that in my experience the genetics are a bit of a mess....usually resulting in plants that are sterile or hermie or have other issues.....I had one plant once that was completely blue and had lots of crystal all over it....yet only had about 6 small pistols on the whole of the plant.....it grew kind of small and took ages to veg and didnt stretch much at all when flowered....was a weedy looking thing but the bright blue colour and resin made it stand out....turned out totaly bunk....I tried it again from clone but was the same....guess it is a plant after all and the amount of so called mixing of anything and everything with no real plan or thought thats gone on for so so long will lead to some weird stuff at some point......keep yours if possible till finish to see how it turns out...the strain may just be like that...you'll have to try it to see if its any good.

 

[Crooked8]

 

[little-soldier]

Nice looking plant crooked,
The strain is all gas og. Supposed to be humboldy venom OG X Humboldt OG.
The plants are no runts and very productive. Not the tallest but not the shortest either like my bubbas

 

[Rgd]

I had one auto plant without pistils this year

 

[expealadocious]

Had different unrelated genetics do this. Figured it was either something odd I dosed them with or also that the humidity was super low at the time.

 

[Mattbho]

Looks alot like mine did when I used too much nitrogen before and throughout flower

 

[St. Phatty]

I tried to take a picture of some tiny pistils on one of my plants.

Sometimes you really need magnification to tell the difference between multiple brach-pistils vs. the 'grape cluster' look of immature pollen sacs.

Also I find that lighting matters a lot, to see tiny details like tiny pistils.

Sunlight is too much light. I carry a small flashlight and try and check the plants before the sun shines on the plant.