Seeds, hermies, bananas, oh my! What's the diff?

[Cidmercury]

This might be a silly question..
I did some searching and couldnt find the answer myself. I know weve all had our fair share of dealing with bananas popping out, hermi plants and finding a dreaded male and its pollen seed clusters..

But what is the difference? What triggers each form of change? Aside from the obvious possible genetics and/or environment stressors does some factor SPECIFICALLY trigger bananas and some other different factor specifically surprise you with male pollen sacks/clusters at week 4 of flower and something else creates the hard seeds in your buds you only find after harvest?

I hope my question makes sense.

 

[therevverend]

It's all the same thing, genetics. If you're getting male flowers at 4 weeks of flower fuck that strain. Those male flowers at 4 weeks are the same ones creating the mature seeds you see at 8 weeks when you harvest. Usually takes 3-6 weeks for mature seeds to form. So if the male flowers appear after 4 weeks the seeds will usually be immature. Which doesn't really matter because I would never plant seeds from a hermaphrodite parent.

A few times I've seen strains that were fine outdoors for an autumn crop, when I cloned them and moved them indoors they threw all kinds of male flowers at 4 weeks. This is 'environmental stress' and there's numerous causes. But it all comes down to genetics.

I haven't seen a bad 4 week hermaphrodite in many years, but I'm very careful about what kind of seeds I plant. Either male on female or feminized seeds from a reputable source, I avoid seeds that were created from 'mistakes'. I like seeds from selected males or selected turned females.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

The way I see it is plants genetically come in varying degrees of sex 'commitment'. They range from 'fence straddlers' that are obvious hermaphrodites early in flowering to extreme females or males that don't show intersex traits even under great stress.

Genetically, indica dom plants are less likely to have hermie traits than sativas.

The kinds of environmental triggers that I've noticed affect hermie traits are excess N during flower, and any other nutrients that encourage root growth like Vitagrow vitamin B stuff. I run a continuous flowering room right next to a veg room with no separation partition. I have light leaks galore and I've noticed absolutely NO hermaphrodites from them, ever. Some clones I've been running for more than 20 years now so plenty of chances under different conditions. That's not to say it's not a thing, just that I can't see any evidence for it in my setup. Maybe all my plants are just hermie proof (from light leaks) anyway.

That said, I do have one plant that is a known hermie, but has not shown for the last 8 years. Does that mean she's reformed? I think not. I think I've just got her dialed in and she hasn't been stressed in that way in these last 8 years.

I think one of the best tips for avoiding hermies is make sure not to feed N during flowering, especially past peak. If you're growing in large containers with highly nutritive soilmix, this might be hard to achieve.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I had a whole grow hermie on me. It's all hash and bird seed now.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

"Nanners" are male pollen flowers, which formed while vegetation was pressing on them (female flowers).

Well put Mr. Greengenes, and great info too Thank you!

 

[Dropped Cat]

Genetically, indica dom plants are less likely to have hermie traits than sativas.

Interesting, as I have some White Rhino that went bananas
on me, I culled the worst plants and kept one that flowered
for 90 days, that was on me, I did bad math on that one.

The chop and sweat made for some good smoke, even messed up as it was.

Got me thinking though, as even at 90 days she was maybe 10% amber.

Under the impression WR was a wide leaf type, but there is some narrow leaf genetics involved,
plants stretched 3x in flower.

Likely a heat stressed scenario, as others I've flowered in cooler temps were okay.