Which stresses can cause herms?

[Cali MedPatient]

Hi Everyone. I'm posting to try to find some help for a friend of mine. He's getting herms in his rooms, and lots of seeds. He's an experienced grower, has sealed, controlled rooms, (a/c, CO2, Dehueys, etc.) He's using a variety of genetics like Sour Deisel, Headband, Chem Dawg, Blue Dream, all from clones. He's tried every different type of soil available, different nutes like Botanicare, Canna, House and Garden. He has no light leaks. He hand waters. He grows in #5 pots. I trade clones with him, and I get no herms. His weed is bionic, tons of crystals, dense and chunky. He does skirt up the bottoms pretty thoroughly, and does that a couple times in flower, so he doesn't get any flarffy buds (I don't do that, I skirt before I flip). But otherwise our rooms are pretty similar. Just wondering what he could be doing that's stressing out his plants to cause these herms. I was in one of his rooms last night, around week 5 of flowering, and we found a couple male flowers down at the bottom, growing right next to a female flower. He has more than one room, and helps his girlfriend grow at her house, and they get herms in all the rooms. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Space Ghost]

I'm thinking a light leak of some type, even a red led on a fan/timer/ect. can do it...

High skirting shouldn't cause enough stress to herm a plant out, especially from know genes...

He should go in his bloom room right at lights out and wait 3-5min for your eyes to adjust and look for any signs of light from anything... anywhere... Ideally with no plants in the room to obstruct vision...

That's my first though....

 

[Cali MedPatient]

Thanks space ghost. That's a cool avatar. I appreciate your advice, but he's been in there during dark, no light leaks. He spent 10 minutes in the dark to let his eyes adjust, and couldn't see shit. I have all of the little led lights on my controllers in my room uncovered. I have to walk through my flower room to get to my veg room, and I open the door during dark cycle regularly, and I have never found a seed or a herm. I have accidently left my green light on through an entire dark cycle and had no ill effects. Plus he has this problem in 3 different rooms. It has to be something other than light.

 

[Space Ghost]

Is he having issues with keeping the temp down? Or severe over/under ferting?

edit: any radical pH swings? maybe he should give coco or full on hydro a try...

RE-edit: How large are his plant at the end of flower? I've seen herms from being severely rootbound, but in 5 gal pots that shouldn't be an issue unless they are huge....

 

[Cali MedPatient]

No problem keeping temps down, if anything it's a little cool in there. He's tried lots of coco blends, and plenty of other soils like Botanicare's coco blend, roots organics, plus several other types coco based potting soils. He's tried every type thats available at our local stores. I am growing the same strains in the same soils he's used without problems.

He used to do DWC, but doesn't want to go back to that.

His plants aren't huge, they're maybe 3 feet tall.

He has a few ph meters and the drops. He hand waters, DTW so no recirculating.

He was getting his nutes ppms up to 1600 at the peak of flowering, I suggested he back that off a little, now he's around 1000 ppms, maybe a little higher at peak feeding.

I will note all of these thoughts and talk to him about it. Thanks SG.

 

[MacGyver420]

it was my observation that root-bound plants seemed more likely to go Hermie.

do you guys have different veg/ flower schedules? pot sizes? maybe he will veg out for a longer time and the plants are getting more root-bound during flower?

if you do think you might have figured this one out or have any new ideas id love to hear about it i have had some weird Hermie problems off and on as well.

 

[Cali MedPatient]

Hey Mac (love the avatar). I use 7 gal pots and I veg mine a little longer, and put up netting and bend my plants down in veg to get an even canopy before I go to flower (sort of a scrog). He uses 5 gal pots, tops his plants in veg to keep them the same height, then stakes up the big buds if he needs to. I use irrigation on a timer, he hand waters. And he skirts his plants a lot more than I do. Otherwise pretty similar. If I figure it out I'll let you know, but I'm still kinda stumped.

 

[Siomha]

i had some hermie problems with my grow. i had feminized seeds and 8 out of 16 were hermie.

but with your problem, maybe you have a light leak from your exhaust, i did.

you can transfer the hermie pollen one house to another so you should pay attention by changing your shoes or some similar actions while going from one place to another.

and it be probably best to take the hermies out of grow room so the other plants dont get hermie.
hope this helps

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

Ive had 2 plants all out herm on me. Otherwise stable strains that ran before with no issues. The first turned out to be directly below a red LED fro a power strip that I forgot to retape. The second one was directly below a duct that had a tear in the panda I wrapped it in.

I cant say for sure if thats what it was but same genetics in same place with light issues then fixed, have given many rounds hermi free.

Strains to left and right of these plants had a few seeds and no bananas found.



gs

 

[Smoking Gun]

Hey Mac (love the avatar). I use 7 gal pots and I veg mine a little longer, and put up netting and bend my plants down in veg to get an even canopy before I go to flower (sort of a scrog). He uses 5 gal pots, tops his plants in veg to keep them the same height, then stakes up the big buds if he needs to. I use irrigation on a timer, he hand waters. And he skirts his plants a lot more than I do. Otherwise pretty similar. If I figure it out I'll let you know, but I'm still kinda stumped.

I am sure it would mess with his schedule, but what if he ran one room exactly the same as yours. If he no longer sees hermi's then the problem is solved. You are both running the same gear, yet you are not having problems and he is. So I guess your methods are working, I don't see why he shouldn't try a way that seems to not have problems.

 

[yerboyblue]

That's crazy if there are no light leaks, but that is still the most probable. Maybe he should let you go in there for 10 min when it's dark and see if you can pick any light leaks up. They don't have to be major ones for hermies to happen. I've noticed lately that panda film has gotten thinner, so just covering the window in my room once with it still lets light through, but it hard to spot unless you really spend time in there when it's dark. I also get light leaks from my intake ducting.