Many cannabis growers are hesitant about growing male marijuana plants because they produce pollen and have sacs instead of buds. While some do it for breeding purposes, eliminating male cannabis plants right away is crucial if you only want to produce buds. However, hermie buds happen. Learn more about hermie buds below.
What Are Hermies or Hermie Buds?
While cannabis growers consider all mixed-sex cannabis plants as “hermies” or hermie buds, there are technically two kinds. They include hermaphrodite marijuana plants and mixed-sex cannabis buds (such as buds with nanners). True hermaphrodite marijuana plants are more predictable than nanners.
What Is A True Hermaphrodite Cannabis Plant?
A “true” hermaphrodite cannabis plant has female and male parts, growing on various parts of the plant. True hermie bids will not grow together in the same area, like when nanners grow in the middle of hermie buds.
What Hermie Buds Look Like?
Hermie buds have both fully formed male pollen sacs and female pistils. A hermie marijuana plant with both female and male parts has pollen sacs that grow in the same spot as female pistils.
Experts highly advise not to breed a marijuana plant that is showing hermaphrodite traits because it’s a highly inheritable genetic trait. Remember that a great “breeding stock” mother cannabis plant will not show signs of this condition even when subjected to stress.
What Are The Causes Of Hermie Buds?
What causes hermaphrodites in cannabis plants? One cause of hermie buds is stress, which can trigger hermaphroditism. Unlike bananas, true hermie buds are mixed-sex plants with more stable genetics. They are more of a natural trait of the marijuana strain. Also, a clone of a true hermie cannabis plant will turn it into a hermaphrodite offspring, wherein the traits show under optimal environmental conditions.
What Should You Do With Hermie Buds?
What should a marijuana grower do with hermie buds? Remove hermaphrodite cannabis plants from the grow tent or grow area immediately. By doing so, it will prevent accidental bud pollination. Contact of pollen that came from a pollen sac will cause buds to stop making buds because they will focus on making seeds, and you don’t want seedy cannabis buds.
How to Avoid Causing Hermie Buds
1. Avoid Light Leaks And Lighting Period Inconsistencies
It is important to stick with the light schedule of your cannabis plants during the flowering stage to avoid confusing them, which may result in hermies. During the night, you can prevent outdoor cannabis plants from being exposed to artificial lights, including floodlights and street lights.
Make sure that your cannabis plants obtain 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness and light leaks and shortened dark periods. During the dark period, marijuana plants are “counting” the hours until the sunlight appears. If this process is interrupted, your cannabis plants will likely produce hermies.
If the power or timer or power malfunctions, correct it as soon as possible. It is better for cannabis plants to get a too-long day as compared to a too-short night during the flowering stage. That is why it is better for them to get an 18-hour day as compared to a 6-hour night.
2. Maintain Proper Temperature During The Flowering Stage
Maintain a temperature between 65 to 85°F (18 to 30°C), which is a comfortable temperature for growing cannabis plants. One thing to look for in the grow light that you buy is the type of light that will work best for your plants. If you want to use LED grow lights, you will need to purchase a power strip that will allow the lights to come through all the corners of the room. If you decide to use the HID (High-Intensity Discharge) lights, then you will need to purchase an HID ballast.
Here are some tips to maintain the ideal temperature for your cannabis plants:
- Never allow your weed plants and their roots to sit directly on a cold floor.
- Make sure to use “hand-test” so it does not feel too hot above the canopy of marijuana buds under the artificial lights. Place one hand with your palm facing down underneath your grow lights and wait for about 10 seconds. For a too hot feeling, adjust the light distance accordingly by moving the plants or adjusting the lights.
3. Do not Give Your Cannabis Plants Too Much Light
Indoor lights come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so you should definitely consider the type that will work best with the overall look of your room and grow room. There are compact fluorescent tubes and LED lights, which can be great for small spaces where you are working on the inside of a larger space. If you have a larger grow room you may want to choose a grow light that is a little larger in size and has the ability to be positioned anywhere in your room.
Avoid providing too high power bright lights to your marijuana plants because it can lead to a light burn. It will result in stressed cannabis plants, causing unwanted bleaching, which can trigger them to become hermies. Never keep artificial lights too close which is common when using high power LED lights. That’s why it’s better to use fluorescent lights, smaller HIDs, and CFLs because they emit less heat.
Avoid Light Bleaching
What is light bleaching in cannabis plants is a common phenomenon when using hydroponics (flower) gardening as they tend to produce more leaves than they can handle. Along with light bleaching, hermie buds may develop because of a variety of things which include too much water, a poor mix of nutrients in the soil, and not enough light.
If your hydroponics garden gets enough light, but too little water, this can lead to an overflowering plant or even an infection. The water also contains toxins that will kill your plants. One of the ways to avoid this is to ensure that you add the correct amount of water to the hydroponic solution. You don’t have to add a lot of water because there is an option of using a floating hydroponic bed.
To avoid what is light bleaching in cannabis plants you need to choose the right nutrients and ensure that your grower is using the correct light requirements. It can easily be avoided if you just make sure that the grower is providing the correct nutrients for their plants. You don’t want to end up with plants that have too much water but too little light.
Conclusion
Now, you are fully knowledgeable about hermie buds and why this cannabis plant condition happens. Hermaphroditism is also an occurrence in marijuana plants if they don’t receive the right amount of light or are confused about counting light hours due to light leaks. You can avoid having hermie buds with proper lighting and providing your plants with the right amount of nutrients, water, and tender loving care.