Adventures in Hermaphrodites

Firstly, I’d like to say hello and introduce myself. I’ve been lurking here for a few months and I must say that I am beyond impressed with the knowledge and guidance of everyone in this forum. I realize you all don’t have a clue who I am, but I feel like I know all of you! I’m not big talker and rather kept to myself, I’m the quiet one… at least until you get to me LOL So, hello everyone! :grinning:

Now for the fun part. I purchased 10 of the Chronic Widow Fem seeds last fall. They arrived very quickly! Unfortunately, 1 was crushed. But, customer service was great and gave me a discount code for my next order. So, I planted 4 of the CW seeds. They all germinated and I began my grow. All was well until about the 4th week of flower. That’s when I learned what a hermaphrodite was. :astonished: Prior to this grow, I’ve had 3 successful grows and never encountered a hermie. Quite possibly because I’d always grown autos.


I had nanners on 2/3 of my buds, they were everywhere! At that point I decided to cull all 4 plants and cut my losses and begin anew. I already had the other 5 CW seeds grown to about 4 nodes so I was ready anyway. I chalked it up to a lesson learned and would keep a watchful eye on my next grows. I ran everything through my mind as what would’ve stressed my girls to herm. I concluded that it must’ve been the very cold water I was using. My grow space is a sealed room built into my garage. I kept my water outside the room and it measured at about 60 degrees. So I thought possibly thermic shock was my issue. I checked my room for light leaks and didn’t see any.
So on to a new grow. I kept 4 of the new girls I had already started, gave one away. They were doing beautifully, again. I watched them like a hawk. Looking for balls and bananas. 4 weeks into flower and i find balls on one of the girls! No way! :open_mouth: I made the choice to get her out of the room so as not to pollinate the others, bye bye she went. A few days go by, and another girl grows balls! And away she goes too! At this point I’m so frustrated with my grows. What did I miss? Something is causing my girls to herm… or is it genetics? I’ve never dealt with hermies before and I’m so frustrated at this point. :slightly_frowning_face: After all is said and done, I’m down to one plant. She sprouted a set of nanners and I plucked it. I had one plant left, she’s not going to pollinate another plant so I decided to ride her out. I found one other set of nanners on a lower branch and plucked that too. And then I decided to take another look inside my room. I sat in the dark for about 5 minutes, and then I saw it! I have a CO2 sensor in my grow room. I see two flashing orange lights inside the sensor. Are you kidding me?!! This CO2 monitor is made by AutoPilot, why are they putting flashing lights inside the sensor? Don’t they realize these monitors need to be in a dark space without any visible light. :hushed: I put my CO2 monitor on a timer and now I’ve got complete darkness.
I’m in week 7 with my one and only girl from the 10 CW fem seeds I purchased. This has been a very expensive and frustrating 2 grows. I don’t know what to expect of this last girl. I’m trying my best to get her to completion. Ever since I fix the light leak I haven’t has any issues with her, She looks great and smells wonderful! I don’t know anything about hermies and my biggest question is… will she seed? I guess I will find out in a few weeks. I figure she has about 3 weeks left till harvest. This is one of her buds…
Anyone venture to guess what I can expect from her? Thanks!!

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Welcome to the forum, @MamaMia. Sorry to hear about all those balls, that really sucks. I know nothing about hermies, but your last girl looks beautiful.

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Thank you @raustin, I hope I can make something of her.

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Welcome @MamaMia, I am sure the experts will be by to help out. Never had to deal with a hermie.

@Countryboyjvd1971 @dbrn32 @1BigFella a couple guys that know there stuff that might be able to help.

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Welcome to the forum @MamaMia
Since your ising feminized seeds im surprised your having these issues and since its a reoccurring issue id say its being caised by Enviromental stress of some sort
Can you please fill out a support ticket
COPY/PASTE the below list into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA
Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA

Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco?

System type?
PH of runoff or solution in reservoir?

What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS

Indoor or Outdoor
Light system, size?
Temps; Day, Night
Humidity; Day, Night

Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,

Co2; Yes, No
If you can, upload a picture of your plant. It helps the diagnosis, if needed.

Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you :slight_smile:

Thanks!

This will help us identify your issues
Sorry your dealing with this issue
You can pull nanners off but that can be daunting
@garrigan62 @Donaldj @Hogmaster
Any thoughts

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It will take 3+ weeks to get a viable seed, let her run her course and you should be fine, maybe a seed or two but if your picturing fully seeded Mexican schwag that just plain won’t be the case. It’s perfectly possible there won’t be any seeds at all, but that totally depends on when she’s done

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Sometimes it just happens. Although rare, I’ve had plants that I babied and never stressed and they hermied on me. The later in flower it happens, the better, less of a chance of it being chalked full of seeds.

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Bummer @MamaMia
Welcome to the community hopefully with the collective knowledge here you will be all set for the next one, hope things smooth out for ya in the future
The lady you have been left with looks amazing

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Sorry for your lost plants, but good thing you found out why! You can also put electric or duct tape over the orange lights on the CO2 so the lights won’t hermie your girls anymore.

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I don’t see any mistakes in how you have been growing your plants look quite healthy and you are quite clearly tracking any potential causes like I would. I am extremely rough with my plants and have a couple strains which are far more prone to hermi but the nanners come about the sametime as they are in harvest window so I keep them. Are they sitting on a concrete floor it can make for some cold roots? though I grow in pretty cold temps so would only attribute so much to cold

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My first run, I scrogged and watered with the extra cold water. That’s the only stressors I could see at that time. On my second run, I didn’t scrog and I kept my water in the grow room so that it would be close to the same temp. I didn’t do anything to them, not even pluck a leaf. I babied them. The only thing I can come up with is that light coming from the CO2 sensor. This girl I have left developed the bananas in week 4 after switch to 12/12. CW has a 65 day flowering time.

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Thank you!

Strain: Chronic Widow from ILGM

Soil in pots: Happy Frog

System type? Hand water

PH of runoff: 6.3

What is strength of nutrient mix? pH at 6.5, Nectar for the Gods on this run

Indoor or Outdoor: Indoor

Light system: 4 600W LED from My Urban Greenhouse

Temps; Day 77-78, Night 70-71

Humidity; 45%-50%

Ventilation system; Sealed environment - 8’ x 9’ room, Carbon scrubber, 9000 BTU Mini-Split, 3 small fans, 1 large fan

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier: De-humidifier and 9000 BTU Mini-Split

Co2; Yes

I’ll get a picture of the plant when the lights com on this evening. Thanks!



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I feel I have everything dialed in too. Until I saw the flashing orange lights coming from inside the CO2 sensor. I have a wooden pallet with wheels that I sit my pots on to keep them off the floor. I had to move this girl to the floor after 12/12 switch because she stretched too high for my lights. I didn’t scrog this run, trying to stress them as little as possible. My plants have all been very healthy. I’ve not had to deal with any pests either. The balls and bananas are my only issues that I can see. I did notice that the bananas coincidentally appeared on the same side of the plant as where the CO2 sensor was in the room. Thanks!

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@MamaMia

I just solved a very simiular situation and this is very close to what there problem was only it was the heater glowing. So yes you are right MamaMia. And you should be fine. If you don`t mind please tag me like this @garrigan65 so I can follow you journal

Will

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Glad you figured it out @MamaMia! She looks great

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You know @MamaMia when she makes it and I know she will. You can clone her and regroup what you loss. At least you won`t fell so bad…Right

I think it’s really worth while to get zipped or whatever into your grow tent or chamber during broad daylight with the room lights on, Let your eyes adjust to the dark for a few minutes. If you can’t see the hand in front of your face, it’s dark enough for flowering. If you can see light leaks, fix them! Black felt is cheap at the fabric store. It can be very useful and it lets air penetrate. Very nice to stuff foam rubber strips wrapped in black felt into cracks.

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@garrigan62

It’s the only thing I can pinpoint right now. I’m running out of ideas lol So hopefully my next grow will be nanner free.

@garrigan62

I’ve already sprouted some Girl Scout Cookies Extreme and Northern Soul. Time to try something new. The CW has left me a bit disappointed so I’ll just give her another shot later. I do have my eye on the Gorilla Glue tho! :grinning: