Male or Morph

[OlderStoner]

This is a photo of the tops of a White Widow X plant which I grew from seed. It's 60 days old today. About 10 days ago I noticed what were pollen sacks on it so I thought darn, it's a male. But then a few days later it started to show the white hairs which would make it a female, or actually a morph...but I'm not so sure about that. If you look closely you will see those white hairs at the top of this one but the top of it is also not looking at all like another White Widow X I have here which so far is showing only female signs and starting to fill in her cola very good.

So the question becomes, is this one a morph, or just a male? If it is just a male I'd like to collect the pollen from it for later use...much later because I don't want this female to go to seed. If it is a male, what is the best way to collect the pollen? Many years ago I did a grow which produced some male plants and I remember how those pollen sacks just one day started bursting open and showering me with pollen. As I remember too, there were some little white flowers with those pollen sacks...it's been so long ago now I don't recall for sure. But instead of just trashing this one if it is indeed a male I'd like to collect the pollen. And also how long will the pollen remain viable? I'd like to use it later on some of the clones from this female. The plant grew tall very quickly and had close spacing of it's nodes so it shows at least some desirable traits.

Sorry about the quality of these photos but this is the best focus I could get up close. I need to learn to set my camera better.

 

[canabinerd]

Kinda blurry, but looks like a male to me.

 

[Spimp]

That looks like a dude.

Ive never collected pollen, but I think its stays viable for a few months if properly stored like in a ziplock in the fridge, but You probably need to ask KingJohnC or donpaul.p as they have hands on experience ith pollenand I do not.

 

[OlderStoner]

I can't believe the quality of the camera. Sometimes it takes such great shots but for this series it's hit or miss...mostly miss.

I don't really have enough experience with males and I'm not so sure this one is a morph. It just doesn't look like a female at the top with the exception of those hairlike structures. They do indeed look like pistils which is why I suspect this one being a morph, but the more I look at it the more I'm not so sure.

BTW - This male/hermie is isolated from the rest of the plants...down wind. So far none of the pollen sacks have ruptured. If I remember correctly when the pollen sacks do open, there's a little white flower inside of it...or am I mistaken.

And one more question about bad weed. Now I don't for one moment believe the sleeze bag growers down in Mexico discriminate male or female when they harvest. I may be wrong about that but I would think those guys just want to get every $$$ for every plant they went through. And when you see some of the shipments which get confiscated by LE....tons of the stuff. How could they only harvest just females and not have any male plants mixed in with it. And of course the females were pollinated or else where the hell did all the seeds we used to throw away come from. I used to have a collection of thousands of seeds. And to think that these days they are getting $5 to $7 US for a single seed. WOW! So male plants are not worth the effort I get that, but without them there would be no seeds. This is why I'd like to collect some pollen before cutting it loose.

Anyone with more experience care to comment:

 

[OlderStoner]

Okay, I just watched a few youtube videos on this topic...I'm pretty sure this is just a male plant, it's not a hermie. I could be wrong, but my gut feeling is telling me this is not a hermie, it's just a male. Which is good because all I want to do is collect some pollen from it and keep so if later I decide to make some of these females go to seed, I at least have the opportunity. None of the sacks have opened or ruptured yet, but that's probably only a few days maybe hours away. Considering it's out there in a 12 knot wind right now too, but it's 100 feet away and down wind from the other plants which are only in veg and the only flowering female I have is inside. Still I'm going to shower and wash all my clothes before going near the females anymore after today.

Yes, now after watching more videos, this is a male...not a morph. I'll collect some pollen from it and then 86 it by next week.

 

[Outragedpluto]

Cheap easy way to collect pollen. Take a bread loaf bag and as soon as you see those flowers opening put the bag over the top of the plant. Tie it loosely at the bottom. Leave it there until more flowers open. Then kinda tip and shake the plant letting the pollen fall into the bag. Remove bag and dump contents onto piece of white paper to examine. Put I. Plastic Baggie and fridge for safe keeping. Now I have been fortunate enough to never get a male to try this technique but I have read lots of ppl doing it this way. You can use the same method to pollinate your buds too. If you have a big bushy female plant you can put the bread bag over just one of the colas and pollinate only that flower. So you can get seeds and some good seedless bud off one plant. Hope this helps. And if any one has some variations to my idea please let me know.

Happy growing!!!

 

[Richard Richardson]

Male flowers contain THC and can be smoked

 

[Outragedpluto]

Male flowers contain THC and can be smoked

Really!!! That's awesome. I did not know that. I thought they just had CBD and CBN. I know you can put them on salads for an edible decoration

 

[OlderStoner]

This is my point from above. The bags of weed I bought decades ago had to contain male plants. There was just no way all that smoke was thrown away when you consider what was the main motivation of the growers at that time. I know I have smoked male plants before and I recently read an article that you can make hash from male plants as well. I'm really only interested in the pollen. I will store it in a glass container and keep it in the fridge.

 

[AfricanGrower]

The reason why you see seeds in weed you call 'Mexiweed' or "reggies' is due to the sheer number of plants being grown. It is the same back in my home country in africa. Farmers plant thousands of seeds on hectares of land. Now imagine going through each individual plant to find the males and uproot them. The opportunity cost is quite high compared to just having seedy buds. This reasoning is logical because the time it would take to sort through a whole field of cannabis that large of scale, the less labor is being distributed among other more important aspects of the grow, like keeping them healthy overall. And the sheer volume of cannabis being grown, will balance the cheap price for seedy bud.

Now based on my experience, talking to large scale outdoor grower in my country, they DO NOT harvest male plants when the time of year comes. When harvesting they collect the female plants (contaminated with seeds) and dry that out, while taking the male plants and using them as compost for the next upcoming season.

Now the weed that you bought having males in it is highly unlikely. True males DO NOT produce bud, which is a female characteristic. Males can only produce pollen, and contains very little THC.

Now any plant with female hairs is considered a hermaphrodite. Even if you have only one or two hairs on the plant, and the rest is covered by pollen sacs, THIS plant is no longer considered fully male. A hermie can be male dominant or female dominant, but does not take away from the fact that it is still a hermie. The main difference between a TRUE male and a hermie, is that a hermie still has the potential to produce bud with acceptable THC levels.

 

[OlderStoner]

Ah, the good ole' days of $10 bags that had seeds galore in them. Yes, it's a sure thing that today's domestic growers don't put male plants in with the females. And of course I remember the buds which were in the bags we bought as teenagers back in the 1970's. Once in a while you would run into what we called "one puff stuff" meaning it was very strong. but mostly it was what we called creeping pot. Meaning you smoked it and about 5-10 minutes later you began to feel the high. The crops sure have changed over the years.

Now, if you look at the photos in post #4 here, there are definitely hairlike objects at the top of this plant's cola. So does that mean this is not a true male and is a hermie? I'm curious about this as well as if it's a hermie, I'm going to destroy it today and not collect the pollen.

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>> So does that mean this is not a true male and is a hermie?

Yes, if it has both male and female calyxes then it is in fact a hermie. This trait can be passed on if it was in its genetics.

There is some interesting info out there on how to make feminized seeds, basically allowing a fully mature female to go hermie, and using that pollen to fertilize another pure female. This produces feminised seeds. Just something to think about since you are going to be breeding your own seeds!

 

[TheCapn]

Old stoner,

I can't see the picture well enough to determine 100%, but that has so many pollen sacs on it, I would bet it is 100% male. That amount of pollen is not typical of a "hermie".

You mentioned, "hairs". Not sure what you mean but this, but you want to look for pistils. pistils are white. If this plant has pistils and pollen sacs, I would guess you really do have a real hermie, and toss it, and wait for a better male.

I hope this helps.

 

[canabinerd]

Donpaul is going to try to make a male go hermy and breed with it. Apparently that is a technique used to increase thc content. Just search for "supermale" and you'll find the thread. Anyway, just saying that if it did happen to have such a plant, you might not want to trash it.

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>Anyway, just saying that if it did happen to have such a plant, you might not want to trash it.

From what I read on Don's thread on supermales leads me to believe that he is trying to intentionally stress the male plant into producing female calyxes, just like how you stress female plants late in flower to produce pollen sacs. However, having a plant naturally turn hermie on you is a genetic trait that you really would want to avoid when considering breeding.

 

[OlderStoner]

Sorry to be so persistent about this but my plant doesn't look anything like the diagrams above. The very top of the plant is the only place where those hair looking items are and they don't look anything at all like the pistils on a true female. There are loads of these pollen sacks that's why I think it's a true male and worth getting some pollen from.

 

[AfricanGrower]

Are you sure that these 'hairs' are actual female pistils or are they just the Stipulates (look back at the diagram for further reference of Stipulates) of the plant?

From what you were describing, you said that there were what looked to be female pistils popping up ever so randomly on your plant?

 

[OlderStoner]

Are you sure that these 'hairs' are actual female pistils or are they just the Stipulates (look back at the diagram for further reference of Stipulates) of the plant?

From what you were describing, you said that there were what looked to be female pistils popping up ever so randomly on your plant?

No, I don't think they are female pistils. The only place they occur is at the very top of the plant in what looks like the head of a wheat plant. The photos I realize are blurry, but that is the best I could get with this camera. There are so many pollen sacks on this thing you have to think it's a male, not a hermie. I really believe this is a true male so I'm going to give it a few more days then start popping open some of those sacks if they haven't done so already and collecting the pollen into a glass jar. I'll keep it in the fridge for at least enough time to see if I can try my hand at breeding.

Just think of this. A cross between those fast growing white widow X plants and that cotton candy plant. It's awesome to think of the offspring that might produce.

 

[Dyold]

Its a MALE for sure.

 

[The303Stoner]

No, I don't think they are female pistils. The only place they occur is at the very top of the plant in what looks like the head of a wheat plant. The photos I realize are blurry, but that is the best I could get with this camera. There are so many pollen sacks on this thing you have to think it's a male, not a hermie. I really believe this is a true male so I'm going to give it a few more days then start popping open some of those sacks if they haven't done so already and collecting the pollen into a glass jar. I'll keep it in the fridge for at least enough time to see if I can try my hand at breeding.

Just think of this. A cross between those fast growing white widow X plants and that cotton candy plant. It's awesome to think of the offspring that might produce.

it would be nice the power of white widow and the size and taste of cotton candy