Minimising Hermies when creating feminized seeds?

[Slinks]

Hi so I've been buying fem seeds for years and rarely had anything hermie. So other than selective breeding is there any other way to minimise the risk of your feminized seed turning herm???

 

[MrFortwenty]

Feminized seeds give you femals plants. Stress is what causes hermi's.

 

[Slinks]

Are you sure? Whats your experience..because like i said in 10 years of growing feminized seeds from pro seed companies i maybe had 1 or 2 hermie plants n they were def stress related... however Ive never tried to produce my own fem seeds and I want to know how do the pros do it? I hear a lot of people on here banging on about reverse sex causing hermie traits.. but that cant be true otherwise every other pro fem seed I popped would herm?

 

[MrFortwenty]

Not sure I understand you at all. I mentioned female seeds give you female plants and stress is what causes hermie's. You questioned that, but followed up by stating the same thing. But you're really wondering how to make female seeds?

There is a thread for that

Producing Feminized Seeds Using Colloidal Silver

 

[Bonsaiweed]

Are you sure? Whats your experience..because like i said in 10 years of growing feminized seeds from pro seed companies i maybe had 1 or 2 hermie plants n they were def stress related... however Ive never tried to produce my own fem seeds and I want to know how do the pros do it? I hear a lot of people on here banging on about reverse sex causing hermie traits.. but that cant be true otherwise every other pro fem seed I popped would herm?

There are a few things that can cause a strain to be hermie prone.

First is inbreeding. If a plant self-pollinates, that is like a bother and sister having a child. It doesn't guarantee genetic problems, but it is highly likely. Pollinating the same plant with its own pollen is a risky thing.

The other is breeding a hybrid with a different hybrid strain. Poly-hybrids can sometimes cause seeds that tend to be hermie. This is a complicated thing, due to not knowing all the genetic tree, and reintroducing the same genes into the strain yet again. (Like Ruderalis)

Also, there must be a few generations of breeding to make a stable strain to breed out the tendency to become a hermaphrodite. Not sure why this works myself. I think this has to do with picking the correct plant to keep the dominant traits that are positive, and not using the plants with the negative undesirable traits.

These are all separate from stress-induced hermie issues. Just about every strain can be stressed to become hermie. It just depends on the strain, how much stress they will take before the change.

I hope this clears up the issues you have with feminized seeds.

The above link will also educate you on the process. Just remember, it takes two plants to be less risk of having hermie seeds. But it may take a couple of generations if you do breed to get them right. Even if you do pollinate with two plants.

It's not always simple unless you are using "legacy" or original strains.

 

[Slinks]

Ok thats along what I thought, I have checked out that thread. It seems to me to be a matter of selection to breed out any hermie trait. Do the professionals use colloidal silver? What I want to do, is cross my two hybrid strains... and then pop the seeds i produce, I'll clone anything thats amazing and work with my new cross. That way I can eliminate hermies through selection and trial n error
I have no idea about selecting males and only a small grow area, Im not trying to win a cup I just want to try a bit of breeding and I got the stinkiest Lemon amnesia, I grown this strain for 3 years from seed n never hermied , so i want to reverse and use for pollen, in the hope of retaining its terpene profile and smell. I got a few ideas for the mom, but I need to grow them out. Next grow will be two tents one with our reversed male in and other with pure females. Once I selected mum I'll put her in breeding tent with the male making sure I spread the pollen all over her and finish her separate to the flower tent. Then the fun begins growing out hybrids
Its an experiment, so if anyone else has any advice or tips on techniques that might possibly reduce chances of herm trait then let me know

 

[Rifleman]

Most pros I've spoken with use Silver Thiosulfate. Spray the entire plant once. The whole plant reverses and produces tons of pollen. The plant is discarded afterwards, not smoked.

 

[Slinks]

Ok thanks thats what I wanted to know.,.just googled it and found this HOW-TO Make and Use Silver Thiosulfate Solution(STS) for Feminized Cannabis Pollen! (Featuring the Gorgeous Early Dane!) — Steemit
exactly the sort of info I was after... nice one Rifleman

 

[Slinks]

Is there any reason why I shouldnt just use collodial silver, its less complicated than this... not by much but wanted opinions

 

[Bonsaiweed]

Is there any reason why I shouldnt just use collodial silver, its less complicated than this... not by much but wanted opinions

There are some plants that won't make a hermie flower with CS. Most will, but some won't. Also, it takes more than one application of CS as I understand. But I'm no expert. I know many people spray more than once with CS.

 

[Slinks]

Ok so are you saying collodial silver is linked with hermies but silver thiosulfate isnt?

 

[Bonsaiweed]

Ok so are you saying collodial silver is linked with hermies but silver thiosulfate isnt?

Oh no....I didn't say that at all. Sorry if I implied that.

One person here tried CS and it didn't turn the flower the way they expected. They moved up to the silver thiosulfate, to get the results they were looking for. I think colloidal silver works but silver thiosulfate is the heavy hitter for doing the job.

They both do the same thing, just one is much more efficient at it (silver thiosulfate).

 

[Slinks]

Ok cos all the threads i read about collodial silver seem to end up with hermies along the line for whatever reason.. im gonna try silver thiosulfate i think

 

[Rifleman]

Is there any reason why I shouldnt just use collodial silver, its less complicated than this... not by much but wanted opinions

That works as well. You'll need to spray one spritz, one time a day, on the same pistol group for 18 to 20 days.

 

[SLHLover]

I prefer silver thiosulphate solution (STS) as it requires only 3 application for 3 weeks (spray twice a day for total of 6 sprayings). Colloidal silver needs to be sprayed for the first 3-4 weeks of flower and even then may not reverse the sex of the plant. Making STS is very easy and only requires Silver Nitrate and sodium sulphate (both easily available). Making coloidal silver can be a pain as it degrades quickly and also if the particles are not small enough it will not do the job. I have produced several batches of seeds with colloidal silver, but as I said, it was painstaking to spray every day, twice a day for 3 week - and even then it would not reverse sex on certain strains. The STS on the other hand, is easy to make and store, requires 6 sprays (total) and has reversed sex on every strain I have tried so far. Using STS I have made seeds from: White Widow, Jorges Diamond #1, Super Lemon Haze, Bubblegum, Mango Passion, Green Crack, Tangerine Dream, Laughing Buddha and Kosher Kush. I usually take clones from two plants of the same strain then reverse sex one of them using STS - usually male flowers appear at 14-20 days after switch to 12/12 with pollen being mature enough to use for pollination at approx 30-36 days. I have used well over half the seeds I have produced this way and have never had a hermie (I make my seed stock with seeds bought from reputable dealers).

 

[Slinks]

yea I been speaking to bomb n a few other companies they tried a few ways but silver thiosulphate is the preferred method.