Bananas in late flower

[Scarfinger68]

I believe these are called: specious staminate flowers
- a last ditch effort to pollinate itself to save the species. Not a true hermie.

Females can Change
Even pure female plants have the potential to turn male or hermaphrodite. This can happen if the plant is stressed too much through bad treatment or if hormones are applied to the plant to induce male flowering. Often near the end of flowering unfertilised stressed out females will produce one or two male flowers in a vein attempt to continue the species. Over cloned mother plants kept for too long can also suddenly start producing clones that change sex.

From the same article:

Please note that occassionally specious staminate flowers will appear in the last days of flowering of a female marijuana plant. These do not drop pollen and their appearance is not considered evidence of deleterious hermaphroditism.

My mother plant herself is a clone. Also these only got plain water for about 3 weeks. This picture was taken day of harvest (day 56 of 12/12) and the banana had been there at least 2 days. No seeds found.

 

[CareStaker]

Nice Plant! And good info about the 'nanas.

 

[Bud Grant]

and a tasty nugget as well

 

[Scarfinger68]

Ok guys and gals. I was reading a journal and I found this...

From Donpaul.p's journal
Donpaul.p's Latest 400 Watt HPS Grow

i had a go at making some fem seeds and so far it turned out ok and all plants turned out fem with no hermie traits, i read an interesting way of making fem seeds without using that silver solution, i was speaking with someone who used this method below,
1 when plant has flowered leave a few buds on the plant and keep it under 12-12 so it goes past the harvest date by a couple of weeks, the plant then starts growing little bananas, when these are opening i collected them in a small paper bag and left them to dry so i could collect the pollen,
2, i then put this pollen on 3 plants, i did not cover the plant in pollen i selected several buds on 3 of my best fem plants, i put pollen on these bud sites and harvested the seeds, so far all seeds have turned out fem and the buds look amazing, i got 3 plants from these seeds that are coming up to harvest, no hermie traits in none of them, i was told using hermie pollen would give me hermie seeds, but letting the plants go past harvest resulted in these banana type pollen sacs instead of the usual male pollen sacs, so buy using the pollen from these it has given me fem seeds, well so far all have been fem but only time will tell,

Question on leaving the bananas on the same plant so it self pollinates.

@bozzo420, in theory the answer is yes, how ever i dont self polinate the plant the bananas are on, i have got seeds from self polinated plants but not run tests to find out if all are fem seeds, but i can say up till now all the seeds planted from the pollen put on other plants have turned out fem with no hermie traits,

From what I have read is that a self pollinating female from these bananas will produce (1) hermie seed at the site of the banana and then the rest fem seeds. But if you have multiple bananas it is going to be hard to tell which seed produced is the hermie seed.

Donpaul.p's experience shows him that collecting the bananas and pollen from them... Then pollinating another female (feminized or regular female? not sure if it matters) with the collected pollen will produce feminized seeds.

but when i read its the pollen from the bananas that produce the fem seeds i thought id give it a try, i didnt want to go the silver route due to it making the buds not safe plus my dog eats any leaves he can get his hands on so if i turn my back for a few seconds to fetch water their is the risk my dog could eat a leaf with silver solution on it so i looked for a different option, thats when i was told about the bananas and instead of stressing the plant early in flower let it flower a few weeks longer and it will produce bananas, then this pollen will be the fem pollen i was trying to get, so far all seeds planted from 3 different plants have turned out 100% fem so far, so it looks like i have managed to get fem seeds,

Very interesting isn't it. Some actual hands on experience found here at 420. I will have to look back and add the author to this info and give credit to him.

 

[Scarfinger68]

Donpaul.p's expanded on this a bit with the following:

yep, that banana is the female pollen inside, now i waited till i seen them start to open before harvesting the plant, its difficult because they don't release much pollen, but the way i did it was leave them on the plant and when they open hold a tub underneath and give the stem a tap and the pollen falls into the tub, i have tried using the harvest method but i think i harvested to early and the bananas didn't open,

so id either wait till you see one or more open before harvest or if you have the space collect the pollen while it still in flower, make sure you check all the nodes and if you look under some of the buds, like where the bud is attached to the stem you will find more pollen sacs their, i find that most pollen sacs tend to be around the smaller pop corn buds, i guess their younger and got more chance of producing seeds,

just keep an eye on it, you don't get much pollen from one banana but its fem pollen, if you do harvest before they open then id wait till at least 1 is open then harvest, then let the bananas dry out on the bud, don't shake the buds or anything once hung, then when dry you will find open pollen sacs, these will be releasing pollen when you touch them, i have took bananas off and let them dry and then broke them open and get pollen from them that way, but it all depends how old they are.

but yes that banana is the fem pollen, that's exactly what i used, i seen them on some of my buds then i checked the rest of the plant and seen some had all ready opened, then i just placed some black shiny paper under the pollen sac or a plastic tub and then tap the branch and collect the pollen, then use a small brush or que tip to put pollen on some pistils, then a couple of weeks later you will have fem seeds,

 

[Joopman]

Great info!!!!

 

[thegreengrocr]

I have nanas from last year from a cross of Headband and bubba kush. I am going to use it this year and see what happens. They popped out in a late bud scenario. I was maturing some lower buds with a second round of 12/12 when they appeared. Did some research and decided to make an experiment out of it.

I currently have a cross of OG Kush and Durban Poison going. Wonder what will come out?

 

[thegreengrocr]

In my current grows I will be experimenting with feminized seeds from male bananas on a female plant. I have read that this process will also create feminized seeds. Only found 1 seed in the mother but it was after the grinder.

My male stock came from a cross of Headband and Bubba Kush. I grew it from seed outdoors and clones indoor.

The indoor clones I did an extended length grow. The male pods arrived in the second and third phase.

Indoor cross with OG Kush crossed with Durban Poison. Pollinated at 3 weeks "my closet grow"

Outdoor cross with Golden Goat. Pollinating today at 3.5 weeks in the greenhouse. "early greenhouse grow"

 

[geeman]

It sure looks like a banana ! Now I'll be looking a little closer .

 

[GrowersRUs]

Breeding bananas now are we?

This only perpetuates an undesirable trait. Strains that produce bananas are way more common now than they were 10-20 years ago due to the growing of bag seeds pollinated by these female staminate flowers.

Strains are stressing easier now and there is a trend towards earlier late flower banana production. Mostly caused by poor breeding techniques used to create feminized seeds.

 

[thegreengrocr]

I was under the impression that most any plant could be forced into this state. So I figured that this was not an anctul trate but caused from a condition.

I grew the mother outdoors. Harvested in late September. No bananas

I made a few clones for indoor growing. Flowered them for 10 weeks. no bananas.

Left some lower growth to try an mature for another harvest. After 6-7 weeks of this a few bananas appeared. I harvested them. Only found 1 seed although it was in pieces in the grinder.

How would you classify this?

 

[CareStaker]

Great thread, btw. Got some early flower nanas...hoping to keep it to that.

 

[Scarfinger68]

I was under the impression that most any plant could be forced into this state. So I figured that this was not an anctul trate but caused from a condition.

I grew the mother outdoors. Harvested in late September. No bananas

I made a few clones for indoor growing. Flowered them for 10 weeks. no bananas.

Left some lower growth to try an mature for another harvest. After 6-7 weeks of this a few bananas appeared. I harvested them. Only found 1 seed although it was in pieces in the grinder.

How would you classify this?

So you took a 10 week strain and let the lower buds go another 7 weeks. 17 weeks total and the plant determines that there are no Male volunteers to pollinate her. So she goes into survival mode and produces her own pollen to keep her species alive

 

[CareStaker]

Spinsters gonna spin.

 

[SonnyJimm]

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about sexing cannabis and ginetics. I just want to clear this up....
A cis gendered female plant (that means a true 100% female)can NOT turn into a cis gendered male plant( that's a 100% male plant.It is genetically impossible. A female plant can produce both sexes but it can NOT turn from a cis gendered female plant to a cis gendered male plant. That means: a female plant can not make her chromosomes change from female to male.You can not magically make a flower dissapear from a plants ginetics and make a male genetics appear. You can either have a female plant, a male plant or a male/female. A female plant can produce a banana for self pollination NOT change gender.That's why seeds'feminize'. But a plant can also produce a male pollin sack AS WELL AS a female flower- thus being BOTH female AND male.

 

[SonnyJimm]

This paper explains it in depth a lot more for anyone who's interested.
Cannabis Genetics/Sexing

Cannabis really isn't that much different to us. All the more reason for legalisation. Happy Medicating

 

[4Dutchess]

Thanks NCW for this link!!! I got fem banana seeds on mine. I dident know what they were. I never saw a pollen sack but these thin dried looking flat things that pop out. I did find one under developed seed. The plants with the Bananas havent pollinated any others. So the plant must make seeds without pollen sacks??? No because I read here you can use those plants to make female seeds on others. I havent seen any pollen to make female seeds?
Making fem. seeds indoors is out of my league for now. Im green. I just wanted to know what they were.
My big question is..... There was no Amber! Ive been letting these plant go because no Amber and clear to cloudy. So what gives? If no Amber its not done but its getting banana seeds? So bad genitics? Any ways here it is. a good pic.
Thanks 420 mag!! 4D

 

[Muffinman1]

Hi all,

Good thread Quick question as I can't seem to find the answer anywhere... And my apologies in advance for being stupid and also for replying to an old thread ))

I'm @ week 7 out of 8 in flower and have noticed a few Nanas on some of the top colas, I'm not overly concerned about this as I've only got 1 week before I chop and have noticed them late on during some of my previous grows which have turned out fine. If they appeared @ week 3 or 4 of flower then I'd be worried but not just before harvest as there is not enough time for seeds to form as per the info given in this thread.

Anyways my question, usually I harvest & give the room a 100% clean using bleach etc then after a few weeks plant my next batch of seeds but this time I already have clones in another part of the room, they are in a separate tent but I'm worried about the nanas opening and pollen spreading to the other tent?

There's a lot of conflicting information online about what these nanas actually contain, some say male pollen, some say female pollen some say nothing at all so I just wanted to know will the nanas & their pollen (If any) effect the clones I have in another room?

Help... Paranoia is setting in fast

 

[4Dutchess]

Hi all,

Good thread Quick question as I can't seem to find the answer anywhere... And my apologies in advance for being stupid and also for replying to an old thread ))

I'm @ week 7 out of 8 in flower and have noticed a few Nanas on some of the top colas, I'm not overly concerned about this as I've only got 1 week before I chop and have noticed them late on during some of my previous grows which have turned out fine. If they appeared @ week 3 or 4 of flower then I'd be worried but not just before harvest as there is not enough time for seeds to form as per the info given in this thread.

Anyways my question, usually I harvest & give the room a 100% clean using bleach etc then after a few weeks plant my next batch of seeds but this time I already have clones in another part of the room, they are in a separate tent but I'm worried about the nanas opening and pollen spreading to the other tent?

There's a lot of conflicting information online about what these nanas actually contain, some say male pollen, some say female pollen some say nothing at all so I just wanted to know will the nanas & their pollen (If any) effect the clones I have in another room?

Help... Paranoia is setting in fast

I was told they dont spread. You might get a few seeds but no worries on another tent being pollinated. Or other plants in the same tent. If it was a hermie then yes it spreads pollen. Im a newbiw but how I understand it. Also if you have nanas and find a developed seed it will be feminized. Great Day!

 

[Muffinman1]

Thanks Dutchess

The more I read the more I think the pollen from the nanas will spread to the clones in the other tent

The below article is pretty good but doesn't mention 'Nanas' at the end of flowering just during flowering and this being the case the pollen is male and will spread unless your clinically careful between the different rooms.

7 Common Problems in the Marijuana Flowering Stage That Ruin Your Yields | Grow Weed Easy