feminized seeds and hermies

[snack420]

Hi. I'm looking for some tips for planning my second grow.

Is it true that feminized seeds are more likely to grow into hermies? My first plant was from a single feminized blue dream seed and it budded well, and is definitely some sweet stuff, but she ultimately ended up a hermie. Most of the buds ended up having a number of seeds in them, which contributed to nearly half the overall harvested weight! For my next grow, I want to grow a couple of different strains (the sativa-dominant Super Lemon Haze, and the indica-dominant Northern Lights, or maybe White Widow, or one of the Kush's - something that is reasonably strong and has a solid yield). Most places sell them as feminized seeds though, which seems convenient.

However, is it more likely that feminized seeds will grow into hermied plants (with seeds), or is that specific to certain strains? Is there any site where I can find out which strains might be more susceptible to this? Or are feminized seeds generally fine and I just got unlucky or screwed up my grow in some way? If I really want to grow pure females that don't hermie and contain zero seeds, is it best to get regular seeds and select the females after identifying the males (through force flowering a cutting of each plant)?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Antics]

I don't believe it's true. Any plant can hermy if its exposed to significant levels of stress.

Light leaks seem to me one of the most common causes, so make sure when it's supposed to be their dark period, that they have complete dark. I've never had a plant hermy on me.

Growing Feminized seeds is fine, and can produce buds without seeds when the proper precautions are taken to minimize stress.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Ye i checked over your journal briefly & suspect the period of time you was away leading to a wilted planted during flowering may of been an indicating factor of stress to cause a hermie & seed problem...


By the way did you save any of those seeds ? most people believe hermie seeds result in more females ! never tried it myself tho...



Hermie can happen to any female plant & mainly forms of environmental stress which may make hermies happen...

 

[snack420]

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback Antics and Fuzzy Duck. I think maybe there was some stress in my grow that could've contributed to the hermie situation. For a couple of days in the summer it got very hot in the tent before I had proper ventilation, getting up into the 90s. Also, as FD pointed out, I was away for several days and the coco ran dry and the plants wilted a bit which probably stressed it pretty substantially. I'm hoping this next time that doing a DWC/hydro grow will help prevent that kind of situation though and hopefully the plant(s) will be alright if I go away for a week or so...

Thanks for the tips!

 

[newoldguy]

Years ago when I was growing in the garage, I had several turn herm, I just let them go and kept the seeds.
When I planted them I didn't notice an abundance of herms from them, just lots of females with hardly any males.

Take it for what it's worth.

 

[lushgreen]

Fem seed is the only thing I sow, and never had a male or a hermie.
Had plenty of hermies from bag seed.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback Antics and Fuzzy Duck. I think maybe there was some stress in my grow that could've contributed to the hermie situation. For a couple of days in the summer it got very hot in the tent before I had proper ventilation, getting up into the 90s. Also, as FD pointed out, I was away for several days and the coco ran dry and the plants wilted a bit which probably stressed it pretty substantially. I'm hoping this next time that doing a DWC/hydro grow will help prevent that kind of situation though and hopefully the plant(s) will be alright if I go away for a week or so...

Thanks for the tips!

Mmm a stand alone DWC bucket could prove a minor problem over week left unattended due to PH/EC change over time & water uptake of plant depending on stage of growth !


I would be inclined to look into RDWC system with main head bucket controlling the recycling part with a float valve to top up this mini res which is connected to a main res tank & providing the PH up or down is pretty stable over time of main res you should be able to get away with a week from home... i suspect ?

But would try & test such a system before taking leave

 

[snack420]

Thanks for the suggestion Fuzzy Duck. I'm looking into RDWC solutions as well.

Let me ask this, during peak growing/feeding, how long do you suspect a 5 gallon bucket would last for a single plant?