Hermie Question

[Surf420This]

Heres a noob question...Can a cannabis plant hermie at ANY point in its life cycle? Or does it usually not happen in later stages of Flowering? Just curious, nothing happening like that in my grow, thankfully! *knock on wood*

 

[Antics]

Any time during flower as far as I know.

You can also get a plant that exhibits what is known as "bolting". Also known as nanners to lots of folks. They're female pollen sacks, and IIRC, should produce female seeds.

Hermies will have the male and female parts, and many say they produce regular seeds that have an increased risk to hermy also, but I haven't had experience with that aspect myself.

 

[Surf420This]

Oh ok. That makes sense. Besides strain, do you know what commonly causes a plant to hermie. like I understand extreme stress, but as far as what exactly?

 

[Antics]

light leaks is the biggest one I see mentioned. During the dark period it should be 100% dark. Any lights from any devices inside the grow, even small power indicator lights on fans, dehumidifiers, or other hardware, can all have a negative effect.

If the grow closet or grow space is in an area that is lit up during the dark period, if too much light gets into the grow area, that can also cause a hermy.

As for general stress, any type of higher stress training techniques, like defol, lollipopping, supercropping, etc if used in crazy amounts high enough to stress the plant, can possibly cause it.

Growth issues, like PH, nute burn, over/under watering, light burn, wind burn, etc... can probably contribute as well. Although I havent seen it mentioned much, but I do see people like KingJohnC say not to defol past day 35 of flower, which I assume also means to try to eliminate all high stress training at that point as well.

But the light seems to be the biggest one you'll see people talk about. As long as you don't have light leaks, you should be good.

 

[Surf420This]

See, your like a damn encyclopedia! lol Thanks man. My tent is sealed up nicely. I think I should be good on light leaks. It can be hard NOT to defol though. I just cant help myself at times. when that FAT hand fan leaf is covering over half the plant! lol

So basically keep stress to an absolute minimum and make sure there aren't any light leaks. gotcha. Only thing I worry about now is the fact that I just kind broke a cola today during my mishap of a morning lol In a way, isn't that sorta mistake high stress training lol? got her splinted upright for the time being. hoping she recovers well and doesn't hermie on me

 

[Heisenbergo]

...nute burn...

My friend dropped water on a few leaves that resulted in light burn afterwards. The result was about 3 or 4 leaves that are about 20% burnt. Would you leave those or cut them? I don't know if they could contribute to plant stress if I don't cut them.

 

[Antics]

See, your like a damn encyclopedia! lol Thanks man. My tent is sealed up nicely. I think I should be good on light leaks. It can be hard NOT to defol though. I just cant help myself at times. when that FAT hand fan leaf is covering over half the plant! lol

So basically keep stress to an absolute minimum and make sure there aren't any light leaks. gotcha. Only thing I worry about now is the fact that I just kind broke a cola today during my mishap of a morning lol In a way, isn't that sorta mistake high stress training lol? got her splinted upright for the time being. hoping she recovers well and doesn't hermie on me

LOL I don't know everything, I just had to read a lot in the beginning from all the mistakes I made
Don't worry too much about the other things. If it's not a light leak, from what I've read, you need crazy amounts of it to cause a problem. As you go later in flower people do recommend less cutting, if not eliminate cutting/defol completely.
I did a defol and cut a few lower branches on day 45, and didn't get a hermy.

Plant genetics will likely play a part in this too, stronger genetics can probably resist going hermy, where weaker genetics can probably go hermy with just an average amount of stress.

With a broken cola, honestly, I would worry more about losing the branch, than the plant going hermy because of it. There's always a hermy risk with that stuff, but it's real low from what I've seen. And I honestly don't recall a time where a plant went hermy due to a broken branch or defol. It's usually some kind of light leak that causes it.
I just wanted to mention the others just so you were aware of the possibility.

How far into flower is the plant with the broken cola anyways?

My friend dropped water on a few leaves that resulted in light burn afterwards. The result was about 3 or 4 leaves that are about 20% burnt. Would you leave those or cut them? I don't know if they could contribute to plant stress if I don't cut them.

I personally would leave them if they're not blocking anything. The more leaves you have, the more food the plant can store, and the more it can take in water, nutrients, and sunlight and convert it into energy

The stress occurs when the damage is being done. One the damage is done, the plant is healing/recovering and moving on. But in the case of burned leaves, the plant won't actually fix the burn, so that'll be there until harvest.

But if the leaves bother you that much, as long as you're in Veg, you can remove them no problems. If you're in Flower, before day 35 you can remove them as well, with minimal risk of a hermy.

Past day 35 I don't know for sure, as I've only done it on one plant so far.