Hemaphrodites during first three weeks of flowering

Grow Cycle Flowering
1

I am a Newbie: I am now into the third week of flowering and just noticed what looks like male balls are just beginning to appear in all four plants at the base of the leaves/branches. Since this is my first grow, and have plenty of flowers growing everywhere, I was shocked to see what looks like the beginning of hermies. I trimmed the leaves around one of the plants to show the single ball that is growing at most of the stem/branch inner nodes in all four plants.

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ILGM Seeds: Feminized White Widow and Super Skunk.
Lighting: first month 220W HO fluorescent, second month homemade LED’s/CFL’s 450W; into the third month 18/6 in veg and 12/12 in flower mode with homemade LED 280W and Mars Reflector 96 190W.
Temp: 70 - 75 F night and 80 to 90 degrees under lights.
Humidity: 40 - 60%.
pH: 6 - 6.5.
N: very high; so I flushed before flowering to lower N.
P/K: adequate-high.
Nutes: Grow Booster with calcium/magnesium added (had a lock out in one plant)
Soil: 1/3 Perlite; 1/3 Worm Castings; 1/3 Coco Noir; trace nutes: Azomite, Epson Salt, Bone and Kelp Meal, Mycorrhizae, and Sulfur.
Containers: five gallon grow pots filled to three inches from the top with one inch thick Hydroton stones over the soil.
Pruning: FIMed plants at four and seven weeks; pruned leaves growing over buds the 8th week, and tied down the branches onto the grow pots (I put grommets around the top of the bags to expose more bud sites to the LED’s.
Outdoor grow shed 2’ x 4’ x 6’.
Six-inch exhaust fan/charcoal filter running with lights on; bathroom style exhaust fan while lights are off.
Twelve inch circulating fan blowing in the middle of the plants.

I have read Robert’s book, Growing Elite Marijuana book, and have watched every Hermie YouTube I could find. I am confused because and all have conflicting, or just a different slant on the subject. So, here are my questions:
Are those single bud/balls male Hermies?
Are Feminized seeds more conducive to becoming Hermie?
I have worked so hard, is there anything I can do to save these plants?
If they are male balls, can I just carefully snip off the balls, beginning at the bottom to the top? If so, will more appear?
Since summer is coming, and I live in the hottest most humid state, can I just let them grow, and then just smoke the female flowers and surrounding leaves until next fall?
With the above conditions, which have contributed to my demise?

I know this is a lot of questions; however, I have only four plants to last me for a year, as summer growing in an outdoor shed is not feasible because of heat and humidity. I am on disability so cost/investment is of utmost important.
Thank you in advance,
MGGrows

2

Those are not balls, nor male pollen pouches.

Those are buds, just individual calyxes at the “nodes”, this is entirely normal. You can especially tell as they have “hairs” coming out the center tip, just like the crowded and cramped ones in the “true buds”.

These calyxes often show well before the rest of the “buds” and are often referred to as “pre-flowers”. You can tell these have been there much longer than the rest of the flowers by the fact that their “hairs” are already shriveled and browned, the same way the hairs on most of your bud will look when they are about ready to harvest.

The pollen pouches look much different, they actually look like pouches or maybe little clusters of bananas and usually hang a bit from a sort of stalk of its own, unless they show late in the middle of one of your female flower clusters, in which case they might almost look like the pointed end or tip of a mini yellow or yellow-green banana hot pepper surrounded by the rest of the normal looking female calyxes.

So the short answer, I see no balls, no staminate male pollen pouches in your photos.

happy growing,

MacG

2 Likes
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MacG, wow, hallelujah, thanks for the super fast reply as I was just going to give up! If you remember, I am the one that began my plants in self-watering containers (SWC) that just exploded the root growth, but had nutrient lock-out when transferred to a self-watering container, as my soil mix had too much nitrogen. I thought maybe it was their early life in SWC that caused this. Next fall, I will try again to make a 5 gallon SWC knowing that this won’t cause hermies. I did follow your advice and transplanted them into 5 gallon grow pots/bags with handles, that I really love; you da’man!
Blessings,
MGGrows

4

Mac i was just looking at thoughs pic’s and was thinking the same thing but i
couldn’t remember what they were called…lol then I saw your post
And got schooled again…lol
You sure mad @MGGrow happy

B Safe
Will