IRON-EYES
Well-Known Member
But wait there's more!"so ben is technically wrong.as long as a male has an x it can have the herm trait" --
Sorry, no, Ben is not technically wrong...
If the male has and IS DISPLAYING the "Hermi trait" it's not a male, it's a hermaphrodite.
A male is a male is a male...
A female is a female is a female.
A Hermpaphrodite is a hermaphrodite.
I am going to type this all out from Greg Green's book The Cannabis Grow Bible... IF you have arguments and want to debate, go debate Vic High at BCGA, who has degrees in plant biology and specifically, genetics within plants.
Selfing is the ability of a plant to produce seeds without the aid of another plant and refers to hermpahrodite plants that are able to self-pollinate. Hermaphrodite plants have both male and female flowers. This usually means that the hermaphrodite is monoecious. Most plants are dioecious and have male and female flowers on separate plants.
Monoecious cannabis strains will always display both sexes regardless of the growing conditions. Under optimal growing conditions, a monoecious cannabis strain will produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. Under optimal conditions a dioecious strain will show male and female flowers on separate plants.
Stressful growing conditions can cause some dioecious cannabis strains to produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. Manipulating an irregular photoperiod during the flowering stage is an easy way to encourage dioecious hermaphrodite conditions. NOT ALL DIOECIOUS CANNABIS STRAINS CAN BECOME HERMAPHRODITE. The dioecious cannabis strain MUST HAVE PRE-EXISTING GENETIC DISPOSITION to become hermaphrodite under stressful conditions in order for the male and female flowers to appear on the same plant.
If you find a dioecious cannabis strain that has the hermaphrodite condition, you can separate this plant from the rest allow selfing to occur. IF the male pollen is viable on this plant then the hermaphrodite will produce seeds. Selfed plants that produce seeds will generate offspring that:
1. Are all female
2. Are all hermaphrodite
3. Produce male, female and hermaphrodite plants because the environment also influences the final sexual expression of the selfed plant.
4. Express limited variation from the original selfed plant.
BREEDERS SHOULD NOTE THAT IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR HERMAPHRODITES TO CREATE MALE PLANTS, ALTHOUGH ENVIRONMENT CAN INFLUENCE MALES TO APPEAR. HERMAPHRODITES USUALLY CREATE FEMALE ONLY AND HERMAPHRODITE SEEDS. The female-only seeds often carry the hermaphrodite trait. Selfing has become popular among those who wish to breed all-female or feminized seeds. Unfortunately, feminized seeds do very little for the cannabis gene pool as the hermaphrodite condition prevents growers from generating sinsemilla crops.
Well informed breeders tend to shy away from producing feminized seeds. Feminized seeds should only be used for bud production and not for breeding. Generating seeds from feminized plants is only advised for personal use and not for distribution.
Notes on Selfing by Vic High
These notes were drawn and edited from an online description, Notes provided by Vic High, BCGA Breeder.
100% Female Seeds
[Vic] has stressed literally hundreds of plants with irregular photoperiods. What he does is put lights on 12/12 for 10 days. Then he turns the lights on 24 hours. Then back to 12/12 for a few more days, then back to 24 for a day, then 12/12 again for a few weeks. If he does this and no hermaphrodites come up, he has found a 100% XX female that can't turn hermaphrodite naturally. He claims that your chances of finding a 100% XX female are vastly increased when using Indica genetics. He also suggests that the more Afghani or Nepalese the genetics the plant has the better chances of finding a natural XX Female. In his own words, "where did nature give weed a home originally?"
[Vic] then uses gibberellic acid mixing 2/3 pint of water with 0.007 grams of gibberellic acid and 2 drops of naturism hydroxide to liquefy the gibberellic acid. He then applies as normal and reates male flowers. He has gotten down to the 4th generation without loss of vigor, and with no genetic deficiencies or hermaphrodites. He claims that the plants are exact genetic clones of one another, complete sisters. Basically, it's cloned from seed instead of from normal cloning methods.
It has also been said that it's easy for the home grower to find an XX Female. It's a very time-consuming process but a straight-forward one. Mr. XX an anonymous grower, advises growers to confine themselves to a single strain. Mr. XX used a skunk#1 x Haze x Hawaiin Indica. He says to separate those plants from your main grow and stress them severely. Do this repeatedly with every new crop of seeds you get of that strain until you fnd the XX female. While this is time consuming, it is by no means impossible.
This is reproduced word for word, as reference only from Greg Green's - The Cannabis Grow Bible.
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