Newbie question about preserving genetics.

So, I grew some seeds given to me by someone I thought of as a guru of sorts. It was supposedly from a collaborative project with some other grower. Skunk#1xMendo Rock Candy. They all hermied on me. It was mid flower and I didn’t have anything else going on, so I removed the balls/nanners and grew it out. One of the plants turned out awesome. Very few seeds found, super frosty, nice spongy bud structure. I just loved it. Great flavorful smoke with easy cerebral/body effects. The others were actually pretty decent but packed with seeds. Afterwards, I noticed I had a power strip with a small light that I missed in the tent, and thought maybe it was what caused the problem. Anyway, I just gave it another try and I’m at week 4 of flower. Sure enough I’m finding little watermelons at the base of some of the lower flarfy stuff. So, not wanting to throw in the towel like I probably should, I am curious about a few things. One of the plants showed male right away, before the flip. It had a couple fully formed pollen sacks already spilling pollen. Another plant showed female pre flowers well in advance of the others, and has since showed no signs of hermie. Not really knowing squat about genetics, I’m anecdotally guessing that both the male and female in question are not confused about their gender. If I take one of the clones (yes I kept clones from each cuz I’m touched in the head) and bred it with the male (yea I kept the male cuz I have some screws loose), can I assume that their offspring will be less likely to have the hermie gene, or would I have to run several cycles to have any real impact?
Thanks in advance for your insight, and keep in mind I’m a total hobbyist who finds enjoyment in doing things that some may consider to be, well, pretty fucking stupid, like wasting money and energy on growing shitty weed when I could just buy great genetics from reputable breeders.

If either parent is a hermie, the offspring will be prone to becoming hermies.

If only one female was great and the others meh I would self it and crack some s1s and see if you get any that are as good and don't throw balls. Depending on your situation and how great this bud was, however, your time and space is likely better used cracking a variety of promising gear from reputable breeders.

I would say your offspring would be less likely to hermie. I'm a little concerned that the male had pollen balls before you "flipped". If your talking about switching from veg to flower, then there could be some auto flower genetics mixed in. Usually the hermie tendencies come from a combination of genes that make the plant more susceptible to environmental stresses..there are all kinds of stressors. Plants can be genetically female but have nothing but male parts, and vica versa and everything in between, so it is absolutely important to get rid of anything that isn't showing its sex like you would expect. I wouldn't self anything, because I doubt you want to take the time to tool up and go through that process and if you do have a hermie prone line you could just box in those genes and end up with a bunch of s1s that are worse than what you started with.

I think you have the right idea by taking clones and trying to chase down the stable ones. However you might never be able to wipe out those hermie traits, and you could spend a lot of your time working with a line that should just be culled.

If it were me, I would scrap the idea of growing out anymore of those seeds, and label them and put them in the freezer just in case you want or have the time to go back to them. Then I would find something else that you would like grow, and go from there. Good luck.