Hydrolife Magazine June/July 2016 (CAN Edition)

ask kyle
Q
I have an indoor growroom and in my recent harvest I found seeds in the
buds, but I’m sure there are no male plants in the room. I’ve heard that
light leakage can cause plants to become hermaphrodites. Is this true,
and if so, do you have any tips for avoiding this?
Thank you,
Amy L.
a
Cannabis plants are monecious.
This means they have
the ability to be either male
or female. Or in the case of
hermaphroditism, they can
be both. The reason to make sure there
are no males or hermaphrodites in your
garden is because male flowers make
pollen. When pollen touches the white
hairs on a flower, it makes a seed, and
seeded weed gives you headaches. Even
though there are reasons in nature hermaphroditism
could be important, such
as continuing the species in case there
is no male present, hermaphroditism
is generally a bad thing when talking
about cannabis plants.
Light poisoning is the most common
cause for a normal plant to hermaphrodite.
Light poisoning refers to the flowering
night cycle of a plant being unnaturally
interrupted with light. The best way
to prevent this is to close yourself inside
your darkened room during the daylight,
and then after allowing a few minutes
for your eyes to adjust to the dark, check
for any light leaks from covered windows,
door jams, etc. Also cover all timer
and appliance lights with tape.
Negative stressors can combine with
small interruptions of the light cycle
to cause hermaphroditism, especially
with less-stable, clone-only hybridized
strains. When the night cycle is abnormally
interrupted, it sends a mixed
hormonal signal to the plant. This can
cause a full female plant to throw some
male flowers. Male flowers are easy to
identify, especially when side by side
with female flowers. Male flowers look
like small bunches of bananas, which
will take a week or two to swell before
they burst and release their pollen.
Finding a hermaphrodite in your
growroom can happen at any stage of
the flowering cycle and is indicated by
the presence of male flowers growing
on the same plant as female flowers. As
with all species in nature this can occur
in varying degrees. A plant can become
slightly or majorly hermaphroditic. In
cases where singular male flowers are
found between the branch and stalk
nodes, you should be diligently removing
them as they grow. You must reinspect
the plant top to bottom every few
days to be sure pollination and seeding
doesn’t occur. If you find male flowers
(anthers) actually growing from within
the female flowers (buds) the situation
is a little more dire. You can still remove
all the male anatomy as it appears, but
it will be harder to find and much more
prevalent. This is a horrible discovery
that leads to a tough decision: Should
you let the plant live and risk the whole
crop being ruined by seeds?
In either case, once hermaphroditism
has compromised the safety and purity
of your sensimilla, the plant should not
be propagated further. Remember, once
a hermy, always a hermy. The plant pictured
here is in the tenth and what should
have been the final week of ripening, but
a timer failed and one light stayed on
continuously for almost two weeks, causing
this vegetative regrowth. Because the
light was continuous, the plant made no
pollen. This method of re-vegging can be
used to save a flowering plant you have
no copies of, but be careful, as this may
cause some strains to hermaphrodite.
Purposefully causing a plant to hermaphrodite
is called selfing. Gibberellic
acid or colloidal silver is typically
sprayed onto the female plant. This
technique is used to make feminized
seeds and uses the plant’s ability to be
both male and female to force a female
plant to produce male flowers. The pollen
contained in these male flowers can
only produce female seeds. Just keep
in mind that feminized plants should
not be used for breeding, as they were
produced without a true male, making
them genetically inferior.
Kyle Kushman is an internationally renowned marijuana
cultivator whose collaborations have earned 13 Medical
Cannabis Cup awards, including three US Cannabis Cups for
Best Flowers. As the creator of Vegamatrix, the only line of
vegan and organic nutrients designed for growing cannabis,
Kyle continues to make advances for people who want to
cultivate the purest, cleanest medicine possible.
Do you have a question for Kyle?
Email editor@myhydrolife.com to get an answer.
10
grow. heal. live. enjoy.
myhydrolife.ca