Cannabis hermaphroditism - what is it

Cultivation of hemp is a process that requires a certain approach. In some cases, you may encounter the problem of plant hermaphroditism. How to understand what happened and what it threatens, you can from our article.

What is cannabis hermaphrodite

Hermaphroditism cannabis refers to the situation when the plant simultaneously has female inflorescences and male pollen sacs. It is worth noting that this is a completely natural feature of the plant, but this is undesirable when growing cannabis. In this situation, there is a rather high probability of obtaining a plant with a large number of seeds, which significantly reduces the quality and quantity of the resulting product.

You can determine the sex of marijuana by the first signs of flowering. They can be seen a few days or a week after the light mode is switched to 12/12 and the plant is signaled to flower when growing phytoperiods. In a situation with autoflowers, this can be seen after 3-4 weeks at the vegetative stage. Autoflower shows sexual characteristics at the moment of maturity and readiness to start flowering.

What a cannabis hermaphrodite looks like and what causes it

Feminized marijuana seeds may well become hermaphrodites. Most often this happens due to the fact that the plant has undergone excessive stress. In this situation, cannabis seeks to ensure its own survival by becoming a hermaphrodite in order to self-pollinate and provide seeds for the next offspring. This risk is observed when growing not very good genetics in a bad environment or rather sensitive varieties.

Hermaphroditism is used by breeders to create new varieties. This process can also make the species more prone or very sensitive to stress, making these genetics difficult to grow. To avoid hermaphroditism, you need to protect the plant from stress and control a number of factors:

• lighting without sudden changes in intensity and light cycle;
• watering without excess or lack of water;
• avoid damaging the roots;
• keep an ideal ambient temperature of 27 degrees C;
• slow and gradual gentle pruning during the growing season;
• competent use of fertilizers and pesticides without excess;
• timely pest control.

If, despite all efforts, the plant has turned into a hermaphrodite, then there are certain ways to deal with this. First you need to remove the pollen sacs to prevent future pollination. In this situation, it is necessary to carefully remove the male reproductive organs formed on the nodes. To do this, you need to carefully pick up the pollen bag with two fingers and pull it out. This is the only effective option for saving your crop. Note that in the future, some plants may continue to form male pollen sacs, or may stop. It all depends on what factor triggered the stress. Most often this is the temperature of the environment.

Conclusions

Cannabis hermaphroditism is a natural process that allows a plant to produce offspring when it grows in a harsh climate or as a result of stress. This is naturally beneficial for cannabis, but highly undesirable for growers. In this situation, this indicates that the crop may be spoiled, so you should take care to create optimal conditions for the growth of cannabis. In terms of nature, were it not for the hermaphroditic tendencies of feminized plants, most cannabis strains would have become extinct.

* The material is provided for scientific information purposes, we remind you that the germination of cannabis seeds is prohibited in some countries (including Ukraine), follow the laws of the country in which you are staying and absorb new knowledge!