Hermies please explain them to me!

[AlterEgo860]

I keep getting them, and I grow a good variety of strains so it isn't that. I hear light leaks can do it, but there is a vent coming in where the light is very dim, like a nightlight behind a bookshelf kind of thing.

I also hear "stress", what exactly is that now? Can you list all possible sources of stress? Temps and humidity fluctuate with the ambient conditions outdoors and outside the grow space, but always within tolerable levels. Right now humidity is upper 30's-low 40's, temps can be in the low 80's or as low as the 50's but normally upper 60's to low 70's this time of year.

Basically, I am sick of getting seedy shit and want to know every possible cause and the solution.

Can you have absolutely perfect and dialed in conditions and still get hermies? Can any strain produce a fluke hermie under ideal conditions or is it just some, or none? My conditions are pretty good may need a little tweak here or there, well that's it
thanks

one main thing a lot of people over look that causes hermis a lot.. is under watering.. if ur plants are Drooping... they are stressing.. had a lot of hermies from this when I first started.

so I started recording my watering in a notebook an had wat nutes an everything. since I started this. no probs with drooping from drying up.. and WAY LESS hermies then ever..

 

[prune]

stains and indigas. meeting of the minds up in here

You have to be very careful lest you call the kettle black, mister grammatical error - Moran! (sp intentional)

 

[prune]

Folks, everything electrical these days is more likely than not to have imbedded led lamps somewhere in the circuit and they are not always placed where you can see them. Wall warts, de-humidifiers, outlet strips, and my favorite - ductless AC. (worst of all because of the flashing and high mount )

 

[blastfrompast]

Any chance you have been using Growth Plus as a supliment...

Just a shot in the dark...

 

[TheCleanGame]

Youre comparing the weak light of a pinhole to the moon and saying it's stronger? Hahahahaha.

No... I'm comparing the hormonal balance stresses induced in a plant when only a tiny spot of flowering hormones are being destroyed.

Wow.

Keep it Clean!

 

[macdiesel]

No... I'm comparing the hormonal balance stresses induced in a plant when only a tiny spot of flowering hormones are being destroyed.

Wow.

Keep it Clean!

PAR over the entire plant from the Moon will imbalance phytochrome more than a tiny pinhole light leak.


This isn't rocket science.

 

[TheCleanGame]

Considering I've watched people grow plants without hermies that used non-blacked out shades... Considering I've watched "Cuts" grow outdoor under the moon and not hermie and those same cuts hermied where a pinhole light leak hit them...

I'm going to say there's something you're missing in your research.

Until I see something different? I'll call a pinhole more of a light stress than the moon any day.

Keep it Clean!

 

[macdiesel]

Yeah, logical jump to blame it on the pinhole light leak.

I'm sure you were conducting a scientific, peer-reviewed study. So let's see your report.....oh you don't have one?

Quit spreading disinformation......and lower the signal-to-noise ratio

 

[TheCleanGame]

Get tagged for ego much? lol

Talk about signal to noise... Lap it up mac. You've obviously got this thread pegged tight so I'll just let ya do your thing.

Keep it Clean!

 

[macdiesel]

Wack-a-mole with the mouthbreathers....

 

[pinkus]

wow. so what about when it's the SUN that shines on those pin holes? I think you'll find the light getting through there is more intense than the full moon. Could be wrong, but so what... I don't have hermie probs.

 

[blastfrompast]

I would look to your nutes....or genetics....If you are popping your own beans especially.

Light leaks....I got them in spades.....no hermi's tho..

Only hermi's have been from poor genetics, and a nute that is good for veggies but bad for MJ....

 

[stihgnobevoli]

Yeah, logical jump to blame it on the pinhole light leak.

I'm sure you were conducting a scientific, peer-reviewed study. So let's see your report.....oh you don't have one?

Quit spreading disinformation......and lower the signal-to-noise ratio

actually... it is.

see if the plants we grow indoors are used to pitch black, then a tiny pinhole leak would actually, LOGICALLY, disrupt a whole grow. you actually seemingly inadvertently explained how it would be possible in your previous post. you said plants outdoors grow fine under the moonlight. the moon is out every night. if a moonlit sky is their pitch black then a pinhole light leak would be as if dawn suddenly being their pitch black when previously it was moonlight. i predict if that somehow happens you will see hermies outside at a far greater rate.

same principle when going from pitch black to pinhole light leak.

oh also... you do know that the seed plants directly inherit their parents ...um whats the word? tolerances... if the moms survived spidermites then the kids will be resistant to spidermites. if the moms are bred indoors to flower in pitch black then the children will be predisposed to needing pitch black.
/thread.

 

[DinosaurCocks]

oh also... you do know that the seed plants directly inherit their parents ...um whats the word? tolerances... if the moms survived spidermites then the kids will be resistant to spidermites. if the moms are bred indoors to flower in pitch black then the children will be predisposed to needing pitch black.
/thread.
__________________

that isn't completely true...i mean it's not like breeders are actively selecting plants that hermie at anything less than true darkness...in fact, they should be subjecting their entire gene pool to LOTS of light stress and selecting plants that are the most hermie resistant, sure lots of breeders don't bother, but just because a plant flowers under pure darkness doesn't mean it wouldn't maybe also flower just fine under an even amount of less than pure darkness "meaning not pinholes". what im trying to say i guess is unless they are selecting specifically for that trait, growing a plant in pure darkness for several generations would not affect it's ability to handle light stress adversely in itself or its progeny.

i grow in a tent, and ive had hermies before, almost everytime for me it's a light leak...i don't worry about pinholes of light, i mean if you get inside your tent (i did!) with the lights on in the room those little pinholes don't show up, it's the intense amount of light generated in the tent that allows you to see it, the light outside the tent is much less intense.

usually it's because my ducts aren't twisted enough times, or i messed with the cord vent and forgot to re close it or something...ive had it happen from a messed up timer, that was messing up the turn on times like every 3rd day or so...and a few plants just hermie no matter what, if they came from a hermie plant they usually hermie, a lot of elites started out as hermies and because of that anything crossed with them has a slight tendancy to do it as well...

 

[foomar]

Moonlight has the same spectra as sunlight , but almost no energy.
A licor pointed at the full moon barely makes a reading.

See no reason why the moonlight tubes/leds used by aquarium folk could not be used safely in a growroom , and they are bright enough to work by.

This guy has done a good job takeing spectra of various light sources on the cheap , worth a look.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~zhuxj/astro/html/spectrometer.html

 

[macdiesel]

you said plants outdoors grow fine under the moonlight. the moon is out every night. if a moonlit sky is their pitch black then a pinhole light leak would be as if dawn suddenly being their pitch black when previously it was moonlight. i predict if that somehow happens you will see hermies outside at a far greater rate.

You're forgetting a minor detail. lol

Over the course of a 10 week flower cycle, the moon waxes and wanes a few times....the light is never consistent. Not unlike some guy who notices a pinhole in his room and patches it up after a few weeks.

Face it folks, genetics play the role of hermies...not pinhole light leaks.

At least some peoples theory of under watering is plausible...
The plant thinks it's going to die and herms to continue it's genes....

 

[macdiesel]

Moonlight has the same spectra as sunlight , but almost no energy.
A licor pointed at the full moon barely makes a reading.

See no reason why the moonlight tubes/leds used by aquarium folk could not be used safely in a growroom , and they are bright enough to work by.


View Image

This guy has done a good job takeing spectra of various light sources on the cheap , worth a look.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~zhuxj/astro/html/spectrometer.html

Moonlight contains PAR, the light plants work with.

This moonlight PAR has been shown in peer reviewed studies to
play an important role in timing reproductive cycles of many coral and fish species. In corals, lunar cycles set the date of spawning, while the time of onset of darkness fine tunes the cycle and decide the hour and minute (then a release of hormones into the water induces mass spawning). An altered lunar phase may at least temporary disrupt spawning synchrony among at least some coral species. Lunar periodicity seems to play a role in timing of reproduction among at least some fish species. Interestingly, short term exposure of some fishes to constant artificial moonlight may have prevented spawning, while the same did not affect the patterns in some corals. It seems apparent that different taxa are affected differently by altered moon phases, if only temporarily.

Point being, moonlight DOES play a part, is recognized by coral, fish and for this discussion........I don't think it's a big jump to assume landrace marijuana coexists with fluctuations of night cycle par/moonlight.....and of course, without hermaphrodite characteristics exhibited by weak crossed genetics.

 

[RB56]

oh also... you do know that the seed plants directly inherit their parents ...um whats the word? tolerances... if the moms survived spidermites then the kids will be resistant to spidermites. if the moms are bred indoors to flower in pitch black then the children will be predisposed to needing pitch black.
/thread.

It sounds like your saying that by surviving spidermites a plant will have offspring that are more resistant to spidermites than they would have been if the parent had never encountered spidermites.

 

[Canniwhatsis]

Earlier in the thread I posted my experience with a tru herm cut, indoor with NO light leaks it went balls out and pollinated the whole f'n room.

Outdoor, under the light of the moon at night and the incidental light from nearby street lights, it was stable. Not even a nanner to speak of.

Nobody got back to me on that one?

Surely if it was an indoor strain breed for pitch black night cycles it should have gone crazy outside!

My theory is the LACK of light during dark cycle, and the sudden transition from light to dark/ dark to light, were the triggers for that strain.

I don't have room to conduct experiments to mess with figuring out WHY a plant herms, nor do I have the desire to continually produce seeded buds, so that strain was gaffed long ago.


Continue to blame light leaks if you want, but I still say genetics are the main culprit.

 

[Podink Stucky]

All this talk of moonlight... moon is not bright it is a reflection. It is less than a 6 watt bulb 25 ft away. Full moon on a clear night is 1.0 lux maximum. One lux is equal to ONE LUMEN per square metre or.......
1 lx = 1 lm/m2 = 1 cd·sr·m–2. Maybe most plants have a natural tolerance to this amount of light.