Everything appears to be going great, buds are looking frosty and... wait a second... what the heck is that? A banana!?
Well, let's face it, the only thing worse then finding a hermaphrodite plant in your flower room is not finding it! Cannabis plants are uni-sexual, meaning they typically produce male and female flowers on different plants. Under certain circumstances cannabis plants may express hermaphrodite traits; male and female on the same plant. If you'll take a look at my photo above you'll notice a bright yellow male stamen right in the middle of my female cannabis flower (or bud). In the photo below the bud has a stamen shooting right out of the top. Hermies will most likely produce seed and the seeds will most likely carry the hermaphrodite trait, so this is pretty much always undesirable.
There are many factors which can contribute to causing your female plant to become a hermie, or as I like to put it, "shoot bananas".
Some factors may include, but are not limited to;
Inconsistent light schedule, light penetration into grow space during "night"
I have been doing some experiments on this recently to see if not getting 100% dark, but still getting consistent levels of darkness for consistently scheduled periods, actually causes hermies. After all, there are stars and moonlight outside at night. I haven't yet had any issues, it could be the cause of this one however.Stress factors, including; wild temperature fluctuations, drought, extreme amounts of pests, etc.
This is sometimes a protective reaction to carry on the genetics of a plant in environments where it assumes it may not otherwise survive and produce seed.Poor genetics
I think this may be one of the main causes of how common this has become in indoor growing. I'm sure many seed producers are more concerned about making money than anything else. Some strains just do not breed well together as you may be breeding out good traits and amplifying negative ones - such as hermaphrodite traits.Taking Cuttings From Cuttings?
I have heard this may produce hermies and that you should take your cuttings from plants started from seed. Again, I am not sure this is true. This plant is a cutting from a cutting so... i don't know. One plant doesn't really prove anything. I have had great success taking cuttings from cuttings in the past.
So What Now?
It really depends on what your personal situation is. I have grown some hermies to finish and only got 5 or 10 seeds per plant - not a big deal. It could be horrendous, so the risk will have to be your own. If you have many more plants and don't want to risk your whole crop, chop it and juice it!
As for me, I have decided to pluck all the stamens and isolate her in grow box on a different floor to finish off the last few weeks. All my girls will be finished about the same time and I believe I caught it early enough (fingers crossed) and it's late enough they wont produce much seed even if fertilized. The reason I chose this rout is that I only have the 1 plant of this strain that was gifted to me, and the buds look potent! I am not 100% sure on the strain, I will get my friend to identify the finished product as neither of us can remember what he gave me (Moby Dick?).
Good luck growing everyone, I hope this has been informative and helps you with any potential identification issues. Hope you all don't have too many bump ins with hermies! Again, it's still possible to get some amazing cannabis from a hermie plant so don't sweat it too much!
@jayanarchon