If you grow enough Landrace plants you are going to find some Hermaphrodite/ intersex plants, known here after in this thread as Hermies or Herms. Some landraces, like those coming from Southeast Asia in particular, are known for hermies, sometimes in high percentages. I’ve heard of 90-95% in some Thai, for instance. The common practice is to kill all Hermaphrodites out of a fear that the whole crop will be inadvertently pollinated by the herm pollen, giving birth the following generation to more hermie plants. A reasonable fear. But what about the genepool? Is elimination of ( up to)90% of a genepool a good idea? I thought a thread showcasing different kinds of Hermaphrodites would be a good idea for us landrace growers to hone our skills at spotting these unwanted male flowers, and hopefully to stop some unnecessary plant murder😁at the same time. Not all hermies are created equally. There are 4 types I’ve come across.
Type 1) features a plant that sexes as a female (or male, )only to produce opposite sex flowers early in flower, but only on the main stem and/ or on main branches. (Here we are concerned only with those plants sexing as female.) These early male flowers can be removed and typically no more will appear. Sometimes they don’t even contain pollen. You can expect to find this type of male flower rather early in the flower cycle. This type of hermie is easy to deal with.
Type 2) features a plant that sexes as a female. The flower cycle continues regularly until late in flower, the plants start to produce " bananas". Think of a male flower as an orange. Once the peel is removed, you’ll find individually wrapped sections inside. It’s the same with male flowers. A banana is one of these interior sections without a peel protecting it. Some are tiny, some are large. Some plants produce so many bananas they have to be cut down. Others produce just a few. They may or may not have pollen inside them. Most growers have come across this type of plant, and choose to harvest a little early. Any pollination that occurs this late produces small immature seed, unless the plant is cut down past peak potency.
Type 3)features a true intersex plant with both male and female flowers growing together in the same flower from the beginning of the flower cycle, sometimes in equal amounts, sometimes leaning male or female. This type of hermie is always culled, and rightly so. These plants are nearly impossible to grow seedless or anywhere close to seedless. Offspring are just like the parent…a clone if you will.
Type 4) features any plant that doesn’t fit into one of these categories neatly. There’s some crazy ones out there. Too many variations to list.
Let’s fill this thread with photos of the less glamorous side of growing. Photos of the problem children.
