I’ve been pretty lucky and in all my grows of feminized seeds I’ve never once had a plant legit herm. I’ve had bananas happen on a couple plants, but never the full on balls…
However, at some point everyone’s luck runs out…
Also some lines are just known to herm and yet might still be worth trying to grow.
How do you keep an eye out for herms?
Is there a particular time they happen or can they happen anytime in flower?
What’s your strategy for dealing with this unfortunate possibility?
I’ve only seen a few.
I’ve seen them herm as soon as I’ve flipped to 12/12. It’s pretty obvious when it happens. Cull immediately.
I’ve seen some throw balls halfway through flower. Pick them off if not too bad. My last grow I had one of these and did an inspection 10 mins everyday. She finished and turned out to be an awesome plant.
All the best
Would you say the balls were visible under the flowers that were forming, or how/where did you spot them?
The ones I’ve seen have been below buds low on the plant. They are best detected by looking upwards through the canopy. Hard to see otherwise.
If a plant got worse than this it would make me nervous about keeping her.
As a note, the plant I checked 10 mins a day barely created any seed at all. So a little bit is no big deal.
Yeah same here. Seen them underneath flower sites about 3 weeks into flower. First time a fem hermed on me.
I thought bananas were hermy just like balls?
I’m not sure what the terminology is honestly, might count as a hermie 
Anything that shows 50/50 male to female parts is a true hermie any plant that kicks out a few balls and bananas thats just stress flowers.
Plants I’ve had that kicked out stress flowers normally showed below the canopy starting at the bottom of the plant. Generally not much pollen is ever released and few if any seeds produced. I’ll get my head down to the pot level and look up to find those few sneaky balls.
Stress flowers showing in week 2 or 3 is not a problem I’ll remove the entire branch that’s produced it.
Stress flowers that show up later I just remove the bud site and keep an eye on them.
What are your thoughts on plants that throw “stress balls”? Not full blown herms. Do you cull them? There are some killer strains out there that throw balls when stressed.
I like to pull them if I don’t have a lot of love for them. I’ve also plucked banners out toward the end and the finished product was great.