Found a Hermie in Your Grow? An Action Plan for Early, Mid and Late Flower

What you do with a hermaphrodite cannabis plant depends on when you catch it: early in flower, pull it out of the grow; mid-flower, pluck a few male flowers with tweezers or remove the plant if there are lots of them; late in flower, harvest early or pick off the odd one and let it finish. A hermie, a plant that grows both male and female flowers, can pollinate itself and every plant around it, and that's how you end up with seeded, weaker buds and a smaller harvest.

That's why the clock matters: the sooner you spot it, the more of your harvest you save.

Found a hermaphrodite cannabis plant? Here's your game plan

Hermaphroditism in cannabis can turn into a serious problem for your grow, since it can hurt both the quality and the yield of your plants. Catching these plants early is crucial to keep them from pollinating themselves or the plants around them. Here's how to handle a hermie when you find one, and the best ways to deal with it.

How to spot a hermaphrodite plant

From the start of flowering, check your female plants carefully and regularly for any sign of male flowers. These male flowers are usually easy to spot thanks to their bright yellow color and elongated shape, a lot like tiny bananas (growers call them nanners). While you're at it, it's also a great chance to look for pests, insects, mites or mold, which helps keep your whole grow healthy.

What to do if you find a hermie bud

If a plant shows both male and female flowers at the start of flowering, your best move is to get it out of the grow space right away. It's very likely to pollinate itself and the plants around it, putting your entire harvest at risk.

If, however, the plant turns hermie in the middle of flowering, you've got two options depending on how bad it is:

1. If there are only a few male flowers:

If the hermie only has a few male flowers, you can try plucking them off by hand with tweezers. Check the plant every day to make sure no new male flowers pop up. This works if you can keep things under control and stop the male flowers from releasing pollen.

2. If there are lots of male flowers:

If the plant puts out a significant number of male flowers, the safest move is to remove it from the grow space entirely. Male flowers can release pollen easily, which would hit not just that plant but every other plant nearby, leaving you with a seedy, low-quality harvest.

What if the hermie shows up late in flowering?

If the plant goes hermie in the final stretch of flowering, you've got two options:

• Harvest right away: if there's a moderate or growing number of male flowers, your best bet is to harvest the plant as soon as possible, before the male flowers release pollen and damage the crop.
• Pick off the male flowers by hand: if you only find one or two male flowers, you can remove them by hand and let the plant keep ripening until it hits its ideal harvest window.

Are seeds from hermaphrodite plants viable? Are they worth germinating?

Lots of cannabis growers run into hermies in their garden at some point, and while these plants usually pollinate themselves, they can also hit the plants around them. If you've found seeds in your buds, you're probably wondering whether those seeds are viable and worth germinating. Here are the answers, and what using seeds from hermie plants really means.

Can hermaphrodite seeds germinate?

Yes, seeds from hermaphrodite plants are viable, meaning they can germinate and grow. However, seeds from a hermie are very likely to produce hermies too.

Those plants will carry a genetic tendency to grow both male and female flowers, which can compromise the quality of your buds, since they're likely to pollinate and set seed, dragging down the value of your harvest.

Will seeds from a hermie crossed with females turn out hermie?

When a hermaphrodite plant pollinates nearby females, the seeds that result can also be trouble. They may give you both female plants and hermies. The catch is that you won't be able to tell true females from hermies until they start flowering, so you'll have put time, effort and resources into growing them before you know what they're really worth.

Once the plants start flowering, you might find some of them putting out male flowers, which means constant watch duty and picking off male flowers to stop pollination. That can be exhausting and, in many cases, a losing battle, since male flowers can release pollen before you get to them.

Is it worth germinating seeds from hermaphrodite plants?

In most cases, germinating seeds from hermaphrodite plants isn't a good idea. Even though they can produce plants, the risk that those plants will be hermies and ruin your harvest is high. Trying to manage a hermie by picking off male flowers as they show up is usually a grind and, in many cases, pointless.

Rather than working with those seeds, it's much simpler and more effective to start with regular seeds and sex the plants, or to use feminized seeds or proven clones. Those routes give you more certainty and save you time and effort, since you won't have to worry about male flowers popping up and all the headaches that come with them.