What to Do With a Hermaphrodite Cannabis Plant

As any grower knows, cannabis is a “dioecious” species, which means it produces some plants that are exclusively female and others that are exclusively male. But since Mother Nature loves to break her own rules, some cannabis plants develop both male and female sex organs. These are known as hermaphrodites. But what does it actually mean for a weed plant to be a hermaphrodite?

While it's pretty rare, any grower can run into hermaphrodite flowers in their garden now and then, so it's worth knowing how to handle these plants.

Usually it's easy to tell a cannabis plant's sex, since females are decorated with little hairs called “pistils,” while males grow stamens — small pods where they store their pollen.

How can you keep hermaphroditism from happening?

If you want to inspect your grow to prevent hermies or catch them early, the best move is to watch the small V-shaped branch that extends from the stem. That's where the first buds or pollen sacs develop. The first signs of a hermaphrodite plant will be the development of both male and female flower anatomy.

Hermaphrodites are female plants that also contain one or more stamens. These stamens can sometimes form inside the female flower itself, replacing the pistil, but more often they appear alongside the female inflorescences, occupying some of the plant's nodes (where the branches meet the main stem).

What is a hermaphrodite cannabis plant and why does it appear?

There are only a couple of reasons a cannabis plant can be or turn into a hermaphrodite. The first is genetics, and the second comes down to the environment. If a plant is subjected to conditions that lack essentials like water and light, the resulting stress can trigger this reaction.

Environmentally-triggered hermaphroditism is basically the plant's natural ability to shut down and shorten its growth cycle when it isn't getting what it needs to flower. Some of the biggest stressors for a cannabis plant are light interruptions during the flowering stage, temperatures above 27 °C (81 °F), waiting too long to harvest, physical injury or damage to the plant's structure, lack of water, too much fertilizer, pests, predatory insects, fungi or disease, excessive cold, and the use of pesticides or fungicides.

How do you make use of a hermaphrodite plant?

A lot of growers wonder what uses there are for hermaphrodite plants, and while there aren't many, some are genuinely useful. 

You can smoke a hermaphrodite plant:

A hermaphrodite plant won't be as potent as a 100% female cannabis plant, and because it's full of seeds the smoothness and flavor take a hit — but you can still smoke it. As a best effort to save a plant that's gone hermie, you can use a pair of tweezers or your fingers to remove the pollen sacs the moment you spot them. Some growers go so far as to remove any flower showing male traits entirely.

A hermaphrodite weed plant is good for making concentrates:

One way to put this type of plant to use is to make THC or CBD concentrates with it, like hash, kief, and so on. While the THC content of a hermaphrodite plant is usually low, once it's harvested and condensed it can become a reasonably effective concentrate.

Hermaphrodite plants are useful for making feminized seeds:

To do this, you introduce a hermaphrodite plant into a grow of female cannabis plants while using hormones and other chemicals. The results will be mostly female or feminized seeds, which carry a higher rate of producing pure females.

What should you do if you find hermaphrodite plants?

It's important to catch the signs of a hermie as early as possible, since at first you may only find one or two male flowers on the plant. If that happens, what you can do is mist the plant with a little water from a fair distance.

Doing this keeps the seeded buds from sending pollen flying when you take the next step: carefully cutting off the male flowers and placing them in a bag. Basically, getting them away from your grow.

It's essential that the male pollen doesn't jump to other plants, since it could pollinate them and produce seeds instead of resin.

Once you've cut off the male flowers, two things can happen. First, the process works out and you're left with a clean, female plant that gives you a good harvest.

If the previous step didn't work, you may find your plant has turned hermie — and if you realize it at an advanced stage of flowering, your only option is to cover it with plastic and remove it from the grow, to keep the male pollen from pollinating your other females.

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