While I was checking on my plants giving them their water, I saw the pistils of one of my four plants becoming more apparent like they do when they are flowered. But at the time I was still growing the plants in their vegetative state. This is not something I have encountered before, and I had discussed this with @futuremind and @derangedvisions to see what could be possibly going on with the plants.
There are these kind of cannabis plants known as “autos”, which are designed to flower automatically without the need to induce it. Normally when it comes to flowering, its something I decide when its time. But with auto seeds I must go with the plants choice and when its ready it just happens. This was unexpected, as I did not know these were auto seeds.
 Strain: | Zebra Stripe |
|---|---|
 Dominance: | 80/20 Indica Dominant Hybrid |
 Nutrients used: | Foxfarm Grow big and Foxfarm Big Bloom / CO2 enriched grow environment |
 Phenotype traits: | Compact nodes and short but wide growth, stubby leaves. During flower should be able to turn purple or black due to genetics from the blackwater strain |
 Lineage: | Blackwater x Blueberry Muffin x Alien OG |
 Current growing stage: | Early flower |
 Current plant age: | 41 days old |
 Sex: | Auto females and possible hermaphrodites |
 Location: | Central Virginia USA. |
We can see the white hairs forming on the leaf clusters, this tipped me off something was changing in the plants. Only one was doing it at the time, but a few days later all of them started.
These are the budding of the colas, and once this happens there is no turning back to growing them in their vegetative state.
To me this is unfortunate, as I was hoping to grow them taller and top them once again for a third time. The plants are only around 12 inches right now and I was wanting to grow them up to around 15-17 inches. As that is the max height my grow tent supports, I guess I will just have some smaller plants this grow.
Starting the flowering process:
Changing the light bulb from a metal halide to a high pressure sodium will make the light spectrum shift. Giving a yellow color to the room. Its quite unpleasing to the eyes and makes everything very blue when you look away.. lol
I trained the tallest of the plants, to help them stay the same height as the shorter ones. I want a uniform canopy, and hopefully will get that by keeping them all the same size throughout their grow cycle.
These soft wires work great for training them. I just have to make sure I am gentle not to break the stems while working the wire around them.
While I handle the plants, I am getting that bubblegum smell coming off them. Seems like the smell is getting stronger every day, interesting how they got that phenotype into the plant.
The netting has been put up and now its time for the period called "the stretch". This is caused by the light spectrum shifting going from the MH to HPS bulbs. It encourages longer node growth and gives the plants the needed light spectrum for flowering. Since these are autos, I do not need to change the light timing to 12 hour on and 12 hours off. I keep the lights on the 18/6 cycle as they are already flowering and do not need to be induced into such a state.
Another unexpected change:
It would seem one of my plants is a male, or possibly a hermaphrodite. In the above picture we can see at the center there are some "bell" like flowerings forming. This is usually the sign of a male.
We can see another in the above picture.
Though its also forming pistils, so its possible its both a male and female.. known as a hermaphrodite in the cannabis world.
A few more pictures of the top of one of the nodes shows how it seems like it forming flowers. So I will not kill this plant yet, as if its a hermaphrodite I will just let it flower. It may pollinate the other females, but the hermaphrodite will still form buds.
How it became a hermaphrodite is harder to say, its possible the light disruption. We had a few power outages during heavy rain, and if the plants are unhappy that can happen.
I clipped off the flowers forming on the one plant, and I hope the others do not form them as well. But I will keep checking them and see how they turn out. If that one plant turns out to be a male I will remove it and just have three females. Its too early to say, need to wait for more bud formation to make that decision.
And now they are flowering we wait two months for them to fully grow and I should have buds.. Maybe buds full of seeds, maybe not.. We shall see.
Previous posts on this grow:
https://peakd.com/hive-195708/@solominer/day-36-mid-way-through-vegging
https://peakd.com/hive-195708/@solominer/growing-little-plants-zebra-stripe
https://peakd.com/hive-195708/@solominer/starting-new-seedlings-fruit-stripe
How nice @solominer to receive advice is very important, otherwise you would still be worried because your plantations did not grow, they look very nice. Happy planting. All the best.
So true, its important to get others feedback especially when unsure about something.
thank you.
You are very intelligent in matters of Phytotechnology, the science that studies plants. I wish you success in your plantations and your extensive agricultural land.
Awesome work, the plants are looking pretty great. I wasn't ware of the auto seed variations though.
much appreciated, I think they are looking pretty good too.
I did not know about until about a year or so ago when I heard others talking about it.
Wow, unexpected autos in your grow! Crazy how they switch to flowering on their own. Good luck with the hermaphrodite situation. Can't wait to see the final buds! 🌱🔥
It sure is, pretty amazing how they figured out how to do that.
Thanks, will post updates soon.
Growing cannabis is a whole universe, all the things you need to know, I had never read about “auto” seeds, nor did I know that a power outage could affect the plants and turn them into male plants. I hope that in your next review no more “hermaphrodite” plants appear.
Thank you very much for sharing this update
May you enjoy the weekend
It sure is, quite the learning experience.
Yep, when the lights go out unexpectedly the plants get stressed. And stress can make them change sexes.
Me too, I sure do hope so.. thanks.. hope you had a good weekend too.
Hey awesome operation and setup! These are the things I am worried about detecting and handling if I ever get around to growing.
I have been following the growing and smoking adventures of @davedickeyyall for years and he is merciless when a male shows up. No doods in his harem of ladies!
So many good growers here on Hive you are probably already connected with and sharing knowledge.
Hopefully the shorter plants just make for larger buds!
!WEED
Thanks man, yeah true there is some trickyness to it. But once you have been around them enough its pretty easy to figure out.
Oh cool, did not know hes growing.
Hehe me too.
@solominer!
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It sucks that they didn’t get as tall as you had hoped before they started flowering. Hopefully you still get a decent yield, which I am sure you will. Hopefully chopping the balls off the herm will keep it from self pollinating.
Yeah its unfortunate when things do not go to plan.
Me too, hopefully it all works out.
I really enjoyed reading this. Growing these plants is certainly a science and you know your stuff - awesome. Are these for personal use or for selling (I'm assuming you are in the US and I understand its legal to sell there in some states - and I'm just interested as to how thats working out).
Ah good, glad you enjoyed reading this.
Nah not selling it, just growing it for my own consumption.
In the US you cannot sell it, only given with no reciprocation.
Awesome!!! Do you intend to do it commercially?
Good luck, @solominer !
!BBH
@solominer! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @silversaver888. (8/20)
Nah just doing it for myself. I consume a lot of it :-)
I'm learning a lot, hehehe!
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It's amazing to me how much goes into growing these things. I was listening to a podcast a while ago and I was really impressed with how much science is involved. I live in Michigan, so we are allowed to have something like 12 plants per person, but I don't have any personally. I work down the road from a handful of major grow operations though. My only complaint is the smell. You would think they could do something more about that. It's all the kids can smell when they are out on the playground. Especially when the wind is blowing from west to east which is most the time in North America!
Sure is, its quite the science. Oh that is cool, we are more limited here in Virginia with only four. But I am thankful to grow any at all. If you look at the Southeastern region its the only state that allows growing this many.. Maryland you can grow even less.
I feel ya about the smell, any large production of something can make strong smells. When I used to drive the Budweiser factory it would smell like yeasty hops so makes sense.. lol
Oh yeah, I can't imagine what that would be like. There is a big Budweiser facility down in Columbus that would be cool to visit sometime. I have heard the tour is really interesting.
It's unfortunate these didn't get as big as you would have liked before flowering but they are healthy looking plants that you're doing a good job with nonetheless.
I think that was a good call just chopping off the hermaphrodite sites. I've had this happen a couple of times where I chopped them off and never had any return with no pollination occurring. I hope this turns out to be how it goes for you with these girls. Great work man!
Yeah, I really do not want autos.. I get some people like them but I like having more control over my plants.
Hopefully that does the trick. I will keep a close eye on them.. thanks!
I kill the males as soon as their balls appear.. no way I way to take the chance of fucking up my other pants
I feel ya, I dont mind seeds though.
Yes, the white hairs on the leaves are also visible if we look closely. In our area also has land that is quite suitable for growing this plant and when there are people who use it incorrectly it is dangerous and If they use it as a medical ingredient, it's quite good. How are you friends, hope you always have a nice day.
Yep that is what I start looking for, once those hairs show up in the leaves its a sign they are starting to flower.
thanks, hope you do too.
Dope man! Ayy on the seeds, if any, most likely, atleast they'll be feminized.
They were suppose to be feminized but seems that is not always the case.
Your plants are looking fresh. You mentioned that they are not as tall as you hoped but is there still any hope for them to get taller?
Much appreciated, they do look pretty happy.
Yeah they will grow a little bit more during the flowering peroid.
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it is awesome, with that size it is giving you buds early here with the summer i must wait 3 months minimun :D
Yeah man growing indoors its a lot faster.
I am also very fond of growing and caring for different types of plants.
But I don't know this plant. I am seeing this for the first time. And looking at its bulbs, it looks like they might be about to flower
Oh wow this is the first cannabis plant you have seen? Thats cool.. well its quite the world.
Oh well, does it have little white flowers on it?
Looking like great progress Solo!
thank you
Ok. ..this is why you stay AWAY from femeinized seed. It's garbage. The genetics are so unstable that you have any stress and it goes Hermie.
Oh I've seen them grow bananas inside buds. Never knew it just crapped my garden with pollen from a ruderalis.
Cycle back to genetics. This is why the old stoners had massive amounts of time and effort to get into their breeding programs. Otherwise you get unstabilized varieties.
Hope that makes a connection.
Go back to seed and clone the proper phenotype. Perpetual gardening and quality genetics absolutely is this entire growing thing around.
Luckily I was able to get lectured by the king of Nepal AKA Joseph Petrie.
I think he's still alive and you would probably benefit a lot from this knowledge.
And the ed Rosenthal book. Oaksterdam medical version. And my satori is in there. It's not a mystery genetic...
Ah yeah seems like the genetics of this plant are messed up. I will go through the seeds I have left and then may switch to some more classic strains again.
Seriously when you're doing all this from clone. You just find a really good phenotype.
In fact I have had a strain make me over a million dollars. Just because I could cut it and keep making more plans as well as harvesting any bud I actually processed....
Having new strains drops to the bottom of the list when you finally figure out exactly what you like and can balance growing a couple of good solid flavors.
That point life is grand.
If you looked all the way back to my original grow logs you would see that I got all the way up to like 20 plus different strains before I finally ended up losing track and losing stuff. But a few strains labeled? Is a beautiful grow.
And you can also do a genetic bank with a fridge and a light in there. I forget the name.but you blender a leaf and then mix it with agar then cool it. Lasts months.
Don't got to be a big fridge...
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