When growing cannabis most growers are growing cannabis to be seed free. So when their cannabis plants start producing seeds it can come as quite a surprise to them. There are a few reasons that will be reviewed in this article as to why your female plants are producing seeds.
Why don’t growers want seeds in their buds?
For most cannabis growers there is nothing worse than finding a few cannabis seeds in their prized cannabis buds. Once a female cannabis plant is pollinated by a male pollen sac it will start right away to produce seeds instead of quality grade A+ cannabis for usage. Growers will always need to keep watch over their plants to make sure this doesn’t happen and ruin their crop.
You were growing Regular Cannabis Seeds
So way back when you bought, were given, or traded for your cannabis seeds you may have gotten regular cannabis seeds. Why does that have an effect on your female plants producing seeds? Well regular seeds will contain male plants normally the ratio is about 50/50 so if you have 10 seeds normally you will have 5 female cannabis plants and 5 male cannabis plants in your garden.
If you are getting seeds in your cannabis tent, or garden you may have males in your garden that have not been detected. These males will give off pollen in your cannabis, pollinating your female cannabis plants and this will create seeds on your female plants.
Female Plants Producing Seeds Outdoors
If the grower is growing cannabis in an area that houses are close together, say in a backyard you never know who is growing down the road, in the field a mile away or anywhere else in the area.
Cannabis pollen when released to the wind can travel for miles looking for a female cannabis plant to pollinate. Cannabis pollen particles are extremely small and you can not see them with the nake eye. Cannabis is a wind pollinated plant meaning that the male cannabis plants when grown within a mile or two of female cannabis plants will be pollinated by the male and create seeds.
Just because as a grower you can’t see the male plant doesn’t mean there could be one in your neighborhood.
Hermaphrodite Plants Producing Seeds
This type of plant will have female plants producing seeds. Hermaphrodite plants are cannabis that has both female and male cannabis flowers on the plants.
Why is my cannabis plant hermaphrodite?
A cannabis plant can turn hermaphrodite for a few different reasons. These reasons can be plant genetics, inconsistent lighting/dark periods, extreme high or low temperatures, general plant stress and using chemicals that will change the plant sex.
If the plant develops male cannabis flowers on a female plant these male pollen sacks will open about three weeks into your flowering period. The pollen will travel around your cannabis grow and pollinate your female flowers (even on the same plant) and will carry on the poor hermaphrodite genetics into the next generation of cannabis plants.
A cannabis plant that has been “reversed” (changed from female to male) by way of stress like lights coming on in the middle of the plant’s dark period or high temperatures, most likely doesn’t have poor genetics. It will still pollinate your grow room however seeds that are produced on the female plant will not be hermaphroditic in following generations of the strain.
What to do if you see a Pollen Sac on your Female Cannabis Buds?
It is pretty typical for flowering cannabis to get one or two pollen sacs towards the end of its flowering period. As a grower you can just clip these pollen sacs off, being careful not to release any pollen into the air when doing so.
It’s when you get a pollen sac on your plant earlier in flowering that it will be a serious issue. One pollen sac can pollinate hundreds of female plants at a time. That’s a lot of seeds for the next growing season, however not anything for buds this season.
If you have left the lights on one night, or it got super hot in the growing space, it may just be a stress pollen sac that can be removed. If you keep everything on the right track hopefully it will not happen again. Growers should still keep a very close eye on the plant however if that has happened.
When should you remove the hermaphrodite plant to avoid Female Plants producing Seeds
When you are growing cannabis you don’t want any female plants producing seeds. So if you haven’t made any mistakes that could lead to plant stress, and the plant is only early in flowering, it is best to remove it. Never leave a plant in your grow room that is growing male and female flowers earlier in the flowering period.
Growing Cannabis for any amount of time, the grower will at one point or another run into issues with female plants producing cannabis seeds. We hope these tips will help you learn why that happens and what as a grower you can do to fix it.
Not sure if your Cannabis Seeds should Sink or Float read more here.
