AAAARRGH! THEYRE HERMIES!

[rosscopico0]

Hey everyone,

I am at the end of week 4 flowering & have been battling fungus gnat for a little while now, which seems to have taken most of my attention as I failed to notice some small male flowers(only single ones by themselves at nodes usually just under forming buds, there was none on branches) - some of which have opened!!

I searched & carefully cut them off, then gave them a good spray of La Femme and moved my light further away as not to burn them.

Then I smoked the male flowers!!!!! Its really easy for me to get stoned atm!!

 

So what else should I do - keep cutting off male flowers as I find them??

Cull the plans now & start again??

Or is there a better solution??

Edited June 26, 2004 by rosscopico0

[Tom]

Are they all hermies? The La Femme is supposed to stop the plant from producing male flowers, have you used it on the plants prior to this?

 

It may be an idea to start the seeds/clones for the next grow, if you do keep them well separated from the current grow as you don't want the scarid fly in them as well.

 

[rosscopico0]

Hey Tom,

I have used the La Femme as per the directions. Foliar spray at the start of 12/12, then again 1 week later.

 

I also noticed just before as I was searching for more male flowers and finding usually one for each bud site - just underneath the forming buds.

 

I also noticed there were a couple of calyxes with both hairs(pistils?) and pollen sacks protruding from them.

 

I have pulled about 20 male flowers from my strongest plant, while giving it a flush. Noticed one before on the weaker on, but will likely find more when it gets flushed next!!

 

Im starting to wonder if the fungus gnat or the pyrethrum has contributed or caused this dilemma!!

[Tom]

Im starting to wonder if the fungus gnat or the pyrethrum has contributed or caused this dilemma!!

Possible but if all the plants are from the same source it is possible that you managed to get hold of some hermie seeds.

 

[rosscopico0]

Hey Tom,

I flushed the other plant and only found 2 male pods. I ended up getting about 30 off the first plant. I then gave them each a good foliar drench in La Femme and put them back.

Ill be checking them every day now. How often do you think I should La Femme them? The directions say to do it twice all up, one week apart. Im wondering if I can get away with doing them twice a week for say 2 weeks. But then mould becomes a problem as that would take me to the end of week 6 flowering!!

 

Since a couple of the male flowers had opened, Im wondering if I should pull them to avoid lower THC levels and lots of seeds,then sterilise the grow cupboard and maybe setup DWC to avoid the fungus gnat and try again?

[Chev]

Honestly? Start again mate. Fungus gnat is a sonofabitch to get rid of, and it just gets worse. I know, I've had a couple of personal experiences with the little bastards. If you check out my first grow, towards the end of the thread I was re-vegging and copped a huge infestation. Then, I drenched. Check out the results in my sig

You want to get your area as clean as possible for your next grow, and maybe try sealing your GR a little better to stop them. That was my problem.

And as for them going hermie, it's a pretty good chance that the stress they've been under with the fungus gnats has caused your ballsy problem

Hmmmm.........Yeah, start again. If you don't want to waste the plants, stick them in your backyard, that's what I did.

[Tom]

How often do you think I should La Femme them? The directions say to do it twice all up,

Any more may make your plants toxic from the chemicals.

 

Since a couple of the male flowers had opened, Im wondering if I should pull them to avoid lower THC levels and lots of seeds,then sterilise the grow cupboard and maybe setup DWC to avoid the fungus gnat and try again? 

It's up to you but you have invested a lot of time in these plants, if you can keep pulling the flowers then do that as it sounds like you have only 3 - 4 weeks to go.

 

Your main worry is still the scarid fly/fungus gnat infestation, I would still keep the plants going as long as possible and would get another crop on the go, when the new seedlings/clones are ready for the grow room go with Chev's suggestion and put the hermies outside (the cold nights may kill the bugs too), fully clean out the GR and put the new plants in.

 

[rosscopico0]

Thanks guys,

I think Ill keep them flowering and pulling off the male flowers until the clones are ready to flower. I put some moth balls in both the veg box & flowering cupboard today, so hopefully that will solve the fungus gnat problem.

 

Once Ive flowered the clones Im planning on trying a DWC grow, so I should be able to avoid the gnat dilemma.( Ill probably get spider mites!! Touch wood!

 

So ill probably end up culling them early and making some canna brownies.

Oh btw, Chev I used your cannabutter method and made some brownies today.

Probably shouldnt have had 2 before I went to work

 

Also with the weights of leaf/bud that you put in the butter is that dried or wet weights?? I used wet & theyre not bad - next time I might do the same weight dried or double weight wet.

[rosscopico0]

Well since I put the napthalene moth balls in my cupboard two days ago I havent seen a single gnat. I figure Ill keep them in there for another week or so to be sure.

Checked for any more male flowers today, but no sign as yet. Im hoping the drenching of La Femme I gave them yesterday will keep those in check.

 

The smaller of the two plants that had seemed to have stalled before I started the pyrethrum spray has started playing the catch up game like a champ.

 

Theres hope yet!!! I may not end up culling them early after all

[Chev]

Napthalene you say? hmmmmm, always wondered about it, sitting there on the supermarket shelf, weather or not it'd work. I'll give it a try next time! Thanx