What Happens if You Grow “Hermie” Seeds?

Did you find seeds in your buds even though no male plants were around? “Hermie seeds” refer to seeds you find in your cannabis buds without the presence of male plants. Here are trustworthy feminized seeds that always grow buds but never grow seeds.

Can you grow seeds from a hermie cannabis plant? Yes, but there are pros and cons.

Home Grow Tip: Start with trustworthy feminized seeds (here’s a list of good ones) to ensure every plant makes seedless buds. Save yourself the headache!

Cannabis buds with no seeds = “sinsemilla”
(higher THC and better to smoke than seedy buds)

When you find your homegrown buds have seeds even though zero male plants were in the vicinity, it means a female plant “hermed” (showed hermaphrodite tendencies).

The herm plant released pollen onto surrounding buds, causing seeds to grow. Hermie seeds can appear even if you don’t see any visual signs of herming like pollen sacs or bananas.

Hermie seeds: No male plant was around, but you find seeds in the buds anyway.

But what happens if you grow the hermie seeds from a hermed plant? Will it cause problems? Keep reading to find out!

Here is what cannabis growers can expect when growing hermie cannabis seeds:

Pros 

• Free Seeds – These are seeds you find in your buds. Cannabis seeds cost money, and getting free seeds without any effort is appealing.
• All-Female Plants – If both parents were female (at least mostly female), as is the case with herm seeds, all resulting cannabis plants will be at least mostly female and grow buds. In a way, herm seeds are unplanned, naturally-formed “feminized” seeds.

Cons 

• More Likely to Herm – Unlike professionally feminized seeds (which are created with a special chemical process), hermie seeds come with more uncertainty. Although the resulting plants may or may not show any signs of herming, unfortunately the chances are higher. That’s because for each herm seed, herming is in its genetics.

With high-quality cannabis seeds, plants usually only herm under major stress like nutrient deficiencies, light stress, heat stress, unusual light cycles, etc. With really great genetics, plants won’t herm under any conditions. But a seed from a hermie parent is more likely to herm even in perfect conditions.

The plant went through extreme stress, so it was no surprise to find seeds.

Why growers don’t want cannabis seeds that are more likely to herm:

• Higher Chance of More Seedy Buds – Again, it is possible your buds won’t grow seeds, but seedy buds are more likely. This is because the genetics came from cannabis plants that produced seeds without the presence of a male plant. Even if you don’t see evidence of plants herming, like pollen sacs or yellow hermie bananas on the buds, the buds may have seeds in them after harvest.
• Possibly Worse Yields & Bud Quality – If buds get a few seeds, it won’t affect your yields or bud potency much. But seeds take energy to grow. If your plant grows tons of seeds because it herms, you’ll end up with smaller buds that may have lower potency or smell than expected. Sadly, when growing hermie seeds, it’s impossible to know ahead of time what you may end up with.
• Unknown Genetics – Just like starting with any other bag seeds (seeds you find), hermie or not, you don’t know how the plants will grow. Although it may seem like herm seeds would be an exact clone of the “mother” plant, that’s not how it works, due to the genetic reality of herming. Unlike starting with seeds from a trustworthy breeder, you can’t know what to expect as far as how the plant grows, how long until it’s ready to harvest, the bud structure, smell, potency, etc. It’s really the luck of the draw.

Sometimes you don’t see pollen sacs or banana, but still get hermie seeds. Female plants that produce seeds without visible pollen sacs or bananas are “hidden herms”. These plants often went through some kind of stress, but not always. Regardless, if seeds are there and no male plants were around, the resulting seeds are herm seeds.

This plant suffered from severe light stress. There were no signs of herming, but buds still grew hermie seeds.

Often you can find symptoms of the herm.

Here, there is a male flower right next to the seed that formed. (click for closeup)

Growing Hermie Seeds: Summary (What cannabis growers need to know)

It’s clear to see why growers would want to grow herm seeds. They’re essentially free seeds that appear with no effort, and grow all-female plants. That’s appealing.

The main downside to growing herm seeds is that you’re more likely to end up with more hermie plants and seeds in your buds. If it’s just a few seeds in your buds, most home growers wouldn’t care. But seeds take away from the size and potency of buds. If your buds produce tons of seeds, you’ll end up with very little bud to smoke, and it will be less potent than it could be. On top of that, you won’t know what to expect as far as how the plant grows or bud quality until the grow is over.

Related Article: What causes cannabis plants to herm?

Hermie seeds look the same as regular cannabis seeds, but they’re more unpredictable.

What happens when cannabis growers use herm seeds anyway?

If you’re wondering what happens when growers try to grow hermie seeds, you’re not alone. Lots of growers have given it a shot.

Let’s explore what happens!

First off, there are plenty of fans. I’ve talked to growers who only use hermie seeds and never buy new ones. They aim to breed a line of plants that always herms just a bit. Enough to make a few seeds each generation. That way they get a steady supply of free seeds without having to deal with male plants. The downside is every generation always has at least some seeds in their buds. A few seeds is probably not a big deal for most home growers. But if things go wrong, you may end up with tons of seeds. Buds that are very seedy can be a pain because they drop seeds everywhere, and seedy buds tend to be smaller with lower bud potency.

Pollen, pictured here, is what causes seedy buds. Pollen can come from a male plant or a hermie plant.

So what can happen from growing herm seeds? The main risk is the offspring herming like its parent.

Notice how there are little yellow growths in between the white hairs in these buds? This is a common type of cannabis herm. Each of these yellow “bananas” releases pollen. If your buds grow tons of bananas while buds are early in the flowering stage like this, you could end up with hundreds or thousands of seeds in the surrounding buds.

Yellow “bananas” are a common form of herming.

This next bud is absolutely stuffed with seeds, due to a major herm in the grow room that went unnoticed. There’s little bud left after all the seeds are shaken out. No cannabis grower wants this to happen by accident!

However, if a herm plant only grows only a few bananas or pollen sacs that release only a little pollen, you may only get a few seeds or no seeds. If the herm happens late in the flowering stage, you may not get any seeds. That’s because seeds need several weeks to form. You typically only get fully formed seeds if a cannabis plant herms relatively early in the flowering stage.

A single lone banana won’t make many seeds, especially this late in the cannabis flowering stage.

If your hermie seeds grow buds like the first examples with tons of pollen sacs or bananas, you’ll likely end up with tons of seeds. If a hermie plant grows buds like the second example, you may end up with good buds that have very few seeds. Or the buds may not herm at all and you get perfectly seedless buds. It’s all a part of the genetic lottery you’re playing when growing the offspring of herm plants.

The main takeaway is this: good results are possible with hermie seeds, but you’re increasing your risk of running into problems.

If you want to read an example of a grower getting good results with hermie seeds, check this out.

Fascinating Experience from a GrowWeedEasy.com Reader

Greg, a grower from Australia, recently wrote about his experience growing hermie cannabis seeds.

He grew 8 feminized seeds indoors. In his words, “Unfortunately, the grow room underwent some heat stress early in the flowering stage, which resulted in one of the eight plants herming. Naturally, this seeded up most of the rest of them.”

He decided to try germinating 14 of the resulting hermie seeds. To his surprise, all 14 plants grew into healthy females without any signs of hermaphroditism or seedy buds. He stated, “They have all grown out quite nicely. I have not come across a single seed. The buds are dense, so dense you could hammer a nail into them. And trichome production has been excellent, they are sticky like nothing else.”

His hermie seeds grew these beautiful plants.

Greg said, “I had hypothesized that they would not be feminized and that they would all be hermaphrodites, I’m quite pleased to learn that I was wrong on both counts.”

He mentioned that in the past he had a different experience, “All my previous experience with hermies and the resulting seeds has only been more banana throwing hermies. Those genetics were all bagseed from the shallow gene pool here in Australia though. This last one was the first hermie I have seen since I started purchasing seeds from Seedsman.” He promises to let us know what happens if he tries stressing out a plant on purpose with heat to cause it to herm on purpose.

Here are the plants from Greg’s experiment at harvest.

Greg had different results with these hermie seeds compared to his past experiences, which ended in disaster. It seems he may have found a set of genetics that only herms in stressful conditions. Or perhaps the tendency to herm under stress was not passed down to these particular seeds at all.

These plants are an example of when growing hermie seeds goes “right”. The resulting plants grew dense and frosty buds without any seeds or other problems.

Greg’s experience shows that hermie seeds don’t always produce seedy or banana-filled buds. With the right genetics and stress-free conditions, it’s possible to get quality female plants from seeds made by a hermie mom plant. It just goes to show there can be a lot of variation when it comes to the hermie trait being passed down.

Related Article: Do Feminized Cannabis Seeds Make ‘Hermie’ Plants? [Sometimes]

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are they called “Hermie” cannabis plants?

“Herm” or “hermie” is a common nickname for “hemaphrodite”, and hermie seeds come from a plant that grew buds like a female plant, but also pollen like a male plant.

Whether it comes from a male or herm plant, pollen gets on nearby buds and causes seeds to grow. But herms are especially tricky because you may only see the buds and not notice any signs of herming until pollen has already been released.

Learn more about hermie plants.

Male flowers (“pollen sacs”) can look somewhat like traditional flowers when they open up.

Closeup of a herm “banana” among the buds. By the time you can see yellow, it has usually already released pollen.

What causes hermie plants?

Cannabis plants become hermies in 3 ways:

• Genetics – Some plants herm no matter what you do, due to their genetics. There’s nothing growers can do about this kind of herming.
• Stress – Some plants may only herm if they experience a lot of stress. That could include irregular light schedules, heat, high humidity, certain flowering supplements, and other stressful conditions. However, the best cannabis strains are ironclad and won’t herm no matter what.
• Chemicals – Spraying healthy young cannabis plants with certain chemicals like colloidal silver or gibberellic acid forces them to grow pollen sacs instead of buds. The resulting pollen is used to make commercial feminized seeds.

Stressed plants are more likely to herm.

How do I prevent hermie plants?

The best way to avoid growing hermie cannabis plants is to start with good genetics from a trustworthy breeder. Good feminized seeds don’t herm no matter way. On top of starting with good genetics, you should take care of your plants and try not to stress them. Lastly, take a second to look at your buds every day, and keep an eye out for signs of herming so you catch it early and quickly dispose of the offending plants.

Watch out for pollen sacs or yellow growths among your buds!

Why did I find seeds in my buds even though the plant didn’t herm?

Sometimes you don’t see pollen sacs or banana, but still get hermie seeds. Female plants that produce seeds without visible pollen sacs or bananas are “hidden herms”. These plants often went through some kind of stress, but not always. Regardless, if seeds are there and no male plants were around, the resulting seeds are herm seeds.

This “hidden herm” suffered from severe light stress. No visual signs of herming, but buds still had seeds.

How do breeders make feminized cannabis seeds?

The feminized seeds you buy from breeders are created when growers use chemical means to force a female plant to herm. They use that resulting pollen to make the seeds. Since each “parent” plant is a female, and without a male in the mix, all the resulting seeds are all female. As long as the breeders are careful to only choose plants that never herm in natural conditions, the resulting seeds are unlikely to herm.

This female plant was forced to make pollen sacs using colloidal silver. This “feminized” pollen is used to create all-female seeds.

Will herm seeds always grow like the parent?

No, expect variation from herm seeds! It’s intuitive to think that herm seeds are essentially a “clone” of the parent plant. But that’s not how it always works. Why? Pollen and buds each receive a random set of chromosomes from the parent plant.

That means herm seeds might turn out like the original plant, but they might not. The more genetic diversity in the recent history of the plant, the more diverse the resulting seeds might turn out. The genes passed down through pollen is not the same as the genes passed down in the buds, even when coming from the same plant.

This plant from a herm seed is growing like a male plant with some female flowers. (opposite of a typical herm)

What happens if I grow herm seeds for many generations?

Herm seeds tend to become more consistent with each subsequent generation. Eventually all plants tend to grow in a uniform way due to inbreeding, and become almost like clones of each other. Just remember, the one thing that often becomes most consistent is the tendency to herm each generation.

Conclusion

Should you grow hermie seeds? It depends on you and your situation.

I personally don’t, but I understand why a grower might do it, especially if money is tight. That being said, even expensive cannabis seeds don’t cost much in the grand scheme of a cannabis grow. If you’re going to spend 3-5 months growing a plant, the $100 it costs to buy a bunch of professionally feminized seeds will reward you with plants that grow as expected and produce good yields of beautiful seedless buds. You deserve the best!

Let me know what you think. Have you grown hermie seeds? What happened? Fill out our contact form and let us hear your experience!

~Nebula Haze, co-founder of GrowWeedEasy.com

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Cannabis plants can be male or female, but only female cannabis plants make buds. Female cannabis flowers are buds, and male cannabis flowers are pollen sacs, which contain low THC and are poor to smoke. Male pollen sacs eventually open and release pollen, which pollinates the female cannabis plants, and causes buds to grow seeds, which also results in smaller buds with lower THC levels.

These days, most home cannabis growers start with feminized cannabis seeds because they grow only female plants, which means every plant will make buds. Other growers watch their cannabis plants as flowers start developing, then identify and remove male cannabis plants.

Feminized cannabis seeds are the best way to ensure that every plant is female. This way you don’t need to worry about identifying the sex of plants!

But if you can’t buy cannabis seeds online, and must start with another source of seeds, there is a strong chance that about half the plants will be male and half will be female.

With standard, non-feminized cannabis seeds, plants grow 50/50 male vs female plants. That means half of the plants won’t make buds and, even worse, cause the buds you do have to make seeds.

If you’re worried some of your plants may be male, here is the easiest way to determine the sex of your cannabis plants while they’re still in the vegetative stagae.

How to Identify the Sex of a Cannabis Plant

Here’s how to identify the sex of your cannabis plants even if they’re still in the vegetative stage.

1.) Take a cutting (clone) from the unverified cannabis plant and put it in a glass of water.

I take stems off the plant and put them in a cup of water. You don’t need your cuttings to make roots before identifying the sex. As long as you give light and make sure the cup always has water, the cutting should stay alive long enough to identify the sex.

If you have extra stems, you can take multiple cuttings and put them in the same cup. Some cuttings will show their sex sooner than others, so taking multiple cuttings may speed up the process by a few days in some cases.

2.) Label both the clone and the mother plant with the name of the strain so you know which clone came from which corresponding mother plant.

I use disposable cups and write the name on the cup. You could also put a piece of tape on a cup and write the name on that. You should do this step if you’re identifying the sex of more than one marijuana plant at a time. If you don’t label your clones, then all your effort will be for naught because you won’t know which clone is which!

3.) Give clones a light schedule with 12+ hours of darkness every day to initiate flowering and get the cuttings to reveal their sex.

Again, you don’t need to wait for the clones to establish roots before changing the light schedule. You can start this immediately after you take the cutting. The cuttings will start flowering even if their roots haven’t formed yet. However, you should make sure they get at least some direct light during their “day” to keep them healthy long enough to reveal their sex.

4.) Clones will reveal their sex in 1-3 weeks.

Look to the joints where leaves meet the stem. Males develop balls and females develop white hairs. Click here for more information and pictures about how to sex a cannabis plant.

Female cannabis plant – The first flowers of a female cannabis plant looks like this. You will see white hairs coming where leaves meet the stem.

Notice the white wispy hairs at the “joints” where the leaves meet the stem. You can see from my fingers at the top, for scale.

This is what female cannabis flowers look like at the top of the plant. You will notice white hairs emerging from the leaves.

Male cannabis plant – The first flowers of a male cannabis plant look like this. You will see little balls, like grapes, that appear in the same place as female plants. Male pollen sacs often also appear at the top of the cutting.

Male pollen sacs are tiny and hard to see at first, but pollen sacs quickly start growing in bunches that are easy to identify. Look how tiny this pollen sac is compared to my finger.

Here are male pollen sacs after they start growing in bunches. You know for sure this is a male plant when you see bunches of balls without any white hairs.

5.) Remove male cannabis plants. 

Once you have determined the sex of your clones, you should make sure you throw away any corresponding male plants. Or at least move them to somewhere safe so their pollen can’t get to the buds of your female cannabis plants by accident.

Now you can grow your known-female cannabis plants with confidence. Once they start flowering, they will make the same type of flowers as the cuttings you took. Continue to care for your female cannabis plants with a ton of light, no nutrient deficiencies, and consistent 12-hour dark periods, and don’t let them get hot during the last 2-3 weeks before harvest.

Mission Complete: You know the sex of your cannabis plants and have only bud-making plants left.

It’s bud time!

Click here for a list of recommended beginner cannabis strains (all-female seeds unless otherwise indicated)

The post How to Use a Cup of Water to Identify Cannabis Sex in the Vegetative Stage appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Male cannabis plants don’t make buds, only female cannabis plants make buds. Yet naturally, with regular cannabis seeds, about 50% of cannabis plants end up being male.

Cannabis Sex Matters: Female Buds vs Male Pollen Sacs (click for closeup). Male plants don’t make buds!

Only female cannabis plants make buds. Male plants produce pollen sacs that are low in THC, not good to smoke, and cause nearby female buds to grow seeds.

Unfortunately, male pollen sacs are not useful to most home cannabis growers unless you’re a breeder. Identify and remove male cannabis plants ASAP.

When pollen sacs open up, they look like white, yellow, green, or purple flowers (pretty!), but they spread pollen everywhere, which pollinates your female plants. They can also accidentally pollinate any nearby female plants in the area. This is not good for bud quality for you and any of your neighbors who grows. Additionally, male pollen sacs are harsh to smoke and don’t contain high levels of THC or other cannabinoids.

Male pollen also causes female plants to produce small yields of lower-potency, seedy buds. Most home growers should try to get male plants out of the grow room as soon as possible.

How to tell if a cannabis plant is male or female before flowering?

Visually, you usually can’t tell the difference between male and female plants until they start flowering (making either male flowers/pollen sacs or female flowers/buds), especially when it comes to younger plants.

There are 3 main ways to tell a marijuana plant’s sex while it is still in the vegetative stage.

As a result, most cannabis growers identify and toss male plants as soon as possible. That means for a home cannabis grower starting with regular seeds (for example, seeds you find in your weed), about half of your plants won’t make buds and will need to be tossed. Those are terrible odds, and as a grower, you deserve better.

Luckily, there are 3 different ways to determine cannabis plant sex before the flowering stage, but only one way to ensure that all your plants are female. It’s important to get rid of any male plants as soon as possible, because not only do they take up room that could be filled with bud-making plants, the pollen released by male cannabis plants will pollinate all your female plants and cause seedy buds.

3 ways to tell if a plant is male or female before initiating the marijuana flowering stage

1. Start with feminized seeds (or female clones) – Best for most home cannabis growers. Starting with feminized seeds or female clones from a trustworthy source guarantees that 99.9% of cannabis plants end up being bud-making female plants.
2. Genetic testing – Send a piece of a leaf from your young plant to a lab to test for the sex. This can be expensive and is often not 100% accurate.
3. Examine the “pre-flowers” – Look at the cannabis pre-flowers (little versions of male or female flowers that sometimes appear in the vegetative stage at the joints where the fan leaf meets the stem). This technique works better for some cannabis strains than others, as some plants start growing pre-flowers within 3 weeks of germination, while others may not grow any pre-flowers until 6+ weeks after germination. Pictures below.

1.) Start with feminized cannabis seeds (or female clones)

This is the best option for most home cannabis growers. Starting with feminized seeds or female clones guarantees  that nearly 100% of cannabis plants are bud-making female plants. The good news is that feminized cannabis seeds are widely available almost anywhere in the world. Learn more about feminized cannabis seeds.

Learn where to safely buy cannabis seeds online.

2.) Genetic testing

You can send a piece of a leaf from a 3-week old cannabis seedling and get them to do a genetic test to determine if it’s male or female. The downside of this technique is cannabis genetics are a bit odd. Plants don’t always have neatly separated male and female chromosomes, which means lab testing can occasionally produce false positives and negatives. In other words, some plants marked as “female” may be male, and some plants marked as “male” may actually be female. Some plants may end up being hermaphrodites. However, lab testing is used by some commercial growers as it does greatly increase the chance that all plants end up being female.

You usually can’t look at a cannabis plant this young and tell if it’s male or female, but a genetic test from the lab can sometimes give you a clue…

3.) Examine the “pre-flowers”

The usefulness of this last method depends heavily on your genetics, as some strains show pre-flowers at a very young age, while others may take weeks or months before they reveal their sex via pre-flowers in the vegetative stage. Male plants tend to show their pre-flowers before female plants.

Essentially, the goal with this method is to examine the vegetative cannabis plant at future bud sites, where pre-flowers can grow, and look for early signs of male or female plants. Pre-flowers are small buds/pollen sacs that develop at the nodes (the junction where the stems and leaves meet) while the plant is still in the vegetative stage.

The base of a leaf is the best place to look for pre-flowers. Pre-flowers appear as soon as 3 weeks from germination for some strains. However, some strains may take 6+ weeks before they produce pre-flowers.

Look for pre-flowers at the base of the leaf. Typically males show before females.

This is what male vs female cannabis preflowers look like.

Female pre-flowers will also produce wispy white “hairs” that emerge. These are technically called stigmas, and commonly mistakenly called “pistils” by cannabis growers.

If you see these white hairs, that means you’re looking at female pre-flowers.

If you see bunches of balls, you know for sure you’re looking at male pre-flowers. However, it’s extremely rare to see more than 1-2 pollen sacs per joint when the plant is still in the vegetative stage.

Hint: Male cannabis pre-flowers tend to be shaped somewhat like a spade from a deck of cards.

Here is a diagram to help you know exactly what you’re looking for. White hairs (aka “stigmas” or sometimes called “pistils”) means female flowers.

Note: If you see green hairs, those are “stipules” and not pre-flowers. Ignore the stipules.

Read the complete tutorial on how to check male vs female preflowers.

Hermies, bananas, and random pollen sacs

Note: Some cannabis plants produce both male and female flowers. These hermaphrodite plants (affectionately called hermies) should be tossed just like male plants because their pollen sacs also can cause all the buds in your grow room to get seedy if the pollen gets released. Starting with good genetics and taking good care of cannabis plants is the best way to prevent them from “herming”.

If you see a mix of pollen sacs and buds (or little pale or yellow “bananas” growing among the buds), you have a “hermie” which should be treated like a male plant and tossed to prevent pollination.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

How can I make a male plant female?

• You can’t – There is no safe or reliable way to consistently turn a male cannabis plant into a female cannabis plant. It is a better idea to try to start with all-female plants, or identify and remove male cannabis plants as soon as possible. Oddly enough, it is possible to make a female plant grow sacs like a male for the purposes of making feminized seeds.

What are the early signs of a male plant?

• Spade-shaped “balls” at the joints – Look where leaves meet the stem. If you see “balls” (pictured above) then it is not a female plant.

When can you tell if your plant is male or female?

• 3 weeks at the soonest – 3 weeks from germination is typically the earliest a lab will take a leaf sample from a plant to test for sex. Visually, some cannabis plants reveal their sex as early as 3 weeks from germination via pre-flowers. These appear even in the vegetative stage for many strains. However, some strains may take 6+ weeks before they grow pre-flowers, so this isn’t the most reliable method. Your best bet is to start with all-female plants!

When you know every single plant is female, you can fill your grow space like this and know every plant will make buds.

Summary: How to tell if a cannabis plant is male or female before flowering?

There are three main ways to identify the sex of marijuana plants before they start flowering:

1. Start with feminized seeds or clones. This is the best option since it guarantees 100% female plants (as long as you start with a good breeder). Feminized seeds can be purchased from reputable seed banks (currently, I’m using Seed Supreme, though there are many excellent cannabis seed banks).
2. Genetic testing can identify sex early on, but results aren’t always accurate. It also tends to be expensive.
3. Examine preflowers once they emerge. This works better for fast-showing strains. Check for female wispy white hairs or male spade-shaped flowers at the joints where leaves meet the stem.

While genetic testing and preflowers can help, the ideal solution is to start with feminized seeds or all-female clones. This avoids wasting time and space on male plants that don’t produce buds. Be sure to get feminized seeds from a trusted source and confirm the seller has a solid reputation.

Remove male plants to prevent pollination so you end up with sinsemilla (seedless buds), which are more potent and considered higher quality than seedy buds. Growing only female plants is the best way to guarantee heavy, potent, seed-free yields from your cannabis garden.

About the Author: Nebula Haze

Nebula Haze is an experienced cannabis cultivator and co-founder of GrowWeedEasy.com, the web’s most comprehensive online resource for growing marijuana indoors at home. Since creating the website in 2010, Nebula has dedicated her life to understanding the cannabis plant and teaching fellow growers how to produce huge yields and captivating bud quality at home. Stop paying other people a ton of money for sub-par weed and start growing better weed for a fraction of the cost today!

Check out my easy 10-step guide to growing cannabis.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Sexing Cannabis Plants Before the Flowering Stage appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

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If you’re reading this right now, you want to grow great cannabis at home.

Cannabis plants isn’t a regular house plant, but learning how to grow isn’t as complicated growers make it seem. We’ve spent the last 16 years breaking down the home grow process so anyone can learn it.

The key to consistent harvest results is simple: follow a proven system developed for home growers.

You could waste an entire grow learning through trial and error…

Or take the shortcut and harvest a sea of fat, dense, beautiful buds that smell great. At home!

Follow our 5-week course and get walked through each part step-by-step. Build by experienced home growers and honed with hundreds of students since 2019, we ensure you achieve great results on your very next harvest.

Learn How To Grow Top-Shelf Weed at Home!

Start Your First Class TODAY!

You may be asking yourself these common growing questions:

“How do I grow marijuana indoors?”

Read this guide on how to grow marijuana indoors. Or check out this article to learn what materials you need to get started growing your own marijuana!

Luckily, it’s really easy to get a cannabis seed to sprout!

“How much money will it cost to get started?”

If you’re considering growing weed, it costs as little as $300 to get started growing or a bit more for a semi-automatic, high-yielding bubbleponics grow system. See examples of yields to expect, electricity use & startup costs for different setups. Read this article to see even more growing styles with different price ranges.

“Where can I get marijuana seeds?”

Check out our How to Buy Marijuana Seeds Online Guide (with delivery to every state of the USA) to safely get your hands on good genetics. Starting with good seeds lets you choose the looks, smell, and effects of your buds!

Learn where it’s safe to buy cannabis seeds online (2026 update).

What do good cannabis seeds look like?

Learn about the best marijuana beginner strains and how to research and find the right strain.

Cannabis buds are generally green, but can also be pink or purple with certain strains.

“How much will electricity cost each month?”

If you’re just growing a few marijuana plants for personal use, it will cost you $20-$100+/month for electricity, depending on what grow lights (electricity) and nutrients you use. On average, I’d say a hobby-size grower might pay about $50/month to grow, but it depends greatly on your setup and local electricity costs! How much will electricity cost each month?

“How can I increase my marijuana yields?”

We have quite a few techniques to choose from or combine! See some of our most popular pages:

• Super Cropping – A simple technique to bigger yields
• Simplest Guide to Growing Short & Bushy Marijuana Plants
• LST (Low Stress Training) – Training your plants can easily double your harvest!
• Or check out our page on the controversial defoliation technique

Even More Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields

1. Increase Light Intensity (plus choose right light for desired yields & possibly add CO2)
2. Manipulate How Plants Grow (a free way to yield more bud indoors)
3. Provide Right Nutrients (low Nitrogen in the flowering stage, and remember sometimes less is more!)
4. Control Growing Environment (let the growing environment work for you)
5. Harvest Plants Properly (most importantly, don’t harvest early!)
6. Lastly, it’s important to remember that the strain has a major effect on yields!

Two small cannabis plants can yield several ounces of premium weed!

“How can I grow weed privately?”

Read guide on growing weed indoors without anyone knowing. But remember the most important factors to stealth growing: “No tell, no smell, no sell.” Never tell anyone, not even your best friend, that you’re growing. Be on top of preventing smells, and never ever sell cannabis. Breaking one of those 3 principles is how 99% of growers get found out!

“What if my plants get sick?”

The most common issue a grower runs into is a pH imbalance. Barring that, your marijuana plants likely either have a nutrient deficiency, heat or light stress, or are being attacked by some sort of marijuana mold, pest or bug. Whether you call it weed, cannabis, sinsemilla, skunk, pot, marijuana, or something else, the plant known as Cannabis Sativa is a hardy weed in the wild and can actually be easy to grow indoors at home when you know what to do.

Growing Medical Marijuana

“Medical marijuana” has become a household name. The body of evidence for medical marijuana in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses is growing every day. And for those who need medical marijuana, growing weed indoors is the perfect way to ensure a safe, regular supply of buds, for cheap.

In fact, when you grow weed indoors for personal use, you often end up with way too much. If you catch the growing bug like I did, and if you start enjoying the process of tending your cannabis garden just for the sake of gardening, you’re going to have to find a way to press, cook, freeze, and concentrate all your extra buds. 🙂

As you probably know, both medical marijuana and recreational cannabis have been decriminalized or legalized in many places around the world and weed is becoming legal in more places every day! Yet there still aren’t many simple indoor “how to grow weed” guides for beginners (even for those who legally grow, such as medical marijuana users and those who live in places where marijuana is legalized for personal use).

If so, I know how you feel. It can be hard to weed out all the bad information on the internet and find well-researched, free tips or instructions on how to grow your own cannabis. That’s why Grow Weed Easy.com aims to be a simple online resource that explains from start to finish what you need to do when growing cannabis so you can learn how to grow cannabis with great yields and potent buds, even if you only have a small grow space like a closet or even a computer case.

We’ve grown cannabis out of closets and have gotten ounces of buds and you can too. Grow Weed Easy.com covers many popular cannabis cultivation topics, including:

• A comparison between different cannabis grow lights including experience-based information about LED grow lights
• A page that teaches you the basics of how to grow weed
• Detailed how-to weed growing tutorials
• How to start growing weed tomorrow  (simplest cannabis growing guide!)
• Grow 4 oz with a 100W LED <– An Easy Way to Start Growing!
• Our famous grow guide that teaches you how to grow weed using bubbleponics (hydro).

Start Growing Weed Today!

Grow Weed Easy is run by a panel of experienced cannabis growers, including the founders Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside, who originally teamed together to bring you GrowWeedEasy.com. Due to the demand for more marijuana growing information, we’ve also started an inbox magazine all about how to grow weed, with additional tutorials, tips, and tactics sent to you each week. Simply sign up to start getting free expert growing articles delivered to you! All the information available at GrowWeedEasy.com is completely free and we regularly update the site and make new additions.

Looking for a growing book?

If you are interested in doing a bit of reading or would like to know more about the science behind marijuana hydroponics or horticulture, I strongly recommend viewing our page of Marijuana Grow Book Reviews. Read reviews of marijuana grow books. We would love to hear about your experiences with growing cannabis. Whether you are a pro grower already or are just starting your first plant, we have learned so much from our readers both beginners and masters! If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns, or just want to ask some questions about your marijuana grow, please contact us!

Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside

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The post Grow Weed Easy – Learn How to Grow Cannabis Tutorials appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

These two pictures come from a single plant that’s been in the flowering stage for about 2.5 weeks. She is showing beautiful white hairs / pistils up top.

However, on a single 10″ branch, I can see little ball formations (shown in the second plant). They look like male pollen sacs. Could this mean my plant’s a hermaphrodite? This is my first grow in a grow tent. The plant is under a 600w MH grow light. The growing medium is soil (Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil) and my nutrients are the Fox Farms Nutrient Trio for soil.

The balls are only growing on one branch. If she is a hermi, is there a way to amputate the bad branch to protect the rest of the plant?

Also, will she continue forming buds or is it a male plant at this point? Also, this plant is being grown in a grow tent with another female. Should I keep this one around or butcher it now to prevent from pollinating the other (apparently healthy) female plant?

~Cannabis Grower

Answer: Yes, this plant is a hermie / hermaphrodite.

Learn everything you need to know about hermie cannabis plants

One of the biggest worries with a hermie (plant with both female and male parts) is that the pollen sacs will burst and pollinate your flowers. This will “seed” your buds. In other words, this causes your buds to to grow seeds and focus on producing seeds over fattening buds.

If you do keep her to harvest and she does produce seeds, I recommend against trying to grow these hermie seeds, as it’s very likely they’ll have the same problems as their mother.

The safest option is the pull the plant completely. This will ensure that pollen sacs accidentally pollinate either plant.

If you pull all the balls (plus keep an eye out for new ones), then you’ll probably be able to make it to harvest with mostly unseeded buds. If you miss even a single pollen sac and the buds grow seeds, then just know that seeded buds often have normal potency, but you will get much lower yields. This is why many growers pull down hermies on sight.

Yet if you’ve only got a couple of plants, and you’re willing to be vigilant while looking for new balls, then it’s possible to pull most the balls and let the rest of the buds continue developing.

Sometimes a plant will produce just a couple of these pollen sacs, you pull them off, and that’s it. However, if the plant is constantly popping up new balls or yellow hermie bananas (nanners), then you’re probably better off cutting your losses and just pulling down the plant to protect your other one.

Learn everything you need to know about hermie cannabis plants

Toss plants that keep making pollen sacs as you’ll likely miss one if you let it go too long.

When these male pollen sacs open up and spill their pollen, they will cause all the buds in the area to grow seeds.

Another type of hermaphrodite is if you see yellow “bananas” growing in the hairs of the buds. These may be harder to control than the pollen sacs because they start spreading pollen everywhere as soon as they form. Also, if a plant starts producing bananas, it will typically keep growing them until harvest.

Learn more about hermaphrodites, pollen sacs, and hermie bananas

Jump to…

Is my plant a boy or a girl?

Why do I not want male marijuana plants?

Grow Weed Basics: How to Grow Marijuana Tutorial

How often do I water marijuana plants?

What causes cannabis leaves to get dry or crispy?

The post Is my plant a hermie? She’s growing flowers, but also balls…. Can I still harvest her buds? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

More information about why most growers get rid of male marijuana plants

If you start with a female clone or feminized seeds, you don't need to worry about male plants. However, if you've just found seeds, or purchased unfeminized seeds, about half of the resulting plants will be male. Male plants generally show the first signs of pollen sacs 1-2 weeks before the female plant shows it's first signs of white hairs.

A vigilant grower can carefully watch their plants and remove males when they develop the first signs of pollen sacs.

However, you may want to be more proactive and get rid of the male plants before they enter the flowering stage so you don't have to waste the time and energy in caring for plants that you will eventually get rid of. If so, then you can use to following technique to identify and remove all the males from your grow.

How to Determine Sex of a Marijuana Plant

1. You can wait until your plants naturally show the first signs of their gender and then remove all the males, but that means you have to watch the plants closely the whole time. You also will waste time and energy growing plants only to find out that some or all are male and have to throw them away. If you want to be more proactive and get rid of all male plants right away, then use this technique.
2. Take a clone from the unverified marijuana plant
3. Label both the clone and the mother plant so you know which clone came from which corresponding mother. If you don't label them clearly, then all your effort will go to waste!
4. Once the clones have established roots, change just the clones into flowering mode by providing them with a light schedule of 12 hours on, 12 hours off
5. The clones should start revealing their gender in a week or two. Males will start developing balls and females will start developing white hairs. Click on the pictures below to see some examples of male and female plants.
6. Once you have determined the gender of your clones, you should make sure you throw away any corresponding male plants.

Take me to more pictures and information about male and female cannabis plants!

Pictures of Male Marijuana Plants

Male plants have grape-like balls which form and fill with pollen. The balls will first show up a week or two after changing the plants over to flowering.

Click on thumbnails for larger picture

Pictures of Female Marijuana Plants

Female marijuana plants take a bit longer than males to show their first signs after being changed over to flowering. Female marijuana plants start showing one or two wispy white white hairs where their buds are going to start forming. They usually first show up where the main stem connects to the individual nodes or 'branches'. If a female plant is kept in the vegetative stage long enough (the length of time varies depending on the strain and conditions), then she will start showing the first sign of female hairs even before you move the plant into the flowering stage by changing the light schedule. If you see wispy white hairs appearing on your plant like the ones pictured below, then you know you have a female plant.

Click on thumbnails for larger picture

Take me to more pictures and information about male and female cannabis plants!

The post Is my cannabis plant male or female? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Home Grow Tip: Start with “feminized” seeds (here’s a list of good ones) to ensure every cannabis plant is female. (What are feminized seeds?)

Only female marijuana plants make “buds”.

What is the Difference Between Male and Female Cannabis Plants?

Only a female marijuana plant makes flowers/buds that contain a usable amount of THC. Male marijuana plants only make pollen to fertilize the females with. Most growers will throw away any male plants that they encounter to keep them from fertilizing the female plants. If your female plants do get fertilized, they will use all their energy to produce seeds instead of making buds. This is good if you want seeds, but you will run into the same problem since half of the seeds will also be male.

Male cannabis plants make pollen sacs (low THC compared to buds, bad to smoke, low yields if used for concentrates). Avoid keeping male plants in your grow room because their pollen causes buds to form seeds.

Male plants make non-smokeable “pollen sacs”.

The best way to ensure all-female cannabis plants is to use feminized seeds. Feminized cannabis seeds are safely available worldwide in just about every country. If you grow with feminized cannabis seeds, every plant will be female and grow seedless buds. Highly recommended over using seeds you find, which are on average going to be half male plants.

If you would like to start a breeding program to make your own hybrid, try using a method that creates all-female (feminized) seeds at home so that you don’t waste time having to identify and throw out male plants.

Getting clones of female marijuana plants is a way besides buying feminized seeds online from a seed bank to ensure that all your marijuana plants are female.

If you don’t have a choice of seeds, and some of your seeds may be male (like if you just found seeds) then you want to get your plants to reveal their sex right away so you don’t have to waste time and energy on male plants.

Click here for pictures of male and female marijuana plants.

How to Identify the Sex of a Marijuana Plant

1.) Take a cutting (clone) from the unverified marijuana plant.

I take stems off the plant and put them in a glass of water (learn how to make clones in a cup of water). Some growers use an aerocloner but that is unnecessary work because you don’t need your cuttings to make roots. As long as you keep a clone in a cup of water with light, it should stay alive long enough to do this process. If you have extra stems, you can take multiple cuttings and put them in the same cup. Some cuttings will show their sex sooner than others, so if you put a bunch in the same cup you may get the sex faster.

2.) Label both the clone and the mother plant with the name of the strain so you know which clone came from which corresponding mother plant.

I use disposable cups and write the name on the cup. You could also put a piece of tape on a cup and write the name on that. You should do this step if you’re identifying the sex of more than one marijuana plant at a time. If you don’t label your clones, then all your effort will be for naught because you won’t know which clone is which!

3.) Give clones a light schedule with 12+ hours of darkness every day to initiate flowering and get the cuttings to reveal their sex.

Again, you don’t need to wait for the clones to establish roots before you start this process. You can start this immediately after you take the cutting. The cuttings will start flowering even if their roots haven’t formed yet. However, you should make sure they get at least some direct light during their “day” to keep them healthy long enough to reveal their sex.

4.) Clones will reveal their sex in 1-3 weeks.

Look to the joints where leaves meet the stem. Males develop balls and females develop white hairs. Click here for more information and pictures about how to sex a marijuana plant.

Female marijuana plant – The first flowers of a female cannabis plant looks like this. You will see white hairs coming where leaves meet the stem.

Notice the white wispy hairs at the “joints” where the leaves meet the stem.

This is what female cannabis flowers look like at the top of the plant. You will notice white hairs emerging from the leaves.

Male marijuana plant – The first flowers of a male cannabis plant look like this. You will see little balls, like grapes, that appear in the same place as female plants. Male pollen sacs often also appear at the top of the cutting.

Male pollen sacs are tiny and hard to see at first, but pollen sacs quickly start growing in bunches that are easy to identify.

Here are male pollen sacs after they start growing in bunches. You know for sure this is a male plant when you see bunches of balls without any white hairs.

5.) Remove male marijuana plants. 

Once you have determined the sex of your clones, you should make sure you throw away any corresponding male plants. Or at least move them to somewhere safe so their pollen can’t get to the buds of your female cannabis plants by accident.

Now you can grow your known-female cannabis plants with confidence. Once they start flowering, they will make the same type of flowers as the cuttings you took. Continue to care for your female cannabis plants with a ton of light, no nutrient deficiencies, consistent 12-hour dark periods, and don’t let them get hot during the last 2-3 weeks before harvest.

Mission Complete: You know the sex of your cannabis plants and have only bud-making plants left!

Yay for cannabis buds!

Click here for a list of recommended beginner marijuana strains (all-female seeds unless otherwise indicated)

The post What makes buds, a male or a female cannabis plant? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.