During your cannabis-consuming career, it’s likely you’ve come across bud with a seed or two, or more. But did you know, seeds are an unfortunate outcome or indicator of something going wrong during growth? That’s right - seeds are just one of the first signs of pollination.
As a grower, this is especially crucial to know so you can prevent rooms full of female cannabis plants pollinated. That’s why we’re covering everything from A to Z on female cannabis plant pollination. Including, how to tell if buds are pollinated, what to do with seeded bud, and how to tell if your plant is male, too. So, keep reading for your ultimate guide to pollination in pot.
The First Signs of Female Plant Pollination
First thing’s first - let’s cover the initial signs of pollination. The first signs of pollination typically appear in the first three weeks of flowering. These signs include swollen bracts (that’ll soon house seeds) and changes to the pistils on buds. The white hairs typically shrivel up quickly and gain a red hue sooner than normal.
Females become pollinated when exposed to pollen from male or hermaphrodite plants, which can come directly from the plant or come into your grow space from clothing, tools, or supplies.
Of course, you don’t want female plants to become pollinated as non-pollinated female plants produce the highest levels of THC. When becoming pollinated, female cannabis plants divert their energy to produce seeds instead, which lessens the quality, taste, and potency of yields.
As a result, you’ll want to know how to avoid female plant pollination altogether.
How to Avoid Female Plant Pollination
Rest assured, there are a number of practices you can add to your regular routine to avoid female cannabis plant pollination. Including -
Know how to tell if your plant is male - If you’re buying regular seeds then it’s a necessity to know how to sex a cannabis plant. Luckily, we’ve already put together your ultimate guide to figuring out how to do so. Once you know how to tell if your plant is male, check plants for sex regularly when feeding or watering.
Avoid plant stress - Unnecessary stress can cause plants to hermie, and hermaphrodite plants can produce pollen. This means you’ll want to avoid all triggers of stress, Including big increases or drops in humidity or temperatures, long periods without water, food, or irregular light cycles. Another indicator of stress or pollination is what’s known as ‘bananas’ or ‘nanners’. Bananas come from mixed-sex cannabis plants resulting from stress or bad genetics.
Buy feminized seeds from reputable seed banks or breeders - Speaking of bad genetics - the best way to avoid male plants and their pollen altogether is to buy feminized seeds from reputable seed banks, retailers, or breeders. Especially considering, there is no way of identifying gender from seeds alone. So, you’ll have to trust those you’re purchasing from even more than other retailers.
Grow indoors - Like so many unknowns with growing outdoors, it’s harder to control what’s growing around you. That makes the fact that cannabis pollen can travel within a radius of 3–7.5 miles even more important to know. The tiny pollen spores can also land on your body or clothing. So you’ll want to be extra cautious when wearing outside clothes in a space of all-female plants, too.
What to Do With Seeded Bud
The reason why avoiding pollinated female plants is so important is there’s not much you can do after the fact. In fact, one of the only ways to mediate plants that have become pollinated - is to kill ‘em and restart. That is to say - once they produce seeds there’s no going back. Of course, like the olden days, you could grow the seedy weed and smoke it. But, keep the following facts in mind when deciding to use your time, efforts, and supplies to continue growing it -
Seedy weed lacks flavor, and won’t taste as good
Weed with seeds isn’t as potent in THC or other cannabinoids
Seedy weed can irritate or bother those with pollen allergies
The Bottom Line on Pollination
With this new information now you know how crucial it is to monitor for female cannabis plants pollinated. So be sure to keep a close eye for the first signs of pollination and always avoid the common ways that can pollinate, too. Especially since now, you know more about the downfalls and limited options of what to do with seeded bud.
Always remember, the highest quality crops come from the highest quality genetics. So, shop MSNL’s full collection of premium seeds to grow big, beautiful, and bountiful yields (without seeds!) today.
The first signs of pollination typically appear in the first three weeks of flowering. These signs include swollen bracts (that'll soon house seeds) and changes to the pistils on buds. The white hairs typically shrivel up quickly and gain a red hue sooner than normal.
Typically, when a cannabis plant is pollinated, the vibrant white or light-coloured pistils start turning darker - brown or red. This is one of the plant's signals that it has received pollen and is shifting its energy to seed production.
Within 2 to 3 days after fertilization, the pistil's carpel elongates and swells to become a seed pod, containing the fertilized ovules. The sepals and petals wither and drop off, having completed their functions. After pollination, between days 17 – 35 in the Fast Plants' life cycle, embryos are developing into seeds.
Once a male marijuana plant reaches maturity, which typically happens around 4 to 5 weeks into the flowering stage, the pollen sacs burst open and release pollen into the air. This pollen can travel on the wind and land on a female cannabis plant, fertilizing it.
Research has shown that pollen can travel much further than 10 miles, but the amount of pollen transported decreases logarithmically with increasing distance from the source. Therefore, the risk of pollination should be negligible beyond ten miles from a pollen source.
Silks normally detach from fertilized ovules within days of successful pollination. The ear shake test takes advantage of this "symptom" and can be used as an early indicator of pollination progress and/or success.
Guideline #2: Harvest marijuana when 70% of the pistils have turned brown or orange. Most cultivators who base their harvest date on the Pistil Method take down their plants when 70% of the pistils have changed color and curled inward. If 90% of the pistils are brown/orange, the plant is past its peak.
Open-pollinated seeds do have a few downsides, but they don't usually have much of an impact on home gardeners. Plants may mature more sporadically than hybrids, or the produce color may vary a bit from plant to plant. This "diversity" is a definitive indicator that it's open-pollinated.
The first signs of pollination typically appear in the first three weeks of flowering. These signs include swollen bracts (that'll soon house seeds) and changes to the pistils on buds. The white hairs typically shrivel up quickly and gain a red hue sooner than normal.
When you purchase open-pollinated seeds, you can save them every year (or every other year, in the case of biennials) when they mature, and plant them again next year.
When the bag starts ripening with yellow/orange/red hairs, it's time to harvest those males. They will pollinate your other females if left intact during flowering. Another method some growers use is removing males before their pollen sacs form.
Additionally, male plants can contaminate a crop of female plants by potentially fertilizing them. Once a female plant is fertilized, it will spend more of its energy on producing seeds rather than growing juicy THC nugs and flowers.
The process of creating seeds that don't follow nature's normal pathway to grow out as male or female can create hermaphroditism in some cases. Keep in mind that this can also occur with autoflowering cannabis, not just photoperiod varieties. Some buds go hermie in the late bloom phase.
Studies in other systems have shown that too many visits by comparatively large and super-abundant pollinators such as honey bees can hinder plant reproduction because of damage caused to flowers. In addition, honey bees are known to visit more flowers on a plant before moving to the next plant than native pollinators.
Pollination occurs when birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles, other animals, water, or the wind carries pollen from flower to flower or it is moved within flowers.
Most of the self-pollinating plants have small, relatively inconspicuous flowers that shed pollen directly onto the stigma, sometimes even before the bud opens.
The first signs of pollination typically appear in the first three weeks of flowering. These signs include swollen bracts (that'll soon house seeds) and changes to the pistils on buds. The white hairs typically shrivel up quickly and gain a red hue sooner than normal.
When it comes to these self-fertilizers, a breeze or gust of wind is enough to shake the plants up to get the job done. You can gently shake your plants by holding the stem near the flower to replicate this process. Placing a fan next to your indoor garden space can help with pollination, too.
Address: 569 Waelchi Ports, South Blainebury, LA 11589
Phone: +9958996486049
Job: Sales Manager
Hobby: Web surfing, Scuba diving, Mountaineering, Writing, Sailing, Dance, Blacksmithing
Introduction: My name is Prof. Nancy Dach, I am a lively, joyous, courageous, lovely, tender, charming, open person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
