Has anyone else had unbelievable bad luck with herms? I'm getting desperate

I'm on my 5th cycle in this tent and each time the plants have had seeds inside. I have done a ridiculous amount of research into growing cannabis and i've spent hundreds of hours optimizing my grow setup so its really frustrating that this keeps happening.

Setup:
Day 45 of flower, 4x4, Coco + Perlite, 600w HPS, Automatic watering system (once per day), Strain: In House Genetics - Platinum Gorilla

Feed:
Advanced Nutrients - A + B
Cal Mag
PH 5.8 to 6.2
EC ~1200

I've triple checked for any light leaks and there are none as far as I am aware. The plants also look super healthy, nice green colours and no signs of stress or deficiency except the seeds I'm starting to notice in the buds. I also nuked the inside of the tent with cleaning equipment to ensure there was no residual pollen left from previous grows.


If anyone has any pointers or suggestions I could look into, I'm getting so tired of seedy weed and i really don't want to fail my quest to grow nice bud.

Pics:

Thanks so much for any help/support

zip self in tent at lights out and check it out

how far away are lights?

Jamie0715 said:

zip self in tent at lights out and check it out

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Jamie0715 said:

how far away are lights?

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I've checked while inside the tent and no light gets in mate. Also put 4-5 strips of tape over all electronic LEDs, plugs etc. The lights are roughly 30cm away

you said hps? at 12 inches that may be the culprit?

Jamie0715 said:

you said hps? at 12 inches that may be the culprit?

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Yeah 600w hps. I've just googled it and holy shit you could be right... you think that could cause herms? I had put my hand over the buds and it didn't feel very hot at all. It definitely looks like there's signs of burn on the back right nugs ive pictured though, lighter leaves etc

absolutely it would, take it up to 16 inches away and see how she likes that!

Could it be the seeds themselves? I had seeds from a source that claimed to be feminized and they hermed on me (once upon a time). When I changed to new seeds and clones - the herms went away............
just a thought

Genetics
Genetics
Genetics

Jamie0715 said:

absolutely it would, take it up to 16 inches away and see how she likes that!

Click to expand...

I've run out of head height so not possible. Had to reduce the 600w hps to 400w and hopefully that helps. These plants have 4w left of flower so hopefully they can be salvaged and seed production / stress stops if thats possible.

Billy the Mountain said:

Genetics
Genetics
Genetics

Click to expand...

Synchronicity said:

Could it be the seeds themselves? I had seeds from a source that claimed to be feminized and they hermed on me (once upon a time). When I changed to new seeds and clones - the herms went away............
just a thought

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I've found a lot of people hate on In House Genetics but I cant really blame the seeds since I tried Barneys Farm and they hermed too. Think its way more likely to be what jamie said above and the hps being too close.

Perhaps the light distance is the culprit, but I've seen light burn numerous times and has never resulted in a hermie.

How many of your herms were from In House?

Billy the Mountain said:

Perhaps the light distance is the culprit, but I've seen light burn numerous times and has never resulted in a hermie.

Click to expand...

I have zero idea what else it could be mate, this is the only thing that adds up unless i've missed something else

Rurumo said:

How many of your herms were from In House?

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When i say herms, they weren't true herms (with male ball sacks and flowers) they were female plants that have been stressed and starting producing nanners then seeds. Sorry if this is obvious, i've just done a bit of research recently and didn't know whether it was a significant difference.

I've grown 4 x Platinum Gorilla before, they all had seeds inside. I complained to the seed bank and they sent another batch of 4, again all with seeds. So I have a 100% success rate of seeds in their buds but again, i think its more likely a light issue but I could be wrong.

FlooKy said:

I'm on my 5th cycle in this tent and each time the plants have had seeds inside. I have done a ridiculous amount of research into growing cannabis and i've spent hundreds of hours optimizing my grow setup so its really frustrating that this keeps happening.

Setup:
Day 45 of flower, 4x4, Coco + Perlite, 600w HPS, Automatic watering system (once per day), Strain: In House Genetics - Platinum Gorilla

Feed:
Advanced Nutrients - A + B
Cal Mag
PH 5.8 to 6.2
EC ~1200

I've triple checked for any light leaks and there are none as far as I am aware. The plants also look super healthy, nice green colours and no signs of stress or deficiency except the seeds I'm starting to notice in the buds. I also nuked the inside of the tent with cleaning equipment to ensure there was no residual pollen left from previous grows.


If anyone has any pointers or suggestions I could look into, I'm getting so tired of seedy weed and i really don't want to fail my quest to grow nice bud.

Pics:

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Image 89ea169d-6f99-4512-b0df-12454fec2e00 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

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Image dd45d123-42e7-4e21-a4d8-30f0a8715e7f hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

16106b3d-b174-4c78-b085-fa290260e99e hosted at ImgBB

Image 16106b3d-b174-4c78-b085-fa290260e99e hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Thanks so much for any help/support

Click to expand...

Heat stress!

FlooKy said:

I've run out of head height so not possible. Had to reduce the 600w hps to 400w and hopefully that helps. These plants have 4w left of flower so hopefully they can be salvaged and seed production / stress stops if thats possible.





I've found a lot of people hate on In House Genetics but I cant really blame the seeds since I tried Barneys Farm and they hermed too. Think its way more likely to be what jamie said above and the hps being too close.

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You just said it yourself mate, Barneys and InHouse are well known for their gear herming and especially if the environment isn't ideal.

FlooKy said:

I have zero idea what else it could be mate, this is the only thing that adds up unless i've missed something else


When i say herms, they weren't true herms (with male ball sacks and flowers) they were female plants that have been stressed and starting producing nanners then seeds. Sorry if this is obvious, i've just done a bit of research recently and didn't know whether it was a significant difference.

I've grown 4 x Platinum Gorilla before, they all had seeds inside. I complained to the seed bank and they sent another batch of 4, again all with seeds. So I have a 100% success rate of seeds in their buds but again, i think its more likely a light issue but I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

It seems patently obvious that poor genetics are the root of your problem.

It's certainly not a light issue causing seed production.

FlooKy said:

I have zero idea what else it could be mate, this is the only thing that adds up unless i've missed something else


When i say herms, they weren't true herms (with male ball sacks and flowers) they were female plants that have been stressed and starting producing nanners then seeds. Sorry if this is obvious, i've just done a bit of research recently and didn't know whether it was a significant difference.

I've grown 4 x Platinum Gorilla before, they all had seeds inside. I complained to the seed bank and they sent another batch of 4, again all with seeds. So I have a 100% success rate of seeds in their buds but again, i think its more likely a light issue but I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

you are dealing with unstable genetics. Gorilla glue is the result of a random herm accident in the first place. So then these companies breed that trait into their genetics and guess what it keeps happening.

Stressed plants.

I used to order overseas to US...Seedsman, Herbie's etc and got TONS of herms. Swore up and down that maybe I'm just stressing them out or something. Switched to Ethos, haven't seen one since, not even a nanner in late bloom. Like others said, GENETICS.

inth3shadowz said:

I used to order overseas to US...Seedsman, Herbie's etc and got TONS of herms. Swore up and down that maybe I'm just stressing them out or something. Switched to Ethos, haven't seen one since, not even a nanner in late bloom. Like others said, GENETICS.

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I've ordered all of my seeds from overseas banks like Seedsman and Sensible Seeds. I've never gotten any hermies and that's including the Seedsman and Sensible Seed branded freebies. I've also grown several strains from Barneys Farm which many always blame. No hermies there either.

I'm of the belief that people are just doing things the plants don't like. Stress can include fertilization and so many are overfeeding, feeding too much of something, or adding a bunch of stuff. It's easy to just blame the genetics and sure there are crappy genetics out there but it's not just European genetics. People are having issues with US genetics as well. I try not to look for an easy scapegoat. I try and identify root causes. So many new growers overfeeding with all the fancy cannabis specific nutrients that have unlisted ingredients in them. Who knows what people are actually giving their plants.

Too much fertilizer, too much heat, bad watering practices, all are extremely common these days. All are stress factors. There is also the fact that many are blasting their plants with high intensity LEDs and that could be a stress factor as well. There hasn't been any research on the effects of some of this lighting and how that actually affects the plant. Some of the seed outfits people like to blame have been selling seeds for decades and there was never any issue with hermies. I find it hard to believe that now in the last few years those same genetics are the main cause.