How to Identify a Swollen Calyx vs a Pollen Sac/Hermie Plant?
If you have some experience with growing cannabis, chances are you’re aware of the importance of identifying a swollen calyx. It can indicate that the plant has reached its peak height and will be dropping its seeds in the next couple of weeks.
But what about pollen sacs? Correctly identified pollen sacs can often be very helpful in determining how much bud will be produced from a given plant. When collecting pollen sacs, it’s important to make sure they are fresh (as they may have been already dried, or they may have been stored in bags). They should smell fresh and have no mold or other signs of decomposition. When harvesting buds with these types of sacs, it is important to wash thoroughly before grinding.
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Once you’re done with them, it is best to store them in an airtight container for future use.
What is Calyxes?
Calyxes are sepals. Sepals are the outermost floral leaves of a flower bud.
Growing cannabis plants? In this day and age, growing is more than just the act of putting in the time. It is also the act of recouping.
The calyxes are a window into understanding the growing process. Calyxes are puffies that grow on cannabis plants during flowering.
Calyxes are made up of two parts: The outer layer called the periclidium makes up most of a calyx’s surface area, and then a more fleshy inner layer called the periclidium extends over the entire surface of the calyx.
You can see how these two parts differ in appearance based on where they meet and where they split apart:
In its natural state, your plant’s root system is tightly bound to its leaves, and it grows from there to get nourishment from them. When your plant has reached maturity for flowering it is time for leaf growth to be minimal or even non-existent. When your plant has reached this stage, its periclidium will split open as long tendrils begin to grow from within it from there, you can simply trim these tendrils off with scissors or pruning shears and allow them to die off naturally.
While harvest time is often associated with calyces, this is not always the case. In fact, if you do want to harvest your cannabis plants before their periclidium has grown through their calyces (and you should!), you can do so by taking advantage of this extra growth that occurs at this point in a plant’s life cycle when they have not yet had their periclidium divide open as opposed to harvesting your plants when they have already broken through their calyces (which leaves them vulnerable to disease).
Signs of a Swollen Calyx
Calyces on cannabis plants can be identified by spotting a swollen mass at their apex, which is the leaf’s highest point. However, it is difficult to pinpoint with certainty when a calyx has swollen; it could be months or even years after its initial bloom.
Fortunately, if you are growing indoors, you don’t have to wait months to know that your plant is at its peak blooming time. An indoor cultivator will always know when they have a healthy plant and a healthy bloom.
The difference between a morning glory (Abutilon repens) and the hermie plant (Abutilon dulcis), for example, lies in the color of the flowers. The hermie plant will appear bluish-green or purple. Morning glories will be bright red or yellow.
What is a calyx-to-leaf ratio?
A swollen calyx is defined as the latter stages of growth that begin when a plant moves from vegetative to flowering stage. The plant’s leaf form, at this point, will be composed of chlorophyll and may be described as a single leaf.
A Pollen Sac/Hermie Plant is defined as the latter stages of growth that begin when a plant moves from vegetative to flowering stage. They are composed of pollen grains and are characterized by their bulbous or round shape.
In the case of a hermie plant, the hermie fruit will be significantly larger than a pollen sac and will typically have an elongated shape similar to that of an insect’s abdomen (a hermie fruit is also known as an apparition fruit.
What is Hermaphrodite Plants?
According to Colorado State University (CSU), the term hermaphrodite refers to any plant that has both male and female reproductive organs on one plant. The hermaphrodite plant is typically referred to as a “pollinated” plant, meaning that it has pollination by insects or other organisms.
The term swollen calyx is attributed to California-based breeder and marijuana cultivator, Tim Neeson.
According to Neeson, a swollen calyx is associated with cannabis plants having a condition called calypsospermum or Greek: σοφός sóphos, wisdom. This condition may be caused by the presence of pollen from two different male plants on the same female plant’s calyx. In these cases, the resulting hybrid plant will be genetically unstable, and many of its traits may not be considered normal for the species being grafted onto.
Causes of Hermaphroditism in Cannabis Plants
According to the American Medical Association, there are two types of hermaphroditism:
1) Hermaphroditic in the sense that a fertilized egg will develop into either a boy or a girl
2) Hermaphroditic in the sense that if an embryo is implanted in an ovary, it would develop into either a male or female.
But what is commonly referred to as hermaphroditism is more commonly referred to as spontaneous hermaphrodism. In this case, the sperm from one man fertilizes an egg from another man. This is why cannabis strains whether male or female can be picked with great success.
Signs of a Pollen Sac
The swelling of a cannabis calyx, or hermie, is a sign that the plant has been stressed. This is due to the fact that the plant has grown almost three times as fast as it was meant to.
However, this isn’t always true. If a cannabis plant is still growing at 100%, it can be just fine and will continue to grow normally. It’s only when the calyx has swollen to two-thirds of its normal height and the plant stops producing buds that things get weird in terms of growth.
Signs that this has occurred include:
- A large scale of leaves three times as many leaves than normal The more often you harvest cannabis, the more leaf matter accumulates and increases with time. This is why it’s important to know when to harvest your plants at different stages in order to maximize yields.
- A decrease in bud size The amount of bud produced by each plant can vary from week to week depending on how much your plants are stressed out by weather or pests; how much you harvest; and how well your plants are propagated (crossing/farming).
- Less resin The resin glands in a calyx are what actually make cannabis smell nice they generate terpenes, which are odor compounds unique to each type of cannabis strain, such as skunk and Indica strains. As with any other growth stage, these glands swell up with bud production until they reach their maximum size before dropping back down once again after wintertime periods.
- Green stalks Cannabis plants produce stems throughout their life cycle but they tend to die back after flowering (or “winter” as some growers like to say). When a stem dies back it makes way for more buds because there is nothing holding them in place anymore! One way to tell if your plants have reached their maximum potential for growth is by looking for green stalks growing from their stems instead of white ones during this stage of growth. As those green stalks get shorter you can see them dying back so you know that it’s time for herbicide use!
- Yellow or orange/yellow flowers With buds about two-thirds complete in size you will see an increase in coloration but not necessarily a complete change from white/pale yellow or brownish yellow into red/orange colors. This can be caused by either too much UVB light exposure (when flowering), too little UVB
How to Prevent Your Cannabis Plants from Becoming Hermaphrodites
By now you may have noticed that cannabis plants are known to produce many baby calyxes, also known as hermies. They can be anywhere from a few inches to over an entire foot in length. The idea is that the calyxes will protect the pistils (the female part of the plant) until they mature and separate into pistils and flowers.
But what if these hermies are not only physically attached to the pistils but are actually very much related to them? What if a handful of hermies get tangled up in each other? While it isn’t a common occurrence, it can happen and is one of the challenges faced by some growers.
And what if all those hermies get tangled up? Well, then you run the risk of your cannabis plants becoming homoerotic (or even hetero), or at least bypassing the normal mating process altogether. What if those hermies grow so intertwined that they block your light source completely? What if you accidentally cut them off from their water source before they’re ready for harvest?
If you find yourself in this situation, here are some tips on how to prevent your plants from becoming homoerotic:
First, remember that cannabis seeds can be planted in any container, so long as there isn’t direct sun on them. If your plants were growing outside in a window box or similar container without direct sun on them (which I recommend), make sure to remove all sunlight from their environment before planting your seeds indoors.
Second, make sure you’re getting enough light into your weed plants; while they won’t need much during the flowering stage, they will require more light during their early growth stages as well as when they begin maturation/flowering/harvesting stages especially during early growth stages where most of their energy needs are met with indirect sunlight alone.
If you live inside or have windows facing out onto a wall or large landscape for example, light is available through those windows and therefore ample lighting should be available at all times for your plants however, this is not always true for plants that are growing outdoors in sheltered locations such as yards/patios/gardens, etc.
As mentioned earlier, dirt being able to block light is something that can occur because outdoor growing conditions aren’t ideal when compared to indoor conditions which eliminate direct sunlight completely (such as with hydroponic systems).
How Do I Know When to Harvest Cannabis?
One of the best ways to identify whether a cannabis plant is ready to be harvested is by scanning its plant structure. Cannabis plants are generally round in shape and tend to be light green in color.
However, there are also many other factors that can influence the maturity of a cannabis plant such as environmental conditions, soil composition, growing conditions, and the size of the plant.
So it’s important that you pay attention to these factors and make sure they’re all correct before harvesting.
If you have grown a cannabis plant that has swollen calyxes and it produces pollen sacs then you know that it is ripe for harvest. If your plant produces small pollen sacs on the edges of its calyxes then the plant is not ready for harvest yet. Growers who harvest their crops early can often avoid pest issues related to over-mature plants because they know when to harvest early so they can avoid over-mature plants.
The best time for any grower to start harvesting their crop is within one or two weeks after a bloom has finished as this allows them to focus more on other aspects of growing such as ensuring healthy root systems, nutrient levels, and soil preparation.
If you have grown cannabis plants with hermie patches on them then they’re not mature enough yet for harvest so do not attempt to harvest till the hermie patch is gone or next year until new growth starts (which will often happen at full size).
The only exception would be if the hermie patch was several years old, in which case it would be best not to wait until next year wait until next year when new growth will start anyway!
