only to replace an X. According to Clarke and Merlin (Cannabis Evolution and Ethnobotany), this system is present in naturally hermaphroditic plants, too, so it appears that Cannabis is still “working out the bugs” in the sex determination department.
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Read Spear began cultivating in the late ’80s. His medical m a r i j u a n a d i s p e n s a r y wa s among the first to be issued its Medical Marijuana Center license in Colorado. He is active as a consultant in the industry, specializing in new business development, business funding, and mergers and acquisitions. Read has t wo degrees i n p h i l o s o p hy, a B a c h e l o r o f Arts from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Arts from Duquesne University of the Holy Ghost in Pittsburgh. When not traveling, he lives in Colorado with his hound dog. Have a question? Ask the expert: askthegrower@sativamagazine.com Q: I currently have a Cannabis strain from which I can’t get
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any seeds. Can I intentionally hermaphrodite a female into producing seeds so I can carry o n t h is l i n e ag e, o r w i l l t h e seeds produce hermies as well since technically that’s what I’d be cloning? A: Cannabis exhibits a high degree of sex lability, meaning that it easily changes sex under stressful conditions. Since Cannabis sexual expression is so poorly understood, we don’t know why this happens. This tendency to c hange sexes is predicted in plants that have evolved dioecy (sexes on separate plants) from monoecy (both sexes on the same plant), which, it is suspected, describes the evolution of Cannabis. Furthermore, in Cannabis the Y chromosome is genetically inactive; it functions
For whatever reason, once set, the sexual expression of a Cannabis plant is not permanent (but the genes are). What I can tell you from my experience is that once you have stressed a plant to the point of inducing it to change sex, a kind of “switch” seems to flip that makes subsequent sex expression a bit of a mess. In other words, I think this is a bad idea. I also think this is why feminized seed production produces so many hermaphrodites, because what you are proposing to do is exactly how feminized seeds are produced. Can you do it? Yes, but you will forever be on the lookout for male inflorescences — and you will never be able to find them all. So what can you do instead? There are two solutions as I see it; 1) take a cutting and either give it to a friend while you take a break, and then retrieve a cut from that cutting when you’re ready to grow again, or, root it in agar and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to grow again; 2) cross it with a good, known male and put up
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