Cannabis plants are vital in producing CBD and THC, which are used for various medical and non-medical purposes, but when talking about the plant itself then the plant has both male and female gender along with a hermaphrodite. The gender of the plant can be determined from pre-flowers, four weeks or less in age.

What are pre-flowers?

Pre-flowers are the flowers of the cannabis plant in their vegetative state. That is the time when we determine the sex of the plant and it can be done easily through close inspection and introspection.

How to identify a male plant?

Male plants are responsible for making pollen or they have pollen encapsulated in them (which are called pollen sacs), through which they pollinate the female plant. After the pre-flower stage, they burst open to spread the pollen and reach the female cannabis plant, but to eliminate and remove them they need to be checked regularly before eliminating them from the plant.

How to identify a female plant?

On the other hand, female cannabis plants have buds. If by chance the female gets pollinated then seed formation takes more effort than bud formation. Female cannabis plants have white hair on them known as pistils.

What is a Hermaphrodite— “Hermie”?

Hermies are cannabis plants that have both male and female traits in them.

They are produced because of two main reasons

1. Genetics: It could be related to breeding and the Hermes came into being because of the genes present in them, and they inherited both male and female traits.
2. Stress-Related or environmental: Environmental or stress-related hermies can be due to irregular light cycles, temperature cycles, or any of the other environmental factor but it difficult to determine that what affected the plant to produce Hermes.
3. Pistils and pollen sacs: Hermies can have both pistils and pollen sacs, but they need to be identified as males and be removed from the plant
4. Identifying Nanners: Nanners are the exposed male parts of a pollen sac, called the stamen which would in general be surrounded by a sac. Nanners don’t need to burst to spread pollen, they immediately start making pollen.
5. Swollen/Pollinated Calyx: Swollen/pollinated Calyx can be identified as a male sac but in-fact it is a pollinated female, so this sac should be kept as it is and not pulled or removed from the plant.

Why female Cannabis plant is important only?

It is important to determine the gender of the cannabis plant because only female cannabis plants contain the flower that has THC and CBD. If the flower comes in contact with the pollen, then it will produce seeds instead of the flowers which will hinder the whole process of the production of the vital ingredients: THC and CBD. However, at times the harvester themselves let the female plants produce seeds because any seeds from the female plant after pollination will result in a feminine seed and produce a female cannabis plant, important for the production of THC and CBD.