Early in an Autoflowering Cannabis plant’s life, close examination of what is happening at node junctions will reveal the sex of the plant long before flowering occurs. Female plants display fine filament pistils (more on pistils and stigma below), whereas tiny sacs indict male plants.
Male and female flowers developing at nodes show the sex of the plant early. WINNIE CASACOP.
Female flowers
A female Cannabis floret forms a calyx. This is a single sepal that wraps itself around the female reproductive parts to protect them. In addition to holding the flower’s pistils, this is where most of the plant’s chemicals are produced.
The pistil, in turn, consists of an ovary, a style, and a stigma. It is sticky and holds pollen during fertilization. Tiny hairs grow out of the pistil. These are stigma, and they, too, can collect pollen.
This huge cola from a New Breed Seed Autoflowering Cannabis plant, Timberline, VAR, is something to strive for. HAROLD FRAZIER, NEW BREED SEED.
The presence of pistils on female flowers makes it easy to distinguish a female plant from a male one—males don’t have them. Stigma start out clear, or white, but as the flowers become ripe, they turn brown.
Calyxes can display all manner of color: green, yellow, pink, purple, and more depending on climate and strain. When Autoflowering Cannabis is grown properly, they crowd together forming what the untrained eye might call a single flower. Actually, this cluster of calyxes is known as a cola.
Calyxes make it easier for the female plant to catch the windborne male pollen. Most important, calyxes are covered with special glands called trichomes. These are where the desired chemicals for which the plant is grown are produced.
Each branch along a stem has the potential to develop into a cola of varying size. The top tip branch usually produces the main biggest cola, with smaller ones being produced from lower branches. Cola size is dependent on how many florets form. (Again, think of the whole cauliflower or broccoli head.)
Feminization of seeds to ensure only female plants
Since only sterile female flowers count, someone figured out how to ensure seeds would produce female plants. This can be done by rhodelization (stressing) which causes a female plant to develop a few male flowers with pollen sacs, along with female flowers. If the plant self-fertilizes, or if the pollen from this female plant is used to fertilize another female plant, then the resultant seed will produce only female plants. Using these seeds means you don’t have to grow, identify, and discard male plants, and that will save you time and effort.
But the most common method to feminize seed is to use colloidal silver or gibberellic acid. Application of either to plants at the right time (for 4 weeks after lights are at 12 hours for Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa, if you must know) causes the plant to produce flowers that contain some pollen sacs. These sacs can be removed, stored, and later used to pollinate a female plant that has had flowers for 2 or 3 weeks. It takes about 6 weeks after pollination for Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa to become ripe with seeds.
The parts of a calyx. WINNI CASACOP.
Autoflowering Cannabis is no different from other forms of Cannabis, so it is certainly possible to chemically induce rhodelization. The problem in this case is the timing because the plants grow so fast. Generally, however, if you apply one of these chemicals to forming buds, you can induce the production of pollen sacs.
Both colloidal silver as well as gibberellic acid are available on the market. You can even make your own colloidal silver. Feminization of seed is an advanced aspect of growing Autoflowering Cannabis, the details of which can be gleaned off the Internet. It is certainly not something a gardener should try to tackle for the first few grows, or probably ever.
Feminizing your own seeds might be fun as you become more and more enamored with growing Autoflowering Cannabis. You may decide to add this skill to your wheelbarrow and give it a try if you decide to breed your own varieties. Again, this is why Autoflowering Cannabis is a great hobby plant.
Fortunately, you can now buy fantastic feminized seeds from several outlets. Not only will you have less work, but the breeder provides the necessary cultural information to make your job easier, as well as producing seeds with superior genetics. This really is an easy plant to grow, but all the information you can gather helps.
Diagram of glandular trichome. WINNIE CASACOP.
Male flowers
Male Autoflowering Cannabis flowers have stamens and anthers that contain pollen sacs and filaments to hold the pollen sacs onto the plant. The sacs are about 5 mm (0.2 in.) in size. The most important difference between male and female Autoflowering Cannabis flowers, however, is that male flowers do not produce chemicals which are psychoactive. Every now and then a male plant appears. This is why you need to know what they look like.
In addition, male plants need to be removed from the growing area so that they don’t pollinate females. Without males to pollinate, the female plants produce sterile flowers, known as sinsemilla.
Sometimes a female Autoflowering Cannabis plant develops some male flowers and vise versa. Plants with both male and female flowers on the same plant are monoecious. (They are often referred to as hermaphrodites, but this term properly refers to plants that have both male and female parts in the same flower.) This trait is important because it allows interested gardeners to try breeding their own varieties, adding an extra dimension to the hobby.
TRICHOMES
Autoflowering Cannabis produce special hair-like glands known as trichomes. These are very similar to those that cover the stems and leaves of tomatoes. In Autoflowering Cannabis, trichomes probably protect the plant. The substances they produce may prevent grazing by mammals and insects. In addition, they provide plant surfaces with shade protection from damaging UV waves.
Capitate stalked trichomes
If you look closely at a mature Autoflowering Cannabis flower (and leaves as well), you will see lots of small mushroom-like structures, 50 to 100 micrometers (0.002 to 0.004 in.) long. These are glandular trichomes.
Looking through a hand lens (or the magnification setting on your cell phone) reveals that each consists of an elongated base which holds a round head that is covered with a waxy cuticle. The setup looks like a golf ball on a tee.
Of prime importance, the synthesis of the cannabinoids and terpenoids takes place inside these trichome heads. These factories, however, are very delicate and rupture when treated roughly. Such treatment exposes the chemicals inside, which then oxidize and degrade.
Autoflower trichomes respond to improper treatment in a negative way. Physical manipulation, passage of time, and exposure to heat, air, and light are detrimental. It is critical to limit contact with glandular trichomes and to make sure plants are grown in the proper environment, and stored in one as well.
Of equal importance, the color of capitate-stalked trichomes is a great visual indicator to monitor a plant’s stage of growth. In fact, the gardener can really only tell if plants are ready for harvest by tracking trichome color changes from clear to cloudy, and then to amber.
At the base of each female Cannabis flower is a tiny structure known as a bract, a pseudo leaf. (It is the bracts on poinsettias that give those plants their color.) This bract helps hold the flower together. As important (and maybe even more so), these bracts are covered with capitate-stalked trichomes.
Autoflowering Cannabis trichome under magnification. Note that some are clear, some are cloudy, and others are amber. FRED GUNNERSON, SOFRESH FARMS.
When you have the right genetics and do a good job helping these plants grow, glandular trichomes form a dense coating that is known as sugar or frost. This a is very desirable trait and production of plants with lots and lots of trichomes is your goal.
Bulbous and capitate sessile trichomes
There are two kinds of smaller trichomes. These cover male plants, which do not produce many glandular trichomes (alas). The first are known as bulbous trichomes, which are only 10 to 1
5 micrometers (0.0004 to 0.0006 in.), making them the smallest of the trichomes. They cover the entire plant.
The last group are the capitate sessile trichomes. These have a stalk and a head just like the capitate stalked trichomes, but don’t produce the same amount or kinds of resins as do the bigger bulbous glands. They also cover the plant, being even more abundant than the bulbous types.
A SUMMARY OF WHAT TO EXPECT AS AN AUTOFLOWERING CANNABIS PLANT GROWS
O.K. Now you know enough of the plant parts to follow the growth pattern of Autoflowering Cannabis as the plant goes through various stages of its growth.
First the seeds soak up water and germinate, in sometimes as little as 30 hours. Seed cotyledons unfurl and are followed by the seedling stage during which the plant develops 2 embryonic leaves and then between 4 and 8 more mature leaves of increasing size. Depending on the environmental conditions, this stage can last from 1 to 3 weeks.
The vegetative or growth stage is next. The stem grows thicker and taller, and side nodes develop. More leaves are produced and new branches too. The vegetative stage lasts up to 5 months in a Cannabis indica or Cannabis sativa. Autoflowering plants can move out of the vegetative stage after only 3 short weeks.
Next is the pre-flowering stage. The plant continues to grow. The male plants display a small, green sac-like structure at nodes. (This sac will eventually fill with pollen.) White hairs, the pistils of female plants, form at the nodes of female plants. Pistils are distinct female plant organs that consist of an ovary, a style, and a sticky stigma which is where male pollen is first collected. It is the color of the stigma which helps determine ripeness. Because of this importance, the term stigma is often used to refer to the entire pistil.
The flowering stage occurs after these early sex precursors develop more. Buds form and start to grow. Trichomes become visible, coating bracts, flowers, and nearby leaves, causing them to them to get sticky. The plant may also develop an odor characteristic of the variety being grown. This odor is from the chemicals produced in trichomes. Male pollen sacs (if male plants are allowed to remain) fill and open, spilling pollen.
When the pistils on flowers turn from white to rusty brown, it is a signal that the plants are ripening and nearing the harvest stage. This often starts with the top buds of the main cola and moves down to lower colas during the course of a week or so.
The glandular trichomes gradually turn from clear to opaque. On average, once 20 to 50% of them are milky in appearance, it is time to start the harvest. After trichomes become cloudy, they turn amber or honey-colored. Time to harvest for sure. The pistils turn brown and dry.
The Autoflowering Cannabis harvest stage can occur after an astonishingly brief 5 or 6 weeks (though usually it is 8 weeks or a bit longer). After it is finished, the harvest will require collecting, drying, and curing. Drying can take about a week or so. Curing is an ongoing process that can take place as the Autoflowering Cannabis is stored.
SOME CANNABIS CHEMISTRY TO KNOW
Traditionally, Cannabis was grown for making rope, producing cloth, and making paper. I don’t wish to delude anyone, however. It is the chemicals in Cannabis that today make Autoflowering Cannabis of interest to the home gardener.
These chemicals cause the psychoactive highs and impart the medical effects for which many forms of Cannabis are known. I use the plural because different chemical mixes in different varieties of Cannabis plants cause varying degrees and types of psychoactivity or impact different parts of the body in different ways. Chemicals that don’t produce psychoactive effects may impact other aspects of our psychology and physiology, causing calming, reduction of inflammation, prevention of certain kinds of seizures, and more.
CANNABINOIDS
There are all sorts of numbers tossed about as to how many different chemical compounds are produced by a Cannabis plant. Suffice to note there are over 100 that react chemically with receptors found in both plants and animals. You will have heard of some of these cannabinoids, at least in their abbreviated form, as they include THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), CBD (cannabidiol), and CBN (cannabinol).
Actually, cannabinoids are in acid form inside the Autoflowering Cannabis plant, so they are more properly named THCA (tetrahydrocannabinol acid), CBDA (cannabidiol acid), and CBNA (cannabinol acid). In these acidic forms, cannabinoids are not bioavailable and humans cannot react to them. They cannot be absorbed. We will stick with the non-acid abbreviations in this text.
It is drying and, in particular, heating that converts these chemical compounds from acids to their absorbable form. This is via a process known as decarboxylation. Scientifically, a cannabinoid gives up a single carbon dioxide molecule. If you skip decarboxylation, your Autoflowering Cannabis might just as well be lettuce insofar as psychoactive or medical activity is concerned.
Once decarboxylated, however, cannabinoids can be absorbed and will react with the human body. A lot of studies are being conducted to figure out just exactly what these impacts are and how they happen. (Stay tuned.)
How cannabinoids work
Many functions in the human body such as sleep, mood, pain, immune system responses, hunger, and memory are regulated by a messaging chain, the endocannabinoid system. The chemicals used in this regulation are endocannabinoids. They attach to special receptors mostly concentrated in the nervous system, brain, immune system, and organs.
When cannabinoids from any Cannabis plant are present, they work with the body’s endocannabinoid receptors to produce a variety of effects. These receptors are sensitive to cannabinoids, which interfere with or change the body’s natural chemical messages.
Endocannabinoid guide. WINNI CASACOP.
Only the endocannabinoid receptors found in the brain react to THC producing psychoactive effects. There is a second set of receptors which are all located outside the brain and are not involved in psychoactivity, but are responsible for a number of other physiological responses such as inflammation and pain. These react to CBD.
In sum, when an individual ingests Cannabis, the endocannabinoid system becomes overloaded as THC and the other phytocannabinoids from the plant attach to receptors all through the body. This interferes with the activity of the body’s natural endocannabinoids. And, because the endocannabinoid system is distributed throughout the body, the impacts can be wide-ranging.
Cannabinoid guide. WINNI CASACOP.
PSYCHOACTIVE CANNABINOIDS
To keep things simple, the Autoflowering Cannabis gardener only needs to be aware of a few cannabinoids. Incidentally, these are all odor free. However, their presence or lack thereof helps define how Autoflowering Cannabis impacts the body. Let’s explore them.
THC
The main psychoactive cannabinoid is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinoid acid, THC. This is the primary cannabinoid produced by the psychoactive varieties of Cannabis. This is what imparts the characteristics of a “high.”
THC attaches itself to endocannabinoid receptors in the brain causing psychoactivity. Initially, these reactions to THC can also increase heartbeat, cause anxiety, or sedate. There is a diminution of the psychoactive effects at high (sorry) doses. This is because the body’s receptors become saturated. Signals are blocked by other cannabinoids.
Usually, ingesting too much THC is not a problem. However, it can cause bloodshot eyes and dry mouth. It can also be responsible for any anxiety attacks, short-term memory loss, dizziness, or even nausea.
Cannabis is often recommended to chemotherapy patients to control nausea. It is the THC that does this. The pain relief prescription drugs Cesamet and Marinol provide relief because of THC they contain.
Breeders have been able to achieve remarkably high (again, sorry, but this is exactly the right word!) THC percentages that can equal over 30% of the plant’s dry weight. This is a huge amount, much more than is found in plants growing in nature. Each gardener will have different tolerances to using them. Until you understand their impact, remember the Goldilocks Rule: use in moderation.
> THCV
Tetrahydrocannabivarin (whew, no wonder you don’t hear about this one), THCV, is a different form of THC that has different impacts on the endocannabinoid system. There is not a lot of research, however, on these cannabinoids, though there are some studies on its ability to help with certain forms of glucose intolerance.
CBN
CBN, for cannabinol, is found in Autoflowering Cannabis. It is a by-product of degradation of THC. It usually doesn’t exist in large quantities in fresh plants.
CBN is psychoactive and has sedating properties. It is considered an anti-psychotic by some. Studies show varying impacts on such diverse human (and pet) aliments as diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, Crohn’s, and inflammation.
NON-PSYCHOACTIVE CANNABINOIDS
There are lots of non-psychoactive cannabinoids. These impact only endocannabinoid nodes in the body, not in the brain. As a result of a tremendous amount of publicity in the first part of this century (a news story of their impact on a child’s severe seizures that appeared on national TV in the United States and Canada), they became almost as popularly known as THC. There is no reason a home gardener can’t grow their own.
CBD
Cannabidiolic acid converts to CBD, the number two cannabinoid in Autoflowering Cannabis, constituting up to 40% of the cannabinoids in a plant’s resin. It interacts with a much broader range of endocannabinoid receptors than THC (but does not react with the receptors that THC does). This is the chemical touted for its impact on certain forms of epilepsy, but it has a wide range of impacts on the human body.
DIY Autoflowering Cannabis Page 3