Soma's Rodelization method for making feminised seeds

[Dave The Nefarious]

Im just curious if anybody has any history with the 'Rodelization' method of making feminised seeds? If so please share your thoughts and experiences

 

If you've never heard of it or read about it before here's a quick summary:

Basically it's a very simple and completely organic way to create feminised seeds (no STS or giberilic acid or anything like that needed). You just leave a female to flower ~3wks longer than normal to try to invoke it to create some pollen bananas (this is more successful in some strains than others and apparently doesnt work in all strains), and you then use that pollen to brush onto another female plant that's ~3wks into flowering - just paint the lower branches to get just a few seeds, leaving the rest to smoke. The seeds that are produced will then be all female. (If the pollen matures early enough it can self-pollenate, and the resulting seeds will also be feminised, but will probably have a higher tendency for some to become hermaphrodites due to the self-pollenation).

 

You obviously don't get very many pollen bananas from female plants so the amount of feminised seeds you can make is quite limited compared to more forced methods like STS/giberelic etc, but as it's 1) so simple and 2) organic and doesnt require any chemicals it could be ideal for a lot of smalltime growers, especially those who cant find (or arent interested in finding) a source for STS/giberelic.

 

The key here seems to be that those small handful of male bananas grown on a female will result in feminised seeds, I guess 'Rodelization' is just Soma's word for leaving the female to flower a few weeks after maturity in order to provoke some bananas to form (as opposed to other induced stress methods like light/pH stress)

 

 

Anyway that's my basic understanding of it from what I've read, here's Soma's description in full:

 

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Creating feminized cannabis seeds is an art. Just like art, there are a few different methods of application. I have written about some of my different methods of making seeds in previous HIGH TIMES articles. I have used gibberellic acid, pH stress, light stress, and fertilizer stress to force my female plants to make seeds. All of these methods are harsh on the plants, and some, like the gibberellic acid, are not organic. In my search for cleaner, more earth-friendly ways of working with the cannabis plant, I have found a new way to make feminized seeds.

 

Feminized seeds occur as a result of stress, rather than genetics. All cannabis plants can and will make male flowers under stress. Certain strains like a higher pH, some a lower one. Some like a lot of food, some like much less. There is quite a lot of variety in marijuana genetics, and you can’t treat every plant the same way.

 

It takes many harvests before you really get to know a particular strain. Just like getting to know human friends, it takes time. I have grown the same strains for close to a decade, and am truly getting to know every nuance the different plants exhibit. I can recognize them from a distance. I must say that I get a lot of help from my friends, both in making seeds and in learning new and better ways of working with this sacred plant.

 

I named this new method "Rodelization," after a friend who helped me realize and make use of this way of creating female seeds. After growing crop after crop of the same plants in the same conditions, I noticed that if I flowered the plants 10-14 days longer than usual, they would develop male "bananas." A male banana is a very slight male flower on a female marijuana plant that is formed because of stress. Usually they do not let out any pollen early enough to make seeds, but they sometimes do. They are a built-in safety factor so that in case of severe conditions, the plant can make sure the species is furthered.

 

To me, a male banana is quite a beautiful thing. It has the potential of making all female seeds. Many growers out there have male-banana phobia. They see one and have heart palpitations, they want to cut down the entire crop, or at the very least take tweezers and pluck the little yellow emergency devices out. I call them "emergency devices" because they emerge at times of stress.

 

In the Rodelization method, the male banana is very valuable. After growing your female plants 10-14 days longer than usual, hang them up to dry, then carefully take them off the drying lines and inspect for bananas. Each and every banana should be removed, and placed in a small bag labeled very accurately. These sealed bags can be placed in the fridge for one or two months and still remain potent.

 

For the next phase, you need to have a separate crop that’s already 2 1/2 weeks into flowering. Take your sealed bags of pollen out of the fridge, and proceed to impregnate your new crop of females. To do this, you must first match the female plant and the pollen from the same strain in the previous crop. Shut all the fans in the growroom down. Then take a very fine paintbrush, dip it in the bag of pollen, and paint it on the female flower. Do this to each different strain you have growing together. I have done it with up to 10 different kinds in the same room with great success.

 

I use the lower flowers to make seeds, leaving the top colas seedless for smoking. This method takes time (two crops), but is completely organic, and lets you have great-quality smoke at the same time you make your female seeds. If you’re one of those growers who’s never grown seeds for fear of not having something good to smoke, you will love this method.

 

You can also use this pollen to make new female crosses by cross-pollinating. The older females with the male bananas can be brought into the room with the younger, unpollinated females after they are three weeks into flowering. Turn all of the circulation fans on high, and the little bits of pollen will proceed to make it around the room. Do this for several days. Six to seven weeks later, you will have ripe 100% feminized seeds; not nearly as many as a male plant would make, but enough to start over somewhere else with the same genetics.

 

As a farmer who has been forced to move his genetics far away from where they started, I know very well the value of seeds. My friend Adam from ThSeeds in Amsterdam has a motto that I love to borrow these days: Drop seeds not bombs.

 

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Edited August 2, 2006 by NotDave

[pipeman]

its an interesting read. Its not a true feminisation method tho and from what I've read methods such as this are just as likely to produce hermi seeds as feminised seeds.

 

but, my question is, why would the home grower bother making seeds? If you find a nice plant you keep a mother of it, and most of us like to try at least a couple new strains every year so why would we be wanting to make seeds? Besides, with the time and space you wasted making the seeds you could almost sex a batch of new seeds anyway.

 

making seeds is not very practical for the personal grower IMO.

[F420]

Pipeman, I have met alot of people that either cant be bothered cloning. Or In a couple of cases they believed that certain sickness can be more prone with a clone than seeding.

 

Im with you though, Clones are the way to go IMO.

[Frazz]

Very interesting article Notdave and i look forward to experimenting with this method

 

[Dave The Nefarious]

pipeman,

Its not a true feminisation method tho and from what I've read methods such as this are just as likely to produce hermi seeds as feminised seeds.

That's what everyone seems to be saying about all feminising methods though

 

but, my question is, why would the home grower bother making seeds? If you find a nice plant you keep a mother of it, and most of us like to try at least a couple new strains every year so why would we be wanting to make seeds?

Just me personally I like variety and easily get bored of a strain, nor do i have space for a chamber to keep mothers. Even from the same strain i like trying the different phenotypes, so growing from seed suits people like me perfectly whereas i'd have to keep a dozen good mother plants to keep my taste for variety satisfied.

 

making seeds is not very practical for the personal grower IMO

Why not? It's very easy, you only need to pollenate a few pistils (so you can still smoke the rest of the plant anyway), and it can be fun and rewarding creating your own whacky crosses

 

Frazzle,

Notdave and i look forward to experimenting with this method

It's such an easy method that i'll be experimenting with it too, nothing to lose. One guy who said he's had a lot of success with it says he harvests most of the plant at normal harvest time so that he can smoke that later, then leaves the rest (mainly popcorn buds im guessing) for another few weeks to get some bananas, which he can then use to create feminised seeds from the pistils of any other female plant of any strain, including its own of course. Doesnt get much easier than that!?

 

It doesn't seem worth doing this with female plants already grown from feminised seeds though, thatd probably just be an invitation for more hermaphrodism, but ive got a Sour Diesel from a regular seed coming up, I'll probably pollenate one of her lower branches with some Cinderella 99 F5 pollen, and then also let it flower on for a few weeks after main harvest to see if she pops out any bananas - now that would be some pretty sweet pollen

 

ps. More food for thought - even if you get 10% hermaphrodites from feminised seeds is that not better than 50% males from regular seeds? I've never had any hermies from the feminised seeds ive grown from tho

Edited August 3, 2006 by NotDave

[pipeman]

yeah man I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it if making seeds is your thing then go for it.

 

That's what everyone seems to be saying about all feminising methods though

 

not really its said about using seeds from plants which hermi themselves rather than true feminisation which is finding a 100% pure female (very rare) and then forcing it to produce some pollen with various chemicals.

 

There is a big difference between the two methods and to find a pure female you might need to grow out thousands of seeds so its impractical for most people.

 

I'm not saying your method is no good. I've never tried it, I'm just telling you what I've read about it.

 

Even with your method of controlled pollination you are still wasting time in your grow room making the seed. You need an extra to weeks to make the first parent plant hermie right? You can sex a new batch of seedlings in half that time, assuming you have a separate veg chamber where you can start your seedlings and have them ready to be sexed as soon as your previous harvest is out of your main chamber.

 

Also, if you are not maintaining a veg box separate from your main flower box you are adding a lot of time to your turnaround. You can have a mother and clone setup in a storage container. no reason why every indoor grower shouldn't have one IMO. having only a single grow box and going from seed every time is nowhere near as efficient.

[Dave The Nefarious]

I have two chambers yes - a 2-pot veg chamber and a 4-pot flower chamber. This allows me to harvest a plant and plant a new seed every 2 weeks, assuming 4 weeks of veg (after a prior 1 week germination phase) and 8 weeks of flower (but it's fairly flexible). I only grow for myself, i have to for medicinal reasons, so one plant a fortnight is enough, but obviously i get the odd male to help keep my bud population in check, so I usually use a feminised seed every 2nd or 3rd grow just to ensure I dont get a drought

It suits me perfectly, the only real downside is that youve got to find a good nutrient and pH balance that all 4 strains in the flower chamber can agree on although I havent really had any problems yet in that regard, despite growing f.e. sats and indicas side-by-side

Edited August 3, 2006 by NotDave

[thc24]

interesting read thanks,

 

Ive been growing a strain Bigbud for a little while now and ive never got a seed from these clones although they do pump out a bannana or two late in flower or under stress.

 

This grow i messed up my timing so needed to add a deviding wall to devide a bigger into a flower and veg room.

not ideal i know i must not have removed 100% of the light leaks in first days because in one corner of the room on about 4 buds have Bannanas so a pretty good chance of seeding atleast that plant, plants are only 4 weeks into flower and where going well.

 

 

3 other plants in same room are not affected atm alittle unsure how this is going to play out, dont really need a truck load of seed but a few would be nice.

 

 

 

a pic, although its hard to see under HPS only one small cluster of bannanas per bud there still closed and fresh no sign of pollen yet.

Edited August 3, 2006 by thc24

[Dave The Nefarious]

Ive been growing a strain Bigbud for a little while now and ive never got a seed from these clones although they do pump out a bannana or two late in flower or under stress.

Take two clones from your mother ... stress one or overflower it a few weeks to get some 'nanas, pollenate the other to get some feminised seeds - yes, seeds, feminised, from a ****ing clone, who would've thought

And they're not even crossed with any other strain to produce the seeds. Only problem is that because you're pollenating from two genetically identical plants that may induce a bit of hermaphroditism, im not sure

Edited August 4, 2006 by NotDave