When to pollinate?

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi there everyone, hope this post finds all of you well and getting ready for the outdoor harvest! Anyway, here's my query. I have a male, bb x ww, which I planted out in late february as a test planting, to make sure that the seed was what it was claimed to be, along with two others which came up female. (By the way, they look deadly....) They were only able to been grown outdoors, but I hope to be able to reveg the ladies and use clones of them indoors soon. Now, as to the male, I have separated him from the ladies, and he is just starting to open up the first flowers of the buds, and whilst short, and young, I was hoping to use his pollen to create some more hybrids, perhaps even crossing back to the other females to get a look at the f2 generation. Anyway, I've done some late open pollination before, and that was as easy as leaving the male next to the female (about 5 weeks into flowering) for a day indoors with a few open flowers on the male to spread pollen naturally. The progeny were so-so, well, fairly good actually, but I really want to get the best out of my seeds, ensure that there is a decent amount of seed for future breeding, and I also want to be able to use the parent mothers as producing plants as well as seed plants. (Geez, I don't want much do I? )

So, to the guts of it. Should I pollenate the prospective mother plants early, mid or late in their flowering cycle for the best results with the above criteria? And when I pollinate, by the individual branch, and say I do it early, will this have any effect on the unfertilised branches or the plant as a whole? I know that if done late the plant is already in a resin-production phase and doesn't really slow down, but if done early, could this have an effect on the potency of the unpollenated branches as they mature? I've had a look around, but I can't seem to find out whether selective pollenation of individual branches will have an effect on the resin production of the rest of the plant.... Does this make any sense? I certainly hope so. Anyway, if anyone can give me the lowdown on this I would be most appreciative. Oh, and one more thing, does anyone know of a good way to collect pollen? Can the "bud" be covered in some kind of plastic for a couple of days? Or are there any other methods. The problem is that he's outside, and this will result in a lot of pollen lost to wind otherwise, so, any tips? Thanks for taking the time to read another one of my terminally long posts, and I look forward to your responses.....

[white_cluster]

Howdy,

 

I make bags from this stuff at the nursery, it is sold as cloth to make pollination enclosures for plants, its with the shadecloth. Anyway I get 2 bits of that for each branch, both about 50cm long and close up 3 ends with stickytape. Then I get the bag and stick it over the male branch with a rubber band, leave it until you see a sillouete(sp?) of pollen in the bag then take it off, and put the bag on the gyrl, and shake the bag all around.leave the bag there for a few days then take it off and the bud is well pollinated. normal paper bags can be used too.

I do it about the 4th week.

Seeding a plant actually speeds it up, it will finish earlier, but I wait past peak production to get more viable seeds, I dunno if I should though, I need help in this area too, cant really find anything on the net, all the breeding info out there is for extreme beginners or extreme pros and nothing in between.

 

Onto the buds, I've only ever used closed pollinations and all seeded bud has gone to other people, never even had a cone, but the sinsemilla branches were just as good as usual. I used 2 to 6 males per female and then tested the seeds to see which male was the best dad. Anyway I wasted alot of time under the belief that seed was now legal in Australia.

 

Anyway, for max amount of seed yield you do as you say, brush the female branches with male ones. But I wouldn't be suprised if the whole plant was fairly well seeded, I dunno, never grown a boy outdoors, everything I did was inside with males under flos and gyrls under 400w.

 

take care,

[Luke Skywalker]

Thanks for that white_cluster, muchos appreciatos! Yeah, it does seem like there's very little out there in practical information for the average grower who wants to expand into their own seed production. I suppose that's born out of the illegality involved in growing not only a decent amount of plants for seed production, but also the "sale and supply" part of our lives. *sigh* Oh well. Maybe one day someone will put up a site devoted to this, but it does seem to be newbie or expert, doesn't it?

 

And as to the shadecloth like material, where do you get it from? I live in the great city of Perth so whereabouts would I look around here? Bunnings? Or would smaller garden centers do? And what kind of legal pollination is it used for? (Just so I can ask without looking sus.) Thanks mate, talk to ya soon. Oh, and if anyone else wants to chime in with seed production methods, by all means, feel free....

[pipeman]

I got a question about seeds, how can you tell when they're ready? Do you just pick the seeds when your bud is finished? ie most hairs turned brown?

[johnnyreeferseed]

viable seeds take about four to five weeks to develop. so you should pollinate selectively early on. i'm not sure whether pollinating one branch lowers the resin gland production in the rest of the plant, but i haven't noticed any difference yet. just be careful not to accidentally pollinate all your sense buds as i have done in the past. give them a good wetting after pollination to ensure no loose pollen hits your other buds.

jrs

[Luke Skywalker]

How do you collect pollen, Johnny? And how would you recommend I do so? I have just realised I have a small space underneath some stairs, which only has an incandescent light, but hey, she's not growing for buds, now, is she? Will this do okay as a temporary home during pollen collection? If there's no wind, will the pollen simply drop to the surface of the media? Any advice will be greatly appreciated, even more so because the male is just beginning to open up, and I want to collect and store as much of that golden goodness as I can.... Speaking of storing, have you got any experience with this? I was thinking in a small plastic air-tight container, in the fridge or freezer, with a small dessicant pouch inside to remove any moisture and prevent molding? Would this do okay, and how long do you think that the pollen will remain viable? Thanks again.

[Guest bacchus]

hey luke....

 

i have had a limited amount of experience with collecting pollen, only having done it for the first time recently....

 

i took a couple of branches from a male before the pollen sacs were open and placed them in a jar with some fresh water, and left it on my window sill (window closed of course.. ) with some paper under the jar....

each morning i tapped the branches ever so gently to release any pollen, and then collected it by pouring the pollen from the paper into a container and then removing the spent sacs with tweezers....

i managed to keep the branches alive for quite a few days and now have a film cannister with a dessicant pouch in the freezer, and i'm told it will remain viable for a few months....

 

hope this helps...

 

bacchus

[johnnyreeferseed]

rule #1: never keep a flowering male in the same domicile as your sense crop. the shit will get to your plants sure as hell. i flower my males in a buddies closet under a 150 watt grow light. heres a pic

http://www.bluegrasseeds.com/ubb/image_uploads/Dsc00150.jpg

when they get like this and start dropping pollen, you just hold a peice of glass from a picture frame under the branches and give them a good thrashing. pick out all the flower parts, scrape the pollen up with a credit card, get a straw..... just kidding. put it in an air tight container, and then in a ziplock baggie and keep it in the crisper in your refrigerator. you can do this every day or two for about a week and get alot of pollen from 1 or 2 plants. a little goes a long way.

when you got all the pollen mix it with a little sterilized flour. 50/50 or more. it will last in the crisper in this state for quite a while. i have tried mailing pollen several times as well as received it in the mail and have never had any of it still viable by the time it reaches it's destination. i always keep a couple male bonsai of the strains i am working with.

jrs

Edited May 10, 2003 by johnnyreeferseed