How to keep males "for later" without pollinating flower rooms

[hot_box_enthusiast]

TL;DR - what's the best way to keep (over the long term) a number of male plants, without messing up regular veg room and flower crops in the house

I've done some searching, and I think I understand the general answer but maybe I am missing something. Please advise on best practices. I am doing some pheno hunting, and currently only want a sinsemilla crop. However I would like to keep some males to have some fun trying breeding down the road. So for now I want to let the males just live ("male mothers") for a year before doing anything with them.

Here's what I have found. Please correct me if I am wrong;

• a tutorial on this site shows how to create a type of chamber with filtration (the male lives in the veg room, but inside its own filtered diy box) ; no thanks for me do not want to try as I would like to keep many male plants and this would be insane
• male plants can release pollen even in veg (i understand early showers should be avoided, but there are risks like the plant starts to flower if its root bound) ; it seems like it is a recipe for disaster to try and keep "male mothers" in a veg room with plants intended for sinsemilla crop. Correct me if wrong.

so what now? How do breeders that do not have multiple physical locations deal with this. It seems my best option would be to keep a separate "males only" or "males and mothers" room, in a separate part of the house, preferably with filtration on intake and more importantly exhaust? Logistically and aesthetically it is preferable to keep my gardening shenanigans to one part of the house

 

[HydroKid239]

TL;DR - what's the best way to keep (over the long term) a number of male plants, without messing up regular veg room and flower crops in the house

I've done some searching, and I think I understand the general answer but maybe I am missing something. Please advise on best practices. I am doing some pheno hunting, and currently only want a sinsemilla crop. However I would like to keep some males to have some fun trying breeding down the road. So for now I want to let the males just live ("male mothers") for a year before doing anything with them.

Here's what I have found. Please correct me if I am wrong;

• a tutorial on this site shows how to create a type of chamber with filtration (the male lives in the veg room, but inside its own filtered diy box) ; no thanks for me do not want to try as I would like to keep many male plants and this would be insane
• male plants can release pollen even in veg (i understand early showers should be avoided, but there are risks like the plant starts to flower if its root bound) ; it seems like it is a recipe for disaster to try and keep "male mothers" in a veg room with plants intended for sinsemilla crop. Correct me if wrong.

so what now? How do breeders that do not have multiple physical locations deal with this. It seems my best option would be to keep a separate "males only" or "males and mothers" room, in a separate part of the house, preferably with filtration on intake and more importantly exhaust? Logistically and aesthetically it is preferable to keep my gardening shenanigans to one part of the house

Keep them in one room, but in separate tents. Sealed with a co2 set up or have the "Men's Room" filtering outside with an active intake if using one. Never tend to both tents back to back. If you do.. hit the female tent first so you are not tracking trace pollen into the "Ladies Room"

 

[spliffendz]

You can clone them or collect and freeze pollen. I kept mine in water in the bathroom next to the ladies, let them drop their load, collected a bit to save, and pollinated some trees also, but afterwards read that you can clone them like a bonsai mom in this case bonsai pops.

 

[xtsho]

Just collect the pollen and freeze for later use.

 

[hot_box_enthusiast]

Thanks for the replies. I hadn’t considered the pollen saving much, because I think if I found I was “onto something” in terms of a future breeding project I would want a live male. I will have to read up on how much pollen one plant could give and how long it might last.

 

[Xs121]

I dont store pollen either since i have to move my breeding to the next generation, so there's no point in saving pollen.

I kept my males in the garage, far away from flowering area. I would harvest the sacs as soon as their tip shows sign of opening and placed them in a letter envelope and store it in a dry cool place for about 3 days. At that time the sacs are dry and i would just tap o the envelope for the sacs to release their pollen. I always ends up with more than what I need.

I have a male lasted for 8 months. Flowered then after dropping all its flowers went into reveg and continued to flower. lol. Lots of the flowers from the male would only go to waste unless you're planning to pollinate an entire field of female plants or store the extra pollen.

 

[Nizza]

i heard something about clones in the fridge and/or window, I'll have to dig it up, but I'm sure the info is on the chuckers paradise thread/website, and if you ask nicely maybe one of the local chuckers will lead u in the right path/way

 

[Budzbuddha]

I keep the most virile males , up to point of cherry picking pollen sacks for my crosses. They only stay until I can get mature pods , then off to the dumpster you filthy animals.

 

[GrowRijt]

TL;DR - what's the best way to keep (over the long term) a number of male plants, without messing up regular veg room and flower crops in the house

I've done some searching, and I think I understand the general answer but maybe I am missing something. Please advise on best practices. I am doing some pheno hunting, and currently only want a sinsemilla crop. However I would like to keep some males to have some fun trying breeding down the road. So for now I want to let the males just live ("male mothers") for a year before doing anything with them.

Here's what I have found. Please correct me if I am wrong;

• a tutorial on this site shows how to create a type of chamber with filtration (the male lives in the veg room, but inside its own filtered diy box) ; no thanks for me do not want to try as I would like to keep many male plants and this would be insane
• male plants can release pollen even in veg (i understand early showers should be avoided, but there are risks like the plant starts to flower if its root bound) ; it seems like it is a recipe for disaster to try and keep "male mothers" in a veg room with plants intended for sinsemilla crop. Correct me if wrong.

so what now? How do breeders that do not have multiple physical locations deal with this. It seems my best option would be to keep a separate "males only" or "males and mothers" room, in a separate part of the house, preferably with filtration on intake and more importantly exhaust? Logistically and aesthetically it is preferable to keep my gardening shenanigans to one part of the house

The Males should not flower out while in veg. If they do they are likely unstable or in too small of a container. Just keep them in veg room with mother’s until you are ready to flower them out.
If you truly are going to wait a year. Once the males show sex take a clone and trash the rest. Marking the clone as male. There should be no pollen drop and in veg there are no female flowers to pollinate. So it’s fairly safe. People freak out about pollen but it’s easy to control and takes more than you think to pollinate properly.

good luck trying to contain your growing area. Lol.

 

[Xs121]

I keep the most virile males , up to point of cherry picking pollen sacks for my crosses. They only stay until I can get mature pods , then off to the dumpster you filthy animals.

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Ive tried plastic vials but the pollen ends up like cake instead of dust. I find that putting them in letter envelope helps absorb any moisture from the sacs itself.

 

[Budzbuddha]

Ive tried plastic vials but the pollen ends up like cake instead of dust. I find that putting them in letter envelope helps absorb any moisture from the sacs itself.

i use glass ... then use fine tip brush ( artist brush ) to paint the pollen.

 

[Rurumo]

Do you guys keep any dessicant in the tubes with the pollen?

 

[BobBitchen]

Do you guys keep any dessicant in the tubes with the pollen?

Flour or corn starch @ 10:1

 

[hot_box_enthusiast]

I have listened to every episode of The Potcast (many twice) as I try to learn more. If I understand correctly, for the breeders that care about creating something "new", it is commonly accepted that the breeder should have their "own" male plant. Or to say it another way, if you just take two different breeders lines, pick a male from one, and a female from another, and cross them you haven't really "done" anything. But, if you take a line, and work it through a few generations, pick a male stud, THEN it could be considered something of your own. As one example, Jordan of the Island's created God Bud, and seems to have crossed that male to everything around, and presumably has a number of males from his many projects. I have to think that these breeders keep actual male plants around, no? They aren't all just saving pollen from a stud male and hope it lasts? Apologies for being obtuse

 

[Xs121]

I have listened to every episode of The Potcast (many twice) as I try to learn more. If I understand correctly, for the breeders that care about creating something "new", it is commonly accepted that the breeder should have their "own" male plant. Or to say it another way, if you just take two different breeders lines, pick a male from one, and a female from another, and cross them you haven't really "done" anything. But, if you take a line, and work it through a few generations, pick a male stud, THEN it could be considered something of your own. As one example, Jordan of the Island's created God Bud, and seems to have crossed that male to everything around, and presumably has a number of males from his many projects. I have to think that these breeders keep actual male plants around, no? They aren't all just saving pollen from a stud male and hope it lasts? Apologies for being obtuse

Is this the new Holy Grail of breeding?

I grow my own males and having said that this doesn't mean that another breeder using pollen from another breeder and using his or her own female to cross is different from me, there is no difference.

There are 2 purposes for breeding
1. to maintain the purity of a breed(or strain)
2. to create a new breed (or 'hybrid')

To maintain the purity of a breed(strain) or to create a new breed - This doesnt matter where the parents came from. Either from your own stock or from other refutable breeder.

What matter is the method you use to attain the purpose of your breeding.

Say you want to maintain a specific strain and later cross it with a different strain then its no longer pure, its now the start of a hybrid.
Say you want to cross 2 strains then later back cross the offspring to one of the parent, its no longer a 50/50 hybrid.

Lots of hybrid breeders would only claim what strain they used to cross but they never specify their method of crossing. They never mentioned how many times the hybrid have been back crossed. This causes problem in identifying strains. That's why we have the so called breeder A cut(or clone) and breeder B cut(or clone) of the same stupid hybrid.

 

[xtsho]

I dont store pollen either since i have to move my breeding to the next generation, so there's no point in saving pollen.

I kept my males in the garage, far away from flowering area. I would harvest the sacs as soon as their tip shows sign of opening and placed them in a letter envelope and store it in a dry cool place for about 3 days. At that time the sacs are dry and i would just tap o the envelope for the sacs to release their pollen. I always ends up with more than what I need.

I have a male lasted for 8 months. Flowered then after dropping all its flowers went into reveg and continued to flower. lol. Lots of the flowers from the male would only go to waste unless you're planning to pollinate an entire field of female plants or store the extra pollen.

I don't store just any pollen. For instance I recently grew some regular Ethiopian sativa with the main goal of making more seeds of the same for the future. I made a couple crosses as well. In the future if I want to use the Ethiopian in something else I have the pollen in the freezer and won't have to grow out another male. I just wish I had stored more pollen. Not hybrid pollen but landrace and IBL pollen. I've been reproducing seeds of many of those over the years and have no plans on growing them until I get through my backlog of stuff for seed preservation. But it would be nice to have some PCK pollen on hand to dust a Guatemalan or Honduran sativa and make a new cross.

I understand moving on to the next generation and I'm currently growing some F5's of something I've been working on for years. But I have a big bag of airtight plastic tubes so I'll likely start saving some of everything in vacuum packed bags in the freezer. It's doubtful I'll ever use most of it but I like knowing I have it if I ever want to use it. It's like the Ethiopian seeds I reproduced. I started with 5 and now have hundreds. I may never grow it again but I have plenty of seeds if I do. But growing these long flowering sativa's is starting to wear me out. The end result is worth the wait but growing these 14 - 20 week sativa's to make more seeds in a 4 x 4 tent while working on other things gets pretty crowded.