How do you YOU harvest/transfer/store pollen?

[OldMedUser]

I can be pretty fussy and like getting crafty. May try that in later trials.
Paper bag- great idea to contain without moisture build-up.
Here’s the little 9wk old male I’d be working with (he threw pollen at 3 weeks old before!)
1-gallon pot for comparison-
View attachment 4851998
and here’s an auto Banana Kush I’d be experimenting on-

View attachment 4851999

I have seeds for Strawberry Banana Kush but haven't grown any out yet. Just about to repot and ready for flower a Monkey Banana Kush. Hoping to get to that today if I perk up. Did some 'shrooms last night and didn't get to sleep 'til 6am.

Already cropped a couple of those and it's decent but not special enough to keep forever and I have many others to grow out waiting in line.

That male sure is stretched out. Was it light deprived as it grew? When breeding, the characteristics of both sexes needs to be considered when choosing which ones to select for the next generation. I'm just getting into the finer points of it myself but have tried to pick the best of them for my pollen chucking. Ultimately it comes down to the buzz. I look for ones that help me and others medicinally more than how wasted I get and have some CBD strains I'm getting more focused on.

If I never got another strain again I have enough to keep me busy for the rest of my days. Waiting on my latest order of two more strains now.

 

[OldMedUser]

you could take clones of the male and keep them in veg if it is that good a specimen

You certainly can. Then you can flower one out for fresh pollen when needed. You can reveg a male too if you decide he's worth keeping.

Big problem for a lot of people is the space to isolate males. I need more space myself so should get my shit together and build that add-on to my grow room. Want to add an 8x4' space for flowering. Two 600W HPS mounted back to back riding on my Light Rail will cover it nicely.

 

[OldMedUser]

I wondered if I could pre-pollinate some pistils. I imagine the inevitable damp would probably neutralize the pollen, though?
Thanks for your input! Not too stressed on outcomes so may try some things

If you pollinate some pistils it could rain on them an hour later and it wouldn't hurt anything. The second the pollen hits the pistil conception has happened like when the sperm hits the egg.

I'd be collecting the pollen and saving it until the lady is 3 weeks into flower. Usually not enough pre-flowers to get more than a couple seeds.

 

[MAGpie81]

I have seeds for Strawberry Banana Kush but haven't grown any out yet. Just about to repot and ready for flower a Monkey Banana Kush. Hoping to get to that today if I perk up. Did some 'shrooms last night and didn't get to sleep 'til 6am.

Already cropped a couple of those and it's decent but not special enough to keep forever and I have many others to grow out waiting in line.

That male sure is stretched out. Was it light deprived as it grew? When breeding, the characteristics of both sexes needs to be considered when choosing which ones to select for the next generation. I'm just getting into the finer points of it myself but have tried to pick the best of them for my pollen chucking. Ultimately it comes down to the buzz. I look for ones that help me and others medicinally more than how wasted I get and have some CBD strains I'm getting more focused on.

If I never got another strain again I have enough to keep me busy for the rest of my days. Waiting on my latest order of two more strains now.

Nice. Yeah I want to get to my plant-work today but other biz keeps popping up- I think I can wait until first thing tomorrow...
Been wanting to do shrooms again, been a long time and I have a good headspace for it right now!
That male was stretchy from the get-go. Could always use more light but all of my currents and it were raised together, in light-supplemented greenhouse (then inside under lights during cold snap) then into hottub greenhouse that gets winter-angled light, but has supplemental; flowering in there now.
Curious to unlock the genetics in the male, not too concerned about the usuals- yield, potency- but will be pleasantly surprised with a quality outcome.

 

[MAGpie81]

Thanks all for the great suggestions.
Y’know, I’m really looking forward to looking back on these RIU posts, ten years from now just to see my outcomes.
Very grateful.

 

[MAGpie81]

If you pollinate some pistils it could rain on them an hour later and it wouldn't hurt anything. The second the pollen hits the pistil conception has happened like when the sperm hits the egg.

I'd be collecting the pollen and saving it until the lady is 3 weeks into flower. Usually not enough pre-flowers to get more than a couple seeds.

Inspired. Got my other business done, rolled one up and hit it as I read this, now going to work!
Here’s a sort-of cheers, in the wise words of
Dr. Steven Brule, “For yr health!”

 

[MAGpie81]

you could take clones of the male and keep them in veg if it is that good a specimen

Not great, and was supposed to be a feminized Blueberry OG, (picture above) but it has a strong drive to reproduce (busted out pollen the first time at about 3 weeks old!), so I’m curious of the genetics within, and have some space-time to experiment.
I really want one of my Kwazulu to be a male to mix with my Durban Poison.

 

[OldMedUser]

Not great, and was supposed to be a feminized Blueberry OG, (picture above) but it has a strong drive to reproduce (busted out pollen the first time at about 3 weeks old!), so I’m curious of the genetics within, and have some space-time to experiment.
I really want one of my Kwazulu to be a male to mix with my Durban Poison.

I planted 4 Fem autos outside last spring. 2 of 2 different strains. One of each grew as auto males and only got about a foot tall and the other two grew as regular photo plants and got pretty big. About the middle of Aug they started to finally flower and the smaller one was a male too. I got pollen from all the boys and built a bit of a greenhouse around the girl. She got 5ft tall and gave me almost a pound of high CBD bud that I just did a quick trim on and froze fresh for making into cocobudder later. She could have gone another 2 weeks but had already survived two snowfalls and temps down to -15C. I was trowing a big blanket over her house and had a heater in there. The wife plugged her chicken's heated water pans into the same plug and blew the breaker so her leaves got froze a bit but she was still going. Going to try some other ones this year.



After the freeze up.

 

[MAGpie81]

I planted 4 Fem autos outside last spring. 2 of 2 different strains. One of each grew as auto males and only got about a foot tall and the other two grew as regular photo plants and got pretty big. About the middle of Aug they started to finally flower and the smaller one was a male too. I got pollen from all the boys and built a bit of a greenhouse around the girl. She got 5ft tall and gave me almost a pound of high CBD bud that I just did a quick trim on and froze fresh for making into cocobudder later. She could have gone another 2 weeks but had already survived two snowfalls and temps down to -15C. I was trowing a big blanket over her house and had a heater in there. The wife plugged her chicken's heated water pans into the same plug and blew the breaker so her leaves got froze a bit but she was still going. Going to try some other ones this year.

View attachment 4853116

After the freeze up.

View attachment 4853126

Sounds like a good project. I just got around to shaking my little Charlie Brown Xmas Tree (look at it!, haha) in a paper bag. He’s in a dome greenhouse; it started raining so unable to open up the lid to my Hottub GrowMachine, to bag one of my Banana Kush autos. Going somewhat quick and easy- but maybe not the optimal- route this time. I really need to move both my male and my BK’s. Male will get his own room for at least a little longer. His body will end up in a special compost most likely; if he had more vegetation would maybe slow-cook him with coconut oil just to get the little medicine within. My girlfriend(wife, essentially) likes her CBD with just a little thc, and I’ve read the male flower is often optimal for such.

i, too, put a little heater like the one above in my reg.greenhouse to keep an okra start and my Durban Princess (not the D.Princess strain, just my name for her because she’s the only one I haven’t trained, topped, or started to flip.
Also wrapped her in a blanket, as the nights are still cold, and cold when it rains.
Have a solar-powered motion light I let charge during day then turn on just after dusk to stay on until runs out of juice- thus keeping her and the others nearby vegging until I flip (which I will due before season-harvest to try out, and because one I started this early last year was a bit old-seeming by the time September came around and molded quick; GG4 strain; other later-clones did better). It’s nice because doesn’t require extra electricity/money- just have to remember to turn off again so it can charge the next day.
The insulation is turned around because it’s keeping perrenial peppers warm on the other side.
Yes, a little dirty, but the cannabis is destined for outdoor.

Appreciate your detailed inputs and pictures!
Thanks

 

[OldMedUser]

Don't bother cooking up a little male. There is little of worth in the boys. CBD is in the trichomes like THC is and boys don't have those to speak of. If it was a large male it might be worth juicing the leaves as there are a lot of compounds in them that could be healthy. Eating raw leaves can irritate the gut as they are covered in chrystiline(sp) hairs that aren't good for the intestines. Run your finger down a leaf then go back up from the tip. Feel how rough it is going that way. That's those hairs. Cooking them makes them soft.

My wife would kill for a greenhouse like that! She usually makes up a plastic covered small one to get her veggy plants outside in May as it's not safe to have them in the garden until middle of June and last year she lost half her tomatoes around June 20 from a nasty late frost. I didn't get my little autos out until the end of June as it was still cold and wet. We've had frost by mid-Aug so growing anything this far north has it's challenges.

I'd like to build a black-out greenhouse for my pot plants. Then I could grow regulars outside that I'd get 3ft tall inside first. 18 hours of sun all summer so the month of June to veg then tarping over at 10pm and opening at 10am starting around the middle of July should get me some monster buds by the end of September. Then during the winter I could just do my breeding thing and not need to burn so many expensive watts growing crops.

She planted 1750 garlic last fall for a cash crop. 12 different varieties that you can't buy in the stores. Already has half of them spoken for at $3.50/bulb and the cops won't care about that. She could have sold every one she grew last year but needed a lot for planting with.

Here's the garlic beds being made with some planted. Chicken coop/run on the left and my outdoor girl in her little house catching some rays.

 

[MAGpie81]

Sounds like a good project. I just got around to shaking my little Charlie Brown Xmas Tree (look at it!, haha) in a paper bag. He’s in a dome greenhouse; it started raining so unable to open up the lid to my Hottub GrowMachine, to bag one of my Banana Kush autos. Going somewhat quick and easy- but maybe not the optimal- route this time. I really need to move both my male and my BK’s. Male will get his own room for at least a little longer. His body will end up in a special compost most likely; if he had more vegetation would maybe slow-cook him with coconut oil just to get the little medicine within. My girlfriend(wife, essentially) likes her CBD with just a little thc, and I’ve read the male flower is often optimal for such.

i, too, put a little heater like the one above in my reg.greenhouse to keep an okra start and my Durban Princess (not the D.Princess strain, just my name for her because she’s the only one I haven’t trained, topped, or started to flip.
Also wrapped her in a blanket, as the nights are still cold, and cold when it rains.
Have a solar-powered motion light I let charge during day then turn on just after dusk to stay on until runs out of juice- thus keeping her and the others nearby vegging until I flip (which I will due before season-harvest to try out, and because one I started this early last year was a bit old-seeming by the time September came around and molded quick; GG4 strain; other later-clones did better). It’s nice because doesn’t require extra electricity/money- just have to remember to turn off again so it can charge the next day.

Appreciate your detailed inputs and pictures!
Thanks
View attachment 4853141View attachment 4853142View attachment 4853143

Don't bother cooking up a little male. There is little of worth in the boys. CBD is in the trichomes like THC is and boys don't have those to speak of. If it was a large male it might be worth juicing the leaves as there are a lot of compounds in them that could be healthy. Eating raw leaves can irritate the gut as they are covered in chrystiline(sp) hairs that aren't good for the intestines. Run your finger down a leaf then go back up from the tip. Feel how rough it is going that way. That's those hairs. Cooking them makes them soft.

My wife would kill for a greenhouse like that! She usually makes up a plastic covered small one to get her veggy plants outside in May as it's not safe to have them in the garden until middle of June and last year she lost half her tomatoes around June 20 from a nasty late frost. I didn't get my little autos out until the end of June as it was still cold and wet. We've had frost by mid-Aug so growing anything this far north has it's challenges.

I'd like to build a black-out greenhouse for my pot plants. Then I could grow regulars outside that I'd get 3ft tall inside first. 18 hours of sun all summer so the month of June to veg then tarping over at 10pm and opening at 10am starting around the middle of July should get me some monster buds by the end of September. Then during the winter I could just do my breeding thing and not need to burn so many expensive watts growing crops.

She planted 1750 garlic last fall for a cash crop. 12 different varieties that you can't buy in the stores. Already has half of them spoken for at $3.50/bulb and the cops won't care about that. She could have sold every one she grew last year but needed a lot for planting with.

Here's the garlic beds being made with some planted. Chicken coop/run on the left and my outdoor girl in her little house catching some rays.

View attachment 4853226

That’s really cool you make some cash off your garlic! My lady planted a bunch, too.
We are living on property my brother and I grew up on and inherited. My gal got to spend some quality time gardening and talking with ma before she passed, and we were left with some well tended spaces, and greenhouses.
We are very fortunate, and don’t take any of it for granted. The pandemic here helped set me on the path I wanted, despite the unfortunate circumstances, and now I get to make money working my own hours maintaining my neighbors property, while I grow my medicine and veggies, and take care of this place. Not trying to brag, just a little background.
Working on my own compost blends and I mixed some pretty good soil last year for all-around use.
My neighbor is great and gave me some fermented compost tea from her fridge, about a year old, that smelled like good kombucha (if you like it) and my plants seemed to like it; used diluted in a pump sprayer and even hit the foliage with it with no visible ill effects. Okay, I’m blathering. Here’s some pics of what my lady tends to- some garlic in first pic.
A bumblebee napping in last pic.

 

[Johiem]

That's some serious rhubarb!

 

[OldMedUser]

Nice! Hate living in a city myself but wouldn't mind being a little closer to one. Sweet fug all to do around here. 10 miles from a small town that doesn't even have a stop light anywhere. No theatres, pools, decent restaurants etc.

Still rather be out in boonies tho.

 

[MAGpie81]

That's some serious rhubarb!

Actually it’s chard but we have rhubarb bigger than that!

 

[MAGpie81]

Nice! Hate living in a city myself but wouldn't mind being a little closer to one. Sweet fug all to do around here. 10 miles from a small town that doesn't even have a stop light anywhere. No theatres, pools, decent restaurants etc.

Still rather be out in boonies tho.

Yeah I’m just outside a small rural town. Lived in Portland, OR (usa, derp), for over a decade. Had all the fun stuff and food of a city but also felt small townish in the neighborhoods- was blowing up when I left. I prefer country living with chickens and dogs.
On 2acres, with cool neighbors but also privacy. Have time-space to really get into botany.
Funk the bs, you gotta follow your passions!

 

[Detroitwill]

Not great, and was supposed to be a feminized Blueberry OG, (picture above) but it has a strong drive to reproduce (busted out pollen the first time at about 3 weeks old!), so I’m curious of the genetics within, and have some space-time to experiment.
I really want one of my Kwazulu to be a male to mix with my Durban Poison.

You can force a single limb to produce seeds. There are a few ways to do it (I am only familiar with the old way) colloidal silver solution. You spray the branch you want to produce pollen every day (for about two weeks) and that branch will produce pollen instead of flower. I believe you can do better... I would make a clone of a mature plant and after it’s been potted spray it and make it switch. It will give you the ability to monitor and control any pollinations. You can harvest the pollen any way you like at that point.

 

[kumar69]

So much information in this thread! This is my first attempt to cross-polinate. My males are small clones, still have their "father" in veg. They are in a 10x10cm rockwool cube. I was thinking instead of cutting and putting the stems into water, I'll just lay them down horizontally over a baking paper or aluminium foil.
- Is that a good way just to leave it there and wait until all the flower opens and collent the pollen once, after a week or so? Or better to shake it time to time, collect and store pollen immediately in seperate jars?
- Their flowers are just about to open, but the ladies needs another 3-4 weeks (just turned them into 12/12). So I need to store the pollen until that. Is it a must to keep it in the fridge or freezer for such a short time? I'm a bit afraid of condensation inside the pollen's container.

Thanks

 

[OldMedUser]

So much information in this thread! This is my first attempt to cross-polinate. My males are small clones, still have their "father" in veg. They are in a 10x10cm rockwool cube. I was thinking instead of cutting and putting the stems into water, I'll just lay them down horizontally over a baking paper or aluminium foil.
- Is that a good way just to leave it there and wait until all the flower opens and collent the pollen once, after a week or so? Or better to shake it time to time, collect and store pollen immediately in seperate jars?
- Their flowers are just about to open, but the ladies needs another 3-4 weeks (just turned them into 12/12). So I need to store the pollen until that. Is it a must to keep it in the fridge or freezer for such a short time? I'm a bit afraid of condensation inside the pollen's container.

Thanks

I just cut branches off of males and put them in a glass of water so they drape over a sheet of tin foil under a small light set to 12/12. Can put in a cardboard box on a shelf in a closet somewhere away from the girls.



Once it seems to have dumped enough pollen I run it thru my 180µ kief screen to clean it then put it in a vial in a sealed jar with some drying crystals for a week before sealing the vial. Can keep in the fidge or freezer to make it last longer but make sure to allow to warm to room temp before opening or you will get condensation in the vial.

 

[kumar69]

got it, thanks!!!

I just cut branches off of males and put them in a glass of water so they drape over a sheet of tin foil under a small light set to 12/12. Can put in a cardboard box on a shelf in a closet somewhere away from the girls.

View attachment 5075492

Once it seems to have dumped enough pollen I run it thru my 180µ kief screen to clean it then put it in a vial in a sealed jar with some drying crystals for a week before sealing the vial. Can keep in the fidge or freezer to make it last longer but make sure to allow to warm to room temp before opening or you will get condensation in the vial.

View attachment 5075500

 

[Antidote Man]

Many of the above methods work for collecting pollen. once you're ready to pollenate a female use a small artist's painting brush and brush the pollen on the buds you want to grow seeds.