Harvesting seeds.. what should I know?

Hi, folks.

Outdoor grower / Northern climate here. I start all of my plants from seeds every spring. This year I purchased seeds thru an online source (as recommended by folks on this website) and was pretty happy with the results.

One or two of my autoflowers have produced occasional seeds. I'm pretty sure I stressed the plants out (they wanted to be in the ground weeks before I got them there) and so maybe that's why they hermaphroditized (is that a word?). Regardless, I'm not totally bummed about pulling a few seeds of these plants but how should I expect those seeds to grow? Will they be true to the parent plant? I think it's Girl Scout Cookie. Additionally, will they be autoflower? I know that in vegetable gardening, seeds saved from hybridized varieties may not produce a plant that is true to the original plant.

Also, I had crummy germination w/ my White Widows but 2 took off. One happened to be male. I isolated it from the rest of my grow and saved a bit of pollen off of it before trashing it. If I wanted to attempt pollinating a bit of my White Widow female flower in the interest of yielding some seeds, any tips? Furthermore, can I expect a White Widow-true seed from this process? My understanding is that I should do it on a calm day and once I've done it (with a small paintbrush, etc.) I should cover the pollinated bud with a paper bag for a couple days, no?

Thanks for your time.

Hey Deadbeet. Cover the branch you want to pollinate with a towel then spray the rest of the plant down with water, till it's dripping wet. The water neutralizes the stray pollen so only the dry part of the plant gets pollinated. Cover with papper bag. In two days, spray bag with water till soaked and remove.
As far as what to expect, it all depends on how good the two parents are, and how much work went into the breeding of the seeds before you got them. Where did you get the ww seeds? This can make a big difference to what comes out when you cross them.

I ordered all my seeds thru CannaGeneticsBank. Couple folks on here recommended them. Not exactly sure how that industry works but it seems like they're a broker or something (?) for a variety of farms and maybe just other distributors. Regardless, the White Widow was from their in-house line. It was the only strain from their in-house stuff that I had poor germination with for what that's worth. Was otherwise very happy with the seeds and would buy from them again for sure.

Right on. I think your on the right path. Making your own seed is part of growing Herb. Good luck and happy chucking!