pollen collection help

I'm going to be doing a grow very soon, and I want to make sure I can get viable seeds from my genetics that I've spent ever so much money on.

now I pretty much only have the space where my females will be for growing... My question is this...

how would I go about keeping a male or two alive for pollination purposes without fucking up my entire crop.

any advice is appreciated

First, you need a separate room for your males. Second, you will need to make sure that your flower room is completely unable to suck in UNFILTERED outside air. This will reduce your chances of any stray pollination.

Other than that, its just like keeping moms, cept your gonna be flowering the males and collecting the pollen.

CK

if necessary I have another closet to use but not much space and no H.I.D. Lighting.

what do you guys suggest?

what you do is you take a little sandwhich baggy and put it over the pollen pores on your male plant. once you have done that, let it set for a day so the pollen collects and the gently tap your finger on the baggy to see if anymore will come out. from there you would take the baggy and put it on a part of your female plant so your whole female plant wont be seedy. good luck dude!

SeniorRaincloud said:

what you do is you take a little sandwhich baggy and put it over the pollen pores on your male plant. once you have done that, let it set for a day so the pollen collects and the gently tap your finger on the baggy to see if anymore will come out. from there you would take the baggy and put it on a part of your female plant so your whole female plant wont be seedy. good luck dude!

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Beat me to it, but I prefer good ol brown paper bags instead of plastic to collect the pollen and then apply it to individual branches with a qtip.

CK

alright... +rep for you both...

what kind of lighting will suffice for my male... All I need to do is keep him alive until he starts dropping pollen right? Can I just use a few watts of CFL or do I need to give him the same type of lighting my females will have.

just keep the lighting how you have had it so it doesnt confuse him! you will start to see the pollen soon!

how am I supposed to separate him out of my flowering room without changing his lighting? It seems to me I would need 2 identical grow rooms to achieve this.

I'm considering using panda film to create two separate chambers in my closet, one for females and one for males, but I'm not sure how to MAKE SURE no pollen can get from one side to the other.

Find your male, clone it. Kill big guy, flower smallers as they root under one or two cfls, collect pollen. Bam! Or u could just find a keeper and clone unless your set on germinating and sexing every grow.

well, it's not that I'm set on doing it that way... I'm growing autos. Can't clone em.

150wHPS said:

well, it's not that I'm set on doing it that way... I'm growing autos. Can't clone em.

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Ah, I see. In this case perhaps just move a single female into your male room and allow open pollination on that one female. Since they are auto's you dont have to worry about light cycle, etc.

Autos are a little different, aren't most femmed?

CK

as far as I know, feminized seeds are no more common in autoflowering strains than they are in photoperiod strains.

I was thinking 3:2 male:female ratio would be appropriate. I'm getting a 400w HPS this week, so I could use my 150 for breeding purposes I guess... Do you think that panda film, if used correctly would be able to divide my closet into 2 compartments, or chambers, so that I can breed in one side and not worry about fucking up the seedless crop on the other side?

150wHPS said:

as far as I know, feminized seeds are no more common in autoflowering strains than they are in photoperiod strains.

I was thinking 3:2 male:female ratio would be appropriate. I'm getting a 400w HPS this week, so I could use my 150 for breeding purposes I guess... Do you think that panda film, if used correctly would be able to divide my closet into 2 compartments, or chambers, so that I can breed in one side and not worry about fucking up the seedless crop on the other side?

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No, I mean feminized as in bred by chemical or stressed induced self pollination resulting in higher than normal female to male ratio's.... aren't most auto flowering strains sold as feminized seed?

Hmm, I guess not, just looked at the attitude site. For some reason I thought they were...any how. Panda film could easily do what your describing, except that for controlled breeding, you really do require a separate room. You just can't guarantee an air tight fit with panda film and pollen is SUPER small and all it takes is one seam failure and bam, your whole crop is seeded. Panda film is good at making light tight dividers but trying to make the seams airtight is a tougher matter because you still require all the basics of light, heat control, air circulation, etc.

CK

okay... lucky for me, i have two closets in my room... i guess the one with clothes in it is about to have a male or two as well.

or would i have to worry about putting on a t shirt (from the male closet), watering my plants, and pollinating my females...

would i have to change/shower every time i deal with my males if they are really that sensitive to the pollen?

or would i just deal with my males strictly AFTER handling my females for the day?

150wHPS said:

or would i have to worry about putting on a t shirt (from the male closet), watering my plants, and pollinating my females...

would i have to change/shower every time i deal with my males if they are really that sensitive to the pollen?

or would i just deal with my males strictly AFTER handling my females for the day?

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In short, yes...lol

I do any female gardening first, then tend the males, then change and wash up. No need to shower unless you stick your head into your plants, then you would need to wash your hair, but I wash to the elbows before and after. Really, this is a good habit to get into anytime you deal with your girls as mold, mildew, bugs can easily hitch a ride on your clothes, skin, etc. Washing before and after will keep BOTH rooms clean and save you headaches in the long run.

Hope all this helps, breeding is something that takes some work and dedication to get right, and I wish you much luck in it.

CK

do you think the pollen could make it from one closet to the other one? im going to hold strictly to the wash/change constraints. but im now considering that if i open one closet door and miniscule amounts of pollen get into my bedroom, could it pollinate my females when i open my other closet?

do i really need another closet in another room?

thats kind of cool how a species will go to any length to procreate...... not cool for me though

150wHPS said:

do you think the pollen could make it from one closet to the other one? im going to hold strictly to the wash/change constraints. but im now considering that if i open one closet door and miniscule amounts of pollen get into my bedroom, could it pollinate my females when i open my other closet?

do i really need another closet in another room?

thats kind of cool how a species will go to any length to procreate...... not cool for me though

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It's possible, the thing about pollen is this...its really small and light. Imagine dust particles floating through the air. Hard to 100% remove/stop, right? Your best course of action is to minimize the possibility of contamination.

A simple formula is to flower your male as soon as its ID'ed, collect the pollen as described previously, and kill the male immediately following your pollen harvest, saving the pollen. Storing pollen is just like storing seeds. I store pollen by putting it into an envelope and storing it in the fridge in a Tupperware container that has been filled with rice. The rice keeps the moisture level low, you want to store both seeds and pollen in cool, dry, dark conditions.

Also, remember that if you keep tight control on your males, keep a good eye on the pollen sacks, you can avoid the issue because pollen isnt released until the pollen sacks open and if you use the bag technique above, you should be ok...

Sorry for the novel, smokin on purple princess at the moment & it makes me a little loquacious.

CK

ive heard you can take a cutting from a male plant and put it in 12/12 and it will produce pollen whether or not roots have shown... so maybe that would make it easier.... take a cutting. put in your window for about 12 hours then give it darkness 12 hours.. collect pollen with a qtip or paint brush and the rest is history

captiankush said:

It's possible, the thing about pollen is this...its really small and light. Imagine dust particles floating through the air. Hard to 100% remove/stop, right? Your best course of action is to minimize the possibility of contamination.

A simple formula is to flower your male as soon as its ID'ed, collect the pollen as described previously, and kill the male immediately following your pollen harvest, saving the pollen. Storing pollen is just like storing seeds. I store pollen by putting it into an envelope and storing it in the fridge in a Tupperware container that has been filled with rice. The rice keeps the moisture level low, you want to store both seeds and pollen in cool, dry, dark conditions.

Also, remember that if you keep tight control on your males, keep a good eye on the pollen sacks, you can avoid the issue because pollen isnt released until the pollen sacks open and if you use the bag technique above, you should be ok...

Sorry for the novel, smokin on purple princess at the moment & it makes me a little loquacious.

CK

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no worries man... im trying to examine this from all angles before i get things started and start running into all kinds of unforseen problems. so the wordier and more descriptive the better.

how soon after showing sex will a male start dropping pollen? (as stated im growing autos so im not sure if the information on photoperiod males apply in this situation)

and how long does the female need to be pollenated for, for her seeds to mature? (once again autos)

smashcity said:

ive heard you can take a cutting from a male plant and put it in 12/12 and it will produce pollen whether or not roots have shown... so maybe that would make it easier.... take a cutting. put in your window for about 12 hours then give it darkness 12 hours.. collect pollen with a qtip or paint brush and the rest is history

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lol... read read read before you post man.

i said more than a few times in this thread that i am growing autoflower strains, first off they dont need 12hrs of dark to flower, second off you cant clone them (you can but its pointless, you can use the search feature to see why)... and third of all, someone already suggested the exact same thing and i told them that i couldnt because IM GROWING AUTOS.


sorry if i sound like a dick... i just hope now nobody else will suggest that same thing without reading all TWO pages of this thread.

150wHPS said:

how soon after showing sex will a male start dropping pollen? (as stated im growing autos so im not sure if the information on photoperiod males apply in this situation)

and how long does the female need to be pollenated for, for her seeds to mature? (once again autos)

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Honestly, I have tons of experience with reg plants but have never grown auto's but really, the repro system shouldnt be any different. The thing to watch out for, the most important is to separate the males from females before the pollen sacks open. Just like female buds, they need to be mature before they will release viable pollen. The length of time will vary from strain to strain, even from pheno to pheno within said strain. Wish I could give you a better time line then "watch closely" but without having ever grown the strain nor auto's, thats the best I can give.

Pollination occurs when the pollen hits the pistil of the female flower, once this happens the pollinated pistils will darken and recede. Bud formation will slow down as the plant will now focus its energy to nurturing the seed pod forming inside the protective flower. The more flowers you pollinate, the more seeds you will get.

In open pollination, I would put my chosen female into the male room for a few days if I wanted the whole plant to seed, but if I was only pollinating a branch, I would simply dust the lucky flowers with my qtip and be done.

CK