# Seed Production Process?



## DLtoker (Jun 25, 2008)

No, I don't need to know about the birds and the bees, just how the seed actually grows inside the plant.  I have never pollinated and have now just finally gotten around to making some more LR2s for myself and some pals.

Anyways, for a week... eh, maybe two, I left my male to freely pollinate my females.  Today, I removed the male and am harvesting the rest of the pollen in a controlled environment for future needs.  So!  What's next?  Can I let these ladies go through the remainder of flowering and then pick out the seeds once harvested?  Or do the seeds pop out and I need to devise a way to catch the little guys?


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## ChatNoir (Jun 25, 2008)

In later stages of seed production, your seeds will be visible and some of them will drop upon a little shake, these are mature seeds. You will have seedy and small buds but a lot of seeds.


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## John Public (Jun 25, 2008)

To produce consistant seeds without losing too much potency and quantity of buds is a great challenge. Most bad reputation from seeded buds comes from bad techniques to produce the seeds. Producing seeds needs extra care but is a great experience imo.

The first step beyond all is to control pollination. Why? Because of the natural process to build the seeds. Producing seeds is very expensive for the plant, hence you have to ensure that the expected amount of seeds is adequate with the size and the health of your mother plant.

Over-pollinated mother will produce weak mature seeds (mature seeds should be solid, robust and dark/brown, spotted or not) and a lot of un-matured seeds (white, soft and feeble). Weak mother will also produce weak seeds even if there are few in each buds.

The best way is to cut the males as soon as they have started to release one flower or two. You store them in another place in a glass of water, allowing them to release their pollen that you collect (for example, via a paper sheet below their flowers). Then as soon as you see the first developed female flowers, you choose the sites of the mother that will be used for seed production. Usually, the best sites are the terminal buds of middle/low branches and also the first buds of the high branches (some people think the best place is the solitary female flowers at the internodes).

When the choice is done, you pollinate carefully the sites with a brush filled with pollen that has been formerly collected. You should not need to pollinate too much the sites, usually, one or two passings should be sufficient. You'll be amazed to see how many seeds will be on these sites with this few passings...

When the pollination is done, the pistil matures quickly. The number of these pistils give a rought estimation of how many seeds the individual will have to mature.

Now you just have to survey the maturation of the seeds. Don't forget that the plant will need a lot of water, proportionnal to the amount of seeds she bears. Producing seeds costs a lot of water and also a lot of element K. Ensure that both will be provided during the maturation.

The peak of harvest will change according to the number of seeds in the plant. Overpollinated females will die as she matures the seeds. It is especially true for sativa strains which may eventually die after 10 weeks of  flowering even if their usual time is 16 weeks. The classical time of maturation is 6 weeks after the pollination. Perfectly pollinated females will allow to harvest seeds and then will continue to mature as sinsemilla.

The seeds are mature when they become dark and that they are outing their calyx, the vegetal stuff full of trichomes that covers them. In some strains, when the seeds are over mature, they fall of the mother. It is because they have sufficiently matured so that the nutritional link between the seed and the plant has been broken (you can see the vestigial link at the bottom of the seed, which is sometimes named caruncle or simply point of attachement). With these strains, it is better to harvest if you can not check the mature seeds every day. Some may sprout directly in the ground, and even in the mother shell if humidity is high !

If the seeds are ready to fall, you can harvest them directly on the mother plant. If not, you just harvest the buds and let them dry with the seeds. You need to remove the seeds before curing, however, to ensure that no fermentation process will damage them. Seeds need a cool, dark and dry place to be stored.

Hope that helps and welcome in the ganja world :farm:


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## ChatNoir (Jun 25, 2008)

Damn! That was qualified info!


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## Richy-B (Jun 25, 2008)

Cornellius said:
			
		

> In later stages of seed production, your seeds will be visible and some of them will drop upon a little shake, these are mature seeds. You will have seedy and small buds but a lot of seeds.


Exactly what he said. I just got done pollinating my first strain, LRx1. I have a 80 to 90% germ rate.


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## Hick (Jun 26, 2008)

John Public said:
			
		

> To produce consistant seeds without losing too much potency and quantity of buds is a great challenge. Most bad reputation from seeded buds comes from bad techniques to produce the seeds. Producing seeds needs extra care but is a great experience imo.
> 
> The first step beyond all is to control pollination. Why? Because of the natural process to build the seeds. Producing seeds is very expensive for the plant, hence you have to ensure that the expected amount of seeds is adequate with the size and the health of your mother plant.
> 
> ...


..great post JP! thanks... Your point on nutrients, is one often overlooked IMO. As you saiid, seed production is a taxing process for the plant.Fat healthy seeds require nutrients. "I" have always preferred/used a full spectrum fertilizer, near equal in N-P-K, with good success. IMO.. flowering ferts usually lack in needed nitrogen for seed production.


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## John Public (Jun 26, 2008)

Yeah, it is possible, Hick. I noticed the K deficiency as being a major problem for seed production, because I had it in some grows that allways produced a lot of unmature seeds or not well formed seeds. But the strains I grow do not often need for N as they are pure or almost pure sativas, so I do not know exactly for this element.


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## DLtoker (Jun 27, 2008)

Speaking of Potassium deficiencies... Guess who has one!  So, I am definitely hitting these with some higher octane stuff now.  ...Really good to know.


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## trillions of atoms (Jun 27, 2008)

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24839&highlight=collecting


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