Looking at tips for chucking pollen

[Oldbay]

As I’m getting my act together for a fall/winter run of some pretty cool Sativas, I’m wanting to start making my own seeds for future runs. I’m limited with plant counts/space so the ideas of running dozens of each isn’t an option. I will be able to dedicate a small tent and light to the males but also want to keep their pollen separate from each other so that I can dust different lower branches of the females. This will all need to be done in the same basement/space so I’d like to keep any accidental pollination to a minimum.

Some things I have read up on seem like good ideas but it’s always nice to get some real world feed back

Make selection - again, selecting from small numbers, I can look for things like plant health/structure/stem smell etc... but what else should I keep an eye on. I’ve seen opinions on early vs late flowering males etc...


Gathering - I like some of the things I’ve seen along the lines of as the pollen is just starting to drop, making a sort of three cup system where the bottom cup holds water, the middle cup has a hole in the bottom to allow the stem to sit in said water, but still catch pollen, and then a third upside down cup that acts as a dome. I’ve also seen where the tops of the skin to be fallen pollen branches are just cut and put into a separate bowl (easier but maybe the watered cut may be able to run longer?

Pollen storage - I’ve seen where people like to mix it with some all purpose flower and store it in the fridge - not sure how well that works or how long it can be stored but it would be nice to be able to keep it for a few runs of different females/strains

Containment - not sure if having a separate tent 10-15 feet away and putting some basic filtering on the ports (panty hose?) would keep things in check or not.

Dusting timing - I would assume that as soon as they roll into week three or so and have plenty of hairs that is a good time to hit them up?

What else am I missing? I realize this is chucking and not breeding but I’d like it to be as good of a longer term plan as I can

 

[Cannagrammy]

after reading that, looks like you've got it figured out. Sorry, I have nothing, I have never ventured down that road.

Would love it if you posted and taught me a thing or 2!

 

[Oldbay]

Will do @Cannagrammy - I’m working with some less common NLD Sativa types this fall and winter and want to preserve some of the lines and make some crosses as well. I’ll post for sure, probably in my grow log thread

 

[Cannagrammy]

Perfect! I can't wait! Now that we have land, I've thought a bit more about breeding myself now that I have space to really build a breeding shack or something to try and contain pollen.

 

[yooper420]

Here goes my experience with pollen chucking. I have did it this way a half a dozen times. My grow room is in my garage. I take the male i selected to my basement to mature and destroy the remaining males. When they start dropping pollen, it's time to get busy. I pollinate only one branch of the female this way. Cover the branch you want to pollinate with a paper bag and spray the rest of the plant with water. Shake the pollen into the paper sack and leave it that way over night. In the morning, spray the plant with water and carefully remove the paper sack. The female will have only the one branch with seeds while the rest will be seedless. When I pollinated the whole plant it was not as potent as usual. Pollinating only one branch allowed rest of the plant to reach it's normal potency.

 

[Cannagrammy]

That's exactly how I need to try it, but do you think that lessens the potency of the rest of the plant since she's now concentrating on making seeds?

 

[WeedHopper]

Grammy it won't effect the rest of your plant. Only one limb is affected.

 

[yooper420]

Grammy it won't effect the rest of your plant. Only one limb is affected.

Correct, the potency of the rest of the plant is not affected. When I pollinated the whole plant it lessened the potency of it.

 

[Cannagrammy]

Perfect, now I'm gonna do that! You'll have to clue me in, do you guys use colloidal silver or some of those new products I've read about?

 

[yooper420]

Not me.

 

[Cannagrammy]

Why not, @yooper420 ? Something I need to know?

 

[Oldbay]

I won’t be reversing, there are off the shelf products now so you don’t need to make your own anymore. I actually want the option of having males down the line to continue working on the ones that come out well. I’ve also been advised to turn off all the fans before going into the tent and spraying them down with water.