STS Solution

Heirloom;2922457 said:

Hi DD lovers. I thought I would share a little info from my limited dealings with the Dark Devil.

If you want to make feminized seeds, here is a method that worked for me:

Start with two seeds.
Germinate one, this will be the plant you reverse into a 'male'
One week later germinate the other. This will be the seed 'host' plant. You will pollinate her with the first.
When the first hairs appear on the first plant, spray her with Silver Thiosulfate. All over like she has mites.
Two weeks later, spray her all over again.
Observe the sprayed plant, watch her reverse. Hairs will die back, pods will begin forming.
On my reversed plant it took 24 days from first spray to first pollen. My 'foster grower' (long story) pollinated for 10 days.
Her seeds form quick and will take about 4 weeks.


Here is the Silver Thiosulfate Solution (STS) recipe:

Part A -1 gram Silver Nitrate dissolved into 60 ml distilled water
Part B - 6.25 grams Sodium Thiosulfate Pentahydrate mixed into 240ml distilled water (note that anhydrous sodium thio will require only 4 grams)

Mix the 60ml part A into the 240ml part B, constantly stirring. You just made STS concentrate.

Dilute your 300ml of STS concentrate. I started with 600ml more water, for a total of 900ml (1 part STS:2 parts water....300ml STS + 600ml distilled water). This seemed too 'hot' since it yellowed/crisped some leaves. My friend who finished my experiment said he cut the diluted STS even more, 1:1, which means it was somewhere around 5 or 6 parts water to 1 part STS concentrate. He reported that the original STS dilution read about 1900 ppm...quite high for a foliar IMHO. The reversed plant made lots of viable pollen, and the entire host plant is seeded.

Both my seeds were started at the same time, and it's clearly worked. I just recommend a week, maybe two, head start for the reversal plant to make sure you have pollen in time for the host.

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