Hand Pollinated Some Flowers: Did It Take?

[Ravenplume]

A bit under a month ago, our two Tardis and one Sour Banana Sherbert plants flowered. The Tardises were girls and the Sherbert was male. So naturakky, we got him out of there before he could bust a nut all over the ladies. Afterward though. I went ahead and harvested a bunch of the pollen sacs, just keeping them in a plastic pill bottle at room temperature. We also then took some of the pollen, and with a QTipo, serviced a couple flowers on the oldest Tardis plant, in hopes of getting seeds.

Is there any way to tell just looking through the cage the plants are in if they made seeds or not? This is the best shot I can manage at the moment (the pollinated sections are marked with strings)

Yeah I know. Need to try for better pictures tomorrow with better lighting outside...

 

[Emilya Green]

within a day the pistils that were pollinated should pull back and change color... it will be obvious that something has happened to them. Good luck!

 

[Ravenplume]

Looks like the pollinization was a success, and was limited mostly to the two branches we specifically pollinated.

Now to wait for the seeds to ripen and be ready for germinating.

Granted, this is only a small sampling sprig. There are plenty seed pods still on their associated flowers that can stay out there until they are ready for harvest. Just wondering though, should we carefully trim off the leaves and save them for whatever? They certainly seem to have a lot of "sugar" on them; and if they are useful; it would be a shame to waste them.

 

[Emilya Green]

Looks like the pollinization was a success, and was limited mostly to the two branches we specifically pollinated.

Now to wait for the seeds to ripen and be ready for germinating.

Granted, this is only a small sampling sprig. There are plenty seed pods still on their associated flowers that can stay out there until they are ready for harvest. Just wondering though, should we carefully trim off the leaves and save them for whatever? They certainly seem to have a lot of "sugar" on them; and if they are useful; it would be a shame to waste them.

You will get various responses on this, but I would chuck it in the compost bin just to send it back into my soil.. the undeveloped trichomes would probably give me a headache... and I have much better to smoke. But by all means, dry it out and smoke it... see what that sugar does for you.
Good job on the pollinating... now sit back for 8-10 weeks and see what develops!

 

[Ravenplume]

How long should it take before the seeds are ready to germinate? They are pretty squishy right now, so obviously not ready yet. They are sure smelling nice though.

 

[Emilya Green]

8-10 weeks and a little drying time. Seeds get done the same time the buds get done.

 

[Ravenplume]

Is that 8-10 from the time we did the deed? If so, I think the pollination was back on the 29th or 30th of August.

 

[Canuckush]

Good job @Ravenplume something I may be doing with my cuz in a week, she has a male and my buddy has a bunch of clones from one of my plants so we're going to pollinate 3 in hopes of getting a lot of seeds.
By the way, nice name!

 

[Emilya Green]

Is that 8-10 from the time we did the deed? If so, I think the pollination was back on the 29th or 30th of August.

8-10 depending on the flowering time of that strain, from the time bloom started. Seeds take quite a long time to get ready... just as long as growing out the plant for bud.

 

[Ravenplume]

Well, that was about when we noticed they were flowering. We got the male out of there just in time. Oh yeah. I also saved a bunch of the pollen sacs in a pill bottle. Does pollen stay viable for very long term, I wonder?

Now, time to go sit out on the front porch with a frosty mug in one hand, a bowl of Moon Drops in the other, and stay out there until both mug and bowl are empty. A near daily tradition I call Beer:30.

 

[Emilya Green]

Well, that was about when we noticed they were flowering. We got the male out of there just in time. Oh yeah. I also saved a bunch of the pollen sacs in a pill bottle. Does pollen stay viable for very long term, I wonder?

Now, time to go sit out on the front porch with a frosty mug in one hand, a bowl of Moon Drops in the other, and stay out there until both mug and bowl are empty. A near daily tradition I call Beer:30.

I found some of mine to be viable after about 6 months in the fridge with a desiccant pack in the pill bottle. I have heard that it will last for quite a while that way.

 

[CADBOY]

How exactly did you collect the pollon. I just tried this myself and likely failed lol

 

[Ravenplume]

Well, looks like we have a few too many freezes forecasted within the next 2 weeks. Ugh. Just wondering, will freezes kill the seeds, or will they still be fine out there on the "vine?" Or should we bring in more of them now?

 

[Emilya Green]

I would think that freezing would kill the plant and stop the process of building the seeds... bring them in.

 

[Ravenplume]

So they will continue to develop after being plucked? That was my biggest concern with keeping them in their flowers.

Looks like Saturday is our first, 32 that night, then 30 Sunday night and 29 Monday night. I think 2 freezes is the most we would want to go through, according to my neighbor who is much more experienced than I am.

At least we should have a couple days to decide on the greater course of action.

 

[Emilya Green]

Seeds don't just magically continue to develop without a living plant supplying them what they need. Bring the plants in or you are going to end up with a bunch of underdeveloped non viable seeds.... you know, those little pale colored ones with no stripes down the sides.

 

[Ravenplume]

Thanks for the clarification. Since the plants are really too well established to dig up, we will at least cut their branches and keep them in water. That does seem to be working with the one sampler we took that started this thread.

 

[Ravenplume]

Just reporting in that the pollinization was a success, though I suspect the majority of the pollinization was done from neighboring yards (fellow grower next door and a medical grower across the alley for instance) The positioning of the male plant and the timing, as well as the wind direction would lead me to think that a lot came from the others (especially the two branches that were sticking up high and proud above the rest.

And I am pleased to announce that as of tonight, several of the seeds I put in water then stuck in a drawer two nights ago are sprouting and will get planted tomorrow in little plastic cups of dirt.

The ones that have not yet sprouted will stay in the water until I decide they are no good. The cup of dirt is just another experiment to try and grow one from seed but already planted.

And I think that since these came from what I call an opportunity seed (it was a seed found in a bag of Tardis purchased December 2018, that means the flower the seed came from got pollinated by who knows what; so the buds and rest of the plant, I am referring to as Tardis Lite, because obviously not a pure breed. And these seeds, since they came from a Tardis Lite female and a Sour Banana Sherbet Lite male (also an opportunity seed) or whatever else was in the air, that dilutes the Tardis and SBS components enough to declare this the new start of my own breeding experiments. They are currently just labelled FC-2019 (For Feyleaf Candidate 2019). Any that make it from here to the tiny cups to the foam cups will then be bestowed the name Feyleaf. And from there I can experiment with more breeding and start using many of the other names I have come up with over the years.

And that reminds me, for a future breeding product, does anyone know if there are any strains that have either a slight ginger scent or aftertaste. Got the notion in the noggin to try to breed a strain and name it in honor of my sister who lost her bone cancer battle end of May 2011. I will explain the need for a ginger theme later. Gotta run and close out my Tardis Lite grow journal then get the new Feyleaf one started, after getting tonight's Etsy and eCrater work caught up.

 

[Ravenplume]

And the final results...

Seeds used: 26
Seeds germinated: 19
Casualties due to clumsiness: 2

That left 17 germinated seeds that have now been planted in rich soil in little plastic cups. The soil was just dug up out in my front yard. And I knew I had picked a good spot, when I startled a nice fat nightcrawler with the flashlight. Forgot how fast those guys can book. So I got them all planted and huddled together on one of my desks upstairs and under a CFL lamp, as has become our standard procedure. I think tomorrow I will go ahead and start a grow journal on these babies, and also close out my previous one officially.

Now, time to have a glass of rum, and hit the bong.