Protection against pollen

[paganini]

I have a 14 1/2' by 4' grow room with air conditioner, extract system and 5 different Mars Hydro lamps. There is no other place I can start another room or tent.

So here is my problem. I want to make some female seeds but only with two of my eight plants. One to spray with colloidal silver and the other one to be the girlfriend. I do not want to get the other plants contaminated with the pollen from the donor plant.

Now, how can I keep them together but isolated. I thought of making a tent to isolated the two involved plants with some sort of very fine fabric net but I do know that the pollen is very fine and may escape the tent. I hate to use transparent plastic because may over heat and wilt the plants.

Please, post any ideas you may have. I will really appreciate this.

 

[nivek]

It's a good q,, thinking similar myself,, must be a common way,, folks do it all the time. A barrier of some sort, but, maybe a baggie, but needs to be done last second,, on for a day, then off, would obviously require heavy monitoring,, hmmmm

I will be interested to see what y'all come up with,, cheers,,

 

[Weaselcracker]

I don't think plastic will work well because it tends to collect moisture like crazy. I tried isolating a branch in a plastic bag once and it was hopeless.

Last time I pollinated a plant I put the male in a separate room under a cfl just before it was about to start opening it's flowers, then collected pollen in a container and applied it with a paintbrush. I still pollinated a much larger area than I intended. I wasn't being super careful not to though. I wasn't sure my pollination would work at all, so I went a little overboard.
Not very helpful info in your situation, I realize...
Besides the unwanted comment about plastic probably not working well, I wanted to mention that, while I haven't purposely made a plant grow nanners with CS, I have had plenty of nanners in the past. They aren't nearly as generous with their pollen as male plants are. I'm thinking that with a little timing you could either-
-Wait till Nanny is almost showing flowers, then isolate her for a few days or a week or more under some cfls and collect pollen, and/or
-Just go ahead and let her grow nanners, without letting her get too extremely carried away in the nanner growing department before chopping her or chopping off the nannery part, and pollinate the ones you want. Yes you're going to get some seeds in all the plants, but it's not going to be extreme.

I grew a strain for several years which would always produce nanners about 2/3 of the way through flowering. I got seeds, but it wasn't all that many. If you keep the nanners low in number and try to hand pollinate the chosen girls, you'll get a few seeds everywhere, but not the way you would with a male in the room.

Take that with a grain of salt because, like said, I haven't tried CS yet, so I don't know what you're going to get. I tend to think you'll manage fine, especially if you don't get too carried away spraying large areas with it.

 

[Tead]

Would a small bag made of some sort of white cotton fabric work? It might allow enough light to pass thru while keeping the pollen in.

Just a random thought.

 

[nivek]

A cloth baggie might make retrieving the pollen a bit difficult,, but a good thought,,, cheers

 

[Tead]

OH! White silk might work.

 

[nivek]

hey,, there ya go,, great idea,, i think there is merit there reps for that one pal,, cheers

 

[uptheholler2]

Are we talking large plants or are they of manageable size? If they are smaller I'd say no more than 3-4 feet then you can lolypop the male to4main branches. Then monitor the development of the male flowers. This must be done closely by inspecting each top a couple of times a day. As they approach the point where they are going to be opening go to a local grocery or Walmart and buy a pack of the white treat or candy type bags. By getting the white ones the plant's tops will continue to develop and you will be able to see the pollen as it is released into the bag. Place the bag over the tops and carefully fold then tape or tie them using twist ties or zip ties securely around the stems. Trim the rest of the flowering nodes below the bags to ensure that the exposed portion of the branch will not pollenate plants that you don't want to cross. This will stress the plant some but it will continue to flower and in some cases it will speed up the process. After a few days you will have collected pollen in each of the bags. Then simply return to the room and cut each stem below where you tied the bags.
Take the bags containing the flowering tops out of your grow chamber and remove the ties. Now shake each top in the bag to release the rest of the developed pollen. You will be able to see the pollen in the bag because it is white. Now remove the tops from the bag. Kill all air circulation in your room. Take the individual branches that you want to pollenate and bend them slightly to allow you to place one top into each of the bags that you used to collect the pollen in. If you didn't collect enough pollen in one bag you can combine bags to get a decent amount...but it really doesn't take much to do the trick! Now again carefully close the bag around the stem. Take care not to push the bag from the outside or you can get a small "Puff" release of loose pollen into your room. Now tie the bag around the stem that you want to fertilize. Again secure tightly with tape or a zip tie. Make certain not to tie it so tightly that you damage the stem. I leave them on for about 24 to 36 hours and at least on dark cycle period. I then lightly flick the bag a couple of times as I bend the stem slightly downward to knock any loose pollen back into the bag and untie it and remove it from the stem and the room. If done properly and with care you will end up with individual stems that have been pollenated leaving the rest of the plant seed free. I have even used this method to make multiple variety crosses on the same female at the same time. Best of luck in all you grow!

 

[paganini]

Thank Uptheholler2. Good recommendations here but yours is so far the best. btw, I am growing in soil for now while practiced with DWC. As of now I have 8 small indicas ready for flowering soon. Just waiting for some colloidal silver because I ran out to silver wands. I also have 5 excellent cuttings in DWC that are doing out of this world. Also one cutting that I stuck in a empty spot I had and to my surprise it is still alive even no roots showing but only has been 5 days but still lives.

 

[Dreamofgreen]

could make a wall with reflectix insulation or plastex.

 

[paganini]

Well, to tell you guys the truth, I had 10 plants started, five hydro and 5 soil. They got so big I had to just leave the 5 hydros indoors and made a hidden place for the other soil ones in the back yard. I kept spraying the two branches from the soil one I started to spray about a month ago. I was just about going to give up because nothing ever happened so three days ago these two branches are popping male and female flowers all together. But the rest of the plant is flowering females.

My question is, should I use the male pollen with a different plant or is it alright to do it to the same plant on the female flowers. The only thing I am worried about is that with in the same plant they may end up hermaphrodites.

 

[Dreamofgreen]

i'm not sure, but i believe breeders usually use female pollen on a different plant because they feel it decreases hermi trait.

 

[paganini]

AS soon as the flowers begin to open releasing the pollen, then I will cut the two branches and keep an in a plastic bag. I will then shake some on a different plant of the same kind which is DR KRIPPLING. I also want to cross it with a very nice HOLY GRAIL SAM SARA female I have. This way I will have pure DR KRIPPLING female seeds and DR KRIPPLING/HOLY GRAIL SAM SARA female seeds for next garden.

Any pointers please write.

 

[Weaselcracker]

The last time I pollinated, it was an afterthought. I chopped a male that was showing flowers but not opened up yet, and tossed it. Next day I decided to retrieve a couple branches. I put them in a separate room in my house, in a jar under a cfl on a 12/12 timer. The branches continued to grow a little and the flowers opened up to release pollen, which I collected and applied with a brush.
No sure if this helps in your case- but it was an easy way to separate the male without having to put much work into it.
My only advice is- it hardly takes any pollen to make a hell of a lot of seeds. A few taps of the brush turned a large plant into a seed farm- along with some branches of neighboring plants as well.

 

[paganini]

I am well aware of that. A reason I am cutting the two branches because I just want some to get fem seeds, not want to end up cleaning seeds like the old days.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah it is a bit nostalgic. Makes me want to dig out a record album cover to roll the stuff on.

 

[paganini]

lol, I know. That was the only way those days.