How to Use Colloidal Silver to Produce Feminized Seeds

Granny420

Well-Known Member
Since professional growers produce feminized seeds, I decided to research how they did it. There were a few different ways suggested, but the one that interested me the most was using colloidal silver. Some articles said this is the main way seed growers develop feminized seeds and/or "self" the plant.

HOW TO USE COLLOIDAL SILVER TO PRODUCE FEMINIZED SEEDS

A very basic description of colloidal silver and it's actions: It is a solution of pure silver particles suspended in distilled water. It is often taken orally for health benefits (easy to purchase). When used on marijuana plants, it inhibits ethylene production needed (and normally produced) by the plant to produce female flowers, thus forcing the plant to produce male pollen sacs instead. Since there are no male chromosomes, the pollen is female (listed in many places as 99.99% female) and will produce female seeds.

CAUTION: First be completely aware that any part of a plant that you spray with colloidal silver IS NOT SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION (smoking or ingesting). The pollen created is completely safe to use and all seeds created with that pollen are safe.

BE SAFE!!! For this reason, I highly recommend using a complete plant (small clone or plant) to produce your pollen. Separate this plant from all other plants so you do not get colloidal silver spray on any consumable plants.

What you will need:

1) Colloidal Silver (CS) Spray (at least 40 ppm and pure - not too strong either!) and a spray bottle. I purchased Bio-Silver Ultra Colloidal Silver 50 ppm online and it worked.

2) One female plant to turn male. From seed or clone doesn't matter - but it should be the best looking female with all the characteristics that matter to you, since it will be used as a parent for your seeds. This can be a small plant in a small pot.

3) One female plant to pollinate. You can pollinate just a few flowers on a branch (do not use bottom flowers because they may not produce finished seeds), an entire branch, or the entire plant.

The day before you change your light cycle to 12/12, you will begin to thoroughly mist all new growth areas with the CS spray on the plant you wish to turn male. Repeat this at least once daily until you see male pods forming (use magnifying glass to watch closely - approximately 10 to 21 days). If the plant begins developing flowers quickly (as with auto-flowering strains), spray 2 to 3 times daily (dependent upon the plant's tolerance of the solution) until you see male pollen sacs forming where female flowers were developing). Once daily is the recommendation unless otherwise needed. Be sure to store your CS in a dark place between uses as light can degrade the CS solution. AND REMEMBER TO AVOID SPRAY TOUCHING CONSUMABLE PLANTS!!!

Once you are sure male sacs are developing, separate this male plant from your females to avoid accidental pollination. I simply took my female-turned-male plant to a different room with no air movement and let it survive on window light. A closet with a CFL would do nicely too. Heat and moisture are pollen killers, so avoid hot or moist areas.

Once male sacs begin to develop on the plant, it will be a bit of time before the majority of the sacs open to release pollen. With the auto strain I did, it was about 2 weeks, but this time varies with different strains. Don't disturb this plant (no air flow) and simply wait for numerous pollen sacs to open. Even the slightest air draft carries the pollen adrift... but it also makes it so very easy to collect too! When numerous pollen sacs are open, a gentle tap makes the pollen easy to collect on any clean smooth surface like glass or a mirror. It will be slightly yellowish in color. Use immediately, or dry and freeze for later use.

Need I say it is very important to change clothes and wash yourself completely before re-entering your flowering room!!! Pollen is very small and clings to clothing, hair, etc very easily.

Now, if you prepared ahead, you will also have a female plant flowering very nicely by the time you have your pollen. Isolate the plant, or branch, and pollinate. This info isn't geared towards detailed pollination methods, so please check other sources for that information. I used a Q-tip and tapped it gently over the flowers I wanted to pollinate.

Allow the female plant (or branch) adequate time to finish producing viable seed. If you take her early, your seeds will not be viable. The time needed for viable seeds varies with different strains and can range from 3 to 6 weeks with an average of 4 to 5 weeks.

Wah-lah... you now have feminized seeds... at least that's what the info said SHOULD happen!
***************

Last... my own experience...

Before deciding to try colloidal silver, I had already purchased 10 regular (not feminized) auto-flowering seeds because I wanted to be able to have male pollen to use to create my own seeds. After planting those seeds, I got to reading about CS and decided to try this too.

Nine out of ten seeds came up. My biggest concerns were that I couldn't simply start spraying the day before light change because I didn't have feminized seeds and the strain is auto-flowering. I knew I would have to wait until the plants showed their sex and worried it wouldn't work because I couldn't start it soon enough and autoflowering plants go direct into flowering once they preflower.

I ended up with 5 females and 4 males. I watched closely for preflowers and identified the females as quickly as I could. I saved the two best males in case the CS didn't work. I did find out it is very easy to collect pollen with those first males... and I did pollinate a female just to assure I would have seeds and the CS procedure wasn't finished by the time the true males pollen was.

I took the largest and best looking female and began to spray her once daily as soon as she clearly showed preflowers. But since this is an auto flowering plant, she began to grow small hairy flowers in the first few days. I increased to spraying the new growth areas (basically small flowers beginning in all nodes) to 2 to 3 times daily for the next 10 days, but this solution is pretty hard on the plant. When I began to feel I was seeing changes (looking at thru 20x magnifying glass), I decreased to once daily again for the remainder of the 21 days it took to have this lil lady turn male.

She put up a good fight. She kept shooting out hairs everywhere and I kept spraying them, which ultimately killed them and turned those female pods into male sacs. I am not at all concerned about hermie traits because she was definitely all girl being forced to grow balls. But balls she did grow in the end! I will also say, her leaves were shriveled pretty bad and her growth was definitely stunted with this procedure - but she ended up giving me all the pollen I would ever need for this strain.

Since it worked with an auto-flowering strain, I have now taken 2 clones from each of the non-auto strains I have vegging (I prefer pure strains, not cross-strains). I will use one to create a small male and the other as a small female to flower. Won't need to put them in anything but small pots, won't take up too much room, can remove from the room easily for safe pollination... and will sure give me nice returns with pure strains seeds I can pop anytime I want!!!

I hope others find this useful too - because I am in no way a professional!! If I can do it, so can others!
 
Great work Granny!! +Reps from me as well. Thank you for all the hard work you put into the experiment, and then for the great post!
 
:thanks: SteveHman
:thanks: Quixilver
:thanks: Twelve12
and :thanks: my wonderful Siscokid! I LOVE YOU HONEY!!!

I do hope others are interested in this subject and promise to give a full photo review from start to finish in a few months... cuz I now have a camera again and am just preparing to start spraying a number of strains.


I am back to add pictures of the auto flowering Blue Himalaya female-turned-male at the time of taking pollen and pollinating the female. I found that this plant didn't want to release her pollen quite as easily as the regular male plants did. The auto Blue Himalaya female ready for pollen needed pollinated NOW in order to be able to produce viable seed, so I took the pollen in the manner described below.

The female plant I chose to use CS (colloidal spray) on was the largest of the auto BH I had. However, she was also started good in flower and took a bit to turn. In the end, it took 3 weeks and her growth was pretty much stunted to the height she was when I began and her leaves curled a lot. However, all I wanted from her was female pollen so I could produce female seeds.

Here are a couple pictures of the female pollen sacs produced on the plant.
This is the top of the plant.
TopSacs.jpg


And a lower node area...
MiddleSacs.jpg


And a close up of the top sacs...
CloseUpSacs.jpg


On the 21st (4 days ago), I removed a few of those fresh female pollen sacs to see if I could just dry them, crush them, and collect enough pollen to pollinate the female that is rushing me to get her pollinated. It worked, so today I am harvesting the remainder of the plant to dry and then freeze in case I need to use it later.

But for now, to continue... I removed the female pollen sacs and placed them in a 1 ounce container to dry. The next pic is of the fresh I cut today...
SacsRemoved.jpg


Below is pictured female pollen sacs that I dried for 2 days, then crushed in the right container, then removed the larger debris and placed it in the left container. Inserted in this image is also the paint brush I used to apply the pollen when pollinating the female.
DriedSacsCrushed-PollenCollects.jpg


A closer image of the inside of the 1 ounce cup shows the pollen stuck on the sides and bottom of the container...
PollenVisableAndInsideTheseContents.jpg

In the picture above, you can also see a number of small, curly-leafy looking sac parts. These are located INSIDE the pollen sacs. When you uncurl these small structures, pollen is located inside of them. It may be located in other parts of the pollen sac also, but these small curly structures when uncurled will release a bit of pollen. Of course, I didn't take the time to uncurl them, I just crushed the dried debris and got plenty of pollen to pollinate my female (much faster).

Which brings us to the female auto BH I pollinated.
FemalePollinated.jpg


I pollinated this lady a few days ago (as described above) and within a day I began seeing changes in her flowers. I couldn't get the best images, but here are a couple close ups that I hoped would show those changes...

FemalePollinatedCloseUp.jpg

The above image had too much light, but it does show the flower tops are beginning to change shape, with seed pods forming. The white hairy pistels that were live and thriving when I pollinated a few days ago have turned brown and there are obvious changes from before pollination. I will do better with pictures after my next round (have a camera again!).

The next image came out blurry and odd colored, but it better shows the shape changes in the flower tops. It definitely got pollinated.
FemalePollinatedCloseUpShape.jpg


I know, that isn't a very good image - but it highlighted the shape and that was my point!

Okay... I am also going to begin spraying a number of different strains (auto and non-auto) and I will return with images from start to finish with this round. I won't upload them for a few months - but do promise to give a good photo description from start to finish.

:thanks: To any and all who are interested in this subject! I sure am learning - and it just isn't that hard to do!

:love::love::love::love::love:LUVIES TO ALL!!!:love::love::love::love::love:
 
The next image came out blurry and odd colored, but it better shows the shape changes in the flower tops. It definitely got pollinated.
FemalePollinatedCloseUpShape.jpg


I know, that isn't a very good image - but it highlighted the shape and that was my point!

Camera/Photography pointer:

Try seeing if there is a "Macro" setting. That setting lets you focus closer to the subject with amazing clarity, and less distortion of light and color balance. I used it to do some closeups of the areas where pre-preflower growths had formed on "The Wonder Twins" <---Click for example.

You can clearly see even the little hairs. hehe, all the hairs actually made the picture look blurry at the focal point but I assure you the camera showed perfect clarity when the shutter snapped.
---------------End of Camera/Photography pointer---------------
 
Camera/Photography pointer:

Try seeing if there is a "Macro" setting. That setting lets you focus closer to the subject with amazing clarity, and less distortion of light and color balance. I used it to do some closeups of the areas where pre-preflower growths had formed on "The Wonder Twins" <---Click for example.

You can clearly see even the little hairs. hehe, all the hairs actually made the picture look blurry at the focal point but I assure you the camera showed perfect clarity when the shutter snapped.
---------------End of Camera/Photography pointer---------------

Thanks jandre2k3! :high-five: Yes, I do know all about the macro setting - have a new camera and having a tough time getting the settings down on it. Here's a couple pics from my 2009 grow... I completely AGREE EVERYONE NEEDS TO FIGURE OUT THEIR MACRO!!! :high-five:
HERE'S WHY...
Nov28-WW4_TrichCloseup.jpg


You can get some really cool trich pics...
Nov28-WW3_TrichCloseup2.jpg


:thanks: Honey - maybe this will inspire others to learn about their macro! I will keep working on figuring my new camera out - or since I finally found my old one, I may just go back to it. It was lost for over a year - until a week after I bought the new one - ugh!! And now I have forgotten how to change the light setting to get better pics under HPS ... so I will be reviewing it too!
 
Thanks jandre2k3! :high-five: Yes, I do know all about the macro setting - have a new camera and having a tough time getting the settings down on it. Here's a couple pics from my 2009 grow... I completely AGREE EVERYONE NEEDS TO FIGURE OUT THEIR MACRO!!!:high-five:

Them'r some beautimus pics ya got there! Yeah, the older cameras were changed to macro my switching the lenses (macro, micro, wide or fisheye, portrait, zoom, telephoto, and so on) and didn't really have a macro setting. You also had to play around with aperture, exposure, and f-stop to get the lighting, white balance, and color correct. And then take the film to get developed and printed. I used to take 5 or 6 35mm rolls a week to the photo-mat. I miss my 35mm SLR. Digital cameras have lots of pluses, but these now don't have my favorite setting "B". Oh my gawd, I loved that setting in Texas for the t-storms. I controlled with my little squeeze bulb when the shutter closed again after it opened for a shot. I did find *one* dSLR that had it...1200 bucks.

:thanks: Honey - maybe this will inspire others to learn about their macro! I will keep working on figuring my new camera out - or since I finally found my old one, I may just go back to it. It was lost for over a year - until a week after I bought the new one - ugh!! And now I have forgotten how to change the light setting to get better pics under HPS ... so I will be reviewing it too!

Isn't that always the way, you give up looking for something, replace it, and the universe, the fairies, the poltergeists, what have you, love to tease you by suddenly giving the one you searched endlessly for, but could never find. To top in off, you find it in a place you're *sure* you looked before. But only after you've gotten another of the thing you thought you had lost.
 
Them'r some beautimus pics ya got there! Yeah, the older cameras were changed to macro my switching the lenses (macro, micro, wide or fisheye, portrait, zoom, telephoto, and so on) and didn't really have a macro setting. You also had to play around with aperture, exposure, and f-stop to get the lighting, white balance, and color correct. And then take the film to get developed and printed. I used to take 5 or 6 35mm rolls a week to the photo-mat. I miss my 35mm SLR. Digital cameras have lots of pluses, but these now don't have my favorite setting "B". Oh my gawd, I loved that setting in Texas for the t-storms. I controlled with my little squeeze bulb when the shutter closed again after it opened for a shot. I did find *one* dSLR that had it...1200 bucks.



Isn't that always the way, you give up looking for something, replace it, and the universe, the fairies, the poltergeists, what have you, love to tease you by suddenly giving the one you searched endlessly for, but could never find. To top in off, you find it in a place you're *sure* you looked before. But only after you've gotten another of the thing you thought you had lost.

I can't wait to see future pics in your journals!!! It sounds like you have great experience!

I am forever "forgetting" things! My short term memory is going very quickly... it's hell to get old!!!!! Often I go to get something and when I get to where I am supposed to get it - I forget what I came to get! Usually I stand there for a minute looking around and see what it was I came to get... but occasionally I just have to continue with my day until I remember what it was again!

Wanted to add a link to this entry of mine...

I started a journal on this subject if anyone is interested:
Here is the link (also in my signature):
Producing Feminized Seeds Using Colloidal Silver (2011): How to make your own feminized seeds from auto-flowering or non-auto strains.

The above journal will take me from start to finish with multiple auto-flowering strains and non-auto (regular) strains. Among them:
Auto-flowering
Cream Caramel
Blueberry
Himalayan Blue Diesel
Kush
Widow Ryder

Non-Auto (Regular) Strains
Ladyburn
Vanilla Kush
Mataro Blue
Red Dragon
Pineapple Chunk

The above non-auto strains were sure gorgeous in my outside grow this last year. Inside, they won't be near as big tho! Below is a pic of ONE Pineapple Chunk plant the month before harvest (highlighted with a gray circle outlining it)...
OutsideGirls.jpg


That was one big bushy plant!!! I want to be able to produce my own feminized seeds so if I like a strain, I can make my own seeds and pop them when I want rather than constantly having to clone.

If anyone else is interested in doing this too... visit my journal to follow along with how to do this. Hope to see ya there! :high-five:
 
...I am forever "forgetting" things! My short term memory is going very quickly... it's hell to get old!!!!! Often I go to get something and when I get to where I am supposed to get it - I forget what I came to get! Usually I stand there for a minute looking around and see what it was I came to get... but occasionally I just have to continue with my day until I remember what it was again!

I find when that happens, that when I slowly walk back to where I was, the thing I forgot comes back. Like it fell out of my mind back in the other room, and I just have to re-enter that room to pick it up again.



Speaking of short-term memory........ wait what was I saying?
 
It is often taken orally for health benefits (easy to purchase).

.....

CAUTION: First be completely aware that any part of a plant that you spray with colloidal silver IS NOT SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION (smoking or ingesting).

What is your basis of this last statement when it is well known (and as you stated first) that people take it for health benefits? I personally nebulize CS to prevent colds or illness and would drink small amounts of it if needed.
 
What is your basis of this last statement when it is well known (and as you stated first) that people take it for health benefits? I personally nebulize CS to prevent colds or illness and would drink small amounts of it if needed.

:high-five: Hi honey!

I based the safety statement upon the research I did which ALL stated not to consume the treated plant parts. I have NO expertise with colloidal silver, but someone responded to this question in my Colloidal Silver Journal where I am completing this entire CS procedure and including pics from beginning to end. What was said for this question, was that some chemicals are safe to ingest orally, but by "burning" them that gases may be produced that are not safe to inhale. This IS true for a lot of chemicals because their chemical status undergo changes when burned. I thought this made sense... but as I said, I have NO expertise for the why.

I guess the treated parts are what grow the female pollen sacs, so you wouldn't be interested in smoking that material anyway.

For me, I'm going to heed the safety warning and repeat it because I sure don't want to risk my, or anyone else's, health. But it does seem that there are a ton of uses for CS in every day life! I had some cream once that had silver in it - worked absolute wonders on healing my injury.

If anyone else has any questions about this CS information, please visit the ongoing journal linked above because I don't monitor this article so I probably won't give an answer in a timely manner - SORRY!!!! There is already a lot of info in the journal and you will find pictures of the process that may be helpful. :)
 
Granny-

:thanks: for the great info.

:welldone:

Regarding colloidal silver and consumption of treated plant material-


Looking at those treated plants- do YOU really want to consume them? I don't usually partake of any products containing male flowers, or anything that looks that generally unhappy. It's not just inhibition of ethylene that makes for the gender switch, it's overall stress- the plant is generally poisoned. (I am personally unaware of the evidence for ethylene being required for female flowers in cannabis- but it does do lots of things- mostly bad- to plants!) And it is well-known that stress causes gender switches in many, many organisms, including canna. Heat/drought/etc. would do this too, but it's less convenient to nearly kill the plant that way than this way. Now onto the matter of silver itself

Let me say that my professional training includes a Ph.D. in molecular biology, and that includes lots of biochem and related stuff. My opinion (which is just that- an opinion), it's based on lots of background in the field in general. And I have done research (library, not lab) regarding antimicrobial/toxicity properties of silver in particular for a project about 3 years back. For those so inclined, a summary from Oak Ridge Nat'l. Labs can be found
cira _dot_ ornl_dot_gov/documents/SILVER_dot_pdf
(replace "_dot_" with a period...)
and the EPA listing (including toxic doses etc.) is at
www_dot_ epa_dot_ gov/IRIS/subst/0099_dot_ htm

While silver IS in every sense a toxic heavy metal (as is copper, lead, mercury, etc), animals are pretty resistant to it in general. If this were not true, people wouldn't eat from silver forks/spoons/etc. Some people are even said to have been born with silver spoons in their mouths!! :skeptical:

And at least some people DO regularly consume small, but measurable, amounts of silver without apparent toxicity, like silver colloids.

The stuff is much more toxic to other organisms than us animals. In people, dogs, etc., it accumulates not as methyl-silver or some other nasty reaction product (methylmercury is the actual poison in mercury poisoning), but as metallic silver. Silver should be pretty harmless if inhaled in the small amounts used here.

Heck, it's even used as an anti-microbial additive to coatings (paint, grout, etc.) for food preparation facilities with full FDA and USDA approval (I know, just cuz it's allowed doesn't mean its actually safe, but here the long historical use of silver plus genu-wine research has shown high relative safety for human consumption and exposure in general).

So I wouldn't put on the hazmat suit or even use gloves for the "granny420 method" described here, and the silver is not why I personally would avoid consuming this plant material. Then again, I also used to ride my bike without a helmet- a far riskier thing than silver exposure- risk is a personal thing. Of course, drinking a big ol' jug of silver nitrate in solution (or other silver compound) will still kill you just as dead as [insert ironic and/or amusing cause of death here].

Chow.

N
 
interesting stuff

Hi :high-five:HonestJohn!:high-five: Yes - interesting. That's what I thought when I read about it... I've turned 8 plants and have 5 more getting within a week, so I'm gonna have a lot of pure strains and all FEMALE SEEDS! Yes - interesting and EASY!!

Great Job!!

+Rep

Hi :love:Wingman!:love: Honey!! :thanks: Actually, I am amazed that it is working so well on EVERY SINGLE plant I've used it on! I saw you wrote in my CS JOURNAL and will visit more there as soon as I have time to catch back up!

Granny-

:thanks: for the great info.

:welldone:

Regarding colloidal silver and consumption of treated plant material-


Looking at those treated plants- do YOU really want to consume them? I don't usually partake of any products containing male flowers, or anything that looks that generally unhappy.

Let me say that my professional training includes a Ph.D. in molecular biology, and that includes lots of biochem and related stuff. My opinion (which is just that- an opinion), it's based on lots of background in the field in general. And I have done research (library, not lab) regarding antimicrobial/toxicity properties of silver in particular for a project about 3 years back.

So I wouldn't put on the hazmat suit or even use gloves for the "granny420 method" described here, and the silver is not why I personally would avoid consuming this plant material. Then again, I also used to ride my bike without a helmet- a far riskier thing than silver exposure- risk is a personal thing. Of course, drinking a big ol' jug of silver nitrate in solution (or other silver compound) will still kill you just as dead as [insert ironic and/or amusing cause of death here].

Chow.

N

Hey :high-five:Norman!:high-five:

:thanks: so much for offering your opinion on silver!!! Ppl do keep asking me why we are not to smoke it and I think you have nailed it - who would want to anyway??? I have pics of CS treated plants in my JOURNAL on this subject - and they look DAMN SAD!!! LOL They are martyrs, putting their life on the line so their strain can live on. But I sure wouldn't want to smoke them!

I may be a granny, but I also ride my own (love my 600 Honda Shadow - although my body doesn't take the miles as easy as it used to)... and I do not wear a helmet unless we are riding in states that require it. I tell those who grumble at me about this (like it is THEIR business, eh?), that if I die riding my motorcycle to please just know I WENT HAPPY!!! :high-five:

:circle-of-love:Good to see you all!!!
:circle-of-love:
 
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