Timing-Producing Feminized Seeds Using Colloidal Silver

Granny420;1431541 said:

Trying to get my *happy* tears to quit so I can see to type!!! What an honor Sisco bestowed upon me. I would love to earn the honor of Member of the Month - but there are always so many wonderful growers that I won't be disappointed if I don't get it. Being nominated alone is such a GREAT HONOR. just isn't enough.

Now... I've blown my nose a ton of times... and will continue to today's update...

UPDATE: AUTO CREAM CARAMEL AND AUTO BLUEBERRY

LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!! AND ?IF ANY SEEDS?

AND...
UPDATE: COLLECTING POLLEN FROM TREATED PLANTS
AND SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE POLLEN SACS

I planted 2 seeds of each of these strains (all I had of each) at the same time (Oct 5th) = MISTAKE for auto strains! My intentions with these two strains were to turn one and pollinate the other. This works wonderfully with regular strains where you can keep vegging the female in waiting for a few more weeks, but doesn't work worth diddly with auto strains! The CS treatment slows the treated plant down and both the waiting females were finishing before the pollen was viable.

I treated the entire plant on these two strains for 3.5 weeks.

Here is a pic of both plants TODAY...

The tops may look a bit lacking because in my attempts to collect viable pollen, I took most or all of them. I also took a couple side branches from the CC... but in the end, these plants did not produce pollen in time for me to pollinate the same-strain females waiting for the pollen. I have collected and frozen these strain's pollen in case I wish to use it in the future (would need to purchase another seed of each). And I did use the Auto Cream Caramel to cross-pollinate a couple branches on the Purple Auto Blue Himalaya I have going.

Here is a pic of the Auto Blueberry from a couple weeks ago when I thought maybe this bud was forming seeds...

These plants (CC and BB) continued to shoot out new pistils/hairs, so I thought maybe they would just self-pollinate... but I sprayed these plants almost 4 weeks and turned them real good.

Here is a pic of lower portion of the Auto Blueberry TODAY...

She is so very short and thick that I can't even see into it! But when you look closer at what I *thought* might be seed pods a few weeks ago... no, they are not. This plant just continues to shoot out pollen sacs as you can see below...

Even the 2 at the top that you might think are seeds in a pod - NO. They have nanas inside that you can kind of see poking out the top - they just haven't aged and opened yet.
A couple more pics of the Auto Blueberry sacs TODAY...

So, I have no idea if there will be a single seed within this plant. I am leaving it go in the hopes that maybe it's preflowers have a chance... but don't have a clue cuz this lil hummer is so dense. I can't believe an auto flowering plant would continue to grow on this long!!!

Next, we will move on to the Auto Cream Caramel which I did the exact same things with. First, here is a link to an Auto Cream Caramel update which includes pics from the start to the day I quit spraying to 9 days after I quit spraying.

My ONLY hope for seeds from the Auto Cream Caramel (and auto BB) are in the preflowers, as shown in this next pic... I have no idea if I will get a couple seeds from them or not... only time will let me know and it's the ONLY reason these plants are still alive! I will update in the end and let you know if I got any seeds from them...

Again with this plant, as you look at everything else it's STILL putting out pollen sacs! Below are two pics from TODAY of the pollen sacs and what they are doing...

WANT VIABLE POLLEN THE FIRST TIME? WAIT TO TAKE THE SACS UNTIL THEY OPEN PARTIALLY AND ARE TURNING COLORS. AS SOMEONE SAID RECENTLY - THE SACS SHOULD REMOVE WITHOUT HAVING TO PULL ON THEM. They will pretty much fall off as you use your tweezers to pull them - these are much more likely to contain viable pollen.

The hardest part so far to me has been to recognize WHEN to take the pollen sacs. I experimented with the timing on many plants and these recommendations are from that experience. When I tried to take them when they were open/cracked, but still green to yellowish/green - the pollen did NOT pollinate the buds. So I would wait and try again a few days later.

All this testing led to a lot of wasted time. If you don't want to waste your time - wait until the sacs are changing colors to a brownish, dying type color.

I tried to highlight this in the next 2 images which are just repeats of the above pics, but with circles showing sacs which will be the most likely to contain VIABLE pollen...

I did not highlight every single sac that is most likely viable - but wanted to point out the color differences so you get the idea and feel confident in what you are doing and looking at.

After I remove the pollen sacs, I place them in a small one ounce plastic container and sit it in a cool, dark, dry place for 2 days so the sacs can dry. When fresh, I don't usually see pollen in the container - but after drying for 2 days, I smash the sacs a bit with the tip of my tweezers, put the lid back on the container, and then shake it. This makes the dried pollen adhere all over the inside of my plastic container.

If I am freezing the pollen to use later, I add a bit of rice kernels to the container, and then place this entire container inside a glass jar, seal it and freeze it. If you want to use the pollen more than once, freeze it in separate containers because it dies very quickly once removed from the freezer. Again, pollen KILLERS: Light. Heat. Moisture.

If I am using the pollen, I slide a fresh q-tip along the inside of the container where the pollen is adhered, taking care to only collect pollen and not sacs, then I tap the q-tip over the bud I am pollinating and watch it flow onto the bud top (make sure you are in good light).

SUMMARY OF LEARNING EXPERIENCE: It does NOT work to start AUTO seeds at the same time if you are using a separate plant to pollinate. Or, better yet - do it all on one plant and just spray the bottom half of the plant! That worked wonderfully!!!

Last, I want to discuss a few notable differences between male pollen sacs and female pollen sacs. In this statement, I simply mean to call them this to distinguish what sex the plant was that they came from.

MALE VS FEMALE POLLEN SACS
I have only had ONE plant that I turned that actually "SHED" it's pollen - it was the Auto Himalaya Blue Diesel which had the bottom only treated. And for anyone thinking I just didn't keep it long enough - the plants I picture above are STILL going and have yet to shed anything I can see. I can tap on these plants all I want and I see NOTHING shed. If anything falls, it is either the entire sac or a nana - not visable pollen.

My experience with males is that they get ready pretty darn fast and they shed like crazy. I have one male Papaya I kept just in case I needed it's pollen in the end. I collected it's pollen yesterday - but first took these pics...

Here is/was the MALE Papaya yesterday...

When I entered the room after only 2 days of not looking at it, I could clearly see it was shedding. I took this pic before ever disturbing anything on this plant...

The above pic is blurry - but it clearly shows the shed pollen on the leaf.

In the next pic, I had evidently disturbed the plant a bit while taking the pics...

But you can still see pollen has shed onto stems and leaves.

ONLY ONE of my CS treated plants has shed like this (auto Himalaya Blue Diesel). ONLY one plant has shown me visible pollen when I took the sac from the plant (same plant). I took pictures of that one and entered it into this journal earlier.

But NO other plants have done this for me. Even when I remove browned sacs - they have not shed easily. I can shake the container and a little pollen comes out occasionally (usually none when fresh tho)... and I can smash them when freshly picked and still only a little pollen comes out. A whole LOT comes out after I let them dry 2 days, smash, and then shake. The dried pollen also releases easily onto the waiting bud, where as the fresh seems to be moister and doesn't want to shed onto the waiting bud.

There is a definite difference on how most female pollen sacs release their pollen vs a male pollen sac releasing. The inner "nanas" inside a female pollen sac contain much of the pollen, but they do not seem to "open" in the same manner as a male. Please be aware of this cuz if you think you will simply wait for them to shed - you may have a very long wait!

Okay... that is it out of me for today. I took way longer than I intended - probably cuz of how windy I am! I needed to get this update in here tho for anyone (like the good doc) who is in the middle of this treatment process. Hopefully it will help others recognize when to take the sacs - that was sure a challenge for me!

Dangit - I have a couple things to look up here and then I have to git to bookwork!!!!

LOVIES TO EVERYONE!!!

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