Pollen collection question

[Billpopy79]

I accidentally bought regular seeds a while back, I've been lucky and 4 of the 5 planted have been females.

This time I have a male,


I'm thinking I might try my hand at pollinating a bud, I've done my research and am confident of not ending up pollinating the whole damn tent.
My question is when should I try to harvest a pollen sac?
He's only about 3 weeks above ground, but im not sure when the sacs will be mature enough to harvest pollen.
I do have the male in a separate tent but I'd still rather not wait till the sacs open themselves.

Ant advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[013]

I’ve read 3 weeks after sacs form but idk if that’s right... Maybe do shout out to Pennywise or icemud
anyway gonna bump you back up top & maybe catch more replies

 

[OldMedUser]

If you have a spare closet, timer for 12/12 and any old light like a 23W, 2700K CFL will do just cut off some branches and stick them in a glass of water to hang over some tinfoil to let the pollen fall on. Tehn clean the pollen good and put it in a vial. Then you can use a tiny paint brush or roughed up Q-Tip to dust a few buds on a plant to get some seeds.

Bit more to it than that for pollinating but that's the basics. That brass screen is 180 micron one I use for dry sift kief but works great to clean the pollen fast too.

 

[Billpopy79]

I've separated the male, hes in my seedling tent with a little blurple led,
I was really trying to avoid letting the sacs open naturally as I really don't want pollen floating around , ideally I'd like to cut one off when it's mature, and slice it open,
I will flip it to 12-12 and try and catch them just before they drop.
Thanks

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

I've separated the male, hes in my seedling tent with a little blurple led,
I was really trying to avoid letting the sacs open naturally as I really don't want pollen floating around , ideally I'd like to cut one off when it's mature, and slice it open,
I will flip it to 12-12 and try and catch them just before they drop.
Thanks

I’ve never tried dissecting on like that and I suspect it may not work unless you can time it absolutely perfectly.

They simply won’t be mature enough if you do it too early, and once they’re ready, some others will already have opened. Male flowers have this staggered flowering that’s really tough to time.

The flowers in your picture are definitely male but nowhere near being ready to release pollen. I would wait until at least a few sacs have opened to release pollen, just keep the whole operation in a separate room from the females if possible. I think it should be safe if the male is in a tent.

I’ve done a side by side comparison and actually harvested more pollen by just laying the cut male branches flat on a piece of flat plastic without having them in water.

The flowers dry out, open and release the pollen directly on the plastic without it floating around a bunch. Usually this will take a couple days.

Then I simply pick up the branches and toss them, though I haven’t figured out how to efficiently separate the fallen flowers from the pollen.

Last time, I painstakingly picked them out. I was left with a bunch of yellow pollen powder that I organized with a credit card like a giant pile of coke and dumped it in a jar.

 

[OldMedUser]

I've separated the male, hes in my seedling tent with a little blurple led,
I was really trying to avoid letting the sacs open naturally as I really don't want pollen floating around , ideally I'd like to cut one off when it's mature, and slice it open,
I will flip it to 12-12 and try and catch them just before they drop.
Thanks

I had that flowering male in my bedroom closet with no fan so the pollen doesn't blow around until I go collect it. You can fit everything in a cardboard box then when it's time to collect take it outside. Just the stems in water like cut flowers you give the wife on your anniversary and a little light. Might have to snip the ends off the stems after a week or so if they close up but I've had them like that for a month and got lots of good pollen every time. Easy to contain.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I really don't want pollen floating around

Pollination bags - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Billpopy79]

Pollination bags - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

These could be the answer,
I think I'd feel safer having everything contained in a bag thanks

 

[Emilya Green]

be careful putting the bags on the branch for too long... remember that the leaves do expel moisture. I attached bags onto plants overnight one time, and ended up with a bunch of wet pollen in the bags; and of course, that didn't work.

 

[Billpopy79]

be careful putting the bags on the branch for too long... remember that the leaves do expel moisture. I attached bags onto plants overnight one time, and ended up with a bunch of wet pollen in the bags; and of course, that didn't work.

Great point Em.
I'll maybe chop the leaves off and just leave one.

If I fail to collect any viable pollen I won't cry over it.
If I end up pollinating an entire tent full of female plants it would seriously ruin my day.

Just trying to play it safe.

 

[Emilya Green]

I am about to do this too. I have a couple of male Kosher Daddys out on my back porch, and the little male flowers are starting to open up. After another good watering today and a bit of good strong sun tomorrow, I will chop the main kola off of this bad boy and will take it in the house to lay somewhere quiet and without the wind. I like the foil idea, that will probably work better than my paper or plastic plates.

Once I have the pollen collected, I will put a teaspoon or so of it into a sandwich baggie. I will physically remove one of my females from the upstairs bloom room and walk her downstairs to the back porch mudroom, and once in there, with the inner door closed, I will stick a branch into that baggie and twist tie it closed. Then I will shake and tap that baggie all around, getting that pollen everywhere on that branch inside the bag and I will leave it alone for several hours. Later that evening, I will remove the baggie, seal it in a zip lock and put it in the fridge in case I need it again, and then I will leave her in the mudroom until morning. That next morning, I will will spray that plant down using a misting setting from the garden hose on the back porch to kill any remaining pollen, and then she will be returned to the bloom room. The next day or two, there should be clear signs that the branch had been pollinated, and I have never had to go back and use the sealed up baggie in the fridge again.

I used to add a bit of white flour to the pollen to make it sticky and I would carefully paint the pollen mixture onto individual buds with a small watercolor paintbrush... but I like the baggie method better. It is cleaner and easier to control random pollen, and quite a bit easier to accomplish the dirty deed.

 

[Billpopy79]

I am about to do this too. I have a couple of male Kosher Daddys out on my back porch, and the little male flowers are starting to open up. After another good watering today and a bit of good strong sun tomorrow, I will chop the main kola off of this bad boy and will take it in the house to lay somewhere quiet and without the wind. I like the foil idea, that will probably work better than my paper or plastic plates.

Once I have the pollen collected, I will put a teaspoon or so of it into a sandwich baggie. I will physically remove one of my females from the upstairs bloom room and walk her downstairs to the back porch mudroom, and once in there, with the inner door closed, I will stick a branch into that baggie and twist tie it closed. Then I will shake and tap that baggie all around, getting that pollen everywhere on that branch inside the bag and I will leave it alone for several hours. Later that evening, I will remove the baggie, seal it in a zip lock and put it in the fridge in case I need it again, and then I will leave her in the mudroom until morning. That next morning, I will will spray that plant down using a misting setting from the garden hose on the back porch to kill any remaining pollen, and then she will be returned to the bloom room. The next day or two, there should be clear signs that the branch had been pollinated, and I have never had to go back and use the sealed up baggie in the fridge again.

I used to add a bit of white flour to the pollen to make it sticky and I would carefully paint the pollen mixture onto individual buds with a small watercolor paintbrush... but I like the baggie method better. It is cleaner and easier to control random pollen, and quite a bit easier to accomplish the dirty deed.

I like the sound of this method,
Thanks for the detailed info as always.

So I'm assuming the morning after spray down is to stop pollen spreading when she's returned to the bloom room and not to cool her off after being a dirty stop out.

Will you be documenting in your journal?
It would be so helpful to see the actual process.

 

[OldMedUser]

be careful putting the bags on the branch for too long... remember that the leaves do expel moisture. I attached bags onto plants overnight one time, and ended up with a bunch of wet pollen in the bags; and of course, that didn't work.

Years ago I took a long liquor store paper bag and cut a piece out and taped in a plastic window. Then cut off all the branches 'cept one from a 4' male in the grow room and used twist ties to seal to the stem. The paper lets the moisture out but keeps the pollen in. Once the thing finished flowering just cut off the branch and took it away to collect the pollen. Not a seed on any of the girl plants that were flowering in the same room.

 

[Emilya Green]

I like the sound of this method,
Thanks for the detailed info as always.

So I'm assuming the morning after spray down is to stop pollen spreading when she's returned to the bloom room and not to cool her off after being a dirty stop out.

Will you be documenting in your journal?
It would be so helpful to see the actual process.

Yes, I will document it in my Kosher Daddy journal with some pictures and descriptions... I am using this time to train my young apprentice how this process works. Not only am I gaining a personally trained helper in my gardens for the next few years, but I am also helping this young man prepare for an eventual career here in the emerging Missouri cannabis economy.

 

[TorturedSoul]

be careful putting the bags on the branch for too long... remember that the leaves do expel moisture. I attached bags onto plants overnight one time, and ended up with a bunch of wet pollen in the bags; and of course, that didn't work.

Some pollen collection bags are breathable, vapor permeable, et cetera. Depends on the material of the brand you choose.