Pollen threat exaggerated?

[Grandma Weedstein]

So this is my first year growing but I was enthused enough to try my hand at half-assed breeding. I collected pollen from a male that I grew indoors, stored in a jar, brushed a generous amount onto outdoor colas and — results have been underwhelming.
The way people always talked about pollen, I figured these colas would be bursting with seed. They’ve got some, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hardly like they’ve overtaken the cola and made the bud unusable.
I wonder sometimes if all the concerns about slight amounts of leftover pollen in grow tent or whatever aren’t overblown. Even outdoor cross-pollination doesn’t seem like it would be that huge of a problem — sure the pollen can travel a long distance, but now I’m doubting there would be enough of it to really fuck up a plant.
That said, I am just a newbie and my experience might not be representative of what people have seen out there. So basically, I’m wondering what kind of experiences other people had with both voluntary and involuntary pollination and the factors that might have affected seed development...
I’m attaching a photo of some seeds I picked out of a cola the other day (had to chop it due to bud rot).

 

[Dusted]

Unfortunately pollen degrades fairly rapidly. You did pretty well for your first attempt. Fresh pollen is most potent

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

Unfortunately pollen degrades fairly rapidly. You did pretty well for your first attempt. Fresh pollen is most potent

Yeah, I had a female in the tent with the indoor male and she actually did get totally overwhelmed with seed. Like, zero normal bud, just thin calyxes covering clusters of seeds.

I figured that was because they were forced together in such a cramped space, he kept releasing pollen non-stop, and her pistils were pollinated as soon as they appeared.

From now on, I think I am going to do dedicated seed runs instead of collecting, storing and brushing. Also, any thoughts about seed maturity in cold weather? I’m trying to keep the pollinated outdoor colas outside as long as possible before chopping but I’m wondering if it’s worth it with the constant frosts and bud rot we’re seeing in Oregon.

Would seed continue maturing after I chop the plant and start drying it? I’m guessing it won’t, but maybe folks know better...

Here are the mature seeds I got from the female in the tent, as well as a shitload of immature ones. (She got burned and died from a homemade fungicide I sprayed).

 

[Remystemple]

Yeah, I had a female in the tent with the indoor male and she actually did get totally overwhelmed with seed. Like, zero normal bud, just thin calyxes covering clusters of seeds.

I figured that was because they were forced together in such a cramped space, he kept releasing pollen non-stop, and her pistils were pollinated as soon as they appeared.

From now on, I think I am going to do dedicated seed runs instead of collecting, storing and brushing. Also, any thoughts about seed maturity in cold weather? I’m trying to keep the pollinated outdoor colas outside as long as possible before chopping but I’m wondering if it’s worth it with the constant frosts and bud rot we’re seeing in Oregon.

Would seed continue maturing after I chop the plant and start drying it? I’m guessing it won’t, but maybe folks know better...

Here are the mature seeds I got from the female in the tent, as well as a shitload of immature ones. (She got burned and died from a homemade fungicide I sprayed).

that's beautiful. I'm trying my hand at colloidal silver spray and hoping to see sacs within a week. I'm doing 4 strains tho so i'm gonna collect the pollen and apply it to the mother plants the clones were taken from.

Any tips?

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Where did u keep the pollen? And how?

Plus did it rain outside...rain+pollen= nada

 

[Emilya Green]

When I am doing a seed run, I take several precautions because I have seen the result of being careless. I have always moved the male off into another room, and nowadays he gets his own self contained tent, but in the early days I wasn't careful and just took a plant I wanted to pollinate in to sit with him for a few days. That worked, and I got a lot of seeds from that plant, but I noticed that I got random seeds in the plants next to that one once I returned her to the tent.
I tried spraying down the plant before returning it, but I still got a random seed here and there... not too many, but I didn't like it. Somehow some of that pollen followed me, probably on my hair and clothing, and it found its way to waiting pistils in the bloom tent.
Then I started being very careful, made sure none was on me, all fans were off... and finally I got a handle on it. Free fresh pollen is very easily transported and just by touching your plants you can pollinate them if you come from a room that had pollen flying about... it just takes one particle floating around and there will be a few seeds somewhere.
When I collect pollen, the male plants always produce before the females are ready, so I harvest it when he is ready and put the pollen in a pill bottle with a desiccant pack, This then goes into the fridge until I am ready to send my females into flower. As soon as the buds start forming, I mix my pollen 50/50 with some white flour to help stabilize it and then after carefully labeling a branch with a colored twist tie, I paint the mix onto the bud and its 2 lower buds. Usually within a day, pollination has occurred. To be thorough I might go back after a few days and repaint those buds to get any new unfertilized pistils that have popped out. After a day or so with the oscillating fans off to keep the mix from spreading, that region can be well sprayed down with water to clean up the mess and neutralize any still viable pollen.

I rarely get random seeds in the rest of the tent these days... but even if I did, it is not a crisis. That part of this is a bit overblown... seeded pot still smokes better than your typical dispensary pot.

 

[Fietchen]

Unfortunately pollen degrades fairly rapidly. You did pretty well for your first attempt. Fresh pollen is most potent

I dry my Pollen for 10 Days now is this to long?

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I never dry it

Toss it in a vial, with raw rice, and into the freezer

I recently used pollen over a year old from my freezer, worked great

I've used some that I stores with flower, results not near as good as with rice. Pollen was too thin with the flour

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

that's beautiful. I'm trying my hand at colloidal silver spray and hoping to see sacs within a week. I'm doing 4 strains tho so i'm gonna collect the pollen and apply it to the mother plants the clones were taken from.

Any tips?

I don’t know if it’s possible in your situation but you might have better luck moving the plant with the male-like flowers into the same room with your females, rather than collecting, storing and applying pollen. I’ve found pollen to be difficult to work with: it ends up going all over the place when you try to collect it, it tends to fly all over the place during application, it sticks and clumps to the brush... Just a hassle. If you don’t mind pollinating all the colas, you might just want to let the plant do the work for you, LOL.

 

[Remystemple]

I don’t know if it’s possible in your situation but you might have better luck moving the plant with the male-like flowers into the same room with your females, rather than collecting, storing and applying pollen. I’ve found pollen to be difficult to work with: it ends up going all over the place when you try to collect it, it tends to fly all over the place during application, it sticks and clumps to the brush... Just a hassle. If you don’t mind pollinating all the colas, you might just want to let the plant do the work for you, LOL.

Thanks for that insight. i've been leaning toward that. my only problem is i have 4 strains all at once so i'll have to figure out some logistics. thinking about just getting what i can this time, then next time just do one plant at a time so i don't have to worry about a big mix up and not knowing what seeds are what lol.

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

Where did u keep the pollen? And how?

Plus did it rain outside...rain+pollen= nada

I kept the pollen in a plastic jar at room temperature. I was freaked out by putting it in fridge, just seemed like it would get wet and I wasn’t sure how well the desiccant packets work. The thing is, there was definitely pollination but just not that overwhelming.

From what I’d been reading, I got the vibe that if I so much as wore the same clothes while collecting pollen as when I was working with the outdoor females, my crop was effectively fucked.

Because I thought pollen had almost this supernatural ability, I only pollinated one cola on this plant I really like, thinking I’d still get a shitload of seed. I’ll be lucky to get a few viable ones when it’s all over.

I’m not complaining, just want to put this out as a “reality check” for people who consider pollen borderline radioactive, LOL.

That said, I could see how open hermie flowers allowed to do their thing in the same room with females would create a lot of seed. That’s a different situation from someone who had a male last year and now feels like he needs to scrub the entire house with peroxide to avoid a bumper seed crop, LOL.

sorry, rambling!

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

Thanks for that insight. i've been leaning toward that. my only problem is i have 4 strains all at once so i'll have to figure out some logistics. thinking about just getting what i can this time, then next time just do one plant at a time so i don't have to worry about a big mix up and not knowing what seeds are what lol.

What’s your plan as far as pollen? Like, are you gonna pick a male from one particular strain to pollinate all of them, or are you trying something more complicated?

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Oh

Pollen is the plague, trust me

I've had just a little end up getting half my plant pregnant

Now like what u did was reasonable, and not know how much u used, well, ya probably did a good job for just one bud

What I do... pollen in a locked room...lol...and after two days you can see the pollenated buds, hairs turn red and wilt

Then mist everything with water
And it's usually safe for general population again

 

[Remystemple]

What’s your plan as far as pollen? Like, are you gonna pick a male from one particular strain to pollinate all of them, or are you trying something more complicated?

i just want to hit all 4 mother plants with pollen from themselves ( the clones i took from them ) i'm not really feeling like messing with any crosses my first time except maybe the white widow with the blueberry.

the more i read the more i realize i've bitten off a little more than i wanted. but for sake of experience i'm gonna go with the flow and if i'm really lucky i'll end up with a bag of seeds in place of each mother plant.

 

[Rifleman]

My first try at reversing and seed production resulted in over 6K seeds inside from just two auto plants. Now when I'm doing a seed run I wait until I see the first pollen sac open, then cut the branch and beat it around the colas on the plants I want to seed. I get several hundred seeds this way and still get plenty of seed free bud to enjoy.

 

[Remystemple]

My first try at reversing and seed production resulted in over 6K seeds inside from just two auto plants. Now when I'm doing a seed run I wait until I see the first pollen sac open, then cut the branch and beat it around the colas on the plants I want to seed. I get several hundred seeds this way and still get plenty of seed free bud to enjoy.

how many weeks into flower do you usually wait to pollinate?

 

[Rifleman]

how many weeks into flower do you usually wait to pollinate?

With the auto plants this occurs around day 45-50 from sprout, with harvest being around day 95-100.

 

[Weaselcracker]

My first try at reversing and seed production resulted in over 6K seeds inside from just two auto plants. Now when I'm doing a seed run I wait until I see the first pollen sac open, then cut the branch and beat it around the colas on the plants I want to seed. I get several hundred seeds this way and still get plenty of seed free bud to enjoy.

was that with colloidal silver Rifleman? I’ve had hit and miss results with the stuff. Sometimes I got no seeds at all, so I’m not being too cautious with the latest attempt.
I have about a billion pods on one girl about to burst right now -you’re making me nervous with that ‘6K seeds’ comment.

 

[Remystemple]

With the auto plants this occurs around day 45-50 from sprout, with harvest being around day 95-100.

i have one seed of auto critical purple that i want to do this with, so thanks for that info broski.

 

[Remystemple]

was that with colloidal silver Rifleman? I’ve had hit and miss results with the stuff. Sometimes I got no seeds at all, so I’m not being too cautious with the latest attempt.
I have about a billion pods on one girl about to burst right now -you’re making me nervous with that ‘6K seeds’ comment.

I was nervous about trying this now as i have a flower tent in week 4, but then i thought, if i had a bit of pollen get into my flower tent at least they'd all be feminized seeds. the only draw back i can think of is by doing 4 at once i wouldn't know what seed is what so it'd just be super random and would probably just give them away lol.

I hope you get some seeds this time bro. i feel like after my mother plants are gone i'm gonna use that tent for on going seed runs. and eventually we should all just get some sts solution, where you only have to spray once and it works.