Drivejunky95
Well-Known Member
Will growing one male inst among female plants pollinate the others on it's own? Would manually applying pollen be 'better'?
Pollinating Female Plants
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If you manually apply the pollen, with care you can pollinate only one or two colas per female, leaving you some good smokable product as well. I'll be going this route, as I want to pollinate three strains, each with a male of the same strain.
Letting nature take its course means picking out the seed from almost every flower.
Either way will work. It's what you want out of the grow that counts.
Letting nature take its course means picking out the seed from almost every flower.
Either way will work. It's what you want out of the grow that counts.
TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
If you manually apply pollen, you can control which plants receive which pollen, so that would be good for controlled breeding projects. Also, pollen is extremely potent stuff, so if you just want seeds to grow, pollinating a single bud will give you enough (probably more).
On the other hand, open pollinating is easier because you don't have to keep them separate, don't have to collect pollen, etc. As you said, just put a male in among them and let them do their thing.
I would suggest trying to apply some pollen. It's a good skill to learn that will aid you later on if you want to get into breeding, and you'll end up with more seedless weed and enough seeds to grow a lot with. I would only suggest open pollinating if you don't have a separate flowering space.
On the other hand, open pollinating is easier because you don't have to keep them separate, don't have to collect pollen, etc. As you said, just put a male in among them and let them do their thing.
I would suggest trying to apply some pollen. It's a good skill to learn that will aid you later on if you want to get into breeding, and you'll end up with more seedless weed and enough seeds to grow a lot with. I would only suggest open pollinating if you don't have a separate flowering space.
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Drivejunky95
Well-Known Member
Controlled approach looks to have good benefits. Could one flower be able to produce a good number of seeds? Do a few flowers make it worth the time?
I don't have any experience, but my reading indicates that 100 or more seeds from a single cola are possible. The way I plan on doing my grow is to start three feminized seeds of the same strain. At the flip, treat the most vigorous plant with STS (Silver ThioSulfate) to reverse its sex. Collect the pollen from this F->M plant. Pollinate one or two branches of each of the two remaining female plants. Store the remaining pollen for later use if needed.
My goal is not to cross breed strains, but to produce same strain seed for future grows. I'm looking to cut my seed cost for future grows. During my next grow the strains I plan to use this method on include Candida, Cream and Cheese, as well as Sapphire Scout. I'm reserving my two remaining Nightingale seeds for a future grow, after I get the experience with the above.
My goal is not to cross breed strains, but to produce same strain seed for future grows. I'm looking to cut my seed cost for future grows. During my next grow the strains I plan to use this method on include Candida, Cream and Cheese, as well as Sapphire Scout. I'm reserving my two remaining Nightingale seeds for a future grow, after I get the experience with the above.
Depends how one defines "a good number"
......... I didn't count them but these two small plants gave me over 100 each:They were maybe 12-13" high or so when I pollinated them (male is plant in the middle in one of my cabinets), varies on the size of the flower and all that but I would say closer to like 20 mature seeds per flower or so.
Technically,one flower (calyx) produces one seed,Which is why Old Salt refers to colas,not just flowers.
You can pollinate an entire cola ,or just the lower part of one cola-that leaves the top half
seedless &more smokable.
You do need to be careful with the pollen-it's like dust-just because you don't see it,doesn't mean it hasn't gotten somewhere it shouldn't.
You can pollinate an entire cola ,or just the lower part of one cola-that leaves the top half
seedless &more smokable.
You do need to be careful with the pollen-it's like dust-just because you don't see it,doesn't mean it hasn't gotten somewhere it shouldn't.
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Drivejunky95
Well-Known Member
Ah, wow, 20 is plenty lol. Those seed banks selling 10 or 20 for $100, though... dang.
The F->M change and pollinating from M plant during same grow is possible?
Note taken on the treating with pollen. Ill probably try avoiding a big sneeze inside the grow tent lol.
The F->M change and pollinating from M plant during same grow is possible?
Note taken on the treating with pollen. Ill probably try avoiding a big sneeze inside the grow tent lol.
TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
You can cut the pollen with corn starch to make it a little less virulent. Also helps if you don't get as much pollen as you'd like.
I have produced something close to 50 seeds out of a flower that would have weighed our to be a gram.
I have also made feminized seeds on flowers that would amount to a hits worth, and still for enough seeds to save me 80 bucks.
So yeah learn to apply pollen. It pays dividends.
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Drivejunky95
Well-Known Member
Sounds good. Appreciate yall's knowledge / experience. 
Last year from a feminized packet of White Widow XTRM from AMS, one plant grew as a male (no sign it was a hermie) and I used the pollen from that on one cola of a WWX female plant. The female only had 5 main colas (it was topped) and I pollinated one of the minor colas of the 5, plus a couple of the little popcorn buds at the bottom, but overall at harvest I think I recovered approx 204 seeds, of which one is this years WWX female I'm currently growing. Another one of the WWX seeds made from last year grew out a male this year and I used that pollen to selectively pollinate 2 short'ish colas of the Grogonzola and 1 longer cola of the WWX. I have found the bud quality of the seeded cola is still very good. I really like to have seeds so 'I can fish for another day'.
Next time I would like to try selectively turning hermie a single cola with colloidal silver and using the resulting pollen to create feminized seeds.
Next time I would like to try selectively turning hermie a single cola with colloidal silver and using the resulting pollen to create feminized seeds.
