Hello I'm not new to growing but I have a lot of crosses I plan on making, I have the males/females all identified of many different strains and know what I want to cross, I know a lot of people only do one male at a time and just do an open room, but I need to cross Strain x Strain for many different strains How can I harvest pollen from 10+ different males without contaminating the other? I have a second room I can grow in but its RIGHT next to the room the females would be in... Some of the males are quite large and some are more medium/small as well... Really could use some ideas or insight to what I can do here to successfully make all the crosses the right way, I absolutely cannot have the wrong pollen hitting any of a female that is meant for a specific cross I planned on spraying each female down well after pollinating with water to neutralize any leftovers, as I understand once the pollen touches the pistil the deed is done, is this correct or will I need to wait X amount of time before spaying them down and returning them to the flowering room? Thanks
Use plastic zip lock bags, label each bag to what male its from and place cuttings with the balls intact into the bag to collect the pollen, then use said pollen to cross. Now doing it a room apart I caution this, a single fan blowing can get pollen all over a house, and having any on yourself risks unwanted pollination. So doing one cross in a separate area, leave it sit 24 hours then spray off any excess. Once it's been cleaned it should be good around other plants, as long as you make sure there is no traces of pollen left. I suggest having a separate flowering area for any you have pollinated. You can also if careful pollinate a single branch, mark it and continue this with different pollen, just mark what branch was done with what male, this way you can limit the amount of total plants but still have many crosses, but caution must be taken that you don't mix pollen while doing this. Good luck.
How can I flower the males to produce the pollen safely without contaminating the other room? I guess I need a tent in an entirely different location or something? Because I feel that if they flower in the room next to the other one even with no moving air in the room the pollen will easily go through the walls Another thing, will the flowering males contaminate each other from being next to each other? As in I cut off some branches but a nearby male has put some of its pollen onto that branch, even if only a small amount it would be enough to create some seed that were the wrong cross. Yeah I planned on being very careful about the actual application of the pollen and all that, I'm pollinating pretty much every female im flowering, just many different males/crosses, mostly don't really need to do specific branches or anything though, although for one specific plant I might do a single branch of another cross. I can be very thorough in cleaning and spraying down the plant after the pollination before returning it to the other females and can take time letting each one sit out.
I like to take a big gallon ziplock and put it over the whole plant (I keep my males small) before it ever drops pollen. Seal the bag around the plant and let it do it's thing. I keep the males in a separate room with negative air pressure.... in the bathroom with the vent fan left on. Once a lot of pollen and stuff has dropped I tip the plant sideways and pull the bag off. I toss the plant and then separate the pollen from teh lil 'flowers' with a mesh screen or w/e. Then I package the pollen into paper bindles, labeled, and put those into a small ziplock. I use paper bindles to help keep the pollen dry. If I use it soon, I put it in the fridge. If I plan on using it later (more than a week or so) I put it in the freezer. I've used year old pollen that's been frozen, it's loses a little viability but can still makes seeds. I tried some 2 year old stuff with no success. For cleaning up, I just spray everything down with water because water will deactivate the pollen. I apply the pollen in the bathroom with a Qtip, afterwards spraying the crap out of the female to clean of any excess pollen. I spray about 5-10 minutes after application. Within 24hrs any successfully pollinated pistils will turn orange and recede into the calyx. *fyi you can also grow single seeds off of preflowers in veg if you pollinate those(on photos in 18/6!). You can also produce seeds on a cut female branch in a vase, though it's not very effective, but possible. IMO for optimal seed production #'s you should pollinate when the buds are fully formed right before any pistils start to naturally ripen. And not harvest until you see the pods splitting, this insure that the unseen seeds are also ripe. hope some of this info helps and gets you thinking
Thanks for the posts! looks like my main problem is figuring out the space I need to put the males in, the room right next to the main room is way too close I think, even if I were to put bags over them. Good to hear you only wait 5-10 minutes before spraying them down, I wasn't sure if that would be too soon or not, I can let them sit out for a bit after that too before returning them, and again will be very thorough in cleaning them off after pollinated. You mean you can pollinate the calyxes on the main stem in veg? I always wondered if those could produce seeds or not, I've also always wanted to try pollinating those leaves that grow a bud in the middle that rarely happens sometimes haha 2 years and the pollen was no good? Wow I thought pollen could be stored for years in the freezer like seeds? Thanks for the help I will have to figure it out with what I have to work with somehow!
yeh the calyxs on the main stem in veg. I found out by accident lol. 'Spraying them off' sometimes means just leaving them in the shower for 10 minutes 2 year pollen didn't work for me..but that was just my experience with one batch of pollen from 1 plant.
Yeah I'll make sure to spray them well I'm guessing maybe moisture got to the pollen even if you didn't realize it did then or something or perhaps different strains pollen lasts different amounts of time sometimes Do you think if I flower the males first in the room right next to the other and collect the pollen, then spray down the flower room/plants a bit just to be sure none managed to leak through, THEN begin flowering the females already having all the pollen collected and males removed that I will be good? The doors the rooms are literally feet apart.. but I could make sure to close it up the best I could and have no fan in there/never go in there and then into the other room
I wouldn't trust it, that's why I do mine on the other side of the house in negative pressure and change all my clothes afterwards. You need to treat pollen like the plague imo...lol. I try to be super careful and overdo the safety part
Yeah I feel you I just don't really have any other spot to put them... trying to figure something out :/
I often do large grows as this the first I do is cut the male down to about 8 inches tall in a small 1.5usg pot ...makes life easy at this size with 20-50 different strains is much easier to work with I keep them far from the females in an air tight room, lean the males over a mirror and sweep up the pollen 2x times per day once I have the active pollen...pollen thats been spewing for 2 days, I trash the males and store the stuff in the freezer until required best advice: Ensure you have a list pf your breeding requirements and and post up well to remind you good luck