Hairs

[S_a_H]

Ok I have grown out corn before and got some ears that had kernels missing and the neighbor guy told me thats because they didn't any pollen on the silky hairs sticking out and every hair is a kernel. Is this right ? So can I also believe that every hair on a MJ plant is a potential seed ?

S_a_H

[pflover]

my personaly guess would be every pair of hairs is a seed. but yeah you got the right idea.

[Mendrel]

So can I also believe that every hair on a MJ plant is a potential seed ?
S_a_H

Yup, everytime there's a pistil, it's connected to an ovary.

[buddyh]

does that make a 'gun shop' like a 'seedbank'?

[S_a_H]

Yup, everytime there's a pistil, it's connected to an ovary.

Cool thanks for the reply. The only hairs I have are just a few on the very top of the plants and they came in after I removed the male. So the plant kept right on flowering but very little new hairs have shown up.

How long should I keep a male in the presence of the females ? Or should I keep them together the whole grow ? I would rather have the plants making seeds than buds. Also on seeded plants should I worry about flushing them at all since I am not smoking seeds I don't need to worry about taste or is it going to come through into the new plants ? If I don't need to worry about flushing should I fert them all the way up to the last week ?

Thanks for the help....

S_a_H

[Mendrel]

How long should I keep a male in the presence of the females ? Or should I keep them together the whole grow ? I would rather have the plants making seeds than buds.

You need to keep the male with the female as long as he is shedding pollen.

Also on seeded plants should I worry about flushing them at all since I am not smoking seeds I don't need to worry about taste or is it going to come through into the new plants ? If I don't need to worry about flushing should I fert them all the way up to the last week ?

You shouldn't need to worry about flushing them so much as you won't be smoking the plants this time. No, too many ferts this time won't come up in the next generation. Feeding plants with a little bit of nutes is fine up until the end as long as you don't over do it.

[Roy]

Well I would be smoking the plants this time!

When I have a seed crop I still smoke the bud.

I thought everybody did, am I strange?

[Storm Crow]

Roy, I think it's an age issue. Old hippies, like me, grew up on seeded pot. It was all there was, back then. Sinsemilla is what the kids grew up on (lucky kids!). The very idea of seeded pot is foreign to them. And some don't have a clue how to card, or even sift, seeded marijuana! Personally, I don't mind a seed or two. It just means I get to go on a spring "picnic" in some secluded spot!

[pflover]

I use a kif box to thresh out seeds and save the kif (meds). the plant matter then goes into a vap or directly into butter. kiffing as a means of theshing means smoking the bud itself is not so great.

[Dr.LOAD]

S a H: there are ways to selectively pollinate your plants.

My prefered method is as follows;

You will need:
1 paintbrush (real hair, not synthetic prefered)
1 small but deep spoon
1 airtight storage device
1 roll of tape (masking tape works well)
1 spray bottle of plain water
a few grains of white rice
a few pieces of very thin, light paper
some string

1: when you identify a male, keep him in the flowering room under 12/12 until you see the first of the pollen sacks begin to seperate from the plant itself (the pollen sack will look somwhat like a tetherball or a grape on a stem).

2: once your male has developed this far you want to remove him from the flowering room. You don't want a male dropping pollen all over your flower room because A: it will pollenate all your buds and give you more seeds than you'll ever need B: pollen can be a nightmare to get rid of in a flowering room and remaining pollen could contaminate any future breeding projects.

3: When you remove the male from the flower room, put him inside a seperate area (preferabley fully enclosed like a small cupboard) and put a decent amount of light above him (like 100w cfl or 70w hps ). If you can't get a light tight cupboard to properly achieve 12/12 with total darkness you can just put the male under 24 hour light and it will continue to flower for a couple weeks which is more than long enough to get the pollen you will need. I've used the 24 hour light method about 6 times now without fail.

4: Every day, open the cupboard and see how he is doing. The male should start to drop pollen in about a week and will continue for another week or so after that. The small pods will open up a couple at a time and start to drop pollen straight down, there are many ways you could collect this pollen.

My method of choice is to take a small but deep spoon and hold it under each pod that you can see has opened and with a seperate object (I use tweezers) tap/poke the open flower and it will drop and remaining pollen inside it into the spoon. After you have "milked" all the flowers that were open that day you can take that pollen and put it inside an airtight container (I used prescription pill bottles) and add a few grains of rice to absorb any extra moisture. You want to make sure that there is no plant matter mixed in with the pollen as it will contain moisture and could cause the pollen to mold or lose viability. To help keep the pollen potent you will want to keep it somewhere cool and dark, the fridge will work as long as you are sure your container is 99% airtight.

5: After about a week of collecting the pollen you should have enough pollen to make quite a good number of seeds. At this time you will carefuly dispose of the male plant, try to put him directly from his cupboard into a paper bag (you don't want to try and carry him through your house).
*note: try to do all your flowering room work BEFORE you go and deal with your male for the day as you don't want to accidentally carry his pollen into your flower room.

6: At about day 20-30 of 12/12, your females are ready to be pollenated (not sure what the timeframe is on Sativas is as I am an Indica/hybrid grower).

Arm yourself with a small paintbrush and take your pollen into the flower room. Before you even open the pollen container make sure you shut off any circulating fans you have in the room. Using the paintbrush. Apply the pollen to the pistils (hairs) of the lower most budsites on the plants you wish to have seeds on (it doesn't take much).

Now using the thin paper and some tape, make small bags to cover the pollinated branches with. The reason you want thin, light paper is to allow the branches that it's covering to breathe and perspire normally as well as continue to recieve light. Once you have the bags on the branches, you'll want to tie them shut at the bottom with the string. Now take a spraybottle of water and mist the soil surface under all the pollenated plants to remove any traces of pollen, circulation fans can now be turned on again.

7: Wait..... about 3 or 4 days to be exact. After this, turn off the fans again and slowly remove the bags from the branches. The next step is optional; take the spraybottle of water and very lightly mist the pollenated buds and the leaves arounf them to try an wet any remaining viable pollen. If you are growing a strain that is susceptable to mold or you don't mind the odd seed in your stash you can skip this step. You can now turn the fans on once more and continue to gorw as per usual.

It should also be noted that it is not recommended that you mist your plants while HID lighting is on as the droplets can concentrate the light and burn your plants.

You should give the seeds at least 30 days to mature before you harvest your plant and do not remove the seeds from the buds until the bud is full dry. It is also recommended that you let your seeds sit for a month or so before you try to germinate them to get the best success rate, though I have had good luck myself with seeds that were from freshly dried buds.

If you are having issues with space for your male and the plant inside a pot is too big to fit into the cupboard you can chop the male's top off (or if it's a tree, select branches) and place them into bottles/glasses of plain water for the two weeks of pollen collecting. The male will be able to live off of the mobile elements in it's fanleaves long enough to give you all the pollen you need.

To clean up the males pollen gathering area and your flower room after the harvest is done, a mixture of bleach and water should take care of most of the stray pollen.

Hope I didn't miss anything and that that all came out clearly. I know most people know all this but just incase some of you didn't, well, here it is .

Feel free to ask any questions that come to mind.

Grow on,
-Dr.LOAD

[S_a_H]

Well I would be smoking the plants this time!

When I have a seed crop I still smoke the bud.

I thought everybody did, am I strange?

Oh I still plan on vaping the leftovers but my goal is quality seeds not quality smoke this run.

SaH

[S_a_H]

Since I was wanting to an indoor seed run I moved the area in which I usually grow to a new space and have since packed everything up for the summer. Cleaned the walls and everything inside the grow area and the equipment and stored it away. Next fall/winter I'll go back to my old space and start 30 or so seeds to find that mother to continue on with.

As my male gave off pollen I moved the females and male around to get better coverage and this male just let off a cloud everytime I gave it a tap and after about 5 minutes or so I switched the exhaust fan back on. I did this once an hour as long as I could remember to do it. Once I decided to get rid of the male I cut it down and placed in a garbage bag before I took him out to the compost bin and covered him up with grass. I figure next weekend should be about 33-35 days as I didn't write it down the first time I saw an open male flower.