Air brushing pollen?

Advanced Techniques
21

I know @TreeTop is an airbrusher
Maybe he could give it a go sometime!

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22

@Shadey is also an airbrush artist. Maybe he knows. :grin:

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23

I have never tried using an airbrush for pollination, the air that comes from a compressor usually contains a lot of moisture, even with a moisture filter. The way moisture damages pollen I think will lessen the chance of success.

Air from an airbrush at 6 inches from target will be about 2 inches concentrated with anorher 6 inches outside that of overspray area.

Then you have to think about air pressure, and how much you would need to push pollen through the airbrush compared to how much will damage the bud

I would think a paint brush would be more accurate, I have a very fine soft makeup brush that I have used.

I will have a play with some flour and one of my bigger nozzle airbrushes, and see what occurs.

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24

Thank you, would def like to see how that works.

I wasnā€™t thinking of spraying the pollen directly at a bud, but like I mentioned, to a bunch of them in a bagā€¦

I have a lil bit of experience with compressors having parted together pieces for an air atomized aeroponic side build so I know a lil bit about moisture in the airā€¦

I personally have three filters it would be going through, I forget all their specific namesā€¦

I wouldnā€™t think itā€™s enough moisture to effect it negatively much, I mean I doubt itā€™s much of a higher RH than ambient.

Itā€™s so weird though, I swear I saw this being done and now I cannot find it anywhere for the life of me lol

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25

Last night I was thinking about my breeding cabinet, as I chopped a big Oregon Huckleberry boy down yesterday, that managed to sneak into the flower room :cold_sweat:

I am planning on using 2 OH males and a Ogers female but not quite yet, and was thinking how I could get all the pollen that drops on the floor in the air and moving about.

I thought either a small fan on the floor pointing up, or drill a small hole in the side of the cabinet, and stick an air jet blower on the end of the air hose and blast some 120 psi air in there for a couple of minutes :smirk:

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26

Hmm, maybe if you had a clean vacuum, like maybe a shop vac, you could put a hose from its outlet to the cabinet and maybe take off the filter inside of the vacuum?

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27

If you are set on the air method I think the simple rubber bulb syringe mentioned above might be good

otherwise Iā€™d just use a paintbrush, you can be more efficient with the pollen that way

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28

I donā€™t have much experience with airbrushes, but using one for pollination seems a bit like trying to use a jackhammer where a screwdriver would do the job.

Donā€™t see any advantage to using that much air/pressure to move the pollen and there are lots of others methods that have less chance of causing any damage or stray pollen.

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