First CS Reversal: Flowers opened... so where's my pollen?!?

[Ginger_Rick]

Thanks everybody!

We’ll I did it… I’m a man now!

Or at least, I think I did… pulled a bunch off with tweezers over some foil. I could see a bit of pollen collect on the foil as I squished a few with the tweezers.

I rolled a few cotton swabs in the dust, wrapped them up carefully, and funneled the rest of the flowers into a vial to deal with later.

Then I carefully placed a large, new and clean ziploc bag over my seed candidate branches. I misted all surrounding branches, then reached into the bags and rolled the swabs tip against all of the pistils I could.

I left the bag on for about half an hour, then removed it and misted everything. I took the vial full of male flowers and carefully laid them out on a foil tray, tucked away in a corner of a quiet room on a bookcase. I will let them dry for a couple days, then grind them in a fresh clean bud buster with a kif collecting layer with a fine screen. I’m thinking grind flowers, tap grinder on table, pollen falls through just like kif.

Just like this, only its exact opposite. With a new and spotlessly clean one, obviously.

Collect up the pollen, cut with dried flour and into vials for storage. Does this all seem on track?

[Ginger_Rick]

So I’m fairly optimistic that i have had some successful pollination! I checked the buds I hit last night, before the q-tip they were all white pistils, now just a day later they look like this.

Overnight these buds have seen an extensive reddening and shriveling of their pistils. On the rest of the plants everything is still as white as last night, with scarcely a red hair to be seen.

If I’m not mistaken, that’s a solid sign of successful pollination! Now I just hope things will mature in time.

[Shadey]

As you haven’t pollinated the whole plant, you can take off what’s not pollinated, and leave the seeded branches to carry on until done.

[Ginger_Rick]

Well yeah, I could, but there’s other ladies that really want those prime seats. I’ll see how it goes.

[MrToast]

Yeah, flowers from reversed females often grow so thick (densely together) that they sometimes dont open properly…
Sometimes if you just suspend the bud branch over a clean glass horizontally you can lightly tap the flower bud and the pollen will sprinkle out.

[Ginger_Rick]

So a little update on how this has been going.

A few nights back I pulled off all the remaining Male flowers, opened or not, and laid them out on some aluminum foil on a bookshelf in a still room, far from my garden. I let things dry for a few days and then I took them into the bathroom and loaded them into a grinder. This was a fresh, brand new and cleaned grinder that will only ever be used for this purpose.

I ground the flowers with the grinder upside down so I could achieve a finer grind before the flowers dropped through the holes to the collection layer. Once I was happy with the grind I flipped it and, without opening it, tapped it and banged it for a couple minutes to shake the pollen loose from the ground material and cause it to settle in the kif catcher layer at the bottom. Once I decided it had had enough tapping I set the grinder down for a moment to let things settle before opening.

Once it had settled for a few minutes I carefully removed the bottom layer…

Sweet victory. A lifetime supply of feminized Diamond kush pollen!

I carefully flipped the catcher onto a piece of foil, and filled it into a clean vial.

The pollen was then cut with a carrier to dilute it. Remember the picture above contains millions of viable grains of pollen, better to stretch it out for more efficient use and safer handling. I used flour, dried and sterilized in the oven at 180°f for 20 minutes. The flour was cooled and collected in a separate clean vial. When I harvested the pollen I used the flour to “rinse” out the last bits of pollen I couldn’t scrape out of the kif catcher on their own. I also used the same piece of foil to funnel the flour into the vial with the pollen.

The end result is a large quantity of feminized Diamond Kush pollen, capable of producing a ludicrous number of seeds, useable as is and ready to be placed into long term storage.

[Shadey]

Very good, I like the grinder idea, it’s seems better at getting the most pollen out of the flowers, instead of waiting for them to open and drop it on paper

[MrToast]

Hey Ginger Rick

If you intend to use that pollen more than once it’s best that you store it in multiple containers…Each time you remove the pollen from the freezer and thaw it out you are compromising its integrity as it will absorb moisture when the cap is removed…

By putting it in multiple centrifuge tubes or gel caps you provide a bit of insurance as to viability of your pollen.

Cheers

[Ginger_Rick]

Damn. @MrToast is MrClever over here. I’ve gotta get me more small vials! Thanks, solid tip!

[Lunash76]

Just bought these. $8.71 for 400 vials. I don’t think I needed 400 vials, but the price was right lol

Heatoe 400 Pcs 0.5ml Plastic Microcentrifuge Tubes Lab Tubes Disposable Vials...

[MrToast]

I have the same ones…Those are perfect for sending beans back and forth for trades…

Go to the local pharmacy and just ask them
if you can buy some empty pill containers for your spouse for their “bead” collection…that will allow you to store larger volumes properly

[cannabliss]

great info on here thanks to all the grinder is geniusand i will beordering them vials asap like now i guess lol thanks folks as always

[pufferfishfiend]

Just starting to collect pollen from my cup boys and thinking about how I’m going to do things. I think I’m just gonna go right along and copy @Ginger_Rick and everyone else here’s suggestions.

Pollen grinder -> cut with sterilized flour -> into centrifuge tubes and into the freezer

Perfect!

Thanks so much to everyone for contributing knowledge and wisdom

[Ginger_Rick]

Just doing another batch up soon. Harvested the male flowers from this reversed Death Bubba the other night just letting them dry for a few days, then I’ll grind em up like before.

I’m pretty sure my last attempt worked, I’m seeing some pretty swollen calyxes on the plants that got hit with the Diamond Kush pollen I collected before. Pretty sure there’s seeds in at least a few of them. I’ll update when I get results for certain.

This is the Death Bubba right before i took her man-flowers off.

Let her dry out a little before harvest, looks sad, but those are fiery hot genes in there!

[MrToast]

I usually grab a picture off the wall …give it a good cleaning so there is no oily residue on it…I then shake the pollen onto the glass and let it dry for a couple hours…thats when I mix it with the flour…

I “think”…(I don’t know for a fact) that pollens viability diminished as it drys…obviously depends on the environment…I’ve used my frozen pollen 9 months later and had no issues…

Perhaps someone else has more info on pollen viabilty

Cheers

[Ginger_Rick]

From my reading I gather that as long as its kept properly dry, sealed, and cold it can remain viable for years. Dry is key though, everyone I’ve ever seen talking about long term storage uses dessicants in a larger container, into which they place their smaller vials. Usually this is frozen and individual vials are removed as needed, and allowed to rise to room temperature before being opened and used.

[pufferfishfiend]

I wonder if vac sealing them in packs of 5 or something would extend the viability?

[lefthandseeds]

@Ginger_Rick

Dry is key though

Bingo! I think where most people go wrong though is storing it before drying it, and figuring that dessicants in their storage vessel is enough.

Don’t be in a rush to get it in the fridge. Dry it out really well first and then store it.

[Ginger_Rick]

I can’t see how it wouldn’t improve things, and I’ll likely be placing my vials in sorted ziplocs with a bit of dessicant, then placing all these in a mason jar I vaccuum seal for long term storage.

[Budafly]

Good call on grinding up the pollen. Will definitely be giving this a try next go around
Happy growing