I let mother nature help me when I make seeds…I put the female plant outside of my Phototrons/growrooms and put them on my windowsills during the winter months when its 12/12 and pollinate them…all the soon to be seeded females are far away from my flower rooms/Phototrons…I keep it simple.
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Pollen was a slang term for hash when I lived in France - though that was decades ago.
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Greetings @Budderton,
Thanks for sharing this. I’m in the process of collecting pollen from two males, one after the other, and your comments are very helpful.
So, when the first flowers are ready to drop we bag the entire trimmed plant in a breathable paper bag. Then a few weeks later we collect the accumulated pollen from the bag. Right?
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Do you treat the “bagged” male plant to water or light or any other normal plant care as the rest of the balls burst? Toss em in a dark corner to dump, dry and die?
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How exactly do you harvest the pollen from the bag? Remove the plant, shake down the pollen? Turn the bag upside down and shake? Doesn’t that part get really messy?
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Looks like you made a Shit Ton of pollen, how do you preserve it?
Thanks again, Good Contribution.
-Grouchy
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I treat as a normal plant, feed wise, and give them a bright part of the garden to help compensate for lose of par due to the relatively dark bag. The plant still needs light to grow and mature its flowers. If fact, I’m looking for a white paper or Typar to bag my next round of males for that reason.
I do it outside, in a covered area, in a fleece housecoat, with a pump sprayer full of water. Bit of a pain but that’s how I do it. I slit the bag, vertically, spread it open a bit, and gently turn it over and let the pollen and flower bits collect on bristol board. Then I gather with a plastic card into a metal sieve over another piece of bristol board. Sit the sieve right on the bristol and gently tap the side, allowing pollen to fall through. Very slow movements, no vigorous shaking at all. Trying to not get it too airborne.(even though it will). Once the pollen is contained in a paper fold, spray down the work area and left over male, bag and all, with water. The wetter, the better. I leave the housecoat on a hook and spray it down as well. Then straight into the shower.
Dry with descant pack then in papper fold, inside a mansion jar, with descant pack, in the fridge. I always plan on using it fresh as much as possible due to hit and miss results from storing it.
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Thanks for the extra details!
My wife just turned me on to “Pattern Paper” that is lightweight, breathable with a nice hard finish. Comes in rolls about a meter wide. Might be perfect for this use. Used in sewing to make patterns.
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Right on @GrouchyOldMan . Thanks for the tip, I’ll look into that.
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That would be a significant improvement over regular writing paper I was using. 
I had to gently tap the paper to get the residual pollen to release.
…And then deal with the cloud later…
Thanks for the tip!
Cheers
G
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I like newspaper. I also use it for trimming and drying.
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[Cross-[posted elsewhere, but this belongs here]
Here’s my first attempt. Pattern Paper cut to a 30" x 18" rectangle then folded into a 12" diameter tube and taped on both sides of the seam. This one is partially completed, needs the top seam taped to complete the bag.
Next I slipped it over a branch and crumpled the bottom together to seal it shut, like this.
In a couple of weeks I’ll cut it just above the blue tape at the bottom and shake the gold dust directly into a pollen pail sieve.
We shall see what comes of this.
I’m also going to try @JohnnyPotseed’s method of just cutting a pollen laden branch or two and putting them in a glass of water in a quiet spot with a sheet of pattern paper underneath to catch the droppings. JP has been around the block a few times and knows whereof he speaks!
-Grouchy
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All good cuz, but I’d like to point out all those nodes where the pods are going to form…you won’t have anything to catch that pollen with…lost.
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I do the whole plant, not just a branch or two cuz
45degree cut at base, remove all leaves, put in a jar of water to keep it going, with the plant(s) tilted over a piece of parchment paper to collect ALL fallen pollen. Make sure no breeze/fan (closed room is best)
just give a light tap or two every day, the plant will go for at least a week like that
I have 3 Rudy boys in water, dropping pollen. I’ll get a pic tomorrow and show you exactly what I’m talking about
@GrouchyOldMan , trust me here cuz please, I’ve tried a shitload of methods…in cluding similar to what you have there. What I’m doing is the easier/best method to collect that gold-dust! Developed from trying over many decades
But hey, do it like ya wanna, good luck
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I’ll have to comb through your posts and see if I can find the posts of how you’re doing this.
I was going to use frost protection cloth for the bags as I thought plastic or paper wouldnt breathe enough and create too much humidity?
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When JP talks, People Listen… and I’m one of them!
So I decided to try it his way, as best I could. At the risk of bogarting this thread for a bit longer @Budderton, here’s an update.
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I didn’t have a way to put “the whole plant” in water like JP, so I stripped all the lower branches from the Acapulco Gold male and put them in a vase. I did cut em at 45 degrees tho…
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The remainder of the plant will stay bagged & dry, outdoors with normal care till the pollen drops. The top cola and the best of class node below it are bagged. FWIW, I got the bags wet this afternoon during cleanup and they dried almost immediately in the wind and sun. Pattern Paper appears to breath and is fairly tough.
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…And, Then, I filched a tall vase from my Saintly Spouse and filled it with those freshly cut branches. I created a Cannabis Bouquet of generously endowed huevos grandotes. El Macho Senor de Acapulco! I’m thinkin those fecund male blossoms will “Bloom” in the vase just like cut flowers and drop a shower of golden pollen on my paper drop cloth. We’ll see.
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I filled the vase with ice water and a few cubes to slow the reaction time of the newly orphaned “Bouquet Boyz.” I dipped each stem in CloneX after cutting for luck.
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I carefully walked that vase up to my Son’s empty room as if it were radioactive nucleotides and placed it on a 2.5’ x 3’ desk covered with a sheet of Pattern Paper (natch!). We can afford to keep that door closed, and entry to a minimum, for a few weeks until those branches drop. I’ll refill the water as needed.
- I did all of this on a windless afternoon while nearly naked and barefoot (try NOT to image that…) B’cause I’ve been taught that Canna Pollen is a aggressive gaseous substance that will seek out any females in the vicinity, with inappropriate intent.
And so, the best way to do Pollen Work, may well be to wear as little clothing as is legally tolerable and take a hot shower as soon as you are done.
The final cleanup step was to hose down the entire area where Macho AG lived so as to de-activate any residual pollen. Afterwards, I slipped into my Birdwell Beach Birches and hit the hot tub for a deep soul satisfying soak.
This pollen-paranoia was all warranted because I have a healthy grow room full of sensi magic downstairs and the last thing I want is for those girls to “Lose It” to some Mexican cabron knocking at the Back Door, so to speak.
“Long Tall Sally,” on the far left, is Macho’s AG sister. Anyways, the AG Male was primed to pop all of his flowers any day now and these two “Pollen Traps” should at least net us something.
-Grouchy 
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Right on @GrouchyOldMan ! Thanks for the insight. I’m definitely going to give the pattern papper a try. Good luck on your pollinations! 
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Just a couple quick questions…
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it only takes one 12 hour lights off for the pollen to take?
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how do you remove the bag from the male in a way that keeps the pollen from dumping out
I do the rest. Showering, using clones, etc. haven’t tried bagging it off tho. Just usually use a separate tent instead of a shower. Turn everything off and hope for the best. For a few days, then shower everything off and move back to the flower tent and proceed to wash the pollen tent down.
But that would definitely be harder with more than one strain or more than one male (if trying to figure out which males are best).
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I do it outside, in a covered area, in a fleece housecoat, with a pump sprayer full of water. Bit of a pain but that’s how I do it. I slit the bag, vertically, spread it open a bit, and gently turn it over and let the pollen and flower bits collect on bristol board. Then I gather with a plastic card into a metal sieve over another piece of bristol board. Sit the sieve right on the bristol and gently tap the side, allowing pollen to fall through. Very slow movements, no vigorous shaking at all. Trying to not get it too airborne.(even though it will). Once the pollen is contained in a paper fold, spray down the work area and left over male, bag and all, with water. The wetter, the better. I leave the housecoat on a hook and spray it down as well. Then straight into the shower
Yep. Once the pollen hits the pistil, it can be under 20 minutes to seed conception. I only apply pollen once, let it chill for the one dark cycle, then rinse. I have never failed to produce seed using this timeframe. The amount of seed depends on the amount of pollen applied. When I did whole plant pollinations I got thousands of beans from a 12hr pollen set.
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Awesome! Thank you 
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