Yes I agree there are many pitfalls. Worst case I take the bags off after open pollination to find out they’ve been pollinated already. No big deal. Just not as diverse.
But I might set up a small rig in a separate air space…that might work…
Hypothetically.
I am figuring out summer is awesome for hiding males. they can be small and still produce pollen and they do not look like weed. put em anywhere then use when needed through out summer and the following winter. May not specifically apply just a general idea.
You have to try your gut instinct. And give your idea a chance. Or else we would just follow each other in a big circle. Someone has got to step out and try something.
I think…
I think I’m going to do both. Put paper condoms on branches during open pollination.
Also create a different makeshift grow space for my sativas so I can hit them with indica pollen when it gets here.
Mrs Foreigner is going to be irritated…
“Leveraging” my complete absence of knowledge on this subject…
I recently devised the technique described below in order to selectively pollinate a single branch on a Paralyzed Monster plant in early June. I harvested the branch that I pollinated and yesterday during a final trim I collected 36 nice looking seeds. The rest of the plant was seedless.
Here’s the plant before bagging, two stakes to keep the bag from crowding the rest of the plant.
My painfully naive bagging idea: just use a heavy duty (8mil) 50 gallon trashbag with a reinforced slot cut to allow a single branch to poke out. The entire setup is in the tub/shower for easy rinsing.
With that setup in place I dusted the hell out of the one little branch, then closed the shower curtain, closed the bathroom door and left Pollen and Pistil alone to get acquainted.
Next morning I used the spray bottle and then the shower to both spray down the plant and create a cloud of humid steam to deactivate the remaining pollen. Contact time before washdown was about 16 hours.
I removed the bag, put the plant back in the grow room and eight weeks later, collected a modest but satisfying handful of seeds. I only found one seed total from the other four plants sharing the grow room.
Admittedly this was a PITA process, but it worked and I could have put the bag over as many branches as desired and substituted different pollen on each session.
Seems ideal for a small seed run. Anyone else done it this way?
Fire Away ye Wizards of Weed,
-Grouchy
PS, this thread has a bunch of helpful ideas:
Thanks for the input. Some neat ideas in there.
I’ve done something similar but not as in depth.
I pollinated several different branches on several different plants at once by cutting a garbage bag open to use as a tarp and threw it over the plants and pulled out the branches I wanted to hit. I carefully made a point of being very careful.
It worked really well and there was minimal undesired pollen transfer.
Right on Grouchy. Good stuff here! A perfectly legitimate tech. Another way to skin the cat, so to speak.
The last couple times I bagged them and pollinated that way, except I didn’t use the shower. It worked so well the first time (2 seeds on an unpollinated branch) I relaxed to see what would happen… (fully seeded).
The shower is a good idea 
Cheers
G
Full Disclosure
I want to add an important caveat to my bagging technique post up above. Apparently I cannot edit it any longer so I’m posting it here.
I used that technique again recently on an outdoor plant and the outcome was a minor disaster: massive bud rot!
The problem was that I chose to leave the big bag on the pollinized plant overnight and the humidity inside due to transpiration got high enough to activate the bud rot spores. If I had followed the consensus advice and only left the bag on for a few hours there would have been no problem. Alas…
Stupid mistake and an ugly result. I’m owning it. Note to self: Don’t be Stupid!!!
Anyway, I was able to salvage some smoke by cutting and removing all the affected areas and I’m still waiting to see if the seeded branch gives me viable seeds.
-Grouchy
PS, I’d really like to add this warning to the original post above where it belongs… can anyone help with that edit? @moderators
Yeah I think your method, with leaving the bag covering the plant for 1-2 hours should get good results without risking the plant staying in that environment overnight.
Hello @GrouchyOldMan
I plan on using this technique! Any updated tips or advice beside do not leave plant bagged overnight?
So i would bag plant, pollinate, let sit for 1-2 hours, rinse, unbag?
yes thats how its done. I did it a few times now and it works good. I only ever covered the buds I wanted to keep, and didn’t realise your question was to grouchy about bagging the whole plant. Same idea tho. Twice it went perfectly, and one I had light pollination. I think I didn’t spray the bags themselves the one time and dropped a lil pollen when I took them off. But it generally works good. I been shooting for twoish hours, but I’m curious how long it really takes. Could be instant, or minutes for all I know.
A tip, before you pull the bag off, carefully check the ‘cuff’ of the lower edge. Look out for any place the edge has folded up and caught pollen.
Clean and mist with water to neutralize before removing.
Yup, I ‘got the tee shirt’ for that one too… 
Cheers
G
Greetings @seeds2weeds,
Here’s some variations on the Selective Pollination theme you might find useful…
Regards,
-Grouchy
Thank you, everyone!
@GrouchyOldMan I will be sure to check that post out and take notes. Thanks.
Hey all
@Gpaw @GrouchyOldMan @RandomHumanoid
Is there a thread on here that gives tips on collecting pollen?
Can pollen be used fresh or should it be dried ans stored?
I have a fem seedling i need to veg out for 2 months but i dont want to veg out the male seedling that long. Id rather it produce pollen asap so i can have pollen ready for 2nd week of flower to pollinate the budsites.
If i hold onto the male i dont know if it will produce pollen in time for the prime pollination window so i would rather hold the pollen then the plant.
How long can pollen be stored for once dried? Can it go bad?
If the male is a seedling, how do you know its a male? I prefer using fresh pollen whenever I can. I’ve tried keeping it in the fridge and freezer with limited results. Freezer worked once or twice for a while. But its to old and everything freezer burns eventually. Whenever I tried it, I would dry the pollen for 5 days in the open on a plate. When I froze it sooner it clumped together and didn’t work. Just drying on a plate its dead by around two weeks.
If possible, I think its just easier and more consistent to time things out and use fresh, but thats me. If I ever do get storage dialed in, it would be beyond useful.
For now, I would just plant the males later if I wanted them smaller.
Here’s how I collect pollen:
At least I think that’s the link…
…On reflection, this is a more informative discussion on pollen collection:
Frankie’s Daughters: Unpacking a Frozen Genome - #250 by GrouchyOldMan
I took the boujie route this time and got farmer freeman tests. Usually i axe all males
