So in my short (shy of ten years) journey dabbling in the world of growing cannabis I have only ever grown seeds I have been given and chucked the males, or purchased clones to veg and flower. With the end game always being producing flower for consumption. With the new year arriving and my current tent a few weeks away from harvest I would like to try something new and make some seeds! I have recently won some varieties in giveaways from the trading forum, as well as purchased som gear from humboldt csi (cold hearted bitch fems, and humboldt purple snow fems) my plan is to make some seeds to share with the community as a result of this new learning expirience. I have done some research but allot of the information was left open to interpretation so I decided it would just be wiser to ask those who I trust to know best!
Some of the questions I have are:
Do any of you do seed runs start to finish in small containers like solo cups or tall 7" diameter 1gal bag? My original thoughts where if I can run them in small containers I can pollenate them separately and deactivate the pollen before I put them back in the tent, and possibly do a bunch of different controlled breeds in my small space.
What is your reccomendation (and why) when it comes to how I chose to breed these beans. I.e. should I pollinate the fems with real males? If I decide to reverse a fem and pollenate with her to make fems are their any downsides I should worry about? Is there any specific benefits of having a true male plant involved?
As my current run nears harvest and I start to receive these free beans I have been blessed with I will post what I have available here and take some suggestions on seeds you guys think may be a good cross or that you may be interested in receiving in giveaways in the future.
A solo cup is a hard row to hoe, lot of fuss otherwise it would not be a challenge. A little bigger pot may make for less watering and if you miss the time by a few hours it is no big deal. I got a bunch of seeds off these.
Using male pollen on a fem is no different than on a reg. It might be easier if you take a clone of a plant and reverse it then use it to pollinate the mother.
Ok, I’ve grown in cups before so I understand that struggle to some extent, but good to know you will still get a decent yield of seeds off of the small plants that was my main concern. This is probably going down in a 2x2, after posting this in my stoned wokeness I remembered that I already told a friend of mine to cut up 20 more clones of the sour for when my tent harvests. And he has already cut them so I will fill my 2x4 with 18 of them and gift the other two as I always do. I’ll have to get the 1 gallon bags out and see how many I can squeeze. This will mostly be an experiment for me so I guess any number of beans will be success.
Look into pollinating sacs used by standard agriculture. The plastic ones would prob cause bud rot but the tightly woven mesh types could give you a extra layer of protection. You can put them over the not to be pollinated and the pollinated to help prevent any drift , the smallest amount can result in rogue seeds esp from a strong male. I personally only ever have one male flowering at a time because my mind would always wonder , esp if a weird pheno popped up down the line. I also need to be able to assure people that what they get is what I say it is so I’m a lot more strict about it.
Btw I like the name , I just got the Cuban black haze and can’t wait to smoke some authentic piffweed
That or the pollinated flowers to prevent spread, in field applications like sqaush and pumpkins there used to separate a flower before it opens to be hand pollinated , that way you know the bees haven’t been up to any funny business crossing your zucchini and pumpkins etc. collecting the male pollen can be tricky they will open at different times and out of no were.
These sound really interesting. I wonder if this might solve the issues ive been working through trying to breed outdoors. (Mostly just wanting to pollinate a branch per plant with a selected male)
I’ve done that with a cue tip rather successfully and only ever found maybe a few seeds outside of that branch , but it takes effort, I tried to make my own bags once its frustrating but they did work. I’ve been eye balling them pre made ones for awile now thinking they could be of good use. The trick would be to look into the size of male cannabis pollen and make sure what ever material you use is woven tighter , and a lot of being carefull and hoping the wind dosent blow
They have solo cups with square bottoms now which are nice. But yea, watering becomes a pain. A few times I’ve taken plants that were quite far into flowering, just as stretching was stopping, and potted them up to mcdonalds large soda cups with holes cut and inch or 2 from the bottom. Then water/food sits in the bottom for a while every time. It gets you back from once a day watering not being enough anymore, to every other day until finish. A million times easier. BUT, they tip like crazy because of the small bottoms. I eventually bought a few hundred 1.25 qt (40 oz) square 4X4X6" plastic pots. I love them. The plants love them. Its way better with that extra space, and I can still cram them in there pretty good. If I ever find similar ones without holes in the bottom, so I can punch some in the sides, I’ll really be in business. I wouldn’t do the side hole thing unless the plant is really drinking fast tho. I’m sure it would go badly if done to early.
These are interesting, I could potentially fit 25 of these in a 2x2 to pick from. The containers are small enough that if I have females I don’t pollinate I can slide them into my flower tent with the clones. 14 inches tall should give them some room.
After pondering this endevour more, and setting up my 2x2 at my upstairs neighbors (gotta love when you share a building with your best friend) apartment. I have had some more thoughts as to how I might tackle this. Instead of trying all of these seperate pollinations I’ll just select the “best” male to pollenate the females. I’ll probably run a few less plants than I initially thought my plans may have been a bit overzealous… if I pop more good males than I can handle I’ll try to isolate them and collect the pollen for future use. I’m starting to think maybe starting with a regular pollination would be best rather than throwing a reversal into the mix on my first attempt at this.
Will it bother you to have a male accidentally get onto another male’s turf? If not, then use a couple of males. I used three, I did have them in a 2x4 separated by some newspaper, no fan on though but convection currents in the air. Took some wax paper and put it under a branch and gave it a tap. Lots of pollen. Could there have been a little from the next guy that floated on the branch? Sure, but the odds are not in its favor when you are talking a few grains as compared to the shower of pollen that you just shook down.
So the odds of you getting the right pollen on your branch may be 100:1. If you are ok with that then great. If you are supplying seeds for other people that expect a certain strain, not so much. Depends what you are shooting for. I use a cheap artist brush to apply the pollen (some are softer than others) and if you apply the wrong way the bent bristles when finding themselves free to go back to normal shape can flick pollen up in the air. (Hmmm, maybe I should try a q-tip?), although it is not hard to figure out how to do it best. Not happy about your technique? Put something water tight over the branch you want to do and use a mister to dampen the rest of the plant. The pollen that gets on the watery vegetation will soon be toast.
So there are all kinds of ways of skinning a cat. You just have to figure out how well you can do things and how exact you want your results.
I suppose if I get a few males of the same strain I would be ok with that. Just don’t want to risk cross pollinating with males from other strains by accident.
