Im new to this breeding as well. So how long would fresh pollen keep inside a plastic baggie underneath some clothes in the closet.
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About as long as it took to type your question 
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Lol! 10 char.
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need help. I collect “eggs” from my outdoor plant. need to store pollen about 30 - 40 days for mathers. What the easest method? I think to put them on a plate in water.
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Hey Zav, haven’t seen you around for a while. 
With the males, collect branches with the flower clusters on them and put them in a vase with water (like they were wild flowers).
Place a piece of paper under them to collect the pollen on.
I mix the pollen with toasted flour (1:5) and store in small paper envelopes. Store in refrigerator until needed.
Cheers
G
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hey there @zavorotnuck . i’m a new grower myself, so i don’t have a lot of experience, but i’m not sure if the pollen sacs will be likely to open if they’ve been removed from the branch they were growing on.
what i’ve done so far is to cut off a branch with a lot of pollen sacs and put the branch into a cup of water. as the sacs start to open, i will collect the pollen. normally i will put a small mirror underneath the flowering pollen sac and then tap the pollen onto the mirror or cut the sac off and then later collect everything onto the mirror. from the mirror i will scoop it up into a small container (i’ve been using leftover containers of kief that i bought from the dispensary). others will tap the pollen onto a piece of paper where they can scoop it up later.
here’s a picture of my male tops that i’m waiting to collect pollen on.
you can see they’re just sitting in solo cups with some water. i could probably separate them a little more, but for now i am just trying to dial in my early growing techniques.
every day and evening, i will peek in to see if any sacs are open and then i will go in like a little pollen bee and collect away.
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I put the pollen in a vial, leave it open, and close the jar with alot of dessicant. At least a few days, check on it, never had it clump like this. Then close up the vial, close the jar, and into the freezer.
Just let it come to room temp completely closed, not in a very hot room.
it’s all about a clean collection for me, in a dry room.
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Every time I’ve added flour to the mix it hasn’t worked. Even stored in vac with desiccant
It just seems like another thing to somehow go wrong in a situation that’s already pitted against long term storage haha
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I toast the flour (thinly spread out) on a tray in an oven, 200F for 40 min. to dry it out.
I mix 1:5 (pollen/flour). That’s been working… (so far )
Cheers
G
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I was pretty surprised when I air dried some pollen, threw it in the fridge and it molded, so I would try the flour method . Freezer may be better than fridge, no clue.
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The paper I have that recommended it did not explain why it worked… just that it did and was required…
…That irks me somewhat…
Anyway, the drying box worked for me, I’ve had a couple reports of sucess for folks that got some.
Cheers
G
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i’ll share my method since i have a small pile left over to deal with anyway.
You can see there is more pollen than flour on the plate, it’ all you need for bulk storage. If you wanted to you could cut this 1:8 but then you gotta store 8 vials instead of 1…and when you deal with very large amounts of cannabis oriented stuff (seeds,nugs,pollen) you run out of space fast and these things suddenly come to the forefront.
the oven knob is barely past the Off, just enough to turn it on. They usually have a warmer setting, to keep food warm. If you have to, you can keep the door slightly open to control the temp. What we care most about here is the humidity…we gotta drive all moisture out…I even put my vials in there, that’s good science yo.
RH dropping, temps rising. What we want is to hit 20% RH.
Temps aren’t super critical…remem it’s the moisture we care about. But a word on temps, these things evolved when earth was very different than it is today. Those pollen grains can take a bit of heat, but there is an upper limit before you start damaging them. I personally put the upper limit of heat exposure for pollen around 135-155f sustained. BUT!! you will never go anywhere near that right? cuz this is all we need 20% RH
hold this for a tick of time that’s comparable to the amount of pollen and flour in the oven. If you put a large pile in there, it would take longer to drive moisture out. This tiny pile is done in 2-3mins once 20% is reached. Then just rapidly remove, mix, and bottle in vessel of your choice. It’s all about the moisture.
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I just collected some pollen and put it in sealable plastic bags (the size of a business card). I then stuck it in a container with a big bag of descant. I was going to stick it in the fridge for now, may want to save one of them long term. I’ll think of adding flour, white or whole wheat? 
) I use Dollar Store artist paint brushes to collect and use to put the pollen on the plants.
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hi @Gpaw . I just fell into religion.
my plan is to dig up one of two males and collect pollen from it for next year. will have to remove the unnecessary male.
should get (wild1 x wild2) x UEL and UEL f4
@Cartwright @highminwin @Mudballs thanks, now I’m charged to win!
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I like the idea of using DE for cutting pollen. I wonder if the microscopic sharp edges of DE would adversely effect the viability of the pollen…?
either RH was too high in the room, or you didnt dry long enough. I’ve put pollen in a sealed tote (rubber ring / locking handles) with dessicant packs to bring RH down to below 20%. If your ambient was 50% or higher when drying, it didnt dry enough. My first batch molded too.
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I take fresh male flowers that just opened, put them inside a small dish(open) inside of a pelican case with a large silica gel pack. Within 2 days rh is 20% or below I knock all the pollen out of the flower pod and put the dish back into the pelican case for another 2 days. After rh is back to under 20% it goes into the fridge sealed and so far has been good for over a year. I have to do it that way as rh here is always 90% or above.
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Thats a good idea… I shoulda thought of that as I have a few pelican cases here for dive cameras… Hmmm
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keep in mind diatomaceous earth is a severe respiratory hazard, including food grade DE.
I wouldn’t want to be dusting it around like pollen.
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I remember once putting emptying a bag of buds on my coffee table was a tad damp, I wanted to air dry it a bit, I went to sleep, woke up I think it weights like 2 more points. lol
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