I dare say I know the answer already for this. The question being, can I breed a few plants, let’s say one male and one female together in a 2.7x2.7ft tent – anywhere near other tents?
Takeaways:
-It doesn’t have to be large.
-Doesn’t have to be ideal conditions.
I kept googling around and found more conflicting advice – everywhere from it’s totally fine to you’re totally screwed and your pot growing neighbors are going to be unhappy with you yikes.
So.
I 100% want to make seeds and learn to keep some pollen around and frozen to share. I have three tents, two main 4x4s in a master bedroom. Then, attached to that bedroom, is a bathroom, and through the bathroom there is a walk in closet, fairly large, that houses the 2.7x2.7. Is the 2.7 too close? Should I just grow a male out in the kitchen or other area of the house?
Also, and I’ll do my homework on this – once the female is pollinated (or for a true hermie plant) – is there pollen risk anymore or has the deed been done and it’s safe/cruising at that point.
Thanks y’all. Apologies if this has been gone over a bazillion times.
My main grow room in on my second floor. My plants 2 floors down end up seeded. A grain of pollen is smaller than the human eye can see. Just the breeze of you walking can send it on a long journey.
Doug’s absolutely right. A good point to consider though is his tents are above his flower tents and so gravity probably does some leg work there.
In my basement, I’ve got four tents. One of them is a breeding tent. I make sure it’s pretty well sealed and I have a sock type deal on my carbon filter and then row cover on the other end of the 4inch tubing. It vents into my veg tent. All air is pulled through that filter. I’ll always go from flower to veg to seed tent and usually give myself an iso wipe down between tents. There is absolutely zero airflow in my basement and the breeding tent and flower tent are on opposite sides of the room. So far so good. I’ve also got row cover acting as a filter for my flower tents carbon fan. This seemingly keeps my flower tent safe from all pollen as it’s unlikely to cross 3(technically 4-5) cloth barriers. I don’t run my fan in my seed tent when pops is dumping. That’s how I do it, but others have their ways and I’m likely to end up with contamination at some point. I think it’s what you’re comfortable with.
Well…I somehow have great success growing sensi while also having a seed run tent going in the same room. Not 100% seedless but enough that I’m impressed and satisfied. Maybe 5 seeds in a plant. It’s about being smart with exhaust on the tents and also being aware of when the drier times of year are. When it’s low humidity I can get away with very little air exchange and that keeps the pollen from leaving the tent.
If you just want to have fun and make seeds while also getting some reasonably seedless flower, it’s possible.
Ahh absolutely true. Living at the shake shack. That’s a great point. I bag my tops and shake but I’m not dealing with pollen in the same quantities at all
Pollen can be “deactivated” with water. When ever I deal with a male I spray water everywhere including when I open the door to the room the tent is in. If the male is currently dumping I take a shower and change my clothes.
Howdy @Coffweed, with use of negative pressure and ventilation along with adequate procedures and protocols for handling and being around the pollen, it can be quite close without unintentionally pollinating other nearby plants in separate spaces. Managing the airflow in a laminar flow hood sort of way.
As @PsillyRabbit mentions, protocols and procedures like showering and changing clothes if you’re around pollen producing spaces before working in the spaces you want to keep free of pollen.
The pollen has to be carried by the wind or by you onto a pistil. So if you can control those two aspects the pollen can be very close without actually coming into contact with a pistil.
@DougDawson brings up a solid point about collection because that’s often the messy part and can get hard to contain and clean up if left to get out of hand. If you only need a marginal amount you can trim away excess pollen sacks before they start to drop pollen as that will keep less pollen from needing to be cleaned up and such.
Some have even built male isolation chambers to keep males in while also containing the pollen a bit more meticulously. I believe a member of the community named JLP made a tutorial for making those.
After pollination it can still linger for sure, I don’t think anyone can be totally sure there isn’t contamination occasionally but with a good wipe down it shouldn’t be more than a very small possibility. Realistically if you’re careful with your pollen production, harvesting, and application, you should be able to do what you want to do without much if any contamination but I think it’s important to at least consider the possibility of pollen contamination on a very small scale even when employing all of these types of techniques.
I think the best things you can do is have your airflow managed pretty well and don’t cross contaminate by showering and changing clothes before entering unpollinated spaces. If you’re just pollinating one plant I would recommend collecting the pollen and hand pollinating the sites, even if it’s the entire plant. You’ll get plenty of seeds and, in my opinion, you’ll also be able to better control any rouge pollen. Hope this is helpful. Many blessings and much love
That’s my biggest concern – the airflow is fairly shared. I do have multiple HEPA filters (and funny enough a laminar flow hood). But, that said, my bathroom is certainly not a clean room / de-pollening space (although who knows – I do like my bleach, lol – but no, seriously, it’s clean but it’s not a lab…it’s a bathroom with a large closet and a bedroom). In my head I have visions of a little sprayer misty shower thingy that auto activates in the doorway – in practice I think I’ll just be very careful and minimal – or choose a different space for the male.
These have all been super helpful responses!!
The hood/4x4s, sadly I can’t imagine how to use the hood for cannabis work, but maybe in time I’ll find a use?
Where does the exhaust go? Does it leave the room or does it get circulated back into the room your tents intake is situated in? It will be tight and close with the tents being side by side like that, but it’s totally possible to do what you want. Seeds in one tent and seedless in the other. Many blessings and much love
So there are actually three tents, the other not pictured in the closet.
The exhaust from all of them though do exhaust into the room that they’re in. The closet tent pulls air in from the bathroom floor, so it’s a bit cooler than the closet. At the back of the closet is a decent sized HEPA filter to circulate air in there. Also a fan moving air from the bedroom into the bath/closet area.
Cool beans on the isolation chamber. I’m starting to see some overlap with one main mushroom growing go-to, the Ez-Dial Tote (basically a tote with strategically placed holes – in the mush world generally five up top in a row of three and then two on the shorter sides, and then three to five holes middle ground along the sides). Just toss some filters on it (I imagine SFDs will also filter to the correct micron) and you might not even need the fan. I think it will also work as a sprouter. Hmmmmmm. Getting ideas now! Thank you!
