Question from a noob about autos and breeding in general

[Lobstah]

I was very generously gifted some auto seeds by a fellow OG member (what a great community!!!)
I live in Maine, so I’m very interested in trying out some autos given the shorter growing season.
My end-goal is to produce some seeds so that I can perpetuate my grow, but also send some out to the community here as well.
My main auto run will be May/June/July…so germinating May 1st. I figure they’ll be done sometime during August, 90-120 days out.
I’d like to start a few seeds early, in hopes of getting a male. Then I can grow the male out and collect pollen to be used on the main grow a month or so later.

Does this sound reasonable so far? I figure I will have harvested the pollen well before any of my production females are in flower, so should be save there.

Lob

[Gpaw]

@Lobstah

I’d like to start a few seeds early, in hopes of getting a male. Then I can grow the male out and collect pollen to be used on the main grow a month or so later.

Yes, that’s doable, in fact, I’m doing some pollen preservation right now

OGer, the Encore

Strain : OG’er Kush Genetics : OG ibl Original Breeder : Ghost1, by way of @BareFrog & @GoodGear Donor(s) : @MongoBongo, @BareFrog Preserver : @Gpaw OG’er Kush Description: Indica Dominant Hybrid - 70% Indica / 30% Sativa From Seedfinder we have a Chemdawg x (Lemon Thai x Hindu Kush) The high comes in hard with a punch to the head of dazed relaxation, leaving you lifted, unfocused, and totally happy about it. You’ll feel a warming euphoria wash over your head from front to back, slowly sp…

Basically I’m drying the pollen, packaging in vacuum bags and refrigerating. Studies indicate this approach should be good for a year.

Cheers
G

[Lobstah]

Thanks for the response, Gpaw. Are you mixing with flour? I’ve read that some do that to avoid clumping.
And at what stage of flowering do you apply your pollen? How do you know when it’s time?

Lob

[Gpaw]

Sorry, yes, I’m mixing in toasted flour (215F for 45min) and cutting 5:1 (flour to pollen).
It has been suggested that diatomaceous earth (DE) might be a better choice than the flour. I plan on testing that as well.

Cheers
G

[ReikoX]

@Lobstah

My main auto run will be May/June/July…so germinating May 1st.

May might be a tad cold still in Maine. You will also have more light hours if you wait until June 1 to plant.

@Lobstah

I’d like to start a few seeds early, in hopes of getting a male.

Are these regular autos? Do you have enough to start some indoors now and discard the females?

If you start them all at once, you may be able to cut the males just before the flowers open and put them in a vase to fully open and drop pollen somewhere safe.

[Lobstah]

Yes, starting these indoors, I have 28 seedlings now, just put another 24 on papertowel to pop. None of these are autos.

This is the first batch, started them 9 days ago.

Lob

[LionsNaughtyBeans]

Hey buddie, good luck with your endeavor!! I’m doing my first breeding experience now and the context is similar of yours… OG fellows’s freebies and some clones from my first cycle (colombia gold, mostly sativa)…

I’m still planning the crosses but I will try do some f1 of some strain and another one hybrid with the one with mostly indicas traits with my clone of a male of colombia gold.

Hope we both have success!!

I will track this topic because its very interesting to me !! thanks for this !

See you around!!

[Rogue]

Cutting it with flour is a recipe for budrot, especially when growing outside.
Fungi love carbohydrates.

Why cut it with anything at all, there’s billions of pollen from one plant.
Nature designed it perfect as it is: abundant!

[Lobstah]

With the 50 I have started, all from reg photo seeds, I’ll be sexing those in 6-8wks. I have room in my furnace room downstairs to grow a couple of plants out.
Hadn’t thought of it until now, but when I do sex everything, I can tuck a couple of males in there with some lights and collect some pollen without messing with the females that will get planted out around the end of May.
I’m LIKING this idea!!!

Lob

[Nagel420]

I agree, not a fan of flour… I understand the reasoning, it makes a little pollen go a LONG way. But the “it dries out your pollen” argument is BS to me. How about just drying out THE pollen on its own? I learned the hard way on my first pollen run that I wasn’t a fan of flour OR rice as a drying agent. Both methods made for some great gooey moldy mess for me. Meanwhile, the pollen I let air dry for over a week, in a container with tons of dessicant packs and an RH under 28%, never molded, and seems to have gone on to father lots and lots of babies for me and others.

Indica pollen is even more moist IME than sativa pollen, and REALLY needs to be dried. I think most people think its dry when harvested, because it looks dry and floats, but it really isn’t and could benefit from some dedicated days of drying in low RH, dark and cold environment before being sealed in a baggy…

[anon98660487]

I dry the pollen out on top of
The tents on a sheet of paper. top of the tent
Is just warm enough to work nicely

Sounds like a waste of pollen mixing it with flour

[Lobstah]

How many seeds does a typical pollenated bud produce?
I don’t want to pollenate an entire plant, so would like to do individual buds, but what’s the yield?

Lob

[Gpaw]

(short answer)… More than you would think.
Just hitting a couple buds on a lower branch can net you 50~100 beans.

If you go nutz on an outdoor plant, the word is up to 10K…

When you think about it, some of those seed folks could ‘coast’ for a year on the output of a couple plants.

Cheers
G

[Lobstah]

Wow. Easily. I wouldn’t know what to do with 200-300 beans. Doubt I could even give them away around here.
Certainly enough to get me out of “beggar mode” on here tho

Lob

[Gpaw]

@Lobstah

Doubt I could even give them away around here.

LOL, pass any surpluses on to Doug or Sebring, they will get them out there.

Cheers
G

[Lobstah]

Will do.

Lob

[Lobstah]

I’ve got 40-50 plants started…so likely 25 fems. I’m going to do a separate area to grow out a couple of the males when I cull them.

Assuming I get them to flower and produce pollen, and collect the pollen, how long does pollen stay viable? I can dry it, then vacuum seal it and freeze it, if that’s the way to go.

Lob

[Cbizzle]

For what its worth, I have had some pollen in the fridge since October that I just used and it is still viable. So at least four months I would say, but I’m also on the newbish side. Already got more seeds and pollen going right now so I can report the addictive properties of seed making.

[Lobstah]

How many seeds did you get per bud, roughly?

Lob

[Cbizzle]

I used a fine tipped paint brush, and on some fairly small buds gave a few taps and ended up with 30-50 per bud. This was a small auto plant only lightly dusted. I can imagine a dude using a lot more pollen on some more developed buds and getting thousands of seeds. I wasn’t going for that and was happy with about 400 seeds. Enough for me to know IT WORKS!