What sorts of growing strategies do you take when growing a plant specifically for making seeds? How do your decisions differ from growing for buds/flower/smoke?
Nutrients? Pot size? Light cycles? Watering routines. Do you alter or fine tune your approach?
I am a bit more casual about pot size (I grow in coco/soil). Opting for 3-gallon vs 7-gallon and I keep nutrients simple. I also don’t bother with bloom boosters, but otherwise I keep it pretty steady.
In terms of pollination, I’ve been opting to keep the daddy with the moms and let nature do it’s thing, with an occasional shake or “love-rumble” where I push the male into the females and shake him about a bit.
What’s your technique? If not open pollinating, how do you apply? How often?
What do you do, if anything to prevent accidents or pollination of something other than your target?
It depends. Pot size nutes lights business as usual whatever that might be. How many seeds are you looking for?
Open pollination give the male a few shakes 3-4-5 times in full bloom and you should be good. Turning the fans off while you do it is a good idea just so the pollen doesn’t get vented too fast.
For more precise stuff I use a male jail to collect pollen. I put the plant sideways under the light and collect on newspaper.
I apply with a qtip. Don’t use generic qtips. They fall apart.
To prevent accidental pollination I’ll use a garbage bag as a tarp to cover everything but the target branches.
Anything that’s not a full pollination should be done in as dead an airspace as possible. Turn off your HVAC.
That’s all I’ve got on the top of my mind. Best of luck
Edit: don’t forget to label everything because you will never remember.
Most often I do seed runs in solo cups. I can get plenty of seeds from a small plant. I feed with Jack’s 321 from cut to harvest in a pro mix type media. I keep the male with the females under 12/12 until the buds and seeds are set (about 3-4 weeks). Often I’ll move them in my veg room after, under a light set to 12/12, but low ambient light for another six hours from the veg lights.
No change for me VS buds, same pots :
0.5 gal (SOG style) / 200-300 seeds goal
2.6 gal (vegged plant) / 1K-3K seeds goal
On watering, no real special treatment except at the end. I’m watching carefully inside the flowers to look after the transpiration of the plant. To keep it simple, if the stems are wet, just humid or dry. I’ve a trauma about it.
Same, but with some extras to maximize :
25% to full dose of a good PK for males (they love it more than females, and it stimulate them to reach their peak faster). If i don’t have a good one I just unbalance the A&B base.
(for seeded females only) full dose of specific boosters mostly made to boost the defense of plants, not so to feed them. I apply them during one week full dose, one week after pollination and during one week only : H&G Amino Treatment (very good for mothers themselves, not for beginners), Biobizz Alga-a-mic, Vaalseberg Element 5 (very good to improve calibration rate, not for beginner), Aptus Regulator (all in one helper), Plagron Green Sensation too (dosed with care, not for beginners) and homemade nettle soup work nicely too (safe for beginners). I name only those that bring something in the table, seeds in hands.
I’m in this club. To the bone. Any intermediate between the bracts and the grains of pollen is totally rejected here. It’s a matter of habits and philosophy, but i never use a male for more than one specific female. All my selections are strictly paired, so i generally wrap the selected male around the female selected for him. Like a spiral lol
I’m a total control freak on my planning and timings. It’s how i’m avoiding useless errors on cross-pollinations, because i often have different seeds lines at a time under the lamps.
Beside it, basic rules of cleaning :
When the “porn space” is operating, i never go in the main space after (or i do it after a shower) and i clean like hell my nail, what is remaining from my hair (lol) and my beard. When i care for the male or the couple, same rule.
When the female is done, i unwrap the male from the female and i place it in a trash bag entirely (with the pot and inside the contaminated space). Then i go “compost” the male in another space, outside my house. Generally in a bucket full of water.
To replace the female in the main space, i spray her like an heavy rain (tap water) and i remove the first centimeter of soil/coco from the pot. Sometimes i dip them in a bucket containing very light foliar nutes or a hint of A. Depend on male’s productivity.
for everything : minimalist tight clothes, 0% synthetic to avoid electrostatic bad surprises.
I also sequence my grow space maintenance so that the last to get service are the breeders after I’ve shut any vulnerable spaces and quieted fans.
Kudos on maintaining the discipline of exclusive matched parents and strict pollen management. …seems structured in a proper manner vs. my “pollen-chucking” “love-shack” “group love” approach! . (Me=amateur)
Great notes. Really appreciate the perspectives. Thanks again…
Does powder mildew get passed to the seed and should I forget about trying to germinate them? They’re my favorite strain and the plant that seeds came from had powder mildew problem and is there a way to clean the seeds before germinate like maybe hydrogen peroxide or something? Sorry to get off topic I figured if anyone knows it would be here… thanks.
I’ve experienced the case with a cut of CM Bilbo initially “ninja” contaminated, but it’s not really “passed”. It’s in the shell’s asperities, because the flowers. The seeds in question wasn’t washed/treated then i got the come back.
If these seeds are really important for you, you can handle it but it’s a pain in the ass. You have to set a sterile space, gloved, then remove all the “skin” from the shell with a scalpel or a sharp cutter blade. Doing it dry and in minimizing the dust generated.
Then flush the tools etc … and set again a sterile space to treat the seeds with peroxyde and an acidifier (humic acid work well for seeds and penetrate deep).
You have to be very strict with cross contamination of tools and things used during the operation, this bitch of PM can be very vicious.
So soaking in peroxide and water isn’t enough to get rid of it? It’s within the outer shell right?. Only reason I say soaking in peroxide and water is because of the new to me germination method of peroxide and water
Unfortunately it’s not enough to have a chance to get a clean start, and you have to do it without the expensive machines that the industrial have for that. To stay simple and clear, seeds from infected mothers can carry PM on the “skin” and just under the “skin”. You have to remove it and to “smooth” the “wood” of the shell manually.
Ok thanks, I figured if they sprout in the peroxide solution that I can remove the shell before I place it in soil. I’ve had seeds germinate for too long one time and she’ll was already off from the seed. Im thinking about trying to germinate in glass of peroxide and water and white it’s still in the glass of solution I’d take the shell off before planting in soil. Makes sense to me if the shell is not in the soil the infection is no longer with the sprout. Only reason I asked is I know a lot of what you put in the plant will go in the seeds like nutrients or whatever. Thanks for helping me out
I love this OG community!.
The general idea is to keep N levels just a pinch higher during the early/mid stages of the seed development, with moderate P levels, and then increase them both slightly as the seeds continue to develop and reach maturity. The reason for these both is that they revolve around the ability of plants to take excess N and P and store it in the seeds for the next generation. typically, when you’re growing for flower, those sinks don’t exist (hopefully they don’t!) and so the plants have trouble dealing with excess N and P, versus in terms of seed development, the surplus N and P become sunk in the form of DNA
+1. I keep mine small also, I do most of my seed making over winter here because it is never too cold to grow but they are smaller so are kinda not worth growing for smoke. A 2 foot plant can produce thousands of seeds.
Sometimes seeds will go moldy if stored before they have dried properly and in my experience this does affect germination rates but beyond that I haven’t found the need to use peroxide or anything like that. Susceptibility to powdery mildew is likely to be passed on down but not because of any on the seeds, but more due to the morphology of the parent.
. (Me=amateur)
Then have a shower before heading back into the tents.
