Let’s say I have 2 females, both in veg stage, and I want to reverse one to pollinate the other.
At what point should I spray the donor? Should I put them both under 12/12 and spray that day?
Trying to figure out timing here.
Lob
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@Lobstah I’d spray once just after lights out in the first week of flowering and again a week later.
My advice is also to run them on the same schedule as far as the flip date.
On my run here, the two that were a little farther than 3-weeks ahead seemed to struggle finishing. I pollinated them 4, almost 5 weeks in and let them go 3-weeks beyond where they would have finished.
The seeds were viable, but smaller and generally less developed and the plants seemed to struggle a bit more.
The GDP that I started flowering at the same time as the pollen donor, produced bunches of mature seeds. -like dropping them on the floor quantities.
I used a paper plate with a slit to slide it on and center hole for the stalk to cover the soil when spraying to keep the STS out of the soil.
STS absolutely stains black so be careful where you spray.
I understand it’s also light sensitive and breaks down quicker when exposed. I wrapped the sprayer in tape to keep out the light and kept it chilled. Supposedly this will allow one to extend the shelf-life considerably.
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What worked for me was flipping one of my 2 clones, then spraying it every 5 days for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I flipped the other clone and by the time it was showing pistils the reversed one was already dropping pollen. Take your paintbrush and go to work 
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See - that just makes sense. In nature the male flowers usually show first to get a start on it. You’re just following that pattern and bringing the girls in when the guy is mature enough.
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This way work for me
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Welcome to OG! @GreenFarmer
Drop by the introduction thread and say hi. Everyone here is super friendly.
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From personal experience, it works on photos.
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im finishing up my first round of feminized seeds made with sts from sebring. i sprayed a few days before flowering, and every 5 days after for 7 more weeks. i now realize that was slight overkill lol
a few things ive learned would be to start the male flowering 1 or even 2 weeks before the females. it takes w bit for the reversing to kick in and then for pollen to appear. also after reading tons of threads i can see that 3-4 sprays 5-7 days apart will work fine
i also didnt realize that feminized fake males dont produce nearly as much pollen as a real male. when i let my male just sit there in the room with the fems i wasnt seeing a ton of pollination, once i started picking it up and bashing it into the females every day it really took off. it seems like pollen needs more coaxing than regular males
also plucking the pods is a good way to concentrate the pollen
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Totally agree. The reversal process seems to add a couple weeks on the front end for the pollen donor. Seed development on the other hand, seems to add a couple weeks on the end for the mommas.
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for sure. my ‘male’ is still making a bit of pollen after 8 weeks of flowering. the females are done except for the seeds ripening. theyre looking at him like ‘really dude’?
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This was my experience as well.
And while started the pollen plant(s) 2wks sooner would help the yield of seeds in the end, I think that from self pollenation I’ll probably end up with around 100 seeds, so I guess part of it is how many do you need?
I’ll def start 2 wks earlier next time just so that I’ll have more pollen left over. This time around I was really after more fem auto seeds of the same strain.
Lob
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Dunno If I can provide any new info on the matter. Everything seems to be very well documented in this thread and kudos to the work in the main post, well done and very approachable info.
Yes reversed females takes abit longer to produce vialable pollen and they drop pollen for a longer period of time then normal males would. I collect pollen at the end since the first pollen might be sterile and you wont know until its too late and its always a major bummer.
STS i more potent then CS and will result with a better product of pollen sacks.
You can also choose to reverse a branch of the female that will pollinate the female flower, but from my experience, this will give you less seeds because some of the early pollen releases will be sterile and deactivate the pistils. Its better to use clones and reverse a small clone for collection and later brush the plants with said pollen. This will increase the yields of seeds.
In theory STS is only needed to be applied once but in reality it might be good to do some backup sprays.
Pz 
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Speaking of feminized seeds…
Still collecting from my breeding experiment. These are from one of the reversed Widow Maker Autos that self-pollenated…So all fem.
Already looking forward to Jan, which is something that not a lot of folks in Maine usually say.
Lob
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So at what stage of flower would the STS be applied, and how often would I apply it? I’ve been thinking of breeding some feminized beans.
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I started spraying right about the time they went in to flower. In fact, I thought I was too late. Most threads say to spray them before you switch over to 12/12, but mine were outdoors, so no control over that. Pistils had just started showing.
Lob
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I applied once a week after lights out for three weeks starting just after the flip. That said, I could definitely see the wisdom of starting a week earlier.
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Is this STS stuff pricey?
Nope. At least I don’t think so. Do a search, several companies offer it. I think you can even grab it on Amazon.
And you don’t need much. I mixed a batch with material that was sent to me.
95% of it is still in my storage fridge downstairs. I’ve got enough there to reverse a hundred plants, easy.
So don’t buy a gallon, is what I’m trying to say 
A little goes a VERY VERY long way.
Lob
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