With STS i usually spray once every 2 days for say 3-4 applications then spread them out after that until i see pollen sacs forming, to me spraying a bit heavier at the start is sometimes needed it seems especially if they are already into flower a decent ways as you need to knock back the ethylene production in the plant.
With autos ideally say 3 weeks after emerging from soil, though i kinda like to wait and see some plant structure first for selection purposes which is more week 4.5+ but then you have to knock back the plant harder and you run the risk of plants finishing before you have a chance to use any pollen produced if your running them all at the same time.
Depends on how many seeds you want, like if you just want a couple those early nodal calyx’s that form just at the onset to flowering you can get a good 20-40+ seeds off a small plant if you pollinate them then and you still have sinsemilla buds as well as the seeds are only at those base node junctions which are easy to pick out when trimming, now if looking for alot of seeds do so when the plant is bursting with calyxs and new pistils which is say week 4.5-5ish with autos most of the time.
Here’s my technique parchment paper to collect pollen & but trim the plant 1st
allows pollen to drop freely along with a little stem shake
Pic is a male African photo plant
(Same technique on autos)
usually if i’m pollinating at the same time i just pluck pollen sac with tweezers and dust what areas i want seeds and really only takes a couple, for later date pollination i usually just brush and knock pollen sacs over say a sheet of parchment or this one flexible cutting mat i have, then i just sweep it all up and seive it through a fine tea strainer so all the pollen sac parts are left behind.
Storage im not good at, but you have to adequately dry before storing and i typically would only get 3-6 months out of pollen, been vacuum sealing some as of late so no idea on its longevity though i should also consider making a fridge/freezer kit for that and seeds.
whatever works for you though at flip works as it still takes the plant a week or two to get going flower wise and by then with spraying you will likely have built up enough to suppress that ethylene production, if you started spraying say 2 weeks in you’ll be fighting the plant more so as its naturally ramping up for flower production.
I’m canadian, where can I buy the STS kit? I’ve made my own CS a few times before, but have to be spraying 2-3 times a day for 30 days to get results. STS sounds much, much easier.
I’ve got some gods bubba x chemo I would like to keep going, but planted my last 3 seeds already.
Thanks much, gang!
Just browsing your site! Thanks for the heads up!!
Placed an order. Unfortunately I don’t have PayPal due to the JOTI group buy a while back…lol…paypal permanently suspended my account. Just waiting for confirmation and payment email.
Yo yo growmies hope all is well. I have only been growing since January so I am fairly new. I am currently trying to see is there anyway you can PURPOSELY stress your plant out to make the specific strain produce seeds. I know it’s like why would you want to do that. But it’s a strain I can’t find anywhere else so I feel it would in my best bet to hermi her. I know we can cross breed the strain but that’s not my intention I want a pure clean genetic from her… any advice
Plenty ways to stress them out.
But like @HighTilliDie says, you’re better off using Colloidal Silver (CS) or Silver Thiosulfate (STS) to ‘reverse’ the plant and make it produce fem pollen.
Younwill need to do this on a plant that you don’t intend to consume though as it will be absorbing the Silver into the plant.
STS spray takes fewer applications than CS, but both can work.
Lots of people “reverse” branches and self pollinate, however I think that process starts very early in veg.
You can take a cutting and propagate or “clone” your plant as well. This I do-do. I never thought I would, but here I am! The top is cuttings I’m trying to get to root, and the bottom is a clone I’m growing out
Before the use of STS and CS, old school growers would stress a plant with interrupted light cycle, extreme dryback and keeping flowering plant alive way past it’s normal life cycle. The process is called rodelization and would result in male flowers on female plants and feminized seeds.
I truly appreciate the knowledge everyone I think I want to try the old school method but I don’t want it too be a trial and error thing so I’ll clone her and try it that way…
