Looking for some tips and tricks from both experienced and not so experienced peeps that keep males, and any good pointers of pollinating single branches, without hitting unwanted branches or plants.
I’ve only did 1 cross and made extra seeds from 1 other plant and would like to start doing this more often. So looking for tips and tricks that you’ve all come across to help me on this journey.
Unless you’re blessed with a lot of space it would be easier to harvest pollen from a chosen male and keep the pollen in the fridge/freezer.
ETA: if you really want to keep it to one branch you could do the old bag trick (put pollen in bag, put bag around target branch, sealing open end around branch… shake, wait, remove and spray down with water). A paint or makeup brush works too, but you might have some spread.
That’s what I did last time, but last seed run I tried to do, the pollen wasn’t viable after freezing.
The times it did work, I just cut the branches off the male, stuck them in a glass of water and kept in a humidity dome and let the pollen fall on tin foil I laid on the bottom of the humidity dome.
If somehow I find a special beastly male with trich’s and great structure, I’d like to be able to keep it around.
Did you cut the pollen with flour before freezing?
You could keep taking cuts and keep them in veg.
I use a bathroom as a male jail. I turn off all airflow, tilt the plants sideways, and collect on newspaper.
Then while applying I put a tarp over the plants except for the branches I want to hit to minimize overspray.
I also use a qtip for application. But don’t use generic ones, they unravel.
Works good 
The pollen was sent to me in a vial for that seed run, and I did take it out and cut it and laid it on a plate just in case it still had moisture.
So with males, you can sex them and flip them back to veg and they won’t further flower? I was under the assumption that when males start to flower, they just keep going. Interesting
Don’t forget to add several rice grains to pollen whatever you’re storing in to help keep it dry 
I do the same, but not use a tarp. I used a q tip or one of the ol girls paintbrushes.
Then paper bag the branch and lable.
How soon is too soon to spray water on the plants before taking them back into the tent.
I waited an hour last time and I feel thst maybe was too short of a time period and may have been why that seed run didn’t take.
I don’t spray water.
I’ve done one plant with multiple pollen sources and as long as you’re careful it’s no big deal.
This is going to be one of the most important bits of advice i can offer on Male plants.Males are more prone to being sensitive to being rootbound.Some of them get pissy being rootbound like to start flowering and you wont be able to stop them even on 24 jacked up on nitrogen.I use this stuff on the inside of my males pots it chemically prunes the roots to keep your rootspace in check and its embedded with micronutrients and feeds the plant lasts many grows.
Check out @Budderton thread/s
Personally, subway sandwiche bags, a sprayer bottle, and organization is all you need.
A tub.
Bag
Laundry basket
Locker
Will work as an enclosure
Would fabic pots do the same, by air pruning the roots?
I’m a big fan of “keep it simple, stupid”
For my outdoor pollen chucks i dont wet the plant down anymore.i get a day its not windy andI pick a lower branch a bit aways from all the rest and i dip my qtip in pollen out of a paper sachet and i take loaded qtip and i flick the back of it and shoot pollen on top of the chosen bud site.I usually get anywhere from 42 to 100 something depending on how many times i redip the tip.Got these 42 off of one flick not a single bean anywhere else on the whole plant but that one bud.
Most definitely.
I get fancy sometimes with some stuff but generally, specially when it comes to doing multiple crosses in limited space with too many plants… i stick to whatever works with the least steps haha
You can even paint fabric pots with it too.Me personally i hate fabric pots i think they encourage too much watering.Males also like it a little more on the dry side not sahara desert dry but enough to have a little bit of a dry topsoil.You wont be feeding the guys as much either thats why i like that microkote gives em just enough food to get by no issues with a touch of a good kelp based foliar like Maxicrop when they look like thier starved.Feed them when they look hungry not when you think they are.Longest ive kept a male was 2 years he was a good sport about it.I took oldtimer 1s approach to keeping mothers and dads its never did me wrong yet.He was a big proponent of foliar feeding in lite doses
Less variables the better, I say
Clone it before you flower it. Keep the clone in veg. If it’s a great example of a male, create a daddy plant from the set-aside clone and clone it for pollen donors for crosses when you’re ready.
Awesome, good points
Take that male to multiple females and see what he imparts take notes ans see the similarities .Sometimes its not the biggest male that makes the best beans.Ive kept bum males before and was in a hurry to make beans.Found out his little brother was the true stud he gave frost to everything he touched the other one made big plants but was half the potency as tiny tim.Take the time to find the fire and you wont get burnt.This extra step has definitely made a difference in my selections
