What do males really need?

Indoor Growing
1

I want to keep a male around for breeding purposes, but he can’t be in the (single) tent with the females. I want to keep him separate and collect pollen for selective pollination of one of my females.

Can I just put him near a southern window and expect him to produce some pollen? I’m assuming I will need to keep him in pure darkness for 12 out of each 24 hour period. Anyone have any easy solutions for this?

Thanks in advance for any ideas you can offer.

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2

he needs light and mild feed at least, to keep him happy and well productive… a window works just fine but he’ll need his darkness to…

with luck he’ll shoot his pollen a week or so before your females will be truly ready for max seed production, so he wont be around crazy long

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3

Thanks @toastyjakes !

He is getting nearly rootbound in his SOLO cup. Transplant him?

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4

if need be yes… root bound is only an issue for plants that aren’t healthy as a horse ahaha

take these for example, the roots that @Mr.Sparkle sees on the regular, but his plants are happy and healthy making “root bound” a moot point

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5

You can get plenty of pollen out of the solo cup. Keep feeding and as much light as possible. I put mine under the sink in my master bathroom with a small 15w LED on it. In a week or two you will have more pollen than you need. :wink:

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6

Just want to emphasize this point. If he doesnt get direct light he will have trouble putting out many balls at all.

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7

My recently flowered off male was moved to a full window in the house and left to flower there. I continued to lightly feed him and I got lots of viable pollen.

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8

You dont need much light, just enough to keep him healthy to produce the best possible pollen. The pollen can be more or less viable depending on the health of the male. It’s an example of phenotype expression. :+1::seedling:

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9

He’s in a window that gets direct sun most of the day. My plan is to put him in a dark closet for 12 hours each night. Right now he is sagging a bit due to a bit too much water during yesterday’s feeding, but I am sure he’ll perk up.

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10

Isn’t there a blues tune with these lyrics? :laughing:

99

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11
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He needs to be homozygous for the traits you desire, preferably homozygous dominant so he’s true breeding.

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13

If I had the luxury of selecting males based on known traits, I certainly would. :wink:

However, the fact that I can’t do this won’t stop me from making my own seeds.

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