When can you remove males in an open pollination?

Breeder's Lab
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I’m currently working on a Malawi x Deep Chunk cross.

Both female Deep Chunk plants are in flower and have been pollinated.

Is there any point in keeping the males around at this point or should I remove them?

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Once you’re happy with the pollination you can cull the males.

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Collect any remaining pollen to later put in freezer. Then cull males and thoroughly clean the area. Be careful pollen gets everywhere, you hair, your clothes, your nose hairs. Everywhere…

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Dont forget to dry that pollen or you’ll be very unhappy when you find its nonviable.

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Absolutely what @PineSoulBuddy and @Il_medical said!

  1. Get yourself a sifter to pour the flowers through. Remove any pieces of flower that make it through with tweezers.
  2. Get yourself a paper lunch bag and fill it a little bit with a good two handfuls of silica gel dessicant beads.
  3. Put your sifted pollen into a folded sheet of paper, spreading out evenly to avoid clumps. Place this flat inside of the paper bag.
  4. Seal up that paper bag in a ziplock baggie and check in 24 hours in case you need to break up any areas that have clumped.
  5. Reseal and let it dry for another 48.
  6. Remove the paper from the bag and pour your pollen into plastic tubes of your choice (I like 0.5ml centrifuge tubes). Put a single silica bead in the bottom of each to ensure they stay dry.
  7. Get yourself a jar or plastic tub and place some silica gel beads into here to keep it dry.
  8. Label your tubes with the date, strain name and plant number, and place inside the container.
  9. Place container in the back of the fridge for short term storage (few months) or into an undisturbed part of your frezer for the long term (years).
  10. When you bring out a tube of pollen for use, ensure that it warms up to room temperature before opening. This is so the temperature difference doesn’t cause moisture to rush in and make the pollen inviable.
  11. Pollinate your future plants and enjoy many MANY seeds! :grin: :ok_hand:
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I don’t really understand the purpose of going through all the steps to collect pollen if the plants i want to pollinate are already pollinated.

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Why waste pollen from a chosen stud. You may regret not saving some.

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Ah i see so I don’t need it to pollinate the Deep Chunk now they are already pollinated but I might want to keep some if I want to pollinate anything else in the future with the Malawi Pollen?

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Yeah pretty much and/or if you take the line further and don’t find a male you like more or want to bring it back for reasons, you can

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Yeah that’s a good point. I did keep all the ladies and I’m gonna find out which one I want to keep so I could try BXing a male plant back to my chosen sister down the line if i wanna go in that direction.

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Yup and once you plant a few of the seed you will know what that male brings to the table or doesn’t :wink:

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Punnett squares are all fine and dandy but you never really know till you pop a seed

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Yeah man I’m really looking forward to popping those F1s and seeing what comes out. I’m hoping to get that soaring Malawi high but on a more manageable plant.

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I crossed SSH x Malawi. If this interests you, im happy to send some beans your way. :muscle:

I bookmarked @TheHereticCatgirl post. Ive wondered how pollen is stored in the freezer. Thanks for sharing that info.

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I be wondering :thinking: if the freezer is even necessary because didn’t “they” find a few hundred year old viable pollen in some cave in the desert if I’m remembering correctly?

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Thats new to me. I suppose pollen can last longer in low humidity environments.
I live in the PNW. It rains pretty much every week, from Nov to May

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Yes from what I understand, humidity is what kills it :wink: and I completely understand I lived in Aberdeen, Olympia, Tacoma and Bellingham for a few years it took a couple years to get used to the rain but it doesn’t bother me even a little anymore :rofl:

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Cheers SSH x Malawi Gold soubds like a great cross.

Unfortunately I don’t have the grow space to grow em out but if I did I’d be well on it.

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:thinking: Have you seen @Upstate 's lambs tail Malawi :thinking: I think it’s Malawi :thinking: I’m pretty sure :grin::rofl: it’s pretty badass

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Don’t think i have, will have to check that.

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