When to start with pollen?

Advanced Techniques GrowFAQ
#1

So, got a couple plants that I’ll be flipping soon. Have pollen on stand-by waiting on them to grow. This will be my first attempt to make seeds. I’m sure I could use Google to find answers but just to many good breeders and growers here to not use the resources.

Is there some kind of time line used for when to apply the pollen? In my head i figured I could flip and probably start about 21 days after flip plants should in prime shape by then I think. Any ideas and opinions out there. Also read somewhere you have to have at least a month left to grow for seeds to mature. I’m all ears :ear:

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#2

Allow the female plants to show that they are budding properly then apply the pollen over several days. Ive found using an artist’s brush works perfectly. You can hit every bud site and ensure they have had a good coating. You should start to see seeds forming after about a week of the 1st application. Good luck :+1:

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#3

I waited till the bud sites showed nice little pompoms of pistils. The more the merrier. Didnt want to pollinate too early, thinking the plant would then focus on seeds and not more pistils. If there’s any branches you want unseeded, bag em and be frugal on pollen spreading… A little goes a long way and can certainly float for some time in the air should it get airborne. Which reminds me, I turn my fan off for a couple hours while hitting the ladies with pollen… When you see the pistils start receding / turning brown, you know you’ve got seeds in the making…

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#4

If you want to have weed to smoke that just has “some seeds” in it, you can pollinate once shortly after the pistols appear. If you are only going for maximum seeds, you can wait until theres a lot of pistols, then pollinate every few days for a few times. There wont be much weed in your seeds though. The exact times for this are somewhat strain dependent.

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#5

I would just wait till you have good pistil growth, once you have decent pistils you can pollinate.

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#6

I open pollinated and got this…

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#7

And you thought you needed Google!!! Google gets all their Cannabis Info FROM OG!! A lotta “Expert Knowledge” resides here, no doubt. SS/BW…mister :honeybee: :100: :pray: :heart_eyes: NOTE: “Happy Dusting”!!** Before long, you be a regular “Picasso with Pollen”. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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#8

The questions are how many seeds do you want to make, and do you want to get any sensi buds from the same plants?

If you want to seed the entire room to maximize the amount of seeds you get, wait until about 28 days after flip, when there’s max pistils but none are dying yet, turn off the exhaust fan, then take a dab tool, dip it into the pollen, and put it in front of your circulation fan inside the space. Let it sit and circulate for an hour before you turn the exhaust fan back on. Repeat the same process in two or three days, then wait a week to see if the pistils die back to show you’ve gotten good pollination. Let the plants grow for about 2-3wks longer than you normally would to ensure maximum ripening.

If you want sensi buds on the same plants and only want to make a few seeds, it’s quite a different approach. Don’t need a brush - just use a qtip for ease and disposability. There’s a lot of techniques, but I find turning off exhaust fans, pulling your plants out into a well ventilated area like a bathroom with an exhaust fan going, helps prevent pollinating other stuff. Dip the qtip into the pollen, roll it on the buds you want to pollinate, being careful not to spread it around. Let it sit for 4hrs or so and then spray with water to deactivate any remaining pollen, put the plant back in your space, and call it good. Or you can put a paper bag over the bud/branch and twist tie it off to leave the pollen on for a 24-48hr period if you want with the plant back in the grow space, but that’s totally unnecessary. When you take that paper bag off off, do it outside the grow and spray the branch and bag before, during, and after with water to deactivate any rogue pollen.

Hope that helps!

:peace_symbol: :sun_with_face:
:rainbow: :seedling:

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#9

All good info… @misterbee no, see i knew I didn’t need Google :rofl:

While reading the responses I see I should have gave more info from the start​:rofl::rofl:

I have a whole separate room for growing something to smoke. I’ve set up a couple tents now that will just be for making seeds. Its something I’ve wanted to for a long time and after being here for a few months the itch has just got worse!!!

I’ve got 2 super Skunk fems I’m keeping for this and I have 4 GDP (Ken Estes) all are currently vegging in the same 4x8 tent right now. Thought was to move the 2 skunk into the 2x4 tent keep em in veg. Flip the GDP in the 4x8 and hit those with the ppp pollen I got from @DougDawson pretty sure. After those get hit a few times ill flip the Skunk that will ill use the black cookie pollen I got. (Sorry if you’re reading this, cant remember where I got that from.) Anyways once I feel the ladies have been a success, they will all finish in the 4x8 plenty of room and I can then use the 2x4 for an auto project I want to start as well. The goal is maximum seeds. I want to hunt both crosses and have plenty to pass around here.

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#10

I should mention that its not a good idea to breath in tons of pollen. There are a lot of ways to do it, but if your approach has anything to do with throwing fistfuls of pollen into a fan or anything crazy like that, a mask isn’t a horrible idea.

check this out…

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#11

Yeah, I was leaning more towards make up brush or something along those lines.

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#12

This tells me you want to make the most seeds possible, which is how I usually do it. I wait until the buds are all well formed, but before they start to swell. So it’s not about the age as much as the stage. Here are pics showing an ideal time of bud development for pollination to occur…

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For this particular strain, this is 5 weeks into 12/12. This strain can take 80 days to finish, so there’s plenty of time for the beans to mature. But if your objective is maximum seed production, you can obviously let the plants go as long as necessary for the seeds to finish.

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#13

Feed them veg ferts to mature the seeds.

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#14

Yep, max seeds is the goal. The pics are very helpful.

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#15

Just curious what the veg fertilizer does. Willing to try it just never herd that one yet.

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#16

I have always placed pollen in brown sandwich bag and placed end buds in bag, hold closed and shake bag and bud together, grab another bud and repeat til no visible pollen left.

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#17

I just kept the in my case reversed plant in the same tent and as it dropped pollen onto the leafs I’d dab it up with a small artist brush and lightly brush the pistils on the seed carrier plants.

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#18

I should say a well balanced nutrient, don’t skimp out on the N. Gives them more of the nutrients that’s needed for seeds, and hopefully Keeps them from fading out before the seeds are mature.I’ve been giving the seeds 6wks from the last pollination, or until the buds themselves die and dry on their own and the seeds are popping out.

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#19

Definitely had a thought of just letting the plants go till they are done like that. Its pretty much how nature would do it right. Plant seeds and dies seeds are there for next season. :grin: I like it…

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#20

Herd of using a bag just not paper. Interesting…