Not sure buddy. Ph being off can cause it to look like to much or not enough of a nutrient also I believe being root bound can cause that as well. That’s the best I can throw out there I think I’m stumped as well. Hope someone can help!
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4/16 Updates. ZE 1 is long and thin.
ZE 3 is much bushier and slower to mature pollen.
4/18
A new addition to the family. Hoping #4 is lucky and ends up a girl.
Big bushy ze male
Long slender quick ZE male
4/20:
4/22:
So, by some weird stroke of luck, germ issues, or whatever, I only have males in the tent now. So I really don’t have to jail any of them. Which is great because I didn’t have anything big enough to fit an autopot. I didn’t really think that one through. I decided my best choice is to try the cupcake tins again. I set a few up to catch falling pollen. I also turned off most of my fans in the tent. Let’s catch some pollen.
4/24:
Time to gather some pollen. Here’s my “kit”. I have a clear piece of glass over a dirty table. The glass was cleaned and dried first.
I already took the first cupcake off before I took this picture.
Not a bad “catch”
Harvested one small vial from the first cupcake. I could pollenate a branch or two with this amount.
I empty the cupcakes over the glass and gently tap them to get all the pollen to fall on the glass. Then, I use the razor to stack it up. It’s kind of amazing how invisible the pollen is until you get it into a pile.
Getting the pollen off he glass and into the vials proved to be tricky for me. I tried the lego shovel, folded pieces of wax paper, and scooping off the razor blade. Nothing worked well. Here’s what I come up with that works for me.
I roll the q-tip in the pollen to get as much on the q-tip as I can:
I put the q-tip into my vial and spin it between my fingers. It’s pretty thin so it spins really fast. Centrifugal force sucks the pollen off the q-tip and into the vial. It actually works pretty well! I go back and forth from table to vial until I get it all into the vial.
The q-tips are coated, so I snip them off and leave them in the vial too. I can use the q-tip to pollenate when I’m ready to open the vial back up.
I seal them up in tape. This is probably overkill since they also go into a zip lock bag.
And I reset the cupcake tins so I can collect more in a day or two.
Bushy ZE isn’t dropping pollen yet, but he will start any day now.
And probably my final try at a ZE girl. Surely I can’t hit 5 males in a row?
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Great post, I like several of your techniques there!
Muffin papers are a great idea 
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You should let that pollen dry for a couple days before you seal it up. If you don’t dry it, it could get clumpy or moldy. Just spread out on a piece of paper somewhere dark and dry for a couple days would probably work ok, though some people use desiccant beads or packs in a sealed container.
Not trying to be a downer, but I have lived the experience of collecting a boat load of pollen, only to have it all mold up in a jar because it wasn’t dry enough.
Plants are all looking healthy af! 
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Anything’s possible, I ran 9 of the night owl Chem regs and they were all female 
They were awesome smoke but I was really trying to make seeds. Not trying to jinx you, I hope you get that female 
And I really like those muffin cups. I’m going to put some on my reversed Gammathons right now.
You should let that pollen dry for a couple days before you seal it up. If you don’t dry it, it could get clumpy or moldy.
I will do that. My humidity is pretty low here, I haven’t had any problems yet.
I’m planning on harvesting a few more rounds from these plants.
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Break out the Barry White it’s time for them plants to get their freak on lmao! 
. Looking amazing.
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Barry White will do it for 'em. He is my go to.
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Here’s the latest batch of updates. I’m getting lazy with the pictures.
4/26:
The skinny male is in full bloom with pollen dusting most of his fan leaves. I’ve collected from him a few times now.
Bushier male is opening pre-flowers. I’m more interested in this one for my projects, but I’m sure I’ll use both males to compare.
4/29:
Skinny male got the chop. I harvested once again from him before bagging him up. The other bushier male is starting to bloom and I don’t want the pollens mixing. I feel like I have collected enough from the one plant.
Bushy update:
4/30
I collected these and set them out to dry for a day before packing them up.
5/2
Collected again
I read about mixing flour with pollen to help with drying and preserving. It also stretches the pollen out quite a bit. These are at about 1:1 pollen to flour ratio.
This big boy ready to go again. Tops haven’t opened yet but sides and lowers are actively dropping pollen. I’ll probably collect from him a few more times yet.
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UPDATES
5/4:
The lone male gets bigger and taller every day. I’ve been collecting pollen from him every 2 days.
It’s a mess…
5/6:
I haven’t done a bunch of pollen runs, but this is the biggest auto male I’ve grown out.
Got some nice colors coming out
I was starting to wonder if I’d ever be able to clean all this pollen out of the tent. Shortly after this picture was taken, I cut this plant and gave it a final shake over my collection table. I bagged it up and sent it out. We spent most of the afternoon cleaning out the tent. We vaccuumed and wiped down every surface with wet towels. Swapped to a clean air filter cover(?). I’m done collecting pollen for a while. Unless something amazing comes along, I’m back into sinse grow mode. I’m hoping the tent is clean enough, also given that I’m probably 2-4 weeks before I’ll start seeing any female flowers.
Now, I have two more ZamEx plants started and hoping for a female. My wife says #4 is a male already. She’s probably right, but I’ll wait a few more days to know for sure. If it’s male, I’ll toss it.
ZE 4 Male pre-flowers? 4 in a row?
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POLLEN POLLEN POLLEN
Does anyone need some ZE F3 auto reg pollen? I have more than I’ll use, and I hate to have it go to waste. I think I can ship these vials in a bubble mailer. I’ve never seen pollen shipped. Some vials are cut with flour. Some were dried a few days before sealing, some were sealed immediately. All have been in my freezer, all are within a few weeks old. You can see from my pics about how much pollen I put in a single vial.
In return, I request that you "pay it forward’. If you make “enough” seeds with the pollen, come back here to share some seeds with others.
Send me a DM if you are interested in a vial of pollen. US only please, due to shipping. If you are CAN and really need the pollen, let me know and we might be able to work something out.
I can do this about 8 times.
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Fantastic! Missed your last update somehow so nice to catch up.
Handsome boys! That last one sure is pretty.
I can’t believe it but I’m with your wife on #4.
Very generous of you to offer pollen! As long as it’s dry, pretty sure you can get away with almost anything. Even a card with folded paper package in a Ziploc. But this is my first season attempting to work with pollen, hopefully someone that knows more will chime in.
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If I wasn’t really killing all my plants right now I would jump on that, but I don’t think I’ll get to dropping any autos until this fall or winter. I’ll probably check back in with you, if there is any left, when I get my act together haha.
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Sure, it doesn’t hurt to check. I have a couple odd pollens in the back of the freezer.
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Did ZE#4 show yet? Hope you finally got a female or two you like.
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#5 is a female! I need to post an update soon. I topped her yesterday.
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UPDATES:
All the pollen requests have been shipped. They should be arriving any day now. I hope they are useful!
5/9
ZE4 showing male
5/13:
I made a bunch of new soil. I make my own organic super soil. I’m looking to start selling this locally soon. MO just passed recreational this year, and it turns out Missourians really like MJ. Who woulda knew?
ZE5 here. My last hope. 4 got cut, he was clearly male and no reason to keep him around.
Current state of the tent. I have two empty pots I’m trying to fill ASAP.
5/16:
Female preflowers. Tough to get a picture just right.
5/20:
ZE5
Forum Stomper or Creme de la Compton in the front, ZE 5 in the back:
This Creme de la Compton is more limey colored than the other plants. Same soil, same water, same light as everything else. Oh we got a cat, too. She likes chewing on the plants. You can see some of her work at the bottom of the picture.
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Looking good! At least you were looking for pollen in the first 3. That would have been a huge bummer getting 1/5 females to most folks.
Thank you for the opportunity to get some of that pollen! It’ll make for an interesting cross with the Panama x Malawi.
Out of curiosity, what is the white crust on the soil of the ZE5? Top dress?
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This is an excellent grow diary- pictures are clear and ideas well explained. You demonstrated at least a few things that I didn’t know and will try in my next grow. Thank you !
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Evaporated minerals, I think. I top water once when I transplant into the autopots. That white residue appeared after the first watering dried up. I massaged it back into the soil because I don’t like how it looks.
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