Say I Try To Germinate One Node...

[AnotherPatient]

If I capture male pollen in a container and then brush it on a single node (coving the area to prevent pollen spread) would it stress the plant? As far as I understand each node is a separate "breeding" point. Also presuming this works, would the resulting seeds be stronger if I brushed a top cola instead or a lower node?

[mibrains]

from what i have read..

 

the best way to spread the pollen to one particular node is to use a paper bag over a single branch and shake the pollen into the plants branch..

 

i have not tried this method but the logic behind it seems very sound.

[t-pain]

wont stress the plant.

 

thc production should continue in non-pollinated branches.

[Norby]

THC production continues in all the branches, pollinated or not.  The plant just uses more energy towards seeds so you get less smokeable material.  The best way to do it is to turn off all fans get the pollen into a vial and paint one bud with a paintbrush and leave the fans off.  The lower the flower from the light the longer it takes for a seed to form.  A little goes a loooong way so a slight dip in the pollen and a few light strokes over the hairs is all you need.  It takes 3-4 weeks for a seed to form so if you hit the first few hairs the seeds may be falling out by harvest time.

[trichcycler]

I do it all the time with no worries. Sometimes rogue pollen taps another strain nearby, and the gifts are accepted with pleasure. The most important part of this is to make sure the conditions in your garden are tip top, or the seeds will be adversely affected. Also pollination timing is key to successful fully expressed seeds.

I've never sampled a hybrid I didn't like, but I have received seeds from a crappy room, and they sucked as well. poor germ rates, many males, unhealthy sprouts, fail.

[t-pain]

for top cola vs bottom popcorn, the question of which is better comes down to lighting i think. so pick a branch with a lot of light. bigger buds, bigger seeds, more light, right ?

 

how far into flowering are you ?

 

pollen can be refridgerated/frozen and last a while, but if left at room temp it will die after a few days.

[trichcycler]

you'll need 6 of the 8 weeks of flowering to mature those beans. I leave my pollinated branch flowering longer than the remainder of the harvested plant, until the seeds actually pop out of their sheath.

[Norby]

3-4 weeks is fine if you don't pollinate the whole plant.  Esp a flower with only 12-50 seeds.  The plant will put it's energy to that first.  You can get viable seeds in under 3 weeks if you let the flower completely dry and don't snap the bean from the umbilical too quickly.  Even after being cut a plant will put energy towards hardening up the seeds so don't pop them unless they fall away with movement or until completely dry, over a week in normal conditions.  The seeded won't dry as quick as the unseeded.  Longer is usually better though when forming seeds.

[pic book]

wont stress the plant.

 

thc production should continue in non-pollinated branches.

yer avatar--i see you like trees and dogs

[t-pain]

yer avatar--i see you like trees and dogs

 

heres a bigger version for you pic book

[Dlo]

[trichcycler]

its not a dog I think.

[GardenLord]

You don't have to pollinate the cola, in fact don't! Pollinate the lower branches, in true wild landrace plants, the lower branches will have a larger number of pollinated buds, infact most of the time there is one maybe two seeds in the colas on landrace plant where the lower branches will have many!!!! Imitate nature it knows best!!!!!

This is due to the male plant not needing a photoperiod to produce pollen(weird right ? it's an auto-flowering male it shouldn't happen but it does), they can be producing pollen around 1-2 weeks BEFORE the flowering photoperiod even happens. When this happens they will pollinate branches around them until they release all of their pollen. This can be as short as a week up to 9 weeks, the plants grow after they've been pollinated, which in the first 3 weeks flowering you have major growth happening, the colas separate from the lower branches only taking some pollen with em. 

(Observations from fields and fields of landrace strains, autoflowering rarely happens in landrace but it does happen, most of the seeds you find in landrace are premature since there is a pollen viability percentage and small window for pollination viability time & female ovulation)

A clear ziplock baggie with some pollen is a great way to pollinate a single branch! Infact its super easy to cut a male flower off while its in the bag (killing risk for loss of pollen) taking it to the selected marked branch of the female, placing the flower in the bag, rubber-band or lock tight, move the female flowers to touch the male pollen. You can either keep the bag on move it back into the room for a hour, then take the bag off (ensures pollen is taken by the resin glands), or you can take it off right then and move it back to the room 

In reply to that video
DO NOT USE A Q - TIP  TO POLLINATE PLANTS WITH THEY ARE MADE FROM COTTON  AND SMOKING COTTON IS DANGEROUS

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9685528

Edited February 22, 2014 by GardenLord

[GardenLord]

delete please

Edited February 22, 2014 by GardenLord

[Norby]

Just don't smoke the buds you've seeded.  Cotton won't transfer if you just brush the upright hairs, although I always use a paintbrush or my fingers.

[GardenLord]

Just don't smoke the buds you've seeded.  Cotton won't transfer if you just brush the upright hairs, although I always use a paintbrush or my fingers.

Tell that to masses though.

 

You shouldn't be using anything that will have the possibility of leaving parts of itself behind. It's the principle. Really the best way to pollinate directly a single part of the plant is the clear bag method i mention above, or just do it the old school way and use a paper bag.

 

OR to really get in TOUCH with your plants, is use your finger tip, tap a male pollen sac on your finger and slowly touch a plant (you're having sex with it, make it sensual, don't just rape it)

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2014 by GardenLord

[trichcycler]

I cover the plant, all but chosen branch(s) with plastic, sealed and taped, and pair the boy and girl in a tent with a fan for a day. when I remove it the next day, I spray both plants with water, usually bagngag the boy(with his one set of flowers remaining) and remove the plastic from the girl. works like a charm, but I have the room to do this, when I didn't, I used a horse tail pin striping brush, but a q tip would not have scared me a bit. A rogue shirt fuzzy, hair or the like doesn't bug me too much. I ike the ziplock bag method, probably the easiest one I heard of.

[GardenLord]

I cover the plant, all but chosen branch(s) with plastic, sealed and taped, and pair the boy and girl in a tent with a fan for a day. when I remove it the next day, I spray both plants with water, usually bagngag the boy(with his one set of flowers remaining) and remove the plastic from the girl. works like a charm, but I have the room to do this, when I didn't, I used a horse tail pin striping brush, but a q tip would not have scared me a bit. A rogue shirt fuzzy, hair or the like doesn't bug me too much. I ike the ziplock bag method, probably the easiest one I heard of.

This is what most greenhouses I've been to do   It's ensures the plants WANT to pollinate one other and we are not just forcing them to. Open pollination actually has the best viability too!

 

(Some may think that is silly but imagine a world where the plants were forcing you to have the babies, you wouldn't like it much would you)

Edited February 22, 2014 by GardenLord

[trichcycler]

two peas in a pod, you and me!

(not silly, I bushed)

[Norby]

Tell that to masses though.

 

You shouldn't be using anything that will have the possibility of leaving parts of itself behind. It's the principle. Really the best way to pollinate directly a single part of the plant is the clear bag method i mention above, or just do it the old school way and use a paper bag.

 

OR to really get in TOUCH with your plants, is use your finger tip, tap a male pollen sac on your finger and slowly touch a plant (you're having sex with it, make it sensual, don't just rape it)

 

 

 

Why not?  As I said i don't smoke the buds with seeds as a principle.  All the crystals get knocked off taking out the seeds.  It would be low quality material.

  Wind blows the pollen on the plants in the wild or a bug brushes up against a male flower and then brushes it onto a female flower so I don't see how a brush or q tip is less natural than a plastic bag.  Do you realize the pollen and fuzz from other flowers and bugs that gets tacked into outdoor plants?  Either way, too much work trying to bag up sections of my plants.  To each their own.  I'd think a bag of pollen would be much more trouble than a paint brush.  Blow the air out of a bag with some flour in it and see where it goes.

  The reason a lot of plants don't have the tops pollinated is because they are mostly wind blown and the pollen tends to drop and hit the lower buds more easily.  Either part of the plant can produce good seeds though.

Plants will take any pollen that blows their way or is taken to them by an insect. It's not pollinating against their will.  They grow hairs specifically to look for pollen, it's their job.

[GardenLord]

Why not?  As I said i don't smoke the buds with seeds as a principle.  All the crystals get knocked off taking out the seeds.  It would be low quality material.

  Wind blows the pollen on the plants in the wild or a bug brushes up against a male flower and then brushes it onto a female flower so I don't see how a brush or q tip is less natural than a plastic bag.  Do you realize the pollen and fuzz from other flowers and bugs that gets tacked into outdoor plants?  Either way, too much work trying to bag up sections of my plants.  To each their own.  I'd think a bag of pollen would be much more trouble than a paint brush.  Blow the air out of a bag with some flour in it and see where it goes.

  The reason a lot of plants don't have the tops pollinated is because they are mostly wind blown and the pollen tends to drop and hit the lower buds more easily.  Either part of the plant can produce good seeds though.

Plants will take any pollen that blows their way or is taken to them by an insect. It's not pollinating against their will.  They grow hairs specifically to look for pollen, it's their job.

Why not ? You wouldn't use a foliar spray at anytime during flowering would you ? No, you wouldn't because it's going to leave itself behind on the plant. it's the principle of providing the cleanest product to your patients(including yourself) as possible. I understand you're not smoking it. There are just far better alternatives to a q-tip when pollinating. not to mention a q-tip is going to lock most of your pollen in itself anyway, so you need far more pollen. (I've used them before, to try them then i noticed cotton fibers all over the bud when looking under a scope)

 

The bag method is far simpler than i think you are making it out to be. Breathing into the pollen bag is a joke, it's like those infomercials where they are obviously not using the products as intended.

 

Gardening is completely personal, something that works for someone will not always work for another. or something that is easy for one is extremely complex for another.

 

Everything will have an effect on the plant ,physical, emotional, and spiritual from us effects the plants. Don't believe me ? watch this 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_X2Z9v8-6Q

 

If you don't feel like watching a hour and half documentary you really should. You will realize your garden is much more than just plants. It's a living breathing force that can and will react to you and your mood.

 

Open air pollination has the best viability for a reason, nobody know the reason either.

 

Edited February 22, 2014 by GardenLord

[trichcycler]

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OIChx00z7aw?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> is good

 

same

 

 

 

all the same great pbs doc. I trying to get the player to load the vid, like above, sorry for the mess

Edited February 22, 2014 by grassmatch

[Norby]

Why not ? You wouldn't use a foliar spray at anytime during flowering would you ? No, you wouldn't because it's going to leave itself behind on the plant. it's the principle of providing the cleanest product to your patients(including yourself) as possible. I understand you're not smoking it. There are just far better alternatives to a q-tip when pollinating. not to mention a q-tip is going to lock most of your pollen in itself anyway, so you need far more pollen. (I've used them before, to try them then i noticed cotton fibers all over the bud when looking under a scope)

 

The bag method is far simpler than i think you are making it out to be. Breathing into the pollen bag is a joke, it's like those infomercials where they are obviously not using the products as intended.

 

Gardening is completely personal, something that works for someone will not always work for another. or something that is easy for one is extremely complex for another.

 

Everything will have an effect on the plant ,physical, emotional, and spiritual from us effects the plants. Don't believe me ? watch this 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_X2Z9v8-6Q

 

If you don't feel like watching a hour and half documentary you really should. You will realize your garden is much more than just plants. It's a living breathing force that can and will react to you and your mood.

 

Open air pollination has the best viability for a reason, nobody know the reason either.

 

I've got the book and have seen the video along with a lot of others on the same principle, thanks though.  I've been making seeds for over 25 years for myself.

  Again, not supplying seeded buds to any patients.  Your right it is very personal and saying one way is the best for everyone is wrong.  I didn't say anything about breathing into a pollen bag just that rustling it could send pollen everywhere. The amount of pollen that you would need for 50-100 seeds is one male flower whether you get 100% on it or 40%.  There are thousands of pollen grains in a single male flower.  Open pollination means brushing by insects also as would be no different with a paintbrush. some plants open air means insects as they don't get pollinated by the wind blowing.  My friend is a beekeeper partially because of this.  I have never got substandard seeds from brushing on pollen with a qtip, as a matter of fact, better than any mass produced seeds I've ever bought.  Pollinating procedure has very little to do with the final seeds compared to light, heat, and nutrients as long as the pollen grain hits the hair.

  And no, spraying the foliage your supplying to patients is nothing like pollinating a flower.  Not really anywhere near the same thing considering I do supply the flowers to my patients.  i understand trying to be a perfectionist but pollination is one thing you don't have to be that precise about other than making sure pollen doesn't get all over the room.  For me a bag was not a great way for me as I realized I was spreading pollen when I opened it and tried to position it over the branch.  Like I said, to each their own but I guarantee that the way I do things does not make my results any worse than any other method.  Maybe there was fibers on the flower because you molested it with the Q-tip or used a lower quality Q-tip.

Edited February 22, 2014 by Norby

[AnotherPatient]

WOW! Thanks for the replies everyone. In response to whoever asked, I am not into flowering right now, I am thinking about doing this later on. Right now I don't have the room to keep males, but in the future I will try this.

 

I think I will do the cotton swab method as it seems the safest. I'm not worried about a little cotton, as someone else mentioned it happens in nature and I don't plan on smoking that bud anyways. I think putting a bag around the node(s) is a good idea, and I will do that for the first 24ish hours after pollinating.

 

Thanks for all the tips everyone. This is a very helpful community.